Secret Wars #1: Review

May 2015

Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic

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Story Name:

The End Times

Synopsis

Secret Wars #1 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The epic begins with Doctor Doom, Dr. Strange, and the Molecule Man standing on Doom’s time platform staring into Beyond. Beyond wants to know “who dares to stand before us?” Doom replies “I.”

In the Ultimate Universe (a/k/a 1610), Reed Richards tells Nick Fury that the multiverse is vanishing away; there are now only two worlds left: theirs and 616. Richards advises Fury that the only way for their world to be the sole survivor is for them to invade and destroy the other. Fury mobilizes all of the war craft to assault their sister-reality. Richards reveals to the Cabal that this is merely a distraction, neither universe will survive but it will hide their real objective from Fury.

In the 616-universe, heroes are taking on the invading forces as Reed and the Fantastic Four of this world are preparing a life raft to ensure that a specially chosen group of survivors will carry on the human race after all the universes are destroyed. Outside, the invaders are taking huge losses from the greater population of super-types in 616; the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more are holding off the enemy. Our Captain Marvel clobbers the enemy Iron Man; Colossus hurls the Hulk in a fastball special to take out a huge installation, while Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist aid civilians caught in the cross-fire. The Kingpin invites all of his criminal cronies to a final party at a favorite bar—which is crashed by a heavily armed Punisher.

The distraction completed, 1610 Richards orders the launch of a doomsday weapon. 616’s resurrection team is killed by the weapon, Cyclops releases the Phoenix Force and merges with it, becoming something new. The FF launch their life raft with a selected band of heroes aboard as the Earth’s surface breaks up. A blast rips the raft apart and Reed must exert all of his power to save the lives of Sue and the children…but he fails….

Everything goes white….

Title card:

The Marvel Universe, 1961-2015.

The Ultimate Universe, 2000-2015.

Review / Commentaries

Rating:

Secret Wars #1 Review by Peter Silvestro (May 10, 2015)

COMMENTS: Issue includes a six-page preview of THE UNCANNY INHUMANS Issue #0. REVIEW: So they went and did it. Marvel had a crisis on two Earths and had 616 and the Ultimates converge and destroy one another. Not much to say about it, it’s just the set up for what happens next; that’s where all the interest will lie. One thing I did note: Esad Ribic’s art is more pleasing to the eye than the dark and dreary style he brought to THOR: GOD OF THUNDER.

Secret Wars #1 Review by Rob Johnson (May 10, 2015)

I'll be providing brief summaries of tie-ins to this series. Because Julio has now made these comments editable I will be able to organise the tie-ins into something other than the order they are published. Marvel has split them into 3 categories:- Last Days, Battleworld and Warzones. The Last Days stories presumably lead up to this issue and can all fit in here. Battleworld stories are supposed to be vital to the main plot, while Warzones are peripheral. I've fitted all the Battleworlds in #2-3. The Warzones are split across #4-8. 1 thing will be consistent in my treatment of all 3 categories - I'll collect all issues of a mini-series together and the final version of my comment will cover them as a whole. The only other comic in the 1st week previewed as a tie-in is Inhumans Annual #1, which doesn't sport the banner and actually just ties up the current storylines in preparation for the actual Inhumans tie-in Attilan Rising due later this month. Meanwhile the last few issues of Avengers, New Avengers and Avengers World *have* been carrying the Secret Wars banner, and the whole of these series could be considered Jonathan Hickman's prelude to the event. In fact the opening scenes connect directly with the closing scenes of New Avengers #33 and Avengers #44, the last issues of those titles.

LAST DAYS:- ANT-MAN: LAST DAYS 1-shot A (last) day-in-the-life issue, including a visit to a retirement home for old supercharacters like the 40's Golden Girl. BLACK WIDOW #19-20 BW helps civilians during the last battle, trying to atone for her dark past as a Soviet operative. CAPTAIN AMERICA & MIGHTY AVENGERS #8-9 The end of the world has been announced, and Blue Marvel, Luke Cage and Spectrum take issue with the Illuminati's handling of the situation. Then the team are thrust into the final battle, as their call centre tries to keep up people's spirits. Spectrum is sent to destroy Ultimate Earth, but she can't bring herself to do it. LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD #14-17 The end of the multiverse is also Ragnarok (again) for Asgard, and evil King Loki leads the enemy forces. Meanwhile quite-good Loki is now the female God of Stories. Odin and the forces of Asgard use big guns to fight the zombie invaders, while Verity Willis explains how she got her powers by swallowing the Ring of Truth. Good Loki saves Verity from the end of the multiverse. He also preserves the Ragnarok battle in a globe. Then he faces the Gods Above Gods, reconciles with King Loki, and leads Verity into the unknown future. MAGNETO #18-21 Magneto reconciles with daughter Polaris in the face of the end. Flashbacks of his long relationship with Sub-Mariner end up by revealing that Namor told him about the incursions, and he has a plan to destroy the Ultimate Earth to save Marvel Earth's mutants (and unfortunately the humans as well). He's taken drugs to increase his power, and genetic enhancement via Sugar Man. And now he uses the magnetic field of the planet against Ultimate Sentinels, and launches all Earth's electromagnetic energy against the Ultimate Earth. But he can't stop the end of the multiverse.

MS MARVEL #16-19 Broken-hearted Ms Marvel tries to keep her friends and family safe with help from Loki. Then she meets Captain Marvel as the last battle kicks in, and they team up to rescue Kamala's brother from people who want to turn him into an Inhuman. Her brother gets a super-power, and Ms Marvel reveals her identity to her family, but it turns out they'd already figured it out. Then Kamala touches base with all her friends before the end of the world. PUNISHER #19-20 Punisher spends the last days killing as many bad guys as possible. Taking out terrorists Black Dawn with the Howling Commandos and wiping out the clientele of the Bar With No Name (again). SILK #7 Silk races to reach her brother before the world ends. SILVER SURFER #13-15 Surfer and Dawn escape the destruction of the multiverse in another dimension where Glorian and the Shaper of Worlds plan to recreate it. Surfer recreates the universe from memory, while Dawn does the same for the Earth. But Glorian kills the Shaper to take over the godhead of the new universe. SS&D exit to discover they can choose which survives between that universe and the Dr Doom 1 in Secret Wars. Their choice is made when Eternity takes the universe back from Doom (something that happens in SW#9). SPIDER-WOMAN #10 This issue finishes off SW's latest story arc. Then she and Black Widow go collect people for Mr Fantastic's life raft. UNCANNY INHUMANS #0 This isn't billed as a SW tie-in, but it really is a Last Days story. It turns out Black Bolt sent his son Ahura to Kang for safety during Infinity. Now with the end of the multiverse approaching he asks Kang to take Ahura back in time to avoid that fate. Kang agrees, but only if he gets to keep the boy (who is undergoing the Terrigen transformation). The post-SW series will see BB trying to get his son back.

> Secret Wars comic book info and issue index