Scan barcode
A review by crookedtreehouse
Secret Wars by
2.0
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.
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.