Hickman & Brevoort Sort Through the Rubble of "Secret Wars" #6, Explain Series' Expansion

[CBR News]

Jonathan Hickman & Tom Brevoort discuss "Secret Wars" #6, Battleworld's unraveling nature and why Marvel's event needed to expand to nine issues.


Full article here.

[Byakko]

The bit about how Issue #7 became too big and had to be split is interesting, but I wonder then why they couldn't try shifting the story forwards since #5 was really just a "as you know" exposition issue where nothing really happens. I mean compared to #6 which actually has both exposition and action paced so much better.

[JamJams]

The novelty of the off-shoot books all being their own thing was interesting and helped readers just pick and choose which books (if any) they wanted to read during the Secret Wars stretch. But the consequence of doing so seems to be that Hickman now has too many characters and plot points to juggle in a single book.

So they either should have given him two main books to work with or they should have made more of the off-shoot writers handle more of the "off screen" moments. They should not be seven issues in and we're still wondering when or how things happen.

"Fill in the blanks yourself" is also not an acceptable answer when they had the means to fill in the blanks but chose not too.

[johnnyrocket]

I'm re-naming this event series Secret Conversations.. I can't believe all the talking going on at the expense of nearly all the action happening "off camera." It's ridiculous that the cover of this issue is the only pay off to the cliffhanger of last issue and when we pick back up with Thanos, he's in jail... Meanwhile we got another issue of conversations. I get Hickman's style. I enjoyed the hell of out his FF run, but at this point he's practically daring me to drop this story. Or just go read the last 10 pages on the last issue in the comic shop.

[Bunai]

heey, I wanna see what journey everyone took 'off panel'!!
He better do it or my imagination will get the better of me.

[Teste]

It's funny, isn't it?

We know Midnight and Proxima had an epic battle with Apocalypse... Off panel.

We know Namor and Black Panther had to cross the entire ocean and fight against the mighty Leviathan while trying to avoid killing each other... Off panel.

We know a new leader has risen in Battleworld and is now leading an army through multiple domains, maybe due to actions by the Maker... And all of it happened off panel.

We know something happened to Carol Danvers, but then I couldn't care less because the only reason she's there is due to editorial interference because of the movie, so she can do whatever off panel.

We know Thanos fought behind the SHIELD and unified all three factions against Doom, which happened off panel, but at least it was detailed in Siege (which was great, by the way).

It's amazing.

We know Secret Wars is selling a lot. Like, A LOT. It would be in Marvel's best interest to sell more of it. Showing those events within the page of the comic would not be actually called stalling (does anyone remember Bendis' Secret Invasion? Now THAT was stalling). Adding one more issue to show those things would have been great for them. It would have led to a lot of sales...

...But Marvel couldn't do it. They couldn't actually double ship Secret Wars and make Doom knows how much in sales due to their own inability to double ship it, and pushing the end even more than they already did would be crippling for the story.

This is a great example of how Marvel could have done something a lot better than what they actually did.

[Cloudman]

It's funny, isn't it?

We know Midnight and Proxima had an epic battle with Apocalypse... Off panel.

We know Namor and Black Panther had to cross the entire ocean and fight against the mighty Leviathan while trying to avoid killing each other... Off panel.

We know a new leader has risen in Battleworld and is now leading an army through multiple domains, maybe due to actions by the Maker... And all of it happened off panel.

We know something happened to Carol Danvers, but then I couldn't care less because the only reason she's there is due to editorial interference because of the movie, so she can do whatever off panel.

We know Thanos fought behind the SHIELD and unified all three factions against Doom, which happened off panel, but at least it was detailed in Siege (which was great, by the way).

It's amazing.

We know Secret Wars is selling a lot. Like, A LOT. It would be in Marvel's best interest to sell more of it. Showing those events within the page of the comic would not be actually called stalling (does anyone remember Bendis' Secret Invasion? Now THAT was stalling). Adding one more issue to show those things would have been great for them. It would have led to a lot of sales...

...But Marvel couldn't do it. They couldn't actually double ship Secret Wars and make Doom knows how much in sales due to their own inability to double ship it, and pushing the end even more than they already did would be crippling for the story.

This is a great example of how Marvel could have done something a lot better than what they actually did.

I think the best way for Marvel to have done this would have been if they'd involved the 616 survivors in the various Secret Wars tie-ins. That would have required a very different release schedule, and a lot more coordination, so I guess I can see why they didn't do it that way. But it's disappointing to see the plot jump ahead and have large chunks of the story explained to us in exposition.

[Master of Sound]

I would have loved the fight of glaive and paroxblabla against Apocalypse.

[hobo]

I appreciated the fact that the spin off titles weren't required reading, but yeah maybe an anthology series that had the main cast's activities after being scattered would have been nice. Of course if these issues had come out as scheduled, that wouldn't even be possible.

[HAWKEYE-321]

It's funny, isn't it?

We know Midnight and Proxima had an epic battle with Apocalypse... Off panel.

We know Namor and Black Panther had to cross the entire ocean and fight against the mighty Leviathan while trying to avoid killing each other... Off panel.

We know a new leader has risen in Battleworld and is now leading an army through multiple domains, maybe due to actions by the Maker... And all of it happened off panel.

We know something happened to Carol Danvers, but then I couldn't care less because the only reason she's there is due to editorial interference because of the movie, so she can do whatever off panel.

We know Thanos fought behind the SHIELD and unified all three factions against Doom, which happened off panel, but at least it was detailed in Siege (which was great, by the way).

It's amazing.

We know Secret Wars is selling a lot. Like, A LOT. It would be in Marvel's best interest to sell more of it. Showing those events within the page of the comic would not be actually called stalling (does anyone remember Bendis' Secret Invasion? Now THAT was stalling). Adding one more issue to show those things would have been great for them. It would have led to a lot of sales...

...But Marvel couldn't do it. They couldn't actually double ship Secret Wars and make Doom knows how much in sales due to their own inability to double ship it, and pushing the end even more than they already did would be crippling for the story.

This is a great example of how Marvel could have done something a lot better than what they actually did.

How do you know that Carol was only used due to editorial interference? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to know where you got that from.

[Teste]

How do you know that Carol was only used due to editorial interference? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to know where you got that from.

Guessing, mostly.

We can see in the line up that went to the rafts characters who Hickman had been using up to that point and who he followed through, and characters who got there out of nowhere and just happen to be the ones editorial would push.

The Cabal? Hickman. He created the group, he has been using everyone there for a while, and he really likes the Maker.

Reed Richards? Clearly Hickman's choice and probably the hero of the story.

Namor & Black Panther? Their feud has been shown by Hickman for months now, if not more.

Cyclops? Hickman had been hinting about the Phoenix Egg for some time before Secret Wars. And Cyclops DEFINITELY is not a character Editorial would ask Hickman to use.

The Spider-Men? Parker could maybe be Hickman's choice, but Miles was probably Editorial, what with all the push the character is getting as he moves into the main Marvel universe.

Star Lord? Definitely Editorial. He appeared out of nowhere, he has barely been used by Hickman, and Marvel is still milking the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Carol Danvers? Same thing. Hickman has used her very little, be it before or after SW; Editorial probably asked him to put her there because of her incoming movie and to promote "diversity".

Thor? Same as Danvers. Hickman has barely used her and it's a character Marvel has been pushing too, and she's likely being used together with Danvers as the token female characters in that life raft.

Marvel's Editorial looks like something that gets in the way more than helps. They don't really demand their so-called "big" writers to follow continuity (see anything Bendis has written in the last year), at the same time they demand people to milk the movie franchises (remember Fraction talking about "Fear Itself"? He said they wanted to create an event to milk the Captain America and Thor movies, and the result was FI). They manage to both disrespect their previous continuity and disrespect their writers who are not seen as the main "architects".

[FriendRoss]

I mean not for nothin. But the most interesting storys for mini series out of this event seems like the ones skipped over in this issue


I'd bought 1 digital and 4 print copies of each issue of namor and panther crossing the ocean and what not. I mean wow.


I missed reading siege. My bad I guess. Thank god I read the 4or 5 other ones. I'm mad at myself for buying the carol corps secret wars books. I wanted to read the naughty capt marvel in sinisters bar. Where the hell was that book?

Ultimate Spider man team up super spy series?

[Drz]

So has any of the tie-ins told us who the Prophet is?

[HeWhoSlapsAll]

It's funny, isn't it?

We know Midnight and Proxima had an epic battle with Apocalypse... Off panel.

We know Namor and Black Panther had to cross the entire ocean and fight against the mighty Leviathan while trying to avoid killing each other... Off panel.

We know a new leader has risen in Battleworld and is now leading an army through multiple domains, maybe due to actions by the Maker... And all of it happened off panel.

We know something happened to Carol Danvers, but then I couldn't care less because the only reason she's there is due to editorial interference because of the movie, so she can do whatever off panel.

We know Thanos fought behind the SHIELD and unified all three factions against Doom, which happened off panel, but at least it was detailed in Siege (which was great, by the way).

It's amazing.

We know Secret Wars is selling a lot. Like, A LOT. It would be in Marvel's best interest to sell more of it. Showing those events within the page of the comic would not be actually called stalling (does anyone remember Bendis' Secret Invasion? Now THAT was stalling). Adding one more issue to show those things would have been great for them. It would have led to a lot of sales...

...But Marvel couldn't do it. They couldn't actually double ship Secret Wars and make Doom knows how much in sales due to their own inability to double ship it, and pushing the end even more than they already did would be crippling for the story.

This is a great example of how Marvel could have done something a lot better than what they actually did.

Honestly, as much as I love Ribic, Marvel should've put another popular/epic artist(s) to help with this event.

Have Ribic do allthe important story issues, while someone, like Coipel, and/or Marquez, did all the bridge issues.

This issue could be more than 8/9 issues, with Coipel, and/or Marquez, doing a bridge issues between issues 4 & 5, 5 & 6 and so forth.

Sure, we love having a consistent artist, but we'd still be getting single artist issues, done by the best of the best.

Imagine Coipel doing the Maker meeting Reed, and the Horsemen vs Proxima and Glaive, or Marquez doing Maximus/Profit stuff. It would've been a win-win, and we wouldn't have to wait 6 weeks for another issue.

[HeWhoSlapsAll]

So has any of the tie-ins told us who the Prophet is?

They don't need to, as it's obviously Maximus.