Through my years of comic book reading and collecting, the Marvel Secret Wars series continues to have a special place in my heart. Even though Marvel and DC will pop out “universe-changing events” every year, nothing the big two can do can come close to the impact of Secret Wars.
Secret Wars
In the first part of the mid-1980s, DC was making an impact on the toy world with its license with Kenner. Mattel wanted to make a bigger comic book impact outside of He-Man, so the company partnered with Marvel to create new action figures and other toys. Mattel’s focus groups found that boys identified with words such as “war” and “secret” so Secret Wars was born. The goal of the massive crossover which ran from May of 1984 to April of 1985 was to simply sell the toys, but the series had greater impacts on our favorite form of entertainment.
First off, Secret Wars proved fans were interested in seeing massive crossover storylines. While this happened on a small scale before in crossovers between Batman and Superman or The Defenders and The Avengers, but never with a majority of the top characters in one the comic book company’s universes. Secret Wars paved the way for massive crossover series such as House of M, Fear Itself and Avengers vs. X-Men.
After Secret Wars, Spider-Man was regularly seen in his new black costume. This would lead to symbiote storylines and gave us characters such as Venom and Carnage. Also, She Hulk joined the Fantastic Four through the fallout of the first major universe-changing event. Marvel realized they could make waves in a major crossover and continue those waves for months or even years. Instead of the storyline being mostly contained in the issues of the special series, such as with Contest of Champions, Secret Wars was a seed which grew across a dozen titles.
Secret Wars led to Secret Wars II. While many fans were not as happy with the second major universe-changing event to come from Marvel, the publisher was able to start a ball rolling which would show impacts today. In Civil War, there were multiple references to former crossover series such as Avengers Disassembled and House of M.
Before Secret Wars, we might see a reference to something which happened in the past, but these were usually reserved for previously-connected titles or identical titles. If the Hulk was spending time in New Mexico, this would be referenced in The Incredible Hulk, or The Defenders since he was an occasional member of the team. This would not be referenced in Spider-Man on a regular basis. Secret Wars impressed the idea of a shared universe where the actions of one hero or villain could impact dozens of others.
Don’t forget the toys. The next time you find yourself looking through a rack of Marvel Universe toys for Deadpool or Thanos, think about how the first major universe-changing crossover set the stage for the comic book action figure market. Where there used to be a small rack for superhero action figures, now we find entire aisles at major retailers with new lines coming out every years. At conventions, we see multiple retailers who specialize in action figures born of the idea which created Secret Wars.
The modern revolutions which we take for granted today in comics were proven as possible with Secret Wars. The next time you see an issue of the original series, give it the respect it deserves. While it might not be as flashy as a modern issue of the New 52 or Marvel Now, those old issues are more important than what is coming out today.
