Secret Wars

Secret Wars (full title Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars) is the name of a twelve-issue Marvel Comics' comic book limited series produced between 1984 and 1985, and a Mattel toy line that reflected the series. more...

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The series, which was conceived to launch the toy line, was written by Marvel's then-Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and primarily pencilled by Mike Zeck. The story was a large scale crossover, in which many of Marvel's most popular super-heroes and super-villains were transported to an alien planet and pitted against each other in an all-out battle.

Although the toy line was discontinued in 1985, the miniseries was a hit for Marvel, breaking sales records for a monthly comic at the time of its release and spawning an almost immediate sequel: Secret Wars II.

Premise

The first issue of Secret Wars introduced an all-powerful, godlike character called the Beyonder to the Marvel Universe. The story explained that the Beyonder had been observing the universe for some time. At the series' start the entity is shown drawing various superhumans to specific locations and then abducting them by means of teleportation.

All were transported to "Battleworld", a planet created by the Beyonder in a distant galaxy/ and stocked with alien weapons and technology. There, the Beyonder issued the following message:

"I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!"

Plot

Opposing factions were formed of super-heroes and super-villains. The two sides went on to engage in several battles on the planet. At one point, the X-Men left the side of the heroes to form a third faction on stand-by for the other heroes. The planet-consuming Galactus, largely indifferent to the actions of the lesser-powered characters, represented his "own" side. The phrase "secret war" was first used by Captain America.

Each group had its victories and losses. Even the Beyonder found itself caught up in a struggle for its existence when Doctor Doom temporarily stole its vast power. In the end, the Beyonder, Doom and the villain Klaw vanished to parts unknown. For the most part, the heroes returned to Earth by reversing the effects of the machines that had brought them to Battleworld, while the villains (and a chunk of Denver that had been used in Battleworld's assembly) returned to Earth using the vast powers of the Molecule Man. The Thing elected to remain on Battleworld because he found that he was able to revert to his human state there. The character spent a year's worth of stories away from Earth and the She-Hulk took his place in the Fantastic Four.

The series had several immediate consequences for a number of Marvel Universe characters. Spider-Man encountered a symbiotic creature on the planet that enveloped him and expressed itself as a new black costume which produced its own web supply. Spider-Man initially thought that the creature was an advanced synthetic costume produced by an alien machine; it wasn't until after almost a year of continuity in the Spider-Man comics that Peter Parker discovered the true nature of the creature, as it tried to take over Parker's body and bond permanently with him. Spider-Man was able to rid himself of the creature with the help of Reed Richards, and when the creature subsequently escaped from the Fantastic Four's headquarters, it bonded with Eddie Brock to become the supervillain Venom. A new Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter was introduced, Colossus had an affair with an alien on battleworld which led him to break up with Shadowcat when he returned to Earth, and two new supervillainesses - Titania, a bullying powerhouse and her friend Volcana - were created.

Read more at Wikipedia.org