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Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #5

Sep 1984
Jim Shooter, Bob Layton

Story Name:

The Battle of Four Armies!


Synopsis

Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #5 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 3 stars

On Battleworld, the heroes stand in awe as Galactus has summoned the solar-system-sized space station he calls home. The inhabitants of the alien village panic and Johnny Storm comforts the beautiful woman healer. They repair to her home where she releases a fragrant vapor into the air: immediately they can read one another’s minds; she learns the details of the Beyonder’s challenge and their presence on this artificial world, and he learns her name is Zsaji. They fall in love….

At Magneto’s lair, Colossus is pining for Kitty when he and all the X-Men are summoned telepathically by Professor X. When they assemble, Magneto outlines a plan to move against Galactus. The mutant heroes are reluctant to obey until the Professor orders them to….

At Doombase, the mild-mannered ex-villain Molecule Man and Marsha (Volcana) Rosenberg have found romance. Some of the other villains mock the wimpy former baddie but when Molecule Man challenges them, only Piledriver steps forward. Molecule Man changes his foe’s costume to a hard metallic substance trapping him, then he summons a flying chariot and takes his leave with Volcana. Then the villains see the arrival of Galactus’ craft. Elsewhere Doctor Doom is contemplating the same spectacle when the Enchantress, fearing death, offers the dictator many enticements to work with her to find a means of escape. Doom, not trusting the immortal seductress, rebuffs her and sends her away….

Elsewhere both Mr. Fantastic and Magneto try to communicate with Galactus but the god-like being merely brushes them off. He releases a huge fighting robot to deal with the annoying heroes, and it takes them quite a lot of effort and teamwork to neutralize the massive threat. The villains seize this opportunity to attack the distracted heroes and things look bleak for them until the sudden arrival of the X-Men coming to the rescue. After the villains are driven off by the mutant heroes’ attacks, the X-Men are also ordered to leave thought the wounded Colossus has been left behind (since his injuries made it dangerous to move him). Zsaji heals them all with her magic touch and now Colossus is falling for her. Meanwhile, Galactus is assembling a massive piece of technology and Reed fears it will be used to devour the planet’s energy, destroying them all, and allowing Galactus to win the Beyonder’s game….

On Galactus’ space station, Doctor Doom, who transported himself there during the distraction of the battle, tours the structure, seeking a way to claim Galactus’ power for his own, then that of the Beyonder….


 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #5 Review by (June 27, 2011)
Review: Full review appears with issue #1.

Comments: Wasp does not appear in this issue. Explanations: Iron Man is Jim Rhodes, Hulk has Bruce Banner’s mind, Professor X can walk.


Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #5 Review by (June 27, 2011)
Mr Fantastic tries to get Galactus to help the heroes here, trading on the fact that he saved the Big G's life in Fantastic Four #244.

The amorous Human Torch is between serious girlfriends at the moment, after his last 1, Frankie Raye, left with Galactus as his herald Nova in the aforementioned FF#244. His attraction to her ex-room-mate Julie Angel and *her* new room-mate Sharon Selleck's attraction to *him* don't count.

There are some flashbacks in later comics which expand on parts of this series.

Thor #383 has Enchantress describing some of the events in this series in a flashback. She summarises #1-3 and then tells what transpired between her and Thor between #3 and #4. How she tried to seduce him with sorcery, and how he told her that she had a better chance of winning his love by giving up such evil ways. Then we have an expanded version of the battle between Thor and the assembled villains in #4 which ends in Thor's apparent death. Torn between conflicting desires Amora had stayed out of the fight, and then regretted it when she thought the Thunder God dead. And now she regrets the missed opportunity to change her life and possibly win her heart's desire.

In She-Hulk (2004) #10 a Watcher recounts the origin of Titania. Mary 'Skeeter' MacPherran was born premature and grew up the runt of her mother's litter. Her only friend during her teens in Denver was fellow-outcast chubby Marsha Rosenberg. Then the only thing which sustained her in her dead-end job was her hope of gaining a superpower to get revenge on the world.
Then Denver gets its own superheroine, a new Spider-Woman. Mary pretends to Marsha that *she* is SpW, and Marsha can't keep the secret. Soon some of the girls who spurned her before are trying to befriend Mary. Until the night the Beyonder takes their suburb to Battleworld, and everyone sees SpW in action while Skeeter is obviously standing beside them. Mary and Marsha run and hide, and Dr Doom finds them and grants them superpowers as Titania and Volcana in #3 of this series.
The Watcher then shows us an extended version of the fight between Titania and She-Hulk in #7, and how Shulkie actually defeated Skeeter before the rest of the villains ganged-up and beat her to a pulp. Then we get a quick recap of how Spider-Man trashed Titania too in #8, and she'd lost all her newly-gained confidence by #11. And in that same issue Molecule Man started the villains and the Denver suburb on the long way home. Then we see an added bit with Titania punishing the ringleader of the girls who'd taunted her as Skeeter. But she can't erase the defeat by She-Hulk - which is why she hates her so.

An abbreviated version of this origin appears in Titania's chapter of Fear Itself: The Worthy.


> Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Bob Layton
John Beatty
Christie Scheele
Bob Layton (Cover Penciler)
Bob Layton (Cover Inker)
(Unknown artist) (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)