Rate it: Marvel Superhero Secret Wars (1984)

[Wall-Crawler]

Share your opinions of this storyline that could be considered the first line-wide event.

I personally enjoyed it very much, it was one of the first comic books I ever read when I started reading about a decade ago, and for featuring so many characters from throughout the universe, it was very easy to follow and understand despite it being my first approach to several characters.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Masterpiece.

Greatest Event in Marvel History.

Almost every character hero and villain had a chance to shine.

Doctor Doom was coronated as the greatest villain of the Marvel Universe.

[K7P5V]

Mike Zeck will always be a highlight for me.

[Riv86672]

5 stars.

I’ve seen ppl compare it unfavorably to DC’s Crisis, but, putting aside which actually came first, it was a completely different story, and brilliant one, who’s effects are still felt to this day.

[WebLurker]

2 out 4 for score. A good idea with some great moments undone by a repetitive storyline, weak writing, lackluster execution, and some characterizations that have not aged well at all (looking at you, Wasp). Not worth your time, unless your a completist and/or want to see the origins of the black suit saga.

[Celgress]

4 out of 5 stars, an excellent piece of comic book storytelling.

[Blunt Guy]

I really loved it when it came out. I realize it was written primarily to go with new action figures, but it was fun. All the characters gather fairly regularly these days, but it really was something having 2 big groups of the top heroes and villains alone on a planet. It was just so interesting watching them interact. Plus, Spidey beating up the entire team of X-men without breaking a sweat was awesome.

[comicscollector]

A essential story to read imo.
Have read it way back and ever since i read it it remains one of my favorite Marvel events.
Spider-Man got in this story the symbiote suit and him defeating a team of X-men was way cool.
Plus the cast of super heroes and villains was way cool right from the start and even had a few new characters apearing as Volcana or a new Spider-Woman.
And had just some of my favorite moments in comic books of several super heroes as when the Hulk holds the weight of a mountain to save the super heroes.
I liked that the cast of heroes and villains was peculiar as with the Lizard with the villains for example.

[Phoenixx9]

It was classic at that time and somethng every kid wanted: all of his/her favorite characters in one book over a number of issues! We also got some new powerful lady characters like Titania, Volcanna and Spider-Woman II, whose costume mysteriously mirrored Spider-Man's new (alien symbiote) costume.

[Iron Maiden]

Masterpiece.

Greatest Event in Marvel History.

Almost every character hero and villain had a chance to shine.

Doctor Doom was coronated as the greatest villain of the Marvel Universe.

All of this is very true. But I think the first Secret Wars has a wide influence on comics in that many of the writers today, like Hickman, Zdarsky, etc and read that series. Secret Wars #1 (2015) was one of Marvel's top selling single issues of this decade. The current Doctor Doom series writer said that he had the Secret Wars Doctor Doom as a child and still has it.

[K7P5V]

The current Doctor Doom series writer said that he had the Secret Wars Doctor Doom as a child and still has it.

I realize it was written primarily to go with new action figures, but it was fun.

Agreed. Eventually they'd have action figures for characters who didn't even appear in the first Secret Wars.

[your_name_here]

Masterpiece.

Greatest Event in Marvel History.

Almost every character hero and villain had a chance to shine.

Doctor Doom was coronated as the greatest villain of the Marvel Universe.

Yep. No more, no less. Easily the best event Marvel have ever had.
Worth it just for Doom vs Beyonder.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

All of this is very true. But I think the first Secret Wars has a wide influence on comics in that many of the writers today, like Hickman, Zdarsky, etc and read that series. Secret Wars #1 (2015) was one of Marvel's top selling single issues of this dedade. The current Doctor Doom series writer said that he had the Secret Wars Doctor Doom as a child and still has it.

Oh yeah, there's an entire generation of "Secret Wars babies", i.e. people who read SW'84 as kids who have grown up to write Marvel in the last decade -- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hickman, Zdarsky, Al Ewing, and in the movies you have Joe and Anthony Russo.

SW'84 is the comic that more than any after Kirby left and Lee stepped down, reintroduced the Marvel Universe to an entire generation, and it provided a gateway, tour, and showcase for the entire line of characters that Lee and Kirby and Ditko created, as well as a few new ones that came in after them, to an entire new audience.

In that respects it's the most successful event comic. The one that did what an event comic was supposed to do, and it marked a renaissance for the Marvel Universe. Compare that to COIE which is a mixed bag, in that it was ending the version of characters that an entire readership had known for decades and whose success created problems for new stories after that since the new readers who got in with Crisis had little reason to follow characters and stories that featured all new versions that they had no new emotional attachment to. SW'84 also has a timeless quality. It's a self-contained story that requires little to no familiarity with the status quo of the different characters plucked into Battleworld and provides a satisfying beg-mid-end for everyone. Which isn't the case with COIE, and for that matter SW'2015 which really doesn't entire work without you reading and knowing Hickman's run on FF and New Avengers/Avengers that leads into it.

Yep. No more, no less. Easily the best event Marvel have ever had.
Worth it just for Doom vs Beyonder.

It's amazing how Doctor Doom is the actual protagonist of the entire event. It's basically about how he plays everyone, his flaws and virtues, and his great tragedy. Like even at the end, he has a sympathetic quality, like when after he becomes God, Cap talks to him peacefully and offers to help him free his mother's soul, which was Shooter setting up Stern's Triumph and Torment which he had already greenlit and was in production...a great display of Shooter's generosity and far sightedness as both EIC and writer.

I think Shooter once said that Doom was his favorite character and he writes Doom brilliantly here and also in the AU crossover Superman and Spider-Man (a lesser known sequel to Conway's Superman V. TASM). The stuff with the X-Men and Avengers, and Shooter incorporating a more anti-heroic Magneto, despite some bits of camp and cheese (like Mags putting the moves on Janet), work as well.

For me, after Triumph and Torment, SW'84 is Doom's greatest story and greatest moment in comics.

[Wall-Crawler]

More opinions please

[ARkadelphia]

Haven’t read it in decades but I enjoyed it immensely when I read it a year or two after it’s release. Somebody said it earlier but it bears repeating: everybody seemed to get a chance to shine. Not so, with a lot of other cross-overs. Also worth repeating: the self containment was a strong aspect of the storyline. The sequel started the trend of crossing over into ongoing titles, and while this sounds great in concept, it rarely works for me in reality. It was also interesting to see how they handled the series continuity-wise. In the regular ongoing series for the characters, you knew things had happened on battle world but they were explicitly vague so as not to give too much away in Secret Wars. It was only when Secret Wars ended that the full ramifications could be felt in the ongoing titles. One last comment: somebody mentioned Spider-Woman’s costume mimicking Spider-Man’s. I think it was the other way around.