Marvel’s Secret Wars #1 Comic Review/Recap

Secret Wars #1 On Youtube

 

Secret Wars #1 Comic Recap

 

They’re called the Beyonders.  They are dreamers.  Destroyers.  All of reality is their whim.  Who dares stand before them?  Only Doom.

The multiverse is dying.  Only two universes remain.  Today, Earths collide.

In the Ultimate Universe, Nick Fury contacts the Ultimate Reed Richards, also known as the Maker.  The final incursion is here, and the Ultimate Universe is ready.  They aren’t going to risk death, so SHIELD is preparing a preemptive strike on the Marvel Universe.  They are going to send everything… everything they’ve got.

On the other side of the incursion, the 616 Universe is also ready for a fight.  SHIELD and an army of heroes are gathered together – and a battle begins.  New York City is attacked, but don’t worry, Spider-Man’s got this… uh, maybe.  Meanwhile, in the Baxter Building, a lifeboat is being prepared.  If this is indeed the end times, than the 616 Reed Richards will at least be able to preserve the human race.  Black Widow is gathering the world’s most able minds and important people in the hopes that humanity will survive all of this.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]

Outside, the battle rages on.  The heroes struggle against the Ultimate forces, until two Sentinels arrive.  All this time the X-Men have been well aware of the problem regarding the incursions, but until now, Cyclops has been largely sitting on the sidelines.  But Scott has been preparing his own solution to this problem, and the X-Men join the Avengers in defending their world.  A team of the two factions travels to the Ultimate Earth, where they attack the Triskelon, this version of SHIELD’s headquarters.  The team is able to topple the building.  But now it is the Maker’s turn to enter the fray.  He unleashes a fleet of highly advanced warships and they make a devastating attack on Earth-616.

From a safe location, a team of villains look on.  With little else to do, Wilson Fisk is hosting a party where they shall drink with joy at the hero’s greatest failure.  Until they hear a voice.  Gentlemen.  They say that when you die, you can’t take it with you.  Which begs the question: exactly what am I gonna do with all these bullets?

In the city streets, Black Widow’s ship, escorting a team destined to save the human race – is tragically destroyed in an instant.  It’s time.  There is little else to do.  Black Panther and Reed activate a device which is connected to the teleporting hero known as Manifold.  The heroes that are to be saved are teleported to the life raft.  Many are teleported on board, including Spider-Man, Starlord, and Captain Marvel, while others, like the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, are left behind.  There is no space.  There is no time.

The Sentinels are struggling to hold off the Ultimate forces.  Cyclops decides it is time to activate his master plan.  The Phoenix Egg is ready to hatch.  There you are, old friend.  Remember me?  Remember how this feels?  It’s love.

The Life Raft sets off, while the Pheonix rampages outside, until Scott Summers finds himself aboard the Raft with the others.   The heroes settle in as they take off.  As they do so, the incursion is closing in on the raft, and a bolt of lightning causes a massive hull breach in the vessel.

In a terrible moment, a chunk of the ship is blown off, and inside are a number of heroes, including the rest of the Fantastic Four.  Reed and T’Challa prepare to rescue them, but it’s too late.  The Invisible Woman is unable to sustain a shield around the debris, and everyone on board rapidly dissolves into nothing.  Reed is devastated, but the heroes have no time for grief.  They rush to escape the incursion, and as the worlds collide, everything dissolves into a bright, white light.

My entire life I believed in better days ahead.  I believed in tomorrow.  I hid that belief in my heart – a stronghold against a world that devours hope.  But now the walls have fallen.  I have been overrun.  And I hope… I believe…  in nothing.

Secret Wars Comic Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Secret Wars #1.

Well now… that’s certainly one way to start an event.  Everyone and everything you know is dead!  Yay!  …but I liked it.  In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

To quote one of the most overly used lines in history, this isn’t the ending.  It is only the beginning.  But literally, this is only issue one.  And this has been telegraphed by Marvel pretty clearly for some time.  I had a feeling this was how things were going to go down, and for those of you worried about where Marvel is going from here, well, you don’t really have a reason to, just yet.  We won’t know what things are going to be like until after they happen.  It’s foolish and pointless to judge before we actually get to see the finished product.  All we know is that, for now, Battleworld waits for us on the other side, thanks to Marvel releasing this handy map!  I’m looking forward to it.  This seems exciting and on the whole worth it.

Does this mean Marvel will be starting fresh and wiping the board clean after Secret Wars?  Probably not, but this would be a good time to get rid of some baggage that has been hanging over continuity for years now.  So in my eyes a bit of a reboot would probably be good for the company on the whole.  But rest assured, while two universes died in this story, only one death is going to last.  Sorry Ultimate Universe, it’s been a blast, but your stay was long overdue.  With the exception of Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics has been stale for years, and while I enjoyed a lot of their earlier comics, they really haven’t produced much that has been all that great since before Ultimatum, which rolled out several years ago.  So as far as I can tell, Marvel is keeping the best thing that ever came out of it – Mile Morales, and doing away with the rest.  This is something I call common sense.  Still, I’ll miss you Ultimate everything.  The first volume of Ultimate Spider-Man is basically the reason I read comics in the first place, so it will always hold a place in my heart.  You will be missed.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]

So I’m pretty unshaken by this whole end of the universe business.  I see no need to panic or nerd rage.  Looking past it all, I got a pretty badass comic with some amazing moments.  Like, this whole business with the Pheonix was an excellent and amazingly fun surprise.  The Punisher also has a great little cameo here, and that was a great part too.  And then there is this moment, which in all honesty I found just so heartbreaking.  Poor Reed just watched his family die, and it was all so tragic and sudden.  This was a very moving moment which really stood out compared to the usual nonsense I expect out of big events like this.  ahem, ahem

            Now at this point I’m sure some of you will be annoyed that I’m sitting here praising Secret Wars when I have been nothing but an ass hole with regards to the Convergence core series.  I just think that Secret Wars has better art and writing than the core series Convergence.  Of course, all this can change, and it most definitely is all very subjective.  I have a certain taste that others might not share with regards to Jonathan Hickman’s writing style, and that sort of thing can really affect my opinion.

Is this a perfect comic? <laugh> No.  This story is a bit of a cluttered, inaccessible mess, with all kinds of problems.  It’s rushed like crazy, and the comic is over before you know it.  There’s also a weird habit of having characters in this comic having something I’m going to affectionately refer to as “blowjob face.”  I also can’t help but wonder just how many people are going to pick this up and have no idea what’s going on.  My guess is readers are going to be quite confused if they haven’t read Time Runs Out, and I feel a lot of people haven’t read Time Runs Out.  But it’s a really solid read with some great artwork and on the whole was a lot of fun in my eyes, and yeah, to me, that’s good enough for a recommendation.  I liked it, and that’s what is important… well, to me, at least.

It’s certainly not going to be for anyone.  If you didn’t like this comic, trust me, I understand.  But for me, a person who went through all of Time Runs Out, and, importantly, enjoyed it quite a bit, this was a fun comic and totally worth my time.  It leaves me PUMPED for not only Secret Wars, but whatever Marvel does next.  I’m being optimistic.  It could be awful, but I am hopeful, and based on this start, I think we’re in for a real treat with Secret Wars.

In the end, I do recommend you check it out for yourself.  If you’re confused about what the hell is going on, you should really watch our video on Time Runs Out.  It’s a… little long for one of our videos, but this comic is probably off-the-walls crazy if you haven’t read Time Runs Out, so that’s almost required reading for this stuff.  Well, almost.  Clearly, we’re moving into a new direction from here on out, and it’s not that big a deal if you don’t care about the story building up to all of this.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]