Well everyone, Secret Wars is FINALLY over, only a mere three months after it was scheduled
to end after countless delays and an additional issue produced to wrap
everything up and by now the All New All Different Marvel lines are well
underway. But before we take a look at
those series, I wanted to take a look back at all the Battleworld series that I
had the chance to read and give some thoughts on each series as a whole. I do have to warn whoever reads this,
however, that there will be varying degrees of spoilers in this post. I won’t give away the endings or any big act
three twists but in order to properly talk about why some of these books do or
don’t work some things that happen later in the series needs to be addressed. So strap into your seats folks because this
is going to be a long one. These are my
thoughts on the Battleworld Series.
Secret Wars
I’ve gone over my distain of this
series quite a few times but I do feel that some it bears repeating if for no
other reason than maybe, just maybe, the writers will take their heads out of
their asses and acknowledge that they screwed this one up and use it as a model
for how not to do an event comic. Yes,
the art is great. Yes, Issues 1, 2, and
9 are legitimately good and the covers by Alex Ross are some of the best
artwork that I’ve ever seen for a superhero comic. But this just doesn’t make up for the slog
that was Issues 3 through 8, where actual storytelling and character development
took a complete backseat to issue upon issue of exposition for exposition’s
sake with no real plot or pacing that just decides to skip ahead a few months
to the climax where people are rebelling against Doom for undefined reasons and
where the Cabal that survived the destruction of the Ultimate Universe is
working with the survivors of the main Marvel Universe for, again, undefined
reasons. Beyond that, there really isn’t
much to say without digging deeper into each individual issue and pointing out
everything that is wrong with it but that’s a series of post for another
day. It’s just a poorly written mess
that completely botched what was a pretty good concept and is ultimately a poor
way to start the new Marvel Multiverse.
Thank God the actual series resulting from this are on the whole pretty
good.
Verdict
Burn
Future Imperfect
A reoccurring thing you’re probably
going to read in this post is that “this series started out really good but was
undercut by a non-existent second act or a third act that had been almost
completely cut out or both” and the Future
Imperfect series is easily the obvious example of the latter. The storyline in question takes place in a
Battleworld territory where a third World War has more or less wiped out all of
the major superheroes save for the Hulk, who now rules over his own city as a
brutal dictator and calls himself The Maestro as a resistance force attempts
liberate the city from his tyrannical rule.
At the start of the story, The Maestro is able to infiltrate the rebel’s
base, take down many of its soldiers before encountering its leader; General
Thunderbolt Ross who had been transformed into The Thing. After a fight where the two cause a good
amount of destruction to the city, the two decided to join forces in order to
find a secret weapon that will give the Maestro the power to overthrow God Doom
and allow him to become the ruler of Battleworld
The premise is, as you read, very
solid and offered up all kinds of possibilities. Would the two bitter old enemies be able to
keep their cool in order to achieve a common goal? Would Ross be able keep control over his
resistance army given his new partnership with The Maestro? Does the Maestro really intend to honor his
end of the deal when/if he has defeated Doom?
Will this secret weapon actually allow him the power to defeat a man who
literally has the power of the Beyonders at his disposal? Unfortunately none of these things are
brought up or satisfyingly explored. You
have a few throwaway lines where some of Ross’s men question the wisdom of
working with The Maestro and Ross himself making it clear that they aren’t
friends but the whole thing just plays out like a treasure hunt road trip where
at the end of each point on the map they have to fight a boss before reaching
the final prize, lacking any real character development or elaborate
storytelling that might have made this endeavor more interesting. A lot of this has to do with the length of
the story. It’s very clear that this
story was intended to be a much longer one and if I had to guess a lot of the
questions I just brought up were probably plot points in the original drafts
but were ultimately cut due to the restraints everyone had to put up with for a
five issue series.
Ultimately the comic is not poorly
written or drawn by any means. The
twists are very well done, the initial world building is fantastic and the art
work is nothing short of incredible but you do get the feeling that a lot is
missing and when the series ended I found myself thinking about how great it
could have been if it was allowed two or three more issues to flesh out its
story a bit more. As it is, the story is
just okay and worth reading if you’re in-between issues but I wouldn’t exactly
go out and hunt down every issue for it.
Verdict
Browse
Secret Wars: Battleworld and Secret Wars
Journal
There really isn’t a whole lot to
say about these two series as they are both anthology comics that’s quality in
both writing and artwork vary from story to story. It’s worth reading for the good stuff and you
will always get a good story out of it one way or another.
Verdict
Read
Thors
What do you get when you have
various Thors of parallel dimensions working as cops trying to solve a murder
mystery? An otherwise pretty solid comic
that was only bogged down by things that was out of the creative team’s
control. The story in question follows a
number of Thors, mainly Ultimate Thor and Thor the Unworthy, (the Thor of the
main Marvel Universe who lost his ability to hold his hammer), as they attempt
to solve the murder of a number of women who all happen to be the same person
over the various dimensions. What
follows is a solid murder mystery full of twists, betrayals, red herrings, and
a surprisingly deep reasoning behind the murders, all backed by solid artwork
that is visually appealing, drawing upon inspirations from both Film Noir and
the more traditional Asgardian aesthetics of the comics.
If Thors is the victim of anything, it’s
the victim of a release date that was obviously meant to run parallel with that
of Secret Wars and was constantly
delayed as a result, killing a lot of the series’ thunder, (no pun intended). It’s not at all helped by the fact that the
second half of the last issue literally ties into Issue #7 of Secret Wars and seems to do so out of
the blue without any real build up to it.
In the end, despite
its release problem, it’s a solid comic.
The mystery is good, the interactions between the Thors is solid, all
the characters have real depth to them and is backed by very solid artwork and
I recommend giving it a read.
Verdict
Read
Deadpool’s Secret Wars
Out of all the Battleworld Series,
this one was the most surprising, especially given that the premise of the
series wasn’t all that appealing to me.
As I’ve stated before, I wasn’t that big of a fan of the original Secret Wars and to be honest Deadpool
has never been all that appealing to me as he comes off more as that annoying
friend everyone seems to have who constantly makes bad puns and pop culture
references to the point that you want to smack him. But, surprisingly, it works in this series.
Taking place during the original Secret Wars, this series focuses on
Deadpool as the main protagonist as he fights, puns, and sleeps his way through
the highlights of the Secret Wars
series, offering new twists and perceptions as to what happened in the
crossover event. Beyond that, however,
there really isn’t a whole lot to say about it.
The art work is really good and is vastly superior to the original while
staying true to its original designs and the humor is fantastic with every pun
hitting at just the right moment with the art work to complement it. It’s a ton of fun and I could not recommend
it highly enough. Give it a read.
Verdict
Read
Old Man Logan
Oh dear lord, this comic. If there was one enormous disappointment in
the Battleworld series, it was easily the Old
Man Logan series. Apparently taking
place after the events of the original Old
Man Logan story arc by Mark Millar the series started off promising when it
seemed to follow up on the events from that fantastic story. But then he discovers a head of an Ultron
unit and then the thing turns into a road trip comic as he travels through the
various realms of Battleworld. Unfortunately,
that’s really all it is. Wolverine gets
thrown from one realm to the next, enouncing various versions of characters in
the Marvel Universe that either want to kill him, imprison him or tell him that
he is destined for some bigger journey, all the while just kind of taking
everything in with an indifferent disposition.
I get the impression that this was
intended to be a road trip story of self-discover for Wolverine; where he
finally lets go of the horrible things that he did before the events of the
original Old Man Logan arc as well as
discovering more of Battleworld’s secrets and the fact that he has a greater journey
ahead of him. This all good in concept
but it forgets that this was quite literally his entire arc in the original
story making everything that happened in this story feel redundant and repetitive. It also doesn’t help at all that the comic
itself doesn’t really have much in the way of a story arc. At the start of Issue #2, he’s wondering
around the various realms of Battleworld without any real purpose and that’s
how it ends as well. There aren’t any reoccurring
antagonists, plot points or supporting characters to help Wolverine along the
way, making the entire series, quite literally, a plot-less road trip full of
characters that we encounter once and are never mentioned again.
It’s not at all helped by the fact
that the artwork is an eyesore. I
generally try not to call out particular styles of art as negatives, (different
strokes for different folks), but this one just asks for it. While the artwork does do its job of keeping
events in a coherent order, the art itself can only be described as distorted. It tends to change from setting to setting,
(kudos on creativity on that), but each time the images on display are always distorted,
with the earlier issues containing artwork that appear as if a constant
sandstorm is going on, covering all the images and issues towards the end only
using yellow, red, white and black in very strange ways to color the images
that makes everything appear as if it were a dream sequence or something. It’s not something that I would necessarily
call bad but it seems inappropriate for this series, especially how the art
style contradicts the other series where these characters appear.
In the end, Old Man Logan was easily the most disappointing series of the
Battleworld Series and by the time it was half way through the idea of reading
it was one that filled me with a depressed resignation. The story never went anywhere. Wolverine
didn’t seem to be all that phased by the adventure when all was said and done
and the artwork was just an eyesore. Ordinarily
it could easily be written off as a disposable Wolverine story but the fact
that they had to make this a continuation of an otherwise great storyline makes
it all the more insulting. I am
interested in seeing what they have in-store for this character in the new
Marvel universe, but this series is only meant for kindling.
Verdict
Burn
Planet Hulk
This is a series that is perfectly
acceptable for what is, even if it doesn’t aspire to be much. The story follows a version of Captain
America as he travels through a Battleworld Zone known as Greenland with his
faithful T-Red companion, Devil and a Hulk creature known as Doc Green, as he
attempts to rescue his friend Bucky from a Greenland ruler known as The Red
King. What follows is a perfectly
serviceable road trip comic where the three encounter and fight their way
through various creatures, Captain and Doc argue about morality and ultimately
arrive at the main fortress of The Red King where a few twists are revealed,
(some more predictable then others), and the fates of our main characters are ultimately
decided. As I said, it’s perfectly
acceptable for what it is. The artwork
is good, you find yourself invested in the main characters’ struggle, and it
ends on appropriately bittersweet note.
I say give it a read if you have nothing else better to do but don’t
expect the next Watchmen out of it.
Verdict
Browse
Spider-Verse
Oh dear lord. Aside from the awful artwork I really don’t
have anything to say on this series. It
has a good setup to what could have been a potentially great series but seemed
content to just have the characters mull around discussing their shared memory
problems while other characters went back and forth from being bad guys to
questionable allies to bad guys again all the while supported by the laziest
artwork I’ve ever seen in a modern mainstream comic. Don’t waste your time with it and I refuse to
waste any more of mine on it.
Verdict
Burn
The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows
It’s good. Read it.
It has fantastic artwork, knows how to play the family angle in all the
right ways, shows why Peter being married, having a child and being is probably
not a good idea and gives us an interesting new villain for our main characters
to fight. Check it out. It’s a fun book.
Verdict
Read
Armor Wars
Now here is yet another a comic that
had a fantastic setup but couldn’t quite follow up on it due to it being a five
issue miniseries. The story takes place in
the city of Technopolis; a massively polluted city where people can only
survive by staying in Iron Man suites where Tony Stark himself rules and
follows a series of events that were caused by the murder of this world’s
Spider-Man. At first it seems like it’s
going to be a story of corporate espionage instead of the traditional Heroes
V.S. Villains story but sadly this isn’t the case. Talking about it at length is unfortunately
not possible because the series is built around twists that start roughly
halfway through the story and continue on until the end but I can say that
while the twists are good, they ultimately can’t help but undercut the promise
of the initial setup. The artwork is appropriate
and serviceable, given the setup of the city, but it can’t help but feel
overdesigned, yet still somehow fails to leave the reader with anything all
that interesting to look at outside of the novelty of seeing Wilson Fisk and a
Thor powered Rhodey running around in Iron Man armor. Still, when all is said and done, it’s
certainly not a bad series and I say take a look if you have some spare time,
provided that you can ignore just how much better it could have been.
Verdict
Browse
Civil War
Aside from Old Man Logan and Secret Wars
itself, this was the series that clearly had the most promise to it but only
succeeded in being one of its biggest disappointments. The premise is simple. The Marvel Civil War continued but rather than
actually being about a civil war between the various super heroes led by
Captain America and Tony Stark, the series instead decides to be about Tony investigating
an assassination on a woman who was determined to bring about peace between the
two while Steve begins preparations for an all-out attack on Tony’s forces. The problem is that the whole thing feels
like the ending to a much more interesting story. Throughout it, they talk about an ongoing war
that essentially split the country in half, with Stark gaining the eastern
parts of the U.S. while Rogers gained the western half all the while with Tony
convincing the other nations of the world to view Captain America’s west as a
rouge state and refuse to trade with them.
And to me that sounds like a much more interesting story then
discovering who offed the peace ambassador at the tail end of the war. Even ignoring all of that, the story itself
isn’t terribly interesting, featuring a plot that consists of only said war preparations
on Rogers’s side and a subpar mystery on Stark’s side that has such a
lackluster payoff that you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes in indifference
at.
In the end it’s certainly not the
worst story that I’ve read in the various Battleworld series but it was one
that simply failed to register any type of emotional response from me, and to
be honest, that easily the worst thing any kind of art can do.
Verdict
Ignore
Years of Future Past
And finally we have Years of Future Past, a comic with a
premise so overused that I’m genuinely shocked that anyone even bothered to use
it in 2015. The premise is essentially
that President Kelly, a human antagonist of the X-Men, has turned the world
into that of Days of Future Past,
minus the Sentinels ruling everything, and the older mutants plan on using the
younger ones as a means to turn popular opinion, (and perhaps Kelly’s) towards
the idea that not all mutants are bad while the sentinels continue to hunt them
and other rouge mutants. The key problem
with this series is that it’s essentially using a setting that has been used
far too many times over the past thirty years and fails to stand out from the
crowd, lacking the time traveling intrigue of the original Days of Future Past and Terminator
franchise and fails to portray an interesting war between the Sentinels and
mutants. In truth, there is probably
more to say about this comic but in all honesty, I can barely remember a thing
about it so I can’t imagine it’s really worth your time either.
Verdict
Ignore
And that wraps up my thoughts on the
various Battleworld series. Some were
good, some were bad, some were great but a lot of them simply felt
pointless. I get the impression that if
these series had been allowed to last a few more issues they could have been
truly great stories in their own right as opposed to being simply okay ones. As it stands, the new All New Marvel universe
is now in full swing and so far the lineup has been impressive. While I’m not sure that Marvel really needed
to do this whole Secret Wars thing to
reboot their universe, (as it stands, most of the series are virtually
unchanged), the good series were more than worth my time and made the whole
thing worthwhile and I despite their apparent redundancy, I still recommend
that you give them a read.
So until next time, please be sure
to follow the site, like the Facebook page, and follow me on twitter. Until then, let’s hope that the future of
Marvel remains bright.
