Secret Wars (1984) #1-7

Secret Wars (1984) #1-7

Originally released in 1984

Written by Jim Shooter

Art by Mike Zeck

As I'm building up to Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars, I thought it would be best to read through the original series from the 80s in case there's some overlap or some references.  The 80s Secret Wars is unabashedly a commercial for action figures, with the entire cast getting extensive mid-story name drops, multiple bases that could inspire playsets (between the heroes' base, the villains' base, and a base that Magneto creates which serves as a base for the X-Men), along with weapons and vehicles.

I was a little surprised to see the amount of tropes from war stories that were present - problems within the chain of command (particularly among the X-Men - Storm is the team leader, but Cyclops was dragged into this conflict and Professor X regained the use of his legs, while Magneto is forced into an alliance with them and is used to being in charge, so all four of them feel like they should lead), talking about the family back on the homefront (Cyclops had just gotten married, while Reed Richards is concerns about Sue, who's pregnant), gaining and losing territory, and even a village of innocents trapped in the middle of this.

There are a lot of characters involved here (too many for me to list), with the Beyonder bringing them all together to compete for a wish. (seemingly for no reason beyond his own amusement) Doctor Doom seems to be the one who gets the bulk of the focus.  He was believed to be dead at the time, but he was brought back for this crossover because if you're gathering some of Marvel's biggest heroes and villains, you need to have Doctor Doom in there.

Another villain who gets a good amount of focus is the Molecule Man, one of the handful of people that Doom is actually concerned about. (which is a very short list - it's pretty much just Molecule Man, Galactus, Ultron, and Magneto)  He's a quiet, nervous man who avoids conflict wherever he can... though if he does get involved in conflict, it ends pretty quickly given that he has complete control over the molecules of seemingly anything.  As such, even Doctor Doom makes sure that he's comfortable and has everything that he needs.

On the heroes' side, some heroes are in very different situations from what I'm used to. The Fantastic Four are as stable as ever, with only Sue missing out on the action.  Iron Man isn't Tony Stark in this event, but rather, Jim Rhodes (who later becomes War Machine) is filling in.  The Hulk has Bruce Banner's intelligence, but it's slowly fading, with him becoming angrier and more short-tempered with each passing issue.  The series doesn't dwell on it, but it must be a horrifying experience for Bruce.

The ongoing events in X-Men take place shortly after where I am at in Claremont's run - the team is similar, though Rogue and Lockheed (Kitty's shoulder-sized pet dragon) are part of the team. (Kitty herself is absent)  Colossus has a storyline that's kind of questionable - while having his wounds mended by a native healer named Zsaji, Colossus begins to fall madly in love with her, with her taking Kitty's place in his thoughts.  Johnny also falls madly in love with her, creating a love triangle between them, though neither one can speak Zsaji's language.  The feelings of love come across as a side-effect of Zsaji's healing, which raises questions of consent. (though maybe that's not the case and I'm reading too much into it)

Likewise, there's a brief moment where it seems like a relationship is being set up between the Wasp and Magneto, even though he's old enough to be her father at least. (his Holocaust survivor backstory had already been established)  A few issues later, it's revealed that the Wasp was faking it to find out his plans, but it seems like a bizarre choice that's abruptly thrown in here.

I'm not sure if Jim Shooter had as good of a handle on writing Magneto as Chris Claremont did - on one hand, it's nice to see Magneto accepting that Xavier's ideals are possible thanks to the power of the Beyonder, and that humanity and mutants could live together in harmony, but Magneto mentions killing the various villains (and, if they interfere, Captain America's team as well - the Beyonder specifically says that he will only grant the desire of whichever side kills their foes), and everyone immediately acts like he's worse than Hitler for even considering the possibility of killing someone.

While the villains attack Captain America's group, and the X-Men serve as a separate force (acting on their own, though helping Cap's group or foiling the villains where they can), Galactus seemingly plans to eat the planet and everyone on it in order to win the Beyonder's game.  Meanwhile, Doom is skulking about Galactus's worldship in order to find anything that he can use to defeat Galactus or the Beyonder.  The Beyonder created the setting of this story, Battleworld, by taking bits and pieces from various planets, including a city in Colorado where a new Spider-Woman lives, along with two women that Doom transforms into the supervillains Titania and Volcana.

She-Hulk is one of the many superheroes involved in this as well, so Secret Wars serves as a starting point for the long-standing rivalry between She-Hulk and Titania.  Needless to say, there's a lot going on in this series, though it didn't feel overwhelming. (it likely helps that Doom, Molecule Man, and Titania are the main focus as far as villains go, with the others serving as Doom's lackeys for the most part - Enchantress seems content to do her own thing, while Kang is seemingly killed early on by a reprogrammed Ultron in order to force the rest of the villains into obeying Doom)

As one of the first big Marvel crossovers (or maybe one of the first big comic crossovers, period - it beat DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths to the punch by two years, even if it wasn't as impactful on the universe by comparison), it's shown its age in a few ways, and the romantic subplots in general weren't well-written. (the closest thing to an effective romance subplot is the budding romance between the Absorbing Man and Titania)  However, it's enjoyable to see characters who normally wouldn't interact bounce off of each other, and I'm interested to see how the X-Men leadership issues are resolved.

I haven't reached the most iconic moments of the series (which includes the first appearance of a certain symbiote), but I'm enjoying what I've read so far.  The plot isn't the deepest (it's basically heroes vs. villains where the winning team gets a wish), though it's a solid premise and I'm looking forward to seeing how it wraps up.