Secret Wars 1984 Appreciation

[Derek Metaltron]

Agreed, Secret Wars is great if you're a Doom fan, and it also has a lot of my favourite villains like Doctor Octopus, Enchantress, Magneto, Galactus, Lizard and Ultron.

It also saw the rather left field (and in reality one-sided) Wasp-Magneto pairing.

[Montressor]

Wow, this is really taking me back...anyone else remember the sudden change in status quo to The Thing's solo series? That was an AWESOME storyarc...'Ben Grimm, Space Ranger'.

I MUST re-read this somehow.

[SickAlice]

I'm working on making a stock of Secret Wars avatars for the site, both for the new series and any of the old. If anyone here has anything specific in mind let me, feel free to share an image if you have one for me to pull it from as well. They'll be posted in the Marvel Avatars thread unless the image is Spider-man specific, then over in that thread. Thanks.

[Frontier]

I remember watching the adaption of the storyline on Spider-Man: The Animated Series and thought it was pretty cool, though I've never read the full event itself...though I do intend to .

One of the things I hear about a lot, aside from the obvious like Doom being awesome or Spidey getting the Black Suit, is Spidey trouncing the X-Men in one issue .

Magneto and Janet...words fail me .

[Iron Maiden]

As a Doom fan, I think the 1980's were a great time to read comics. You had John Byrne on the Fantastic Four and then this that really elevated his role in the MU. A lot of what Hickman is doing now seems to be paralleling Secret Wars.

Some of the covers did become pretty iconic too and Black suit Spider-Man is probably the most expensive to buy. IIRC Mike Zeck was also doing a monthly Captain America book at the same time, which was fairly common still in the 1980s. He recently recolored the cover to #10 (digitally I think) because he thought the original used too much white on Doom's mask. I do think his version is an improvement.

[Master of Sound]

I liked it a lot!

The concept of Beyonder was awesome.

The birth of two new villains (though barely awesomely used afterwards) Volcana and Titania

Zjaji was a nice new character as well.

The romance between wasp and Magneto, great

Doom and Kang were awesome.

Using the X-Men the way they did was great as well.

[XPac]

I remember watching the adaption of the storyline on Spider-Man: The Animated Series and thought it was pretty cool, though I've never read the full event itself...though I do intend to .

One of the things I hear about a lot, aside from the obvious like Doom being awesome or Spidey getting the Black Suit, is Spidey trouncing the X-Men in one issue .

Magneto and Janet...words fail me .

Yeah, the Spider-Man fan in me definately marked out a bit in issue 3 when Spidey held his own, briefly at least, against the entire X-Men team. Under the right circumstances, Spidey can be a beast. He had a pretty nice showing against Titania later on in the event (I believe issue 8).

Secret Wars was definately good for Pete.

[Derek Metaltron]

Ohhh yes, I loved the fact Spidey could take on the whole X-Men team and hold his own pretty well too, when he uses his smarts and his agility just right, he can take down most of the strongest foes as long as he's not stupid.

Colossus also got some nice focus with the romance, wish he had more focus these days.

Out of interest, does anyone know why Lizard was less intellectual but more compassionate at this point? He seemed to be able to be friends with Wasp and Klaw despite his past hate of humans, but also seem to lack his previous superior intellect.

[UltimateTy]

How did X-Fans react to that issue back in the day?

Storm and Cyclops couldn't really do anything because of the place they were in at that moment IIRC.

[Derek Metaltron]

How did X-Fans react to that issue back in the day?

Storm and Cyclops couldn't really do anything because of the place they were in at that moment IIRC.

To be fair Spidey wasn't trying to outright harm them, if anything they were trying to stop him revealing their plans to leave, and Professor X managed to in the end. Ultimately the writers were trying to retain the tension that the Avengers and X-Men had at the time.

[Haquim]

You know what?

I think Marvel should get Jim Shooter back in some form to commemorate the new Secret Wars. After all he was the architect of the whole thing and he deserves a place in the spotlight especially after being maligned and vilified so much by those who followed him as EiC.

[XPac]

Secret Wars also MIGHT have been where marvel established that Captain America is sort of the top field leader in marvel. Maybe there was something prior to that, but it's the first time I recall Steve really being potrayed as 'da man."

So it may have actually been a pretty important event for Steve too.

[Zero Hunter]

It was a game changer for most of the characters involved and had big effects for most of them. The FF lost the Thing and gained She Hulk, Spidey got the Black suit which led to the creation of Venom, the Colossus and Kitty Pryde relationship was over, the Thing was off on his own world for a long time after that and when he finally came back he was so angry at Reed he wanted to kill him. Really the only ones not effected much were the Avengers and Hulk, but Hulk was headed for a big change in his own book anyway with the Exile storyline kicking in not long after he got back from Secret War.

That was how you did a crossover with lasting long term effects.

[4sake Baned]

It was a game changer for most of the characters involved and had big effects for most of them. The FF lost the Thing and gained She Hulk, Spidey got the Black suit which led to the creation of Venom, the Colossus and Kitty Pryde relationship was over, the Thing was off on his own world for a long time after that and when he finally came back he was so angry at Reed he wanted to kill him. Really the only ones not effected much were the Avengers and Hulk, but Hulk was headed for a big change in his own book anyway with the Exile storyline kicking in not long after he got back from Secret War.

That was how you did a crossover with lasting long term effects.

Very true..

[XPac]

It was a game changer for most of the characters involved and had big effects for most of them. The FF lost the Thing and gained She Hulk, Spidey got the Black suit which led to the creation of Venom, the Colossus and Kitty Pryde relationship was over, the Thing was off on his own world for a long time after that and when he finally came back he was so angry at Reed he wanted to kill him. Really the only ones not effected much were the Avengers and Hulk, but Hulk was headed for a big change in his own book anyway with the Exile storyline kicking in not long after he got back from Secret War.

That was how you did a crossover with lasting long term effects.

Or you can argue having your editor in chief write a story is how you do a cross over with lasting long term effects.

But yeah... for the first time around I think Secret Wars did a great job of creating actual waves in the MU as a whole. Not to the over the top degree that Crisis did... but there were wripples addressed almost across the board.

Though in Secret Wars 2, Shooter probably overdid it a bit.