Information about Secret Wars

This article refers to the 1984 Secret Wars toy and comic book series. For the 2004 series, see Secret War (comics). For other uses see Secret Wars (disambiguation).

Secret Wars
Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1 (May 1984), cover art by Mike Zeck.
Marvel Comics Schedule Monthly Format limited series Publication dates May 1984 - April 1985 Number of issues 12 Main character(s) Cast of characters Creative team Writer(s) Jim Shooter Penciller(s) Mike Zeck

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars is the name of a twelve-issue Marvel Comics' comic book limited series produced between 1984 and 1985, and a Mattel toy line that reflected the series.

The series, which was conceived to launch the toy line, was written by Marvel's then-Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and primarily pencilled by Mike Zeck. The story was comic's very first large scale crossover, in which many of Marvel's most popular super-heroes and super-villains were transported to an alien planet and pitted against each other in an all-out battle.

Although the toy line was discontinued in 1985, the miniseries was a hit for Marvel, breaking sales records for a monthly comic at the time of its release and spawning an almost immediate sequel: Secret Wars II. It should not be confused with Secret War, the 2004 Marvel Comics series written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Premise

The first issue of Secret Wars introduced an all-powerful, godlike character called the Beyonder to the Marvel Universe. The story explained that the Beyonder had been observing the universe for some time. At the series' start the entity is shown drawing various superhumans to specific locations and then abducting them by means of teleportation.

All were transported to "Battleworld", a planet created by the Beyonder in a distant galaxy and stocked with alien weapons and technology. There, the Beyonder issued the following message:

"I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!"

Plot

Opposing factions were formed of super-heroes and super-villains. The two sides went on to engage in several battles on the planet. At one point, the X-Men left the side of the heroes to form a third faction on stand-by for the other heroes. The planet-consuming Galactus, largely indifferent to the actions of the lesser-powered characters, represented his "own" side. The phrase "secret war" was first used by Captain America.

Each group had its victories and losses. Even the Beyonder found itself caught up in a struggle for its existence when Doctor Doom temporarily stole its vast power (this was also in the .) In the end, the Beyonder, Doom and the villain Klaw vanished to parts unknown. For the most part, the heroes returned to Earth by reversing the effects of the machines that had brought them to Battleworld, while the villains (and a chunk of Denver that had been used in Battleworld's assembly) returned to Earth using the vast powers of the Molecule Man. The Thing elected to remain on Battleworld because he found that he was able to revert to his human state there. The character spent a year's worth of stories away from Earth, and the She-Hulk temporarily took his place in the Fantastic Four.

The series had several immediate consequences for a number of Marvel Universe characters. Spider-Man encountered a symbiotic creature on the planet that enveloped him and expressed itself as a new black costume which produced its own web supply. Spider-Man initially thought that the creature was an advanced synthetic costume produced by an alien machine; it wasn't until after almost a year of continuity in the Spider-Man comics that Peter Parker discovered the true sentient nature of the creature, as it tried to take over Parker's body and bond permanently with him. Spider-Man was able to rid himself of the creature with the help of Reed Richards The creature subsequently escaped from the Fantastic Four's headquarters and tricked Spider-Man into wearing it again, only to be rejected once more, where it eventually found and bonded with Eddie Brock to become the supervillain Venom. A new Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter was introduced, Colossus had an affair with an alien on battleworld which led him to break up with Shadowcat when he returned to Earth, and two new supervillainesses - Titania, a bullying powerhouse and her friend Volcana - were created.

Sequels

Thing remained behind on the Beyonder's Battleworld for several issues of his own series.

The Beyonder would return months later in another crossover, the Secret Wars II miniseries, a sequel where it took human form and came to Earth in search of enlightenment, consequently conflicting with the planets' superhumans.

After the conclusion of Secret Wars II, it was revealed in an Annual of the Fantastic Four that both the Beyonder and the Molecule Man were aspects of the Cosmic Cube that had been rent asunder; at the conclusion of that story, both characters were recombined into the Cube.

In The Mighty Thor issue #383 (taglined, An untold story from the Secret Wars), The Enchantress shares a story with her sister Lorelei, about how she had almost won Thor over during the Secret Wars. Had the Enchantress helped Thor fight against his enemies, she may have won him over completely. Ultimately, she watched as Thor was overpowered and defeated by some of Marvel's toughest villains. It's something she has always regretted.

#3 featured the Beyonder who was revealed to be an Inhuman who knew Black Bolt, but Black Bolt didn't know him. The Beyonder was enacting Secret Wars II on another planet. So did it really happen?

The 2004 Secret War limited series by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabriele Dell'Otto is unrelated to the original series.

Cast of Characters

Super-Heroes

• Captain America
• Captain Marvel II
• Hawkeye
• The Hulk
• Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
• Iron Man II (Jim Rhodes)
• Mister Fantastic
• She-Hulk
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Woman II (Julia Carpenter)
• The Thing
• Thor
• The Wasp

The X-Men

(Though they were allied with Captain America's faction, the mutants chose to act as a "third force" in the conflict.)

• Colossus
• Cyclops
• Lockheed the Dragon
• Magneto (Though normally against the X-Men, Magneto chose after some hesitation to ally himself with his old foes rather than Doom.)
• Nightcrawler
• Professor X
• Rogue
• Storm
• Wolverine

Super-Villains

• Absorbing Man
• Doctor Doom
• Doctor Octopus
• Enchantress
• Kang the Conqueror
• Klaw
• The Lizard
• Molecule Man
• Titania
• Ultron
• Volcana
• Wrecking Crew (Bulldozer, Piledriver, Thunderball & Wrecker)

Non-aligned

• Galactus
• Beyonder

Mattel Toy Series

In the years since the miniseries Jim Shooter has openly discussed its origin as a proposed toy line [1]:

"Kenner had licensed the DC Heroes. Mattel had He-Man, but wanted to hedge in case super-heroes became the next big fad. They were interested in Marvel's characters, but only if we staged a publishing event that would get a lot of attention, and they could build a theme around. Fans, especially young fans often suggested to me "one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it", so I proposed that. It flew.

"Mattel thought that kids responded well to the word, "secret" so after a couple of working names bit the dust, we called the story Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars."

Mattel went on to produce two lines of figures (with a series of vehicles and accessories and a few special foreign releases) in 1984 and 1985. After the first line most of the figures released were for characters who had not been involved in the Secret Wars comic at all.

Each figure was articulated only at the shoulders, hips and neck. They came with "Secret Shields"; the heroes' were round, while the villains had square shields. These shields came with a series of lenticular inserts whose images changed when tilted, the best known of which was a "secret identity" card, which changed between each character's masked and unmasked faces. A few figures came with other accessories, mainly guns, which reoccurred in multiple packs.

Full List of Mattel Toy Series

Series I

• Captain America
• Doctor Doom
• Doctor Octopus
• Iron Man
• Kang the Conqueror
• Magneto
• Spider-Man
• Wolverine

Series II

• Spider-Man (black costume)
• Baron Zemo
• Daredevil
• Falcon
• Hobgoblin

Foreign/Special Releases

• Constrictor
• Electro
• Iceman

Vehicles and Accessories

• Doom Copter
• Doom Cycle
• Doom Roller
• Doom Star Glider
• Marvel Super Heroes Freedom Fighter Playset
• Marvel Super Villains Tower of Doom Playset
• Star Dart Glider
• Turbo Copter
• Turbo Cycle

Comparisons with Crisis on Infinite Earths

Although Secret Wars was launched almost a year before Crisis on Infinite Earths (Secret Wars #1 was cover dated May, 1984, while Crisis #1 is cover dated April, 1985) the two have been compared to each other since the time of their first release.

Like Secret Wars, Crisis featured DC's most popular super-heroes in conflict with many of the company's super-villains. However, where Secret Wars featured a limited cast of around 20 superhumans, Crisis endeavored to touch on every character in the company's library, in the process drastically altering aspects of many of them.

Neither miniseries was the first of its type however. In 1982, two years before Secret Wars #1 was published, Marvel had released Contest of Champions, the first comic book which advertised the fact that it would only be published for a specific number of issues and the first to feature a large, company wide super-hero crossover storyline. However, while Contest of Champions ran for 3 issues Secret Wars and Crisis would run for 12.

First Modern Crossover

Secret Wars was the first of a new breed of large crossover events which would become a staple of both Marvel and DC's publishing schedule from that year on. However, Secret Wars was unlike most of its successors in one important regard. From the month of the Secret Wars' debut all of Marvel's other titles were set after the events portrayed in the miniseries, rather than occurring simultaneously as is the custom. For example, in The Amazing Spider-Man #251 (April, 1984), Spider-Man was shown being abducted by the Beyonder, and in the opening of #252 (May, 1984) he was shown returning from Battleworld in his new costume, the events of the Secret Wars miniseries having occurred in a matter of "days" between the two issues.

However, the first issue of the miniseries was also published that May, the same month as The Amazing Spider-Man #252. This meant that by the time the series ended (#12 in April 1985), a full year's worth of storylines had occurred in the other titles since the events depicted in that final issue. Moreover, not only did the readers know from the very beginning of the story what many of its consequences would be, but also that by the time it ended they knew what would happen to each of the characters for some considerable time after the story took place. The series was entirely self-contained. Unlike Crisis and other subsequent "events," after its first month, the other regular Marvel titles could not link in with the story. This put Marvel at a disadvantage to DC who maximised the sales potential of their Crisis, with lots of tie-in issues each of which saw a modest rise in sales.

When Shooter launched the sequel miniseries Secret Wars II a few months after the end of Secrets Wars the new crossover was more open ended, allowing him to tie-in the storyline with nearly every other Marvel title, some more than once, over the course of its nine month run.

Other Media

A Secret Wars animated series to accompany the toyline and comic was in development at Marvel Productions in 1984 but the series never came to fruition.

An abbreviated form of the Secret Wars were featured in of . In that story, the characters were:

Heroes

• Black Cat
• Captain America
• The Fantastic Four founder roster
• Iron Man
• The Lizard (controlled by his Curt Connors persona)
• Spider-Man
• Storm

Villains

• Alistair Smythe
• Doctor Doom
• Doctor Octopus
• Red Skull

Characters planned for inclusion

• Hulk and She-Hulk were removed by the final draft to avoid conflict with the UPN animated series The Incredible Hulk.^[1]
• The X-Men lineup Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Jubilee, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine

According to John Semper, producer/story editor of Fox's Spider-Man animated series, "[W]e lost one completely written chapter of Secret Wars. It involved the X-Men, but they didn't want to pay again for the whole cast, so I dropped the episode and used only Storm. I could get Iona Morris, the original Storm voice, who was here in the States, without dealing with the whole Canadian thing. Also, she's a friend of mine".<ref name="semper" />

• Magneto
• Mr. Sinister

Magneto was initially chosen as the villain to appear, but Mr. Sinister was used instead.^[2]

An additional, fourth episode was planned, set between "Arrival" and "Gauntlet Of The Red Skull", that would have Spider-Man and the X-Men infiltrating Mr. Sinister's base. During the episode, Spider-Man would have come upon the Venom Symbiote, and temporarily used it.<ref name="maa" />

Bibliography

The Original Miniseries

• Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12 (1984- 1985)

Original Tie-ins

Unlike later crossovers, none of these issues were bannered or promoted as being part of Secret Wars but these are the issues in which the characters leave for and/or return from 'Battleworld'

• Amazing Spider-Man #249-252 (February - May, 1984)
• Spider-Man leaves for Battleworld in #251. He returns to Earth with a black costume and Curt Connors in #252.
• Spectacular Spider-Man #89 (April, 1984)
• The end of the issue's the same as Amazing Spider-Man #251.
• Avengers #240-243 (February - April, 1984)
• Captain America, Wasp, Captain Marvel II, Hawkeye, She-Hulk and Thor leave for Battleworld in #242. They return to Earth without She-Hulk, but with Iron Man II in #243.
• Captain America #292 (April, 1984)
• The end of the issue's the same as Avengers #242.
• Incredible Hulk #294, 295 (April - May, 1984)
• Hulk leaves for Battleworld in #294. He returns in #295 with a crutch.
• Iron Man #181, 182 (April - May, 1984)
• Iron Man II leaves for Battleworld in #181. He returns to Earth with the Avengers and some additions for his armor in #182.
• Fantastic Four #265 (April, 1984)
• Mr. Fantastic and Human Torch returns to Earth with She-Hulk without the Thing.
• Marvel Team-Up #140, 141 (May, 1984)
• The second to last page of #140 happens the same time as the end of Amazing Spider-Man #251 and Spectacular Spider-Man #89. Spider-Man returning in #141 also happens in Amazing Spider-Man #252.
• The Thing #10 (April, 1984)
• Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch and the Thing leave for Battleworld.
• Uncanny X-Men #178-181 (February - May, 1984)
• The X-Men leave for Battleworld in #180. They return in #181 with a large dragon in Tokyo, Japan instead of Central Park, where the other heroes returned.

Post Secret Wars #12 Tie-ins

• The Thing #11-22 (May, 1984 - May, 1985)
• Thor #383 (September, 1987)
• Quasar #8 (March, 1990).
• What If ...? (Vol. 2) #114 (November, 1998)
• She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #10 (February, 2005).
• Illuminati (Marvel Comics) #3 (April 2007)

What If?

A postscript of sorts to the original Secret Wars series came 14 years after its conclusion in What If...? Vol. 2 #114 (November, 1998) - "Brave New World" by Jay Faerber and Gregg Schigiel which explored what would have happened had all the characters gotten stuck on Battleworld and never returned home.

Footnotes

References

• The Grand Comic-Book Database
• The Marvel Chronology Project
• Mitchell Brown's The Unofficial Comics Crossover Index page on Secret Wars
• The Ultimate Guide to Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars Action Figure Index
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators