Secret Wars (2015) [Marvel]

[The Twilight Mexican]

A good recap of everything leading up to this week.

It's decent over all. It has a few quibbly details wrong, though --

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-Steve was the leader of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Avengers, not Sue. She was answering to him (while secretly playing double agent for the Illuminati while Steve hunted them)

-Hank Pym was sent out into the multiverse to discover an explanation for what was going on even before "Infinity" took place. It just took him a really long time to get back

-They mention Abyss Ex Nihilo, Hyperion and Thor Odinson's deaths in battle against the Beyonders, but not Starbrand and Nightmask, who died in the same confrontation

-Doom's own confrontation with the Beyonders reduced the number of remaining universes (a valuable distinction here) from several hundred thousand to about 22 (almost two dozen rather than a mere dozen)

-The Cabal didn't have to convince The Maker to attack Earth-616. If anything, he's probably playing them

But again, minor quibbly details. Should still be helpful for the unfamiliar.

A decent master list of titles.

That's a complete list of the "Warzones!" titles. Here's io9's lists of "Last Days" titles (mention of the Ant-Man one-shot is missing, though) and "Battleworld" titles.

I never did get my list finished, so I'll probably just edit the opening post to link to these articles and add mention of the titles they forgot to ("Secret Wars: Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse," "Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars" and that Ant-Man one-shot).

As for Secret Wars #1, I've gotta say...

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I'm pretty fucking happy right now.

I'm glad you're pleased.

My reaction to this whole issue is basically "Holeee shiiiit."

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Seriously. I have to say that the bit with

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Rocket

seems to have struck home with a lot of people for the "this is serious shit" moment, but I'm really looking forward to the end of UXM to see how it ties Cyclops' arc into all the shit that just went down there.




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[The Twilight Mexican]

Spoilers. =P

As for me, I was taken by surprise by

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every last one of the deaths. It was either shown on panel or heavily implied that all of the following died:

-Black Widow
-Spider-Woman
-Beast
-Amadeus Cho
-Rocket
-Groot
-Black Bolt
-Ultimate Nick Fury
-Ultimate Hawkeye

I don't buy for a second that Sue, Johnny, Ben, Franklin and Valeria died, though. Either Franklin's powers saved them or Cyclops was in that section of the ship and he did.

Still, even if those five are safe, what an insane issue.

Beautiful illustrations from Ribic here too.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Oh my god, yeah. The art was phenomenal.

I am really curious about

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what happened to Miles though.

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[The Twilight Mexican]

Gracias, by the way, for not repeating the same complaints I'm seeing everywhere else -- "This event is impenetrable to readers who haven't been following Hickman's books," "I've just been reading X-Men/Spider-Man/Punisher and have no idea what is going on; this is terrible writing," etc.

Marvel has been telling people this was coming since October, and made clear it would spin directly out of "Avengers" and "New Avengers." They've also made plenty of recap opportunities available.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Seriously. I don't know how you could avoid seeing this coming given all of Marvel's constant press about it. Thanks for always giving me a heads up about the little Cyclops bits in the Avengers storylines, since they're the parts that I was most focused on, as I wasn't following the main event itself. (It does seem like something I'd eventually pick up TPs of though to check out now that it's all essentially said and done).




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[The Twilight Mexican]

No problem. And, really, it was your idea last year (even if I ended up having to do it ) to create this section of the forum in the belief that it would get us to talk about the comics we're reading more if we had it.

So, thanks for that.

Speaking of Cyclops,

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I'm not sure if we're going to get an explanation for the X-Nation or the Phoenix Egg. I can't tell if Brevoort is being serious, being an asshat or being serious while uninformed. He's got a tendency for both of those last two.

Oh, and I've seen it suggested that Sue, et. al. will have been saved by Doom. At the beginning, it says that the white light you see at death is God -- and then we see Doom's eyes in the white light at the end. Given how close he is to Valeria, I'm betting this is how they survive.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I actually don't know much about the whole interactions and familial relations, etc. surrounding the Fantastic Four crew involved in this issue, so I'd be interested to know more about it if you have time to tl;dr a little.

Either way, with Cyclops

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whatever comes out of the end of UXM #600, I think that I'll be pleased because time/reality-traveling Eva's actions didn't manage to break Scott's willpower enough for him to shy away from embracing godlike power again when it mattered, but he seems to have kept the perspective that I really enjoyed about his character from AvX onwards.

Whether we get a definitive answer about the Phoenix Egg or not isn't as important as that to me, as annoying as it'll be to not have that since it's a pretty big thing to just have handwaved away like that. I'm really looking forward to see if the hints from the motifs of his new costume really do mean that he's White Phoenix Cyclops now.

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[The Twilight Mexican]

Regarding the Fantastic Four: Doom and Valeria have a very powerful bond. They've had a mystical connection since she was born because he had to be enlisted to perform her delivery using both his scientific and magical knowledge (the Cosmic Rays that provided Sue's powers make giving birth difficult), and he insisted that he be allowed to name her.

They also have a bond in that Valeria sees the good in him and tends to bring it out. She calls him "Uncle Doom." Under Hickman's pen, a future version of Valeria even once said "All hope lies in Doom," seemingly prophesying the current crisis.

Valeria is also a genius. Like, smarter than Reed. She's still a very young kid, but she has this massive intellect, and so -- despite not wanting to -- Reed and Sue have more or less let her make choices as an adult, including the choice to stay with Doom in Latveria. She made that choice partly because of her bond with him and partly because she was pissed at Reed (the F4's powers were killing them, and he had kept it a secret while trying to cure them).

The "bringing out the best in Doom" thing has mostly worked, at least when Hickman is writing him. He writes Doom as a relatively noble -- albeit arrogant -- aristocrat. Valeria is one of the few people he genuinely respects and is openly affectionate toward, so I have no doubt

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that he will either save her or try to resurrect her if she did die.

He's still Doom, though. As Rabum Alal/the Great Destroyer, he has killed countless universes in an effort to derail the Beyonders' plan of destroying all existence within the multiverse, and he has no regrets about that. As he said to Dr. Strange in "New Avengers" #33, "Is it not worh it if something can be saved?"

He will also probably end up making himself the ruler of Battleworld (i.e. literally its God) and have to be knocked down a peg or two, but that's probably going to be because he genuinely thinks he could do a better job than anyone else.

Regarding Cyclops, I guess you're right that not all the details are needed. It is interesting that he

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didn't turn down the power of the Phoenix when he felt it was required, despite all that has happened. Maybe he has the perspective he needs now to prevent himself being corrupted by the power this time.

Then again, maybe the power of the Phoenix just died with the universe and he won't have to. =P Probably not if he actually has become the new White Phoenix of the Crown, as its power is supposed to transcend a single universe, unlike all the other Phoenixes. I bet it will go dormant for a while, though.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Thanks for the recap with Valeria & Doom. SUPER good to know.

Insofar as Cyclops is concerned

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The developments that he got during the Ctrl+Z'd parts of UXM were pretty clear that his experience gave him the perspective that he needed to be able to mentor someone with those levels of power. (Everything that he did with Matthew was re-treading that territory and had him doing all the things for Matthew that people failed to do for him during AvX).

If I had to guess at things (before seeing UXM #600), I'd guess that Cyclops' threatening encounter with Eva is what pushed him into isolation away from everyone else. If you take that perspective in conjunction with the revelation that everything is completely and irrevocably fucked (which Beast will likely reveal), and is ending in the next 8 months because of the incursions, he's going to focus on a way to make sure that his people survive, even if none of the individuals do.

What that means is that they need the Phoenix Force to be capable of being a Mutantkind revival catalyst again like it did at the end of AvX. Say what you will about Cyclops, but his singular vision (pun semi-intended) is aways about the survival of Mutantkind, and I think that's why he repurposes the Xavier School into Nation X -- even if no one's there. It's solidifying his vision about (re)building a place for his people and not shying away from the things that destroyed them (the sentinels).

It's that singular frame of mind that he sets up with that, that he essentially keeps his whole self focused on for the next 8 months, because the Phoenix Force will rip away slowly and bend that vision to dark ends if you lose control or let your purpose get clouded. That's why his statement when re-converging with it is that the feeling he has for it is love. It isn't aggression or defense or anything that anyone else is trying to use to win during the Incursion. He's just focused on the Mutants surviving -- even if it means that the Phoenix Force has to be used with his vision to start their kind back over from scratch, it's something that I think he knows deep down that he's truly capable of (and what I was most afraid that he'd lost because of Eva's actions).

He wasn't counting on the whole Lifeboat abducting teleportation, so it'll be interesting to see how he deals with all of that and how that hits at odds with his plan.

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[The Twilight Mexican]

Hickman and Brevoort discuss "Secret Wars" #1

There's a few spoilers here and there, but nothing too detailed (e.g. who was shown killed on panel). They don't really say a lot either, which is to be expected this early into the event.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Looks like UXM #600 is in Bendis' hands insofar as explanations for the Phoenix Egg & Nation X are concerned, so it'll be a wait & see sort of thing. I won't keep my fingers crossed for it, but I'm still a lot more hopeful for it to be a satisfying end now than I was a few weeks ago.




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[The Twilight Mexican]

The more I hear about the "Siege" tie-in, the more interested I become.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Secret Wars #2 served as a really good intro & set-up

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It was a good crash-course for everything in Battleworld and showing how it pieced itself together from multiple realities, and how Doom takes credit and is responsible for it doing so. It'll be interesting to see how long the world has existed for before the Cabal & Heroes' life rafts found their way there, because of temporal distortion and such. Introducing the Cabal rather than who we were expecting was a nice touch, though and I'm enjoying the world politics, despite not being very familiar with the main cast. I did like all the little nods to things for the various countries though (especially the Pryors & Summers).

Also- X-Men '92 is digital first because it's being done as an Infinity Comic, which makes me even MORE excited for it.



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[The Twilight Mexican]

Moving and work have been eating up all my time lately, but I finally got these done:

My "Secret Wars" reading list

My (relatively) spoiler-free review of "Secret Wars" #1 & #2

 

[Tennyo]

#2 is out already?

I'm not going to be able to keep up. :/

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It will be two per month until July. The last four issues will come at a less accelerated schedule.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Hickman discusses issue #2.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Oh my science, these X-Men '92 covers. I can't even.
http://xsoldier.tumblr.com/post/119345760730/the-fact-that-this-series-is-going-to-be-an




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[X-SOLDIER]

Tiny little previews of Spider-Verse, A-Force, & Planet Hulk. I know I'll be checking out Planet Hulk, and I'm not quite 100% on Spider-Verse.



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[Tennyo]

I will be checking out anything Ms/Cap Marvel and Spider related.

Although another Spider-Verse does seem a little silly. The first one JUST ended.

Okay everyone, time to go home to your own universes. Oops lol nvm come back...

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Soooooo, I caved.


I read all three of them.


They're all amazing. (I'm just not sure how/why Spider-Gwen was around in A-Force and Spider-Verse, but that might have to do with the first law of Doom).

But yeah.


I am addicted to Battleworld & Secret Wars.




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[The Twilight Mexican]

So, from the sound of reviews, "Ultimate End" #1 is a complete mess in terms of continuity with the main SW book and its own basic plotting. Typical Bendis.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I totally forgot to check it out until just now. The main bits that stand out are Cyclops & Spider-man being there -- being as last we left them was on the Life Raft, and we have no idea how the hell things would've moved them here (especially since Cyclops isn't all Phoenix-mode). If anything, it makes me think that UXM #600 won't give any Phoenix Egg answers in 5 months.




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[Tennyo]

Apparently

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the Peter Parker Spider-Man in Ultimate End isn't the 616 one. From what I heard anyway. He has no memory of the Spider-Men story.