Not very good, is it?

I don’t mean this as a backhand compliment, but Secret Wars is probably the best big Marvel crossover in recent memory. It’s a really great book that with an actually compelling story and character arcs that feel meaningful and earned. And at the end, it leaves an entirely new Marvel Universe that is pretty much exactly the same as the old Marvel Universe.

Another point in the book’s favor is Esad Ribic’s art. I love that he was penciler for the whole series and Ive Svorcina was the colorist for the whole series. That consistent look really make the series feel more meaningful and important. I especially love Svorcina’s colored-pencil style coloring and Ribic’s bugged out eyes.

The book really is a rip-roaring fun read that manages to walk a fine line of making it feel like this is just one portion of a huge complicated world without leaving you confused and wondering what the hell happened that you missed. This is frequently a problem with Hickman.

Issues two through four (and to a lesser extent issue one) have an immediacy to them that was very exciting. This take on Marvel (a What If wrapped in What The wrapped in Game of Thrones wrapped in Doom writing Doom fanfic) is fun and head spinning, and hits in a way Hickman always tries to do but doesn't always succeed at. In Issue 5, my interest waned at first, but in re-reads the later issues really work well. Hickman is packing a lot into these and I think they needed more attention that I was giving them.

The finale really sticks the landing, which is also rare for Hickman.

Mid-way through (I was reading this as the individual issues came out), I started reading the tie-ins on Marvel Unlimited. This probably helped give weight to the story when I re-read it leading up to issue 9. However, from a story & characterization perspective, only Siege and Thors are necessary. Most of the other tie-ins are essentially unrelated What If stories, although a few are adjacent to the main story.

3.5 stars! This was kind of a mess at first, but got better after the shaky exposition ended and we were finally on Battleworld. I can't say I'm driven to read any of the tie-ins, but I enjoyed figuring out how they got out of this mess.

A disappointing end to Hickman's ultimately disappointing run on The Avengers/Marvel Universe.

As the book was coming out, I read a large swath of the other Sercret Wars books, like Thors and The Marvel Zombies books, and Spider-Verse, etc. It was a fun time to be reading Marvel comics. And with the support of the smaller titles, the flagship Secret Wars book felt eventful. Every issue ended with a betrayal and a large action sequence.

But reading the book on its own, it's paced Very Poorly. The emotional focus of the book: that Doom was given the power of a God, shaped a universe to his whims, and made himself Reed Richards, going so far as to marry The Invisible Women and have Valeria and Franklin think he's their father, could be a fascinating story. Hickman just grazes the surface of that. Like he grazes the surface of Doom's power. Like he grazed the surface of his seventy-something issue lead up to this in Avengers and New Avengers. This run feels like a really in-depth outline to a story that he didn't have time to flesh out. But He Had Time. He was working on this for years.

The alternate universe character ideas, likewise, never get to be fun because they never have time to develop. For those stories, you have to go to the supporting books.

And in the end, this massive event that Changes Everything really only changed things for the months it was ongoing. At the end, things are pretty much back where they were. Sure, an Ultimate Universe character is now part of whatever they're callins Marvel 616. Yea, the Fantastic Four were gone for a while. And there's a Doom spoiler. But mostly, it's a return to status quo, just like every Marvel event for the last decade and a half.

It's a Big Shrug.

I don't recommend spending the time to read this, unless you also read some of the more intriguing Secret Wars books, which I'll be reading and reviewing now that I'm done with this project. Some of the art is interesting, but you really get the same emotional and logical understanding for this story by reading its Wikipedia entry as you do reading the entire book.

While Jonathan Hickman's ideas are usually too big, here its perfect. An enormous, worlds changing event that actually is about the rivalry between two old foes. The book would not be easy for new readers, I completely understand that. There are huge elements from both Hickman's runs on Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Without those, I would have had many many questions. However, I had read those and it was like all the pieces of the puzzle coming together. There were so many "Oh Bleep" moments here that weren't just shock deaths. Creativity is at an all-time high here. The art by Esad Ribic is fantastic. I love that he was able to complete the book on his own. Overall, a truly epic story that is now one of my favorite event comics.