Secret Wars [Paperback]

Jim Shooter (Author), Mike Zeck (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

The first mega-crossover of its kind, Secret Wars still stands as a milestone in the comic-book industry. The fate of the entire Marvel Universe hangs in the balance as all of Earth's greatest super heroes face their deadliest foes on the mysterious planet known as Battleworld! The classic 12-issue limited series is back in print!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871359030
• ISBN-13: 978-0871359032
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Battle, March 27, 2001

By 

David Suiter (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret Wars (Paperback)

This is one of those stories you can read for the pure enjoyment of reading. Secret Wars was the original 12 part mega epic comicbook tale. All of the major players from Marvel were involved from Spider-Man to Dr. Doom, from Wolverine to Galactus. All taken to a strange new world which the characters call Battleworld. The point of the story is for the Beyonder (an all powerful being) to find out which side is better good or evil. So he pits Earth's greatest heroes against the best villains. What ensues is an all-out Marvel Superhero millitary campaign. With fun developments along the way: Spider-Man's Black Costume, the introduction of a new Spider-Woman, The X-Man Colossus falling in love with one of the inhabitants of battle world. All had far reaching impact on future Marvel books.

I thrilled when I finally collected all of the original issues of this series. A very fun read for any one looking to enjoy a great super heroe adventure. I don't know why the other reviewers chose to knock this book I guess they don't like heroic epics.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars STILL BEING DEBATED 20 YEARS LATER, November 15, 2005

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret Wars (Marvel Super Heroes) (Paperback)

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars has spurred a lot of debate in the last twenty years. Many fans dismiss it as nothing more than a year long commercial for the Mattel action figure line. Others dismiss it as a blatant attempt to rush out and upstaged DC Comics Crisis on Infinite Earths far more historical series that came out at roughly the same time. Neither of these claims can be denied and even Marvel has admitted the transparent commercialism of the series. Still, when it comes right down to it, while perhaps nothing critical to the Marvel Universe came out of the series (Other than Venom) one certainly can't deny that it was an enjoyable series to read. It was a 12 page battle royal pitting most of Marvels top heroes against their top villains on neutral territory, all for the amusement of the God-like being known as The Beyonder.

The Beyonder was an all-powerful being from beyond our universe. His origins would be explained in much more detail in Secret Wars II. But basically the Beyonder entered our universe through a pinprick in the fabric of reality and became curious as to our world, and particularly Earth. The Beyonder then created a world and plucked out a few dozen heroes and villains and basically told them to battle each other to the death to get whatever they desired. The selection of heroes was pretty solid and included Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider Man, The Banner Hulk, Wolverine, She-Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Cyclops, Storm, and Professor X. The villains are much more of a mixed lot which includes heavies like Dr. Doom, Kang, Magneto, and Ultron, but some curious minor leaguers like Wrecking Crew, Titania, Klaw, and The Molecule Man.

Each issue is basically a big slugfest as the two sides vie for the upper hand with Doom leading the way for the bad guys. While all of this is going on Galactus shows up on no side and with every intention of devouring the energy of the world created by the Beyonder. Doom of course can never be trusted and soon backstabs the rest of the villains by actually stealing the power of the Beyonder and becoming omnipotent. Doom would destroy all the heroes but the Beyonder restores them to life and they finally defeat Dr. Doom. As the heroes win, The Beyonder grants them whatever they desire which is just to return home. Their wish is granted and the story comes to a close.

As mentioned, perhaps the only real significant event that came out of the whole storyline was Spiderman finding the strange alien material which he took as his new, black costume. This material would turn out to be an evil alien symbiote that would eventually become Venom when it merged with Eddie Brock. Of course this happened almost four years later when Todd McFarlane was on his memorable run on Spiderman and there's no evidence that Secret Wars writer Jim Shooter ever had this in mind when he created the suit.

The art by Mike Zeck is solid if unspectacular. Zeck has done better work, notably on The Punisher. The art in some of the issues looks a bit rushed lending credence to the argument that Marvel wanted the series out before DC's "Crisis". Taken on just the merits of the story it's an enjoyable read. I've read it numerous times over the years because it really was the first such mega-series event of its kind that included almost every major hero. These cross-over event stories have become common place today, but was still monumental back in 1984. Thus while the story itself had no great historical influence it still must be considered a landmark in comics history.

Review by Tim Janson

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yawn, February 22, 2006

By 

jancola (Encino, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Wars (Marvel Super Heroes) (Paperback)

Nothing has ever made me appreciate Stan Lee more, than reading someone else try to do his shtick. Comic books are silly, I accept this, but when Stan Lee wrote them, everyone had a real reason for doing things. Yes, they felt the need to talk about it a lot, and the science never even tried to make sense, but there were real people in there. This is not the case with Secret Wars. I feel like the creators are just making it up as they go along.

The dialogue in this book is strikingly bad, which is partly because it was written in the 80's (my favorite line: "Like tubular to the max!" -SheHulk) but their are other comics from this era (Daredevil, Batman) that were above this. In general, there is too much gobbledygook and no real motivation for what comes out of their mouths. There is also some really yucky thought bubbles, mostly from Colossus (sic: "I miss Katya. I had so many plans for what we could do together when she is old enough") which make you understand why Frank Miller abolished them.

Once the action actually gets going-- and it takes a while-- the story becomes more interesting...somewhat. Doctor Doom is surprisingly well-written, so much so that he jumps off the page; he is even generally better drawn than the other characters. I also enjoyed the weird romance between Volcana and the milksop Molecule Man. In general, the villains fared better in this book than the heroes; the one exception is Spiderman, who kicks the whole of the X-Men's butts in a memorable scene, and later gets a suspicious new black suit that modern readers will quickly recognize.

I think this was the first "event" comic of its kind to be released, preceeding the Crisis on Infinite Earths (also a snoozer) by a few years. This is now the bread-and-butter of the comics publishers, so it is interesting reading how it started. Still, I had a lot more fun reading Identity Crisis, or even the dubious House of M.