The cover is pretty cool! A Mike Zeck piece, it depicts the unmasked (and rather handsome) Dr. Doom standing triumphant over the bodies of the heroes. The way it's colored makes Doom pop out, which is a nice detail. It basically says it all: Doom is triumphant, and Doom is supreme. It's a fantastic cover.
"...Nothing to Fear!"
Writer: Jim Shooter
Penciler: Mike Zeck
Inker: John Beatty
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
The story begins with what looks like the destroyed Doombase...and Captain America's Mighty Shield looking like a cosmic being mistook it for a cookie.
The former homebase for Dr. Doom's forces and later the heroes is nothing more than a smoldering wreck. A ruin, brought to this state by an unknown party. The cloud of smoke that has erupted from the crater of death is so great, the natives of Zsaji's village are able to see it. Zsaji herself fears the worst.
In Doom's big golden crystal, it's revealed Doom himself was naturally the one responsible for this. Yup, Doom will still be Doom, even with the power and omniescence of a god. Klaw asks him if he's sure they're dead. Doom is certain of this. After all, he reduced them to corpses with a blast of cosmic power. Not even the Incredible Hulk could have survived that...could they?
The scene shifts again. Floating through space millions of miles away is the domed suburb of Denver, this piece of Battleworld brought to this state by the awesome power of the Molecule Man. With nothing to do, the villains staying in Volcana's old apartment just lay around. However, one has found a way to occupy herself. The Enchantress fills up a bathtub with water and uses a spell to summon a being known as an elemental.
She wants some answers about this Beyonder guy, which the elemental provides. The Beyonder was a native to another realm. He was essentially the god of that realm. He was everything in it, and everything in it was him. However, something happened. Some event caused him to learn of Earth, and realms beyond him. For the first time in his existence, the Beyonder...grew curious. He would observe the Earth and its myriad of beings for years. However, the human concept of desire confounded the being. As such, he took beings who had great desire, like Enchantress herself, to study desire.
This point is basically to recap the miniseries so far. It does also allow the Enchantress to learn that Doom managed to get the power of the Beyonder. Remember, the villains didn't see that happen. Enchatress demands that the elemental use its rapport with water to tell her what's going on right now on Battleworld. The elemental points out she doesn't have that kind of power. Enraged, the Enchantress decides to help fix that.
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| And Amora wonders why Thor isn't into her... |
In Volcana's living room, the Wrecking Crew are having trouble with an angry Lizard, who just wants to go back to his swamp. Volcana stops the fight and tries to comfort the Lizard, assuring him that they'll be home on Earth soon. Doctor Octopus is much more cynical. After all, they have no idea where in space they are, or if the Earth still exists. For all they know, they'll spend the rest of their lives drifting in space. The Molecule Man appears and gets into an argument with the arrogant ex-scientist. Unknown to them, someone catches Volcana in a trance and commands her to come to them...well, except the Lizard. He notices she's walking away...
She heads to a nearby park...and the Enchantress. Remember back in issue 7 when Volcana made a deal with the Asgardian blonde? Well, the time has come to pay up.
Page 301, Panel 2
Enchantress sees the Beyonder as a threat, and needs to get to Asgard to warn them. Yeah, in the 80s, The Enchantress's character was evolving into being more of an "enlightened self-interest" type. She'll help the heroes against greater threats, but mainly because those threats will harm her as well. Amora's power is great, but it still has limits. She needs a bit of a boost, so she's going to draw on the lifeforce of Volcana to get it. Yeah, Volcana will die, but she's only a mortal. No great loss as far as Amora is concerned.
Doctor Octopus notices that in the sky, there are stars. But, that's impossible! The Beyonder destroyed the stars! How can there be stars if the Beyonder destroyed the stars? The Molecule Man explains that he can do anything now. He rebuilt the stars. He's also learning how to make spacewarps. With a bit of practice, they can get home. Doc Ock doesn't believe his own eyes and attacks Owen Reese in a rage. He feels like he's being made the fool, and nobody makes a fool of Doctor Octopus! Well, the Molecule Man does. Easily.
Heh heh. That's what you get for messing with a reality warper, Doc. However, Owen Reese has little time to enjoy seeing the arrogant ex-scientist get his. Volcana's in danger! He and the Lizard come to her rescue. Amora tries to flee to Battleworld, but the Lizard is caught in her teleportation spell, allowing him to attack her. He slashes her face, and she kills him.
Back to the Tower of Doom! Doom is relaxing on a chair, and Klaw approaches him, his eyes and mouth releasing an ominus glow. Doom shoots to his feet, realizing he nearly fell asleep. Remember, Doom can't afford anything that may let his control over his new power slip, including falling asleep. Sounds like that's what you get when you take power that you're not meant to have, huh Doomsie?
Klaw decides to use his powers to create sound constructs to amuse Doom. He regales the Latverian madman with a tale. A tale of a healer named Zsaji. She sees the destruction of the Doombase, and flies over to investigate on a dragon. It's there the alien woman sees the corpses of the heroes. Pushing her healing powers to the limit, she is able to restore them...somewhat to life. They're not quite dead, but they aren't exactly in fighting shape. The healer then finds the corpse of Colossus. Using the last of her power, she manages to restore him to life. However, this overtaxes her body, and drained her lifeforce. This leaves Colossus to find her dead in his arms.
The metal-skinned powerhouse is grief-stricken, but knows what he must do. He takes the body of Mr. Fantastic and puts it in a healing chamber. Doom just stares in horror as Klaw continues his story. With Richards restored to perfect health, he quickly grabs his comrades and puts them in healing chambers. Klaw suggests that Doom subconsciously caused this to happen. After all, he's practically a god now. Reality is modelling clay to him, malleable to his desires. What if there was a part of Doom that couldn't truly kill off the heroes?
Doom waves it off as madness. He did kill them! Yes, it was rather dramatic, but they couldn't have survived that blast. They couldn't have! Klaw points out that all he had to do was literally wave a hand, and they would have been dust. Doom refuses to let his mind be clouded by doubt. However, a certain event shakes the Latverian tyrant up.
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| Asgard Deli! You order, we crush! |
Cap warns the heroes to be ready for anything, considering the power Doom has in his hands. The heroes then see a big ugly monster. And it's not the Hulk before he's had his morning coffee. Klaw marvels over his ability to create actual creatures instead of mere sound constructs. He gets the idea to send an army of such monsters after the heroes. But they'll need a commander. Eh, Ultron will do. And it leads to an epic double-page spread of the heroes battling the monsters.
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| Obtained from Google, because the scanning app on my iPad will not scan this. |
Cap tries to get to Doom himself. Klaw blocks his way, crowing that he's too powerful for the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan. Cap's dropkick disagrees. The First Avenger races into Doom's tower. Klaw gets up and walks into the tower. It's all going to plan...
Cap makes his way to Doom's chamber, who is just chilling with some wine like the villain he is.
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| "Ah, hello Captain. Doom was about to enjoy some television. Every channel in the universe!" |
This infuriates the man. Cap charges Doom, as Klaw watches. The Master of Sound's eyes and mouth glow, remarking how perfect this is. Doom blasts the Sentinel of Liberty, and reduces him to dust. But much to his shock, Captain America reappears in a flash of light, and continues his charge. Doom blasts him again. Cap comes back. It's like a bizarre cosmic form of Whack-A-Mole. He hits Cap, and he keeps popping back up. Doom freaks out, causing his power to run amok.
The First Avenger realizes that Doom is losing touch with reality, and needs an anchor. He pleads for Doom to let Cap help him. He offers his hand to the Latverian, but Klaw has it handled...or should I say, the Beyonder has it handled. Yeah, turns out he's Not Quite Dead. He still excited as a little sliver of energy that had been floating around, waiting to reclaim his power. And now is that exact moment. Doom is in mental torment, his will and control are at its weakest.
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| "SURPRISE, MOTHERTRUCKER!" |
And with that, it's seemingly over. The other heroes defeated Klaw's monster army. Now comes the downtime. Colossus goes to bury and grieve over Zsaji. Spider-Man goes to enjoy some snacks. The heroes go to get their costumes fixed. Here, we touch on Storm and Xavier's conflict over the X-Men's leadership. Xavier concedes leadership to Storm, but will be doing more field work now that he can walk again. Spider-Man notices that the other heroes are using a different machine than the one that he got his costume from, and he asks if their costumes respond to mental commands like his does. They say it doesn't. Peter Parker finds it strange, but waves it off. Ahhh, plot-induced stupidity. Gotta love it.
Back in the medical lab, Reed Richards has fashioned a cast and crutch for the Hulk, as the gamma radiation in his body would short out the healing machines in the lab. Hulk's just going to have to let his natural healing factor fix him up. The Hulk hobbles by Hawkeye, in a foul mood. Yup, the Incredible Hulk is growing more savage...
Later, the heroes find Doctor Curt Connors, the Lizard's human identity wandering in. He woke up lying in a crater a few miles from Doombase, confused as to how he got there. He also claimed that his Lizard side is gone. Yeah, he'll be back. Nightcrawler then notices something else: Lockheed the Dragon is missing. Yeah, he hasn't been seen in a while, wonder what he got up to?
Aw look, he found a friend. Reed comes in, saying that his lab work has been going well. Yeah, tell that to Hulk, Reed. He believes that there's fallout from the battle against Doom. He discovered the planet has been charged with the residual energy left over, and it's causing a slight bit of "wish-fulfillment phenomenon." Captain America wants to test this. He gathered the shards of his broken shield. He puts them on a table, closes his eyes...
And that is that. His shield is whole again. It's time for the heroes to go home. Reed was able to figure out the construct that brought them all back to Battleworld in the first place. Colossus wants to stay behind, but Xavier convinces him that it a better way to honor Zsaji would be to embrace his life and come home. She-Hulk decides to go back with the rest of the Fantastic Four, taking Ben Grimm's place. Ben wants to stay behind on Battleworld, as he can seemingly change back to his human form there...and he wants to do a bit of self-discovery. Reed leaves him the device that he created to operate the construct that can bring the heroes home. The story ends with Ben sitting on a rock, thinking about a quote attributed to Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "There is nothing to fear, but fear itself."
This comic, like the mini-series as a whole, was alright. I felt there were plenty of things this mini-series could have done better. I wasn't a fan of the X-Men's portrayal here, I did feel the romance between Colossus and Zsaji did need more room to breathe (they could have excised her whole thing with her and the Human Torch). Also, the new characters. Volcana and Titania did get some focus (I would have liked to have seen Titania dealing with the humiliation she endured from Spider-Man more here, even though it was explored in other books later on). However, we got to meet a new Spider-Woman...and we didn't really learn much of anything about her. A shame.
One thing I did find odd was the Beyonder's wanting to study desire. But is that not desire? The Beyonder did desire something. He was capable of desire. So, why did he want to study it? Maybe it was the he didn't understand this feeling he had. That would have made more sense.
So, what did I like about this? Well, on paper, I love the scope of this story. We got many of Marvel's biggest heroes all fighting for the fate of the universe. That is just awesome right there. Plenty of action, and some nice character moments here and there. It was a big story, and it was really neat showing Doom struggling with the power of the Beyonder. He may be a powerful man in mind, but he was still a man. As much as he'd never admit it, even he has limits.
Secret Wars did have effects on the Marvel Universe, both major and minor. Some of those effects still are felt today:
- Most famously, it would be revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #258 (November 1984) that that black costume that Spider-Man obtained in Battleworld was a living creature. A symbiote that tries to bond with him. The symbiote would eventually bond with Eddie Brock, creating Venom.
- In Uncanny X-Men #181 (May 1984), Lockheed's dragon friend becomes a giant monster, forcing the X-Men to kill it.
- In 2015, the miniseries Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars was released. This revealed that the mercenary Deadpool was among the characters transported to Battleworld. It revealed that the Wasp used the "wish-granting" abilities of Battleworld to make everyone forget he was there in the first place. It also showed that Deadpool used those same properties to restore Zsaji to life and send her and her people somewhere they could live happily and not be harmed ever again.
- Incredible Hulk #296 (June 1984) sees Hulk ditch his leg cast and slowly revert to the savage Hulk of old.
- In Iron Man #183 (June 1984), Iron Man dumps the modifications to his suit. Those dumped components would eventually evolve into a monster that menaced Project: Pegasus in Quasar #8 (March 1990).
- Ben Grimm's adventures in Battleworld would be chronicled in Thing #11 (May 1984) - #22 (April 1985). Thing #22 would also reveal that all of his adventures in Battleworld were influenced by his subconscious mind, and he would lose the ability to shift between his human and Thing forms. He would rejoin the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #296 (November 1986).
- In Captain America #21-22 (September-October 1999), it was discovered that Cap's shield was not reformed as perfectly as believed. There was a small molecular flaw in the shield that grew over time as the shield took various blows. This created a "vibranium cancer" that threatened to destroy the world's supply of the sonic-absorbing metal (and blow up the planet), but Cap managed to prevent it and save his shield in the process.
- She-Hulk would be a member of the FF up until around the events of Fantastic Four #301 (April 1987). She was not shown officially departing the group, having last been seen as an FF member beforehand in Silver Surfer #1 (July 1987). She would remain a friend and ally of the imaginauts ever since.
- Doctor Doom would reappear in Fantastic Four #288 (March 1986), a tie-in to Secret Wars II.
Secret Wars is...a flawed miniseries. But it is not terrible. It has an exciting story, and it's epic in scope. It was one of the first "event" comics, and as such, I think it is an important read for historical purposes. I personally enjoyed the miniseries despite its flaws. It's the comic equivalent of a "popcorn blockbuster movie". You just sit back and enjoy. Crisis on Infinite Earths may have been the better "event", but Secret Wars paved the way for it. As such, it does deserve respect for that alone.
If you want to read this for yourself, I would recommend tracking down the 2005 trade paperback Secret Wars. It has a nice foreword from Tom Brevoort, and also provides some material that explains the set-up for the Secret Wars in various Marvel titles at the time. And it also had an epilogue that talked about some of the effects of the miniseries on various characters.
Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Join me next time, as we look at the beginnings of the Legion of Super-Heroes...
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