Marvel’s Upcoming SECRET WARS Event Made Easy...I Think.
So incase you haven’t heard yet, Marvel is rebooting and reshaping its universe once again in the wake of their successful MARVEL NOW! and ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! campaigns. I suppose NEWEST NOW! just didn’t have a good ring to it. Enter Marvel’s SECRET WARS event beginning this May where the main Marvel Universe (arbitrarily referred to as the ‘616′ universe) and the ‘Ultimate’ universe collide and become one called “Battleworld”. Think of Battleworld as a Frankenstein’s monster kind of planet where realities collide making an all new universe with elements from Marvel’s entire history. And this should not be confused with SECRET WARS mini-series’ of the past where a random assortment of mutants ban together to save the world never to be thanked…ever.
My goal now is to make this all sound simple for those that don’t want to do hours of research and try and piece this all together for themselves. Ya know, like trying to explain THE TERMINATOR timeline to someone who’s never seen one of those films. Don’t ever try that by the way…
So here goes nothing.
-Starting in May 2015 the main 8-part SECRET WARS mini-series written by Jonathan Hickman begins (including a #0 issue that we will get on May 2nd for Free Comic Book Day). It’s appropriate that Hickman is in charge here seeing how he introduced the idea of worlds colliding in his excellent run on NEW AVENGERS. And it should be noted that SECRET WARS will release just after the events of the “Time Runs Out” story arc in AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS. So if you just want your bread and butter, stick with this main mini-series where all the big fun and fallout is likely to happen.
-Another mini-series to note deals with the “Ultimate” universe (established 15 years ago as a parallel, yet familiar, universe with the hopes of bringing in new readers) and will be called ULTIMATE END and will consist of 5 issues detailing the destruction of that universe as we know it. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley will take lead here which is amazing considering they started the whole “Ultimate” thing back in the day with ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1. Cool.
And in true Marvel fashion there will be an absolute crap load of mini-series tie-in books all with the label “Secret Wars” somewhere on the cover…ya know…so we’re not confused or anything. Sarcasm. These books will focus on different domains in the newly formed Battleworld that each represent a different reality that got saved from the previously destroyed 616 and Ultimate worlds. Some examples include X-MEN 92′ featuring our favorite mutants in there blue and gold costumes, the Mark Millar created ‘Old Man Logan’ universe, and Greenland revisiting the Planet Hulk storyline. These are just a few example of literally dozens that will be charging comic book shelves beginning in May. To get a great (and often updated) list of each domain and their potential spin-off book I HIGHLY recommend heading on over to Marvel.com and taking a look at the detailed map they created HERE. It should be noted that the tie-in books will all fall under one of three sub-titles; BATTLEWORLD concerning the new world as a whole, LAST DAYS detailing the end of the individual worlds/realities as we know them, and WARZONES focusing on single domains that each represent a specific reality as mentioned above.
Also a few of your favorite series will be changing titles forth e duration. THOR becomes THORS. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN becomes AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY becomes GUARDIANS OF KNOWHERE. GHOST RIDER becomes GHOST RACERS. See our list of Secret Wars corresponding titles.
So in a nutshell what is happening is that Marvel has decided to create a new single universe that will become the status quo for Marvel comics moving forward. The silver lining here is that whenever Marvel issues a revamp it comes with huge writing and artistic talent. And it seems whatever talent they do bring in will have a ton of creative freedom hopefully creating fun and compelling stories. It’s also a sneaky little way to get big players such as Wolverine, Miles Morales, Professor X, Jean Grey, Captain America, and many more back in action and back in the spotlight.
The final plan and overall fallout is still a bit unclear, but one thing to keep in mind is that once SECRET WARS #1 hits store shelves, the Marvel Universe (616) and Ultimate Universe are no more…there will just be Battleworld. This should be interesting.
Words by Jason Furie
Need to stay up-to-date on all your nerd news? Check out NEVER ENDING RADICAL DUDE for the latest in movies, games, tv, and comics with exclusive artwork, videos, and podcasts!