Should Marvel have rebooted after Hickman's Secret Wars

[comicstar100]

I feel like Johnathan Hickman set it up pretty nicely for Marvel to reboot after Secret Wars. Instead we got the All New All Different line which was what it was. Do you think Marvel almost rebooted after Secret Wars, and do you think they should of gone through with it?

[Rosebunse]

I love Marvel's weird and wild and convoluted history. I didn't want to lose that. It's what really makes Marvel step out from DC, that in theory, the characters we've been reading about are mostly the same people.

And Marvel sort of tried a reboot with the Ultimate line. Eventually, the Ultimate line had just as big of a mess of a history as the 616, just in a 1/6th of a time as it took tge original universe.

[Username taken]

Reboot? Nope.

I don't think the industry as it is today can even run with them anymore. DC did a hard reboot with the nu52 but inadvertently had to de-boot when it all crashed.

But in my opinion, throwing anyway decades of history and continuity is never, ever the way to go.

[your_name_here]

Reboot? No.
But it was a chance to get as close to one as they could (keeping continuity intact)...unfortunately it just carried on as if Secret Wars never even happened.

[JKtheMac]

They kind of did. Secret Wars folded in a number of characters from other realities and provided a built-in reason for lesser dead characters to suddenly be alive or revert to their standard default personality.

Clearly Marvel didn't take full advantage of the possibilities. They could have taken a tighter editorial hold on the multiverse and time-travel, and they could have been more overt on the fact that there wasn't a reset at the end of secret wars which still seems to confuse some readers.

The biggest missed opportunity was not having at least one high profile book exploring the ramifications of Secret Wars. Instead they time jumped almost everything which caused some to feel alienated, especially Avengers, Spider-Man and X-Men readers i.e. the vast majority of their high profile books. This sounded like a good idea, and could have worked but the execution was poor and piecemeal. It felt like the very moment that editors should have been steering the ship they left the writers to their own devices, which lead to inconsistency and confusion over what Marvel's official stance was over the incursions and how events were remembered/experienced.

P.S. I know Ultimates technically explored some ramifications, but while being great, it wasn't a mainstream book and it doesn't deal with the more mundane issues.

[Digifiend]

Avengers did have the gap filled in somewhat. The Rage of Ultron OGN. It was in that story that Jane Foster as Thor first joined the Avengers, and was where Hank Pym merged with Ultron, which is critical to Nadia's backstory (she was introduced in FCBD 2016's Avengers story, where she arrived at Hank's house only to find a newspaper saying he'd died). Hank's demise and Tony Stark's financial problems from the fallout of Superior Iron Man put an end to the Avengers World team Hickman had set up, as well as Avengers Academy. When we next see the Avengers in ANAD Avengers #1, they've disbanded and Tony and Sam Wilson end up recruiting a new lineup - Vision and Jane rejoin, along with three kids who would later become the founders of the Champions.

[Killerbee911]

Reboot. Sure. Marvel is badly in need of clean up. You can't maintain all of that fictional history without cleaning up on occasion especial with the retcons.Couple examples

1. Magneto's age- The Holocaust was increible smart way to develop his back story but it also dates Magneto in a bad way

2. Diversity changes- Most of Gold and Silver age characters are white and are always the core in refocusing the line which makes diversity always an issue. A reboot would be good to fresh up stuff here and there what if Xavier was black and Psylocke was Asian and Iceman was gay from the beginning. What if Black Panther was founding member of the Avengers,etc.

3. New Origins and cleaner set ups- Is there a way to make SpiderGwen, Miles and Peter Parker work better in 616? Captain Marvel and Venom origins have been tweaked you can seamlessly fit them in the universe.


Reboot isn't a bad word, All of the history of Marvel should be kept BUT streamlining things and unlike DC putting out a clear Bible of events would make thing go over better.

[DragonsChi]

No. Reboots are never handled well.

Writers, Editors, and Artist just need to take the time to actually read up on the heroes and villains they are working with. If nothing else those who are assigned to edit should do it to make adjustments. That is there job...they should be expected to do it.

[leokearon]

Reboots are largely pointless, since at some point writers will start taking stuff from the old universe and undo it all.

[Digifiend]

Diversity is a big reason why they can't reboot. Both Kamala Khan and Miles Morales would have to be sacrificed, as Kamala's origin was linked to an event (Infinity) and she'd not be inspired by Carol, as she'd only just be getting her own powers, and of course having Miles and Peter debut at the same time causes problems for Miles's identity. In fact, the majority of the Champions team couldn't exist. Amadeus and Sam would also not have their powers, as we'd only just be getting Banner's and Rich's origins. Viv and Ironheart wouldn't make sense to introduce yet either. The Young Avengers are equally affected, as Cassie Lang is probably the only one who'd still exist (as Ant-Man would be Scott - Hank and Janet would also be old, allowing for a faithful Hope instead of the teenage Nadia). The removal of Vision and Scarlet Witch's histories means no Wiccan and Speed. Mar-Vell would be outright erased in favour of Carol, so Hulkling is gone as well. And since Clint Barton would only just be debuting, Kate's also out.

[Snoop Dogg]

DC, just four years earlier, showed everyone why rebooting is just a terrible idea. Marvel should never reboot.

[leokearon]

Diversity is a big reason why they can't reboot. Both Kamala Khan and Miles Morales would have to be sacrificed, as Kamala's origin was linked to an event (Infinity) and she'd not be inspired by Carol, as she'd only just be getting her own powers, and of course having Miles and Peter debut at the same time causes problems for Miles's identity. In fact, the majority of the Champions team couldn't exist. Amadeus and Sam would also not have their powers, as we'd only just be getting Banner's and Rich's origins. Viv and Ironheart wouldn't make sense to introduce yet either. The Young Avengers are equally affected, as Cassie Lang is probably the only one who'd still exist (as Ant-Man would be Scott - Hank and Janet would also be old, allowing for a faithful Hope instead of the teenage Nadia). The removal of Vision and Scarlet Witch's histories means no Wiccan and Speed. Mar-Vell would be outright erased in favour of Carol, so Hulkling is gone as well. And since Clint Barton would only just be debuting, Kate's also out.

The only way you could keep the Younger heroes, would be to establish that the Older Heroes were already established, but that would make reboot irrelevant

[leokearon]

DC, just four years earlier, showed everyone why rebooting is just a terrible idea. Marvel should never reboot.

DC have shown numerous times why Reboots are a bad idea.

[ed2962]

They kind of did. Secret Wars folded in a number of characters from other realities and provided a built-in reason for lesser dead characters to suddenly be alive or revert to their standard default personality.

Clearly Marvel didn't take full advantage of the possibilities. They could have taken a tighter editorial hold on the multiverse and time-travel, and they could have been more overt on the fact that there wasn't a reset at the end of secret wars which still seems to confuse some readers.

The biggest missed opportunity was not having at least one high profile book exploring the ramifications of Secret Wars. Instead they time jumped almost everything which caused some to feel alienated, especially Avengers, Spider-Man and X-Men readers i.e. the vast majority of their high profile books. This sounded like a good idea, and could have worked but the execution was poor and piecemeal. It felt like the very moment that editors should have been steering the ship they left the writers to their own devices, which lead to inconsistency and confusion over what Marvel's official stance was over the incursions and how events were remembered/experienced.

P.S. I know Ultimates technically explored some ramifications, but while being great, it wasn't a mainstream book and it doesn't deal with the more mundane issues.

Right. It was kind of a very soft reboot.

[Killerbee911]

The only way you could keep the Younger heroes, would be to establish that the Older Heroes were already established, but that would make reboot irrelevant

Reboot does not have to mean clean slate. Think about like a old historic house, You can smash all down and start completely new or you can careful take old things to put in things but keep classical elements of the house. The point in keeping older things around is they have worth and not all thing need updating. It is about keeping the older stuff that has worth while updating for the time.

The word Reboot is apparently scary so lets call it "Renovation". Marvel doesn't have to keep bad fiction in it and Marvel fix clean up /recton/throw out stories make for a better cleaner history. Here is the thing whether you guys want to admit it or not Marvel has been rebooting for years. For example Frank Castle fought in Vietnam and Middle East and just patching these issues just cause more issues. If all stories count then all of Punisher history counts and since they never like to age characters we have 60's,70's,80's.90's,2000s versions of the same story all counting in the beautiful mess that is Marvel. It will never be perfect but attempting to maintain a timeline adjusting,retiring and adapting timeline say every 50 years(or whenever they feel is necessary) is just much cleaner.