Secret Wars (2015 comic book)

• 1. Introduction

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  Secret Wars, the Marvel Comics crossover of 2015 and 2016, begins with a party at the end of everything. The Kingpin invites a room of villains to watch two universes collide. The celebration ends when the Punisher walks in and kills every guest. Elsewhere, the collision claims Black Bolt, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Black Widow, Spider-Woman and Beast, and Stark Tower is destroyed.

  A handful of heroes escape aboard a lifeboat built to survive the impact. Then a hull breach tears the ship in two. The half carrying the Invisible Woman, the Thing and most of the young Future Foundation is destroyed before Mister Fantastic can reach it. The world fades to white. Out of that white void appears the mask of Doctor Doom.

  When the white turns to black, the surviving lifeboat settles onto a planet nobody aboard recognizes. What is this place, and who made it? Why does a villain's mask appear at the moment of creation? The answers take nine issues, a ruler who calls himself a god, and a final confrontation between two old rivals.

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• 2. Building an Event

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  The storyline reached shops on the 6th of May 2015, and Marvel released two issues that month. Monthly issues followed until December. The core series came from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić. It borrowed its name from a miniseries of 1984-85, and it began exactly where the Avengers and New Avengers story "Time Runs Out" stopped.

  Marvel first planned eight issues, then stretched the plan to nine. A Free Comic Book Day issue numbered zero came before the first issue. The whole run lasted nine months.

  Hickman carried an older obligation into the project. He had written the Fantastic Four from 2009 through 2012. Marvel later cancelled that title because of a film rights dispute with 20th Century Fox. Secret Wars therefore doubled as the book's ending.

  Marvel's executive editor Tom Brevoort explained how the many tie-in books would be sorted under three banners. Last Days would follow figures from Captain America and Ms. Marvel to Loki and Magneto through their final adventures before their universe ended. Warzones would explore individual domains. Battleworld would handle the planet's overall workings. Together the banners made Secret Wars one of the most expansive crossovers to date.

  Many of these books revisited older Marvel sagas. Civil War, Age of Apocalypse and Armor Wars all returned. Days of Future Past was renamed Years of Future Past for the occasion. Al Ewing wrote Loki: Agent of Asgard for Last Days, while G. Willow Wilson wrote the Ms. Marvel chapters. Brian Michael Bendis and artist Andrea Sorrentino produced Old Man Logan, and Jason Aaron wrote Thors.

  One tie-in carried special weight. Ultimate End closed the Ultimate Marvel imprint after 15 years. Bendis wrote it and Mark Bagley drew it, the same pair who had launched that universe with Ultimate Spider-Man.

  The Warzones banner alone included Planet Hulk, Spider-Island and Secret Wars 2099, each one standing in for a world that had been destroyed.

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• 3. A Planet Stitched Together

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  Behind a giant wall called the Shield sit three domains that the rest of Battleworld must be protected from: the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar. Each holds a threat that could wipe out every other domain. The Deadlands hold zombies, Perfection holds Ultron drones, and New Xandar holds the creatures of the Annihilation Wave. A version of Thanos from another reality, who is trying to rebuild the Infinity Gauntlet, is also sealed away.

  God Emperor Doom, styled the Lord and Messiah of Battleworld, lets a Baron run each of the remaining domains. Every domain is the spot where one reality collided with another and was destroyed, because that spot is all that survives of it. Realities that came from the Ultimate Marvel and Marvel 2099 imprints, the Age of Apocalypse, Marvel 1602 and House of M all became territories this way. Each one is a pocket universe that keeps evolving on its own.

  The Thor Corps, made up of every alternate version of Thor, patrols the borders under Sheriff Strange. Anyone who crosses between domains is sent to work on the Shield. Anyone who breaks the rule in spectacular fashion is exiled over the wall into one of the three dangerous domains.

  Tony Stark turns up in many territories, and the Kingdom of Manhattan contains both his Earth-1610 and Earth-616 selves. Powers and personal histories in each domain differ vastly from the ones in the main Marvel universe.

  The sky is just as unusual. Only three heavenly bodies exist in this universe. The Human Torch hangs above as the sun, a role he accepted when Doom lifted him into the sky in the early days of Battleworld. This sun orbits Battleworld rather than the other way around. Knowhere circles the planet as its moon.

  For a long time no other stars appeared. Then Singularity, a young girl who embodies a pocket universe that gained sentience as the multiverse collapsed, gave her life to save the citizens of Arcadia from a horde of zombies. Her sacrifice brought stars back to the sky. The reality in which Battleworld was forged has since been labeled Earth-15513.

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• 4. Court of the World Tree

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  Issue two opens with a young Thor from the domain of Higher Avalon joining the Thor Corps. He recounts how God Emperor Doom created the Earth and the universe. With Old Thor, he then escorts Mister Sinister, the baron of Bar Sinister, to Castle Doom, where Doom holds court from a throne on the World Tree.

  Sinister stands accused of secretly siding with Baron Hyperion of Utopolis against Higher Avalon. He answers by choosing to fight his accuser, Brian Braddock, and wins. Doom steps in before Sinister can land a killing blow. To save his brother, Baron James Braddock confesses to crimes against Doom. Doom sends James to the Shield, and James jumps into the Deadlands, where he dies fighting zombies.

  Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Utopolis, Minister Alex Power is led to an object uncovered by an earthquake. It is the lifeboat from Earth-1610. Valeria tells Sheriff Strange that it is far older than the believed age of Earth. Strange orders the two Thors to quarantine the site. A Moloid digger accidentally opens the craft, and weapons thrown from inside kill Old Thor. The Cabal and the Maker step out, and a Moloid tells Thanos where they are.

  In issue three, Strange reports to Doom before a statue of the Molecule Man. The Thors leave to arrest the Cabal, and Strange then speaks to a stowaway. Miles Morales has been hiding aboard the raft since just before the incursion destroyed his planet. On the Isle of Agamotto, Strange explains Battleworld to him and reveals a second lifeboat.

  The Thor of Higher Avalon opens that vessel, and the survivors of Earth-616 leave stasis. Strange recognizes his fellow Illuminati members Black Panther and Mister Fantastic. He tells them they spent eight years in stasis and that Doom saved them when he created Battleworld.

  Issue four brings a wild boar version of Thor to Castle Doom with a report. Then the Thor Corps fight Thanos, the Cabal and the Maker in Utopolis. Strange arrives with the raft survivors, and Doom follows. Cyclops, powered by the Phoenix Force, briefly gains the upper hand. Doom recovers, snaps Cyclops' neck and demands surrender. Strange teleports the survivors to safety, and Doom kills him with a blast of energy.

  After the funeral, Doom walks alone into a hidden realm beneath the Doctor Strange statue.

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• 5. What the Molecule Man Knew

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  Below the Doctor Strange statue lives the real Molecule Man, and issue five finally explains where Battleworld came from. The Beyonders, the story says, began as the originators of reality. Over time they became harbingers of its destruction.

  The Molecule Man was unique across the multiverse. His presence in each reality was a sliver of one inter-dimensional entity. To end a given reality, the Beyonders detonated that reality's Molecule Man.

  Doom, Strange and the Earth-616 Molecule Man turned this method against its inventors. They gathered Molecule Men from across the multiverse and combined them into a bomb. They aimed it at the unsuspecting Beyonders, and the blast killed them. The Earth-616 Molecule Man absorbed the Beyonders' power and channeled it to Doom. Doom used it to create Battleworld, salvaging fragments of the Earths that were dying.

  On the surface, Valeria's Justice Division of the Future Foundation prepares to hunt both the Earth-616 heroes and the Cabal. The heroes land in separate places. Thor arrives in Doomgard, where the Thor Corps are based. Black Panther and Namor appear in Egyptia, Captain Marvel in Bar Sinister, and Black Swan in Doomstadt.

  The issue ends with Thanos standing at the base of the Shield.

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• 6. The Prophet's Rebellion

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  Three weeks later, according to issue six, Battleworld is in disarray. An army led by someone called the Prophet has toppled the upper and lower kingdoms of Egyptia. Doom sends his most loyal Barons against it: Mister Sinister, Maestro, Apocalypse and Madelyne Pryor. Of the Cabal, only Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive have been captured.

  Valeria has grown suspicious of her father. Mister Fantastic and the Maker send Spider-Man and Miles into Castle Doom to find the source of Doom's power. Valeria declines to leave with them but asks who killed Sheriff Strange. Peter confirms that no one from the raft did it. Beneath the Molecule Man's statue the two Spider-Men meet the real Molecule Man.

  Namor and Black Panther reach the Isle of Agamotto. The Key of Agamotto, given to them by Strange, opens his collection. It includes the Siege Courageous and an Infinity Gauntlet that works only in Doomstadt.

  Held by the Hel-Rangers, Thanos talks to the Shield itself, which turns out to be a sentient giant alternate version of Ben Grimm. Thanos convinces him to reject Doom, and the wall falls.

  In issue seven the Prophet is revealed to be Maximus. He marches on Castle Doom while Jane Foster persuades her fellow Thors to turn against their god. Sinister betrays Baroness Pryor but is struck down by the former Baron Apocalypse. The former Baron Maestro arrives with an army of Worldbreakers. The two Reed Richards use the chaos to slip inside and steal what Doom guards as the most valuable thing left from the Multiverse. Black Panther, as King of the Dead, persuades the zombies of the Deadlands to join the fight.

  Issue eight finds a Hulk crashing the ship carrying Mister Fantastic, the Maker and Star-Lord. Maestro calls Doom out, but the giant Ben Grimm meets him instead. Franklin arrives with Galactus and reveals that Doom is his father. Ben realizes Franklin is Susan's son and lets the boy-controlled Galactus destroy him rather than fight him. Star-Lord pricks a Groot toothpick into the World Tree, and it grows into a giant Groot.

  Doom offers Thanos the chance to become a Baron. Thanos refuses because he already believes himself a god, and Doom rips out his skeleton. Then Black Panther, carrying the Infinity Gauntlet, and Namor arrive to tell Doom his reign is over.

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• 7. Two Rivals

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  In issue nine, Susan does not recognize Mister Fantastic and accuses him of being a murderer of Sheriff Strange. He tells her the truth: Doom killed Strange. While Black Panther and Namor fight Doom, who now wields the Beyonders' power, Mister Fantastic and the Maker meet with the Molecule Man. The Maker betrays his counterpart by trapping him in a temporal bubble that devolves him into an ape. The Molecule Man rescues Mister Fantastic and splits the Maker into meat slices.

  Doom realizes the battle outside is a distraction and teleports to the Molecule Man's statue. There he finds that the Molecule Man has stripped most of his abilities, so that the duel with Mister Fantastic will be fair. Doom begins to win anyway. He mocks his rival for being a genius who never found a way to save the entire Multiverse.

  Mister Fantastic answers by naming Doom's insecurity. The first thing Doom did with the Beyonders' power was steal Mister Fantastic's life and family. Doom admits that Mister Fantastic would have done better with that power. Hearing this, the Molecule Man hands the Beyonders' power to Mister Fantastic, and Battleworld is destroyed.

  Black Panther uses the Reality Gem to recreate himself and teleport to Wakanda. There he finds the three Wakandan prodigies he spoke to in New Avengers issue one and asks them to grant wisdom to the stars.

  Miles Morales wakes on the restored Earth-616, now called Earth Prime, alongside his friends. His mother, Rio, has been brought back to life by the Molecule Man, who was grateful for a hamburger Miles gave him. His uncle Aaron has been restored as well. Still shaken, Miles goes on patrol with Peter as Spider-Man.

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• 8. Reception and Afterlives

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  Critics received the series warmly, praising its story, characters, action and art. According to the aggregator Comic Book Roundup, issue zero averaged 7.9 out of 10 across 5 reviews. Issue one scored 8.2 from 46 reviews, issue two 8.5 from 40, and issue three 8.6 from 34. Mat Elfring of Comic Vine wrote of issue zero, "If you're a Marvel fan, this book is a must have, for the SECRET WARS part."

  Jeremy Matcho of All-Comic wrote of issue one, "This is how an event should start." A reviewer called Chuck, writing about issue three, addressed an old criticism: "The slam on the original Secret Wars maxi-series was that the story was simplistic. You'll find no such complaints here."

  The story spread into video games. Marvel: Future Fight features Secret Wars versions of various characters as playable or non-playable figures. Spider-Man Unlimited includes characters from both the Secret Wars and Spider-Island versions. Marvel: Avengers Alliance built incursions into its gameplay and plots. God Emperor Doom serves as the final boss in the Expansion Pass of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order.

  Marvel Realm of Champions takes place on a patchwork Battleworld divided into Houses ruled by Barons. Marvel Future Revolution adapts the story most directly. Colliding Earths destroy each other in a process the game calls Convergence. When the heroes of one Earth fail to save it, Vision sacrifices himself to merge several Earths peacefully into a single Primary Earth.

  Incursions also appear on film. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Doctor Strange and an alternate-world Christine Palmer visit an Earth affected by one. At the end, Clea of the Dark Dimension tells Strange that his actions have caused another incursion, and he follows her into the Dark Dimension.

  In July 2022 at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige announced a film called Avengers: Secret Wars as part of Phase Six. It was first dated for the 1st of May 2026. In June 2023 it moved to the 7th of May 2027. At Comic-Con in 2024, Feige announced that Avengers: Doomsday would come first, with Anthony and Joe Russo returning to direct after Avengers: Endgame. After a delay announced in May 2025, Doomsday stood at the 18th of December 2026 and Secret Wars at the 17th of December 2027.

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