Secret Wars (1984) was the first big crossover event to affect an entire comic universe, beating DC Comics' Crisis On Infinite Earths by a year. Whereas Crisis was born out of a desire to simplify the DC Universe, Secret Wars was created - initially at least - to sell toys.
In 1983, Mattel approached Marvel to create a comic series that would feature a large cast of Marvel characters, so they could launch a new toy line off the back of it. They'd already had a huge hit with their Masters of the Universe toys, but since their rivals in the toy industry, Kenner, had licensed DC's characters for a toy line, Mattel decided it would be a good idea to license Marvel's characters.
Initially, series editor Tom DeFalco was reluctant to launch a stand-alone series, and when he finally came round to the idea, he wanted it to be called simply, "Marvel Super Heroes." However, Mattel's marketing department had decided that the words, "secret" and "wars" tested well with their target market, and so "Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars" was born.
Jim Shooter decided to write the series because, "Marvel's writers at the time, some of the best in the business, were, to a person, very possessive about the characters they were writing. It led to some intense rivalries and bitter arguments regarding crossovers and guest appearances. Allowing any one of the writers to handle pretty much everyone else's characters in Secret Wars would have led to bloodshed! So, I wrote it."
As for Mattel's input, it was minimal at best - they just asked Marvel to do a big publishing event in order to raise the profile of the characters they were licensing, as they felt that some of Marvel's characters were less well-known to the general public than DC's more iconic characters. They also wanted a few vehicles and fortresses to be included, in order to sell higher price play sets to be used with the action figures, but in terms of the design of those things, according to Shooter, "Mattel didn't ask to see anything, and I never sent them anything." This was confirmed by the artist on the series, Mike Zeck; "I saw no indication that Mattel was involved with the direction of the comics. If they were, it was news to me."
Indeed, Mattel's vehicles and fortresses bore no resemblance to the ones that appeared in the comics. What's more, some of the characters they chose didn't even appear in the comic series, such as Daredevil or The Falcon. The reason for that is that Mattel only had a limited number of body casts available. Therefore, any character whose costume didn't conform to one of those body shapes couldn't be included in Mattel's range of action figures. So for instance, any larger character like Hulk or The Thing was not included (in fact, none of the Fantastic Four were included) and characters such as Magneto and Doctor Doom lost their capes.
In fact, one of the few requests Mattel made was for Doctor Doom to get a new costume, as they felt that his outfit was "too medieval." It's more likely that his tunic didn't conform to one of the body casts they had available, but nonetheless, it was worked into the series that Doom got a new, more high-tech appearance as of Secret Wars #10.
"THE ULTIMATE 12-ISSUE LIMITED SERIES"
In late 1983, it started to become clear that something big was about to happen in the Marvel Universe. In Avengers #240, Vision detected a huge energy flux; in Amazing Spider-Man #249, Peter Parker experienced an intense buzz from his spider-sense, warning him of a danger that just as suddenly vanished; in Fantastic Four #264, Reed Richards detected an "unidentified energy glitch", which he traced to Central Park. There were many other occurrences throughout Marvel's various titles teasing a huge event.
Then, in the January 1984 issues of many of Marvel's titles, the heroes were depicted entering a huge stadium-like structure that appeared in the Sheep Meadow in Central Park, whereupon it - and they - vanished.
A photo of the Sheep Meadow I took on a visit to New York in 2022.
That same month, the first issue of Secret Wars was published, showing a huge cast of Marvel superheroes - and villains - inside the arenas which they'd entered earlier, only now those structures were floating in space. Before their eyes, a patchwork planet was created, then a rift in space appeared and a voice from beyond spoke, telling the heroes and villains, "slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours!"
The story that played out over the next 12 issues featured battles between the heroes and villains with ever-increasing stakes, and plenty of character moments to keep things interesting.
However, despite Jim Shooter's unique position in having access to information about his entire comic line, there were some odd inconsistencies with regards to the ongoing continuity in the Marvel Universe. For instance, Cyclops appeared alongside the X-Men, despite the fact that he'd retired from the team and was currently supposed to be on his honeymoon; Professor Xavier appeared in his wheelchair, despite the fact that he'd recently regained the use of his legs; Doctor Doom was alive and well, even though he'd recently "died" in the pages of Fantastic Four. Shooter was clearly catching up with things as the story progressed, and in Secret Wars #2, he attempted to provide a catch-all explanation for the inconsistencies.
The artwork for the series, by Mike Zeck (with two fill-in issues by Bob Layton) is not Zeck's best work. Zeck had previously worked on titles such as Shang-Chi and Captain America, books that didn't have a big cast, and told more intimate, small-scale stories. According to Jim Shooter, Zeck struggled with scenes that portrayed the grand, cosmic scale that Shooter wanted, and drawing a large number of characters was a lot of work, particularly with such tight deadlines. The situation was exacerbated by Shooter demanding frequent changes, and he eventually started providing breakdowns (page layouts illustrating what he wanted in each panel with the use of crude stick figures) for Zeck to work from.
The inking is credited to John Beatty throughout, but there are obvious differences to the finishes in places, with identifiable inking by among others, John Romita, Joe Rubinstein, Mike Esposito and Arthur Adams.
REACTION
Secret Wars is often dismissed - even ridiculed - by longtime comic fans. I must confess I'm not one of those fans. Having just read it again, I think it holds up well as an entertaining blockbuster event. Of course, there are many valid criticisms of it - some of the characterisation is a bit off, particularly of the female characters such as the Wasp, who'd long since outgrown the airheadedness on display here.
And occasionally, things happen for no good reason, such as the sudden appearance of a new Spider-Woman - Shooter's in-story reason behind it is that one of the "patches" that make up the Battleworld on which our heroes find themselves was a suburb of Denver that the Beyonder stole. The real reason was that Mattel felt that there weren't enough female characters in the cast, so Shooter also had Doctor Doom create two new female villains, Volcana and Titania. Despite wanting more female characters, though, Mattel never produced a single female action figure.
Equally, though, there are some great moments in the mini-series - in Secret Wars #4, the Molecule Man lifts an entire mountain range and drops it on the heroes. They're saved by the Hulk, who braces it until they can find a way out.
When Doctor Doom steals Galactus' cosmic energies in Secret Wars #10, for a moment he's overwhelmed by the vast power he commands, and inadvertently starts to reshape the world around him in his own image.
Overall, the series makes for an enjoyable read, despite its flaws.
WAR IS OVER
At the end of the series, the heroes and villains were all returned to earth, and the events that took place in the Secret Wars affected them to varying degrees:
- The Thing decided to remain on Battleworld because he'd discovered that he could change back and forth to his human form there. He was replaced in the Fantastic Four by She-Hulk.
- Colossus of the X-Men broke off his budding romance with Kitty Pryde because he had fallen in love with the alien healer, Zsaji, whilst on Battleworld. Ultimately, Zsaji had died in his arms.
- Titania became a regular foe for She-Hulk.
- The Hulk returned with his leg in a mechanical brace, having been blasted by Ultron in the midst of battle. It would hasten his return to the savage Hulk persona, having had Bruce Banner's intellect before Secret Wars began.
The biggest change, though, was undoubtedly Spider-Man's black costume. In Secret Wars #8, Spider-Man's costume is damaged in battle. Later, he sees Thor come out of a room in the heroes' fortress with a newly repaired helmet and costume. Thor tells Spider-Man that there's a machine that produces any sort of clothing if you "think into it." Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, he uses a different machine and it produces a black sphere which then expands to cover his body.
The idea to give Spider-Man a black costume had begun in 1982, with a Marvel fan by the name of Randy Schueller. He'd sent a letter to Marvel pitching an idea for a story where Reed Richards designs a more stealthy costume for Spider-Man to use at night. Jim Shooter had liked the idea enough to pay Schueller $220 for it. According to Spider-Man editor, Tom DeFalco, "Shooter told me he liked the concept of a new costume, but the actual story didn't work. Since we'd already paid for it, it was my job to work with the writer and make it into a real story. I worked with the guy for months, trying to help him craft what would have essentially been a simple, one-issue story. In the course of the story, Spider-Man would change his costume, run around in his new one for a while, and by the end he would be back to his original costume. After months of working with the writer, I realized it was just not going to happen."
The idea was shelved, but then Shooter decided to use it in Secret Wars. Mike Zeck drew the original design, which was later refined by Ron Frenz and Rick Leonardi.
Marvel teased the new costume as early as November 1983 in various publications, and had already started to receive hate mail from fans, outraged that Spider-Man's classic costume was going to be replaced. Shooter asked Tom DeFalco which issue of Spider-Man the new costume would debut in and DeFalco told him it would be in #252. "Get rid of it in #253," said Shooter.
DeFalco was reluctant to do so because it would still be another seven months before Spider-Man would get the costume in Secret Wars #8; "We have to introduce it before we get rid of it!" He persuaded Shooter to let him keep the costume until then, much to the chagrin of new Spider-Man artist, Ron Frenz; "You've got to be kidding me! I waited all my life, since the age of eight, to draw Spider-Man, and now he's got a new suit??"
When Amazing Spider-Man #252 hit the shelves, it was a hit. The new costume received a huge amount of publicity in the press, and renewed interest in Spider-Man saw sales increase significantly, pushing it through the 300,000 mark for the first time in years.
Ultimately, of course, the costume was revealed to be an alien symbiote who would go on to be one of Spider-Man's greatest foes, Venom, eventually spawning his own movie trilogy, which has taken nearly $2 billion at the worldwide boxoffice. Not bad for a fee of $220...
LEGACY
Despite some fans' reservations about the quality of Secret Wars, it sold phenomenally well. At a time when Marvel's best-selling title, Uncanny X-Men, was selling around 400,000 copies a month, Secret Wars sold nearly a million. Clearly, it was reaching beyond the usual comic audience, and according to Mike Zeck, "I always hear from fans at conventions that it was "Secret Wars" that prompted them to start reading comics. That’s very gratifying."
Of course, the downside of Secret Wars' success was that Marvel wanted to repeat that financial windfall. At a Baltimore comic retailer summit, Marvel's Direct Sales Manager, Carole Kalish was met with a chorus of boos when she announced that there'd be a sequel; "Let's be honest, Secret Wars was crap, right? But did it sell? Well, get ready for Secret Wars 2!" The boos were replaced with cheers.
Thereafter, the big crossover event became an annual mainstay for Marvel Comics, to varying degrees of success. Personally, none of them have come close to generating the same degree of excitement that Secret Wars did, and none of them were incorporated into the ongoing continuity quite as elegantly. Secret Wars didn't derail ongoing storylines in the same way that big events have a tendency to do nowadays - in one issue, the heroes disappeared, the next they were back (in fact, the Fantastic Four - minus a pregnant Sue Richards - disappeared and reappeared in the same issue.) Yes, some things may have changed while they were away, but that just added to the fun of it - you weren't required to buy every crossover in order to piece together the whole story, and it didn't hijack the books it affected for months on end.
Despite the fact that Secret Wars changed the landscape of mainstream comics, Mattel's toy line wasn't so successful. The company posted a $400 million loss in 1984, and was only kept afloat by an injection of funds from investment bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert. The Secret Wars toy line was discontinued in 1985.
Acknowledgements
For the writing of this article, I drew from a number of online and print articles, as follows:
American Comic Book Chronicles 1989-89 by Keith Dallas, published by Twomorrows Publishing
Marvel Comics The Untold Story by Sean Howe published by Harper Collins
Black & White & Read All Over: The Spider-Man Extreme Makeover by Dan Johnson from Back Issue #12 published by TwoMorrows Publishing
The Toy Box: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars by John K. Kirk from Back Issue #82 published by TwoMorrows Publishing
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