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After such a long delay, I expected to be significantly less bored while reading it.
Sometimes when I read a comic, I like imagining how if the series was a TV show, there would be so much more in the issue to explore and flesh out. But Hickman writes his scenes so fleshed out that we only got two scenes in the whole issue, it seemed. I didn't mind this style as much with his ongoing series, but with an event like this, I was expecting a bit more flash and bang. Secret Wars is telling us to expect more action than there is, this was more like Secret Conversations.
When Hickman first teased this issue, I admit I was kind of disappointed. He made it sound like this issue was going to be filler. After reading it, I was pleasantly surprised. While this issue wasn't quite as intense as the last one, it did succeed in resolving some plot holes and laying the foundation for Doom's downfall. We get plenty of hints that Valeria is a bit overly curious about the survivors of the raft and Doom is not too keen on her learning about them. But since Strange scattered them, it's bound to be a problem at some point. So while the plot didn't move forward by much, it did plenty to set up the drama with Valeria while offering some insight into the role Molecule Man played in the beginning. I think in the grand scheme of things, it makes Secret Wars feel more refined than a typical big blockbuster crossover.
With three issues left though, I feel as though this story is cutting it close. One of the problems Marvel tends to have with these events is that they drag in the middle and force the ending to get rushed. So the final few issues feel bland or unrefined. While Marvel has gotten better at it lately, they still have a history of having lackluster endings ruin promising stories. I hope Hickman can avoid this with Secret Wars, but only time will tell. I did a full review of this issue on my blog. And if it's okay with the mods, here's a link:
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Not sure sly is the right word, I guessed that was where they were from and I haven't read SHIELD! The more I hear about it the more interesting it sounds, though. Am I correct in thinking it was never completed?
Oh you mentioned missing characters in your first post: Miles turns up in Ultimate End.
Strange and his power are the 'absence of Doom' because, unlike everything else on Battleworld, he wasn't made by Doom. I don't think it's a yin/yang balance thing. I'm not sure if MM is unknown to Valeria because he is simply hidden, or because he was made by the Beyonders and thus is made of the same stuff as Battleworld which Doom created with the Beyonders' power.
This, exactly. Its not the fact they were reminiscing that was incredibly clunky, but the way they did it. Normally, when you talk about a shared experience you allude to events ('Remember the thing with the bomb?'). Here Doom and MM recited events like a third party had asked them to explain what happened, even taking turns so its not like one of them was describing their personal interpretation or experience of events to the other. It would have been more forgivable if it wasn't 95% information we already knew.
Sigh, variations of this argument come up all the time on these boards. 'Last week people were complaining about X, now they're complaining about Y.' Believe it or not, there are lots of people on these boards with different, often conflicting opinions. Unless you actually have evidence of a specific account contradicting themselves, you can go ahead and assume that contradicting viewpoints come from different people.
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It does explain what happened at the end of NwAV, but it felt just a tad too convenient. Like someone poked Hickman on the shoulder and was like "you gotta explain what happened at the end of one comic in this comic" and he was like "oh... okay, here".
This chapter seemed very Poe related. i.e. "The Tell-Tale Heart". Now we wait to see if Doom will scream about Stephen being under the floorboards...err dirt.
The only two people that matter in this event xD jk
Stephen wouldn't do this act without a reason. The characters are clearly meant to be where they are in this world. Maybe to cause some kind of disruption similar to what MM and Doom were doing prior.
aka(s). o-bunⓐi-o // ⓓcembⓘrth
Sorry for any misspellings or grammar mistakes
Last edited by Crazed T'Challa x Emma x Namor shipper; Yesterday at 00:00 UM.
That felt like maybe 5 or 6 pages worth of content stretched to the limit.
Read a fanfic about this yesterday... which involved a Strange leading T'Challa and Namor to some off world during the incursion and disappearing. Maybe the writer subconsciously predicted the future!!?
I can give out one part of the fic, the two talked about the Phoenix power and Shuri.
And something about grudges and stuff happened between that and... stuff
aka(s). o-bunⓐi-o // ⓓcembⓘrth
Sorry for any misspellings or grammar mistakes
Last edited by Crazed T'Challa x Emma x Namor shipper; Yesterday at 00:00 UM.
Yeah, there was a bit much of the old, "Well, as you know, Victor...." in there for most tastes. It might have worked better had either Owen or Victor or both been laying these revelations out for somebody new to them, like Valeria perhaps, but I guess we're not at that part of the story yet.
It was pretty clearly her, since none of the Battleworld Thors would have had reason to be puzzled by what was going on, or need to be shushed by young Thor so she wasn't overheard. If it was just, say, Alicia Silverstone from Clueless Thor, it would have been a needless or weird digression.
If they were going to give us the awkward Doom and MM scene the least they could have explained is why MM is "chained" in the basement