Well, someone had to say it:
Secret Wars stinks! I just read this through for the first time, so I’d understand Illuminati #3 before I read it. I wish I hadn’t because it’s dullenned the whole experience for me. The SW series is so badly conceived and written I find it ridiculous that it’s remained such a reference point for so long.
Characters are written lifelessly and carelessly (bringing Kang back to life to send him out of the book IN THE NEXT PANEL is the one that took the biscuit for me. Well, that and the entire cast dying one issue and being revived off-panel in the next). There’s about six issues where nothing really happens (there are fights but nothing’s really achieved). There are a few seemingly random changes at the end (which I presume were to match it up with promotional continuity, but what’s the point if none of it really has any bearing on the story itself? They just feel completely tacked-on), and I’m not actually sure there was really a story being told (if there was, I don’t think it made any sense). I’m not letting it off on its datedness either; I’ve read much older stories that had a thousand times the charm this stinker does. Hawkeye does nothing but whine for most of the series about how he doesn’t have any arrows. And honestly what was the point of introducing the then-new Spider-Woman? She didn’t do ANYTHING!!!
Mike Zeck’s artwork is good and capable but it really doesn’t carry the book on its own. There are a few decent ideas but they’re few and far between and I suspect the few decent bits of scenes were cribbed from elsewhere.
Sorry that’s just a massive rant but I feel really ripped off after being oversold on this story, and don’t want anyone else to waste their time like I did. I certainly won’t bother with the sequel. Back to Y the Last Man I go I go…
Thanks, Tom Daylight of the Bendis Board.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:25 am
secret wars or secret war? maybe thats why he was confused.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am
not that i’ve read either, btw.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I think Secret Wars is the story that added the Black Suit to Spider-Man in order to eventually create Venom, a character that added much needed depth to Spider-Man’s heroic life.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:57 am
My feeling at the time was that Secret Wars was essentially a kick-off for the toys that spun out of the story…and not much more than that (the Tower of Doom, the Freedom Fighter, Star Dart Glider, etc, etc).
June 5th, 2007 at 10:00 am
“There’s about six issues where nothing really happens (there are fights but nothing’s really achieved). There are a few seemingly random changes at the end (which I presume were to match it up with promotional continuity, but what’s the point if none of it really has any bearing on the story itself? They just feel completely tacked-on), and I’m not actually sure there was really a story being told (if there was, I don’t think it made any sense). ”
Sounds like a pretty accurate review of Civil War to me
June 5th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Truth be told, I’ve never been a big fan of Secret Wars. DC definitely got the event comic down before Marvel did with stuff like the first Crisis, though I enjoyed the X-Men crossovers of the 80′s and then a lot of the maligned Marvel events of the 90′s.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:12 am
But.. but… the Hulk held up a MOUNTAIN! And Spider-Man humiliating the X-Men! And Galactus getting his butt kicked by an inanimate voice! And it has the funniest moment involving paddy-cake ever!
Yeah it’s not that good. Marvel really needs to avoid the “War” events in general because they’ve never been great. The line usually seems to improve but the events themselves have been less than good.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I never understood the success of Secret Wars. That success probably encouraged Jim Shooter to continue on with his winning ways into Valiant comics.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:21 am
War is to Crisis as Marvel is to DC. Discuss.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Secret Wars is a comic book that read great when you were 8 years old and having tons of superheroes and villans on the same page was the ultimate in cool superhero comics. My inner 8-year-old still enjoys looking at those panels in the first issue where the Beyonder is setting the ground rules for the big fight.
There is no depth to Secret Wars. There is no great story that Jim Shooter was dying to tell. It’s 12 issues of superpowered characters smacking each other around for the most thinly justified reasons, done to promote a line of action figures. It’s like Contest of Champions without the high concept.
I say these things out of love – I still break out the issues periodically and read through them to quiet down my inner 8-year-old – but I’d barely call the thing a “story”. It’s more like an action movie where the director had the beginning and ending in mind a a bunch of action sequences he wanted to do and then came up with some dialogue to string them altogether. I’m kind of surprised that Marvel hasn’t done an “Ultimate Secret War” drawn in “widescreen” form – it would be a great fit for the line, actually.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Nothing new under the sun. People have been criticizing Secret Wars ever since it was first published!
Like most crossovers, it was contrived and quite a bit stupid. Shooter could do (and has done) much better!
But I liked it the first time I read, when I was 8 or 9. So it has SOME merit!
Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)
June 5th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
“War is to Crisis as Marvel is to DC. Discuss.”
Secret Wars I was inane but kind of fun. Crisis was just an awful, horribly stupid and boring mess. I’d say it was even worse than Secret Wars II.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I miss the Rampage…
June 5th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
damn… a couple days ago i wrote a small piece on secret wars and pretty much said i liked it better then crisis on infite earths and that it was one of my favorite comics. i love secret wars.