Originally Posted by
Joe Acro
I didn't quite get the point of the team--and still don't, really--from the start. But they were going to Weirdworld, involving Thundra and Arkon, so I continued reading. Yet, as I continue to read, and as Secret Wars has come to a close, this series doesn't really seem to make sense.
Weirdworld was as much a part of Battleworld as everything else. It was its own territory, floating somewhere above the planet, but was a composite of a few realities much like Battleworld itself. Arkon, Crystar, and Apelantis are not from the same universe, certainly. During Secret Wars, it was controlled by Morgan Le Fey. While we didn't see her defeat--at least, not completely, we did see her arm get bitten--Arkon declared himself Lord of Warlords. Presuming this is accurate and not just hyperbole, that presumably puts him in the same shoes Morgan used to wear. (Not literally, as amusing a sight as they would be.) So I guess it makes sense that if Druid is able to control him, then he's able to control most everything else in Weirdworld. Yet Druid makes it clear that he can't control beings who are from realities other than the main Marvel Universe. Arkon isn't from the main universe, so he should be exempt, no? Moreover, clearly the Black Knight is a lord within Weirdworld and yet Druid doesn't try to take control of him, even though having a bloodthirsty ally would likely be advantageous. And within the Black Knight's book, the Uncanny Avengers appear. If Druid is right in saying that he would just control them if they appeared, why not do so then? I don't read the main Weirdworld book, so I don't know if that references anything here or in Black Knight, but just the conflicting stories between two of the... four? (how many books are going to Weirdworld) Weirdworld stories seems, well, weird.
How can Druid exist in Weirdworld, yet nowhere else? Sure, it's a land of the lost, but we haven't really seen it exhibit any special magical properties that other dimensions haven't had. We have, however, seen Druid exist within the main universe as recently as Chaos War. If he held such ill-will toward his former allies, and was so tired of being a wraith, his actions within that story don't really make much sense.
The basic premise of the Squadron is lacking even, as it unites heroes of supposedly dead universes. Yet the end of Secret Wars suggests that everything that was destroyed was prevented from being destroyed--the Black Panther returned to the scene of the first incursion and the incursion didn't come and his three fellow Wakandans remained perfectly safe. So while it's possible Doc Spectrum's Earth was destroyed by another set of events, a set of events still including Namor and Black Bolt, it certainly seems like Robinson is writing as if the incursions all still happened. And even if one wanted to argue that this a new universe that the incursions didn't touch--a new universe, as it were, born from Reed's imagination, incorporating elements from Battleworld--that doesn't really explain this team in particular, as I'm fairly certain half of them weren't included on Battleworld (from what we saw of it).
And while it's a complaint a few issues old, Blur is entirely too at ease with superheroics, having come from a universe with a limited number of powered beings, few of which could really be called a "superhero".
I just don't think this really works within the larger framework. It's fine if treated as its own thing, sure. However, it's not exactly written that way. It's not a standalone property, as it pulls in other references to the main universe and has an editorial note to an older issue, but it's also no in line with the other properties either. It's weird.