Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #6 (October 1984)

The Secret Wars rage on! Last issue, we saw Galactus get ready to turn Battleworld into his personal buffet. The heroes get a healer. Doom was plotting, and we saw a big hero/villain brawl which led to Colossus getting injured. So, what will go down next? What's Doom up to? Can our heroes regroup? Let's find out in Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #6!

"Villains, ATTACK! ...God, Doom can do so much better than that..."

I love the cover. A Bob Layton piece, it is essentially a mirror of the cover of the first issue, only focusing on the villains...and Galactus. Had to put him somewhere, and he eats planets, so...yeah. He's stuck with these guys. I also like that the new villains Titania and Volcana are given such prominence. It gives the idea that these two are going to be sticking around for a while. And they actually did. Well, Titania more than Volcana, but yeah, they did stick around for a long time afterward.

"A Little Death..."
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 a shuttlecraft flying out of control.

"JAAAAAN! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!"

The Wasp is flying said shuttlecraft, but she's having some trouble figuring out the controls. This woman was one of the original Avengers. Did she never learn how to fly a Quinjet? I mean, I get that people like to see her as a flighty dilettante, but she's not a moron. She ends up crashing the craft, and lamenting that she broke a nail.

*facepalm*

But all is not lost, though. She discovered a holographic readout of the area. It points out something, but Janet Van Dyne is unsure what it means. Deciding she has nowhere else to go (did she make any attempt to call anyone during her little flight of fancy?!), she decides to head to the location of the object she has pointed out. But before she leaves, she destroys the shuttlecraft, because reasons. I do not know.

While flying to the location, she notes how quickly that the terrain changes thanks to Battleworld being essentially a patchwork planet. Wasp flies into a forest, and is miserable about the heat and humidity. She likely flew into the Everglades. I went there, it is humid. She zaps away some alien bugs, but it's worn her out. I can imagine the craziness she went through combined with the heat and humidity of the jungle had wiped her out.

She found the location marked on the holomap and hopes that it's a place to rest and relax. But she has company.

"Blasssted kidsss! Get off Lizard'ssss lawn!"

Yup, the Lizard is here, and he's not here to make friends! Which he shows by attempting to give the Wasp a boulder to the face. The scene next shifts to Galactus's craft hovering over Battleworld. Last issue ended with Doctor Doom nosing around the craft and discovering something. Well, let's find out what he found shall we? Well, ol' Doom found a strange energy within the walls of the craft thanks to sensors within his armor. He managed to find a gizmo that would allow him to gather that energy up. And what was that strange energy?

"Uh, Scotty? I think you screwed up with the transporter..."

Ulysses Klaw, the Master of Sound. His return to solidity has left him a little bit on the loopy side. He started ranting about how he ended up in the mess he was in. In Dazzler #9 (November 1981), she had absorbed Klaw's body into her own. You see, Klaw's body is essentially solid sound, and Dazzler was a mutant whose body could absorb sound and convert it into light. In Dazzler #10 (December 1981), she blasted Galactus with a big light beam, which left Klaw trapped within Galactus's ship...and a bit loopy in the head.

Doom is completely uninterested in Klaw's comeback story, as he's looking for a way to conquer both the Eater of Worlds and the Beyonder. The Latverian dictator finds a monitor and learns that Galactus is almost finished with building the equipment he needs to convert Battleworld into the energy he feeds on to sustain himself.

Galactus needs to be delayed, but how? The heroes are too battered and beaten up, the X-Men and Magneto lack raw power, and the villains are listless without a strong leader. Doom has to take a subtle tack to make this happen. He needs to poison Galactus's well. The mad doctor has a plan, and uses Klaw as a messenger, beaming him down to the villains' HQ.

Back in the swamps, the Wasp realizes that the Lizard is posturing, as he didn't hit her with the boulder. He's being territorial. Basically, he's claimed the swamp has his turf, and he's in no mood for neighbors...or visitors. The superpowered fashion designer notices that the mutated scientist is visibly wounded, probably from the battle in issue 2. She tries to get him to let her help him out.

Back at Magneto's HQ, the X-Men are recovering from Galactus's attack. Xavier goes to rest, wishing he had brought his wheelchair with him. His legs are still quite a bit weak, as he hasn't used them regularly in a long time. He does fear that if he did, the X-Men would lose confidence in him as a leader. Why? It's not like Xavier being in a wheelchair would be a strange sight to them. He figures he'd better take the opportunity to do some telepathic reconnoitering.

His mental probes reach the villains, but the Enchantress is able to discover it. She magically seals her and the other villains' minds from him, but he may have already picked up what they're up to. He telepathically orders Cyclops to take Rogue and Wolverine to find out more and stop them if necessary. Storm is infuriated and goes to speak to Xavier.

"We're going to confront your pizza roll problem NOW, Charles!"

Storm is the leader of the X-Men, and she does not appreciate Xavier suddenly taking command. Xavier reminds her that her anger is causing the weather around the base to go crazy, delaying the team Xavier sent off. Storm's like "They can wait! We're settling this!" Xavier compares himself to an aged general: Experienced, but unable to lead in the field anymore. Storm points out that she is the field leader of the X-Men, and she should be the one actually leading the X-Men into battle. In her own words, "leave the war to the warriors". If Xavier has an issue with it, she's outta here.

Xavier basically threatens to mess with Storm's mind if she does so. Yeah, this whole thing with Xavier being a jerk, it's nothing new. It seems to be a thing with many Marvel writers over the years.

We next go to Zsaji's village. A recuperating Colossus watches Captain America and the other heroes helping to fix the village up. It leads him to wonder why there must be such mistrust between them and the X-Men. Uh, Piotr? The X-Men were the ones who decided to go off on their own. If they wanted to ease the mistrust so badly, why didn't you guys stick around and help the heroes out?!

Colossus's thoughts then drift to Kitty Pryde...or is it Zsaji? His emotions are in a bit of turmoil. He seems to be thinking of the alien healer more and more. Zsaji herself comes over and heals him up. He tries to confess his feelings to her, but the language barrier messes that up. She speaks no English or Russian, he speaks no...whatever her native language is called. Johnny Storm scoops her up in his arms, and they share a kiss in the air.

Johnny Storm hopes that kissing means the same thing in her world...

While this bit of drama was going down, the other heroes are cooking up a plan to stop Galactus. She-Hulk points out the Wasp is still missing. Cap responds that he has Monica Rambeau searching for her, and Janet is likely looking for them, too. She then suggests they go after Magneto for kidnapping her. Cap isn't worried about the Master of Magnetism at the moment, as he and the X-Men seem to be on their side...despite they're not being there to help right now. Yeah, there's Colossus, but he's on the injured list. Hulk then jumps in the argument by angrily smashing a rock.

We get some more character moments. Spider-Man spots Hawkeye making some new arrows, as Reed used all his hi-tech ones to help the heroes escape being crushed by mountain. Spidey tries to give the archer some sympathy, as he got his webshooters cannibalized, too. But Hawkeye points out that Spidey still has his powers. Hawkeye is merely...human.

Iron Man tries to chat up Monica Rambeau, but she's not in the mood for it. She wonders if there's a new man in the suit (She's unaware Jim Rhodes is in the suit), and Rhodes himself has a headache (Due to compatibility problems with the armor's neural interface at the time).

In a volcanic area of Battleworld, a craft touches down. Its occupants emerge: Doctor Octopus, Absorbing Man, Titania, an Molecule Man. They encounter Rogue, Cyclops, and Wolverine of the X-Men, and a battle breaks out. During the battle, Absorbing Man asks Titania out on a date. She agrees, but she calls the shots.

Wolverine tries to introduce the Molecule Man's spine to his claws. A horrified Cyclops blasts him away, but the Canucklehead is able to injure Owen Reece.

"Logan, you dope! You were supposed to claw his buttcheek!"

This forces the villains into retreat. The X-Men are left confused. Why were these villains in this desolate place? What could they possibly be after here? Scott guesses they were there to protect the Molecule Man.

Makes sense. Molecule Man is a guy who can manipulate molecules, which means he could do just about anything...including igniting those volcanoes. But why? It seems rather roundabout of Doom to ignite some volcanoes to deal with the X-Men themselves, or Cap's group...what if it was part of a plan to deal with Galactus? After all, he's just as much a threat to Doom as anyone else on the planet. Maybe that was the reason?

Cyclops fires an optic blast, which sets off one of the volcanoes...and then another. And another. And another. Nice job, Scotty! You just started a chain reaction. Time to RUN!

Meanwhile, in the swampland, the Wondrous Wasp has bandaged the Lizard's wound. I have no idea, she must have a first-aid kit somewhere on her. The Lizard thanks her for the help by saying how much he hates humans and that lizards should rule. You know pal, you could just say "Thank you" and be on your way. Wasp points this out and threatens to tell Gucci where he is. Hilariously, he actually apologizes. It makes no sense, but it's funny. Sadly, the fun doesn't last long.

"Oops! Sorry, I was aiming for a bird!"

Yup. Wasp gets a laser to the chest. She's dead. The Wasp is dead. A big red vehicle emerges, driven by the Wrecking Crew. Thunderball and Bulldozer come to collect the Lizard. They figure Doom wants more muscle. The Lizard is not very happy with their killing his friend, so he goes bananas on them. The Wrecker hits the area with a stasis beam, and it allows them to collect the chunk of swamp the Lizard stood on...and also letting them take Wasp's body with them as well.

"Doom is going to be so proud of us after we finish building his new condo!"

This vehicle is awesome. I want a Hot Wheels car based on this toy. How can this happen? We finally head to Zsaji's village. Galactus's device is nearly done, and the heroes are kind of stuck. Evidently, Cap's planning session did not quite work out. Reed wants one more chance to reason with the World-Eater. Meanwhile, the story ends with a mysterious figure watching them...

I admit, I'm rather positive about this issue. There were some parts I enjoyed. I thought the Wasp's interaction with the Lizard was rather humorous. I kind of wish we got to see them interact more in comics after this. I also wish that we did get to see more of her bonding with the Lizard a bit. Her getting blasted was quite a shock. Keep in mind, the closest we got to seeing a superhero actually die at this point was Colossus getting injured by beatdown...despite his being nearly indestructible in his metal form. Klaw's return was also a surprise. I liked how they used past continuity to explain it. It's something most Big Two writers don't do anymore, and that's sad.

I also liked the little character moments between Jim Rhodes and Monica Rambeau, as well as Spider-Man and Hawkeye. I wish we got those expanded a bit more.

I also liked the clash between Storm and Xavier. Evidently, Kitty Pryde was not being dramatic when she famously said that "Professor Xavier is a jerk", heh heh. Me thinks the Prof is feeling the need for some field action because he can walk again.

As for the art, Mike Zeck is back. Something I have noticed about the art is that it does look a little rushed. My scans come from a trade, so maybe it's just the reprinting causing details to be lost. Did the original art look better? I think it's fine, just looks a bit rushed.

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