Secret Wars #5-9
Originally released in 2015
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Esad Ribic
Battleworld is falling apart. Stephen Strange scattered the survivors of the previous Earth's across its surface, an act which cost him his life, and over the course of three weeks, they're attacking Doom on several fronts. Only those survivors, Doom, and Molecule Man are aware of the fact that Doom himself killed Strange, leading to plenty of dramatic irony.
Not all of the survivors are successful in their endeavours - a Phoenix-powered Cyclops tries to fight God Emperor Doom directly, which doesn't go well, while Captain Marvel is transported to the domain of Mister Sinister, where her body is taken over by him. (Which raises the question of why she was included among the survivors from a writing perspective - Star-Lord also feels a bit unnecessary, though at least he accomplishes something)
As the God Emperor of Battleworld, Doom might be all-powerful, but he is not all-knowing, and the heroes (and villains) use that to their advantage. Thanos informs Ben Grimm (who serves as the foundation of the massive wall that keeps Ultron, the zombies, and the Annihilation Wave out of the other territories) about what little he knows of the original history of the world, which is enough to convince Ben (who's now massive) to take a stand against Doom, both literally and figuratively.
Doctor Strange's last act helped to guide Namor and T'Challa to an Infinity Gauntlet that functions in Doom's domain, and upon encountering the zombified hordes that broke through the gap in the wall that was left by Ben's absence, the Black Panther demonstrates his title of King of the Dead in a more literal way.
Jane Foster was sent to Doom's army of Thors, where she convinces them to turn against their master, adding another front to the fighting.
Even Mister Sinister and Maestro (an evil future version of the Hulk) get in on the action - they have no memories of the old world, but they don't need them for their natures to come into play. Mister Sinister betrays Doom's forces for no reason beyond "because he can", while Maestro tries to take advantage of the confusion to attack and dethrone God.
There's even a prophet encouraging people to rebel against Doom, gathering forces from across the realms. Some say he's insane, but he proves to be effective. And who could this prophet be?
However, all of this is a distraction for the Spider-Men to find Doom's power source, which turns out to be Molecule Man, who's alive and well beneath a statue of himself. Molecule Man is hungry, but nobody thinks to bring food to him, until Miles reveals the most important hamburger in history:
As a direct result of Miles giving Molecule Man a hamburger, Miles and his friends, family, and other supporting cast are transferred to the main (616) universe when reality is rebuilt. That must have been an extremely good burger.
Though it probably wasn't. Once the fighting has kicked off in earnest, the two Reeds (Mister Fantastic and the Maker) head to Molecule Man's location, where the Maker kicks off his sudden but inevitable betrayal.
This lasts all of five seconds. There are a few cases where it seems like a villain is going to do something important only to be shut down. Terrax, a former herald of another universe's Galactus, encounters the Galactus of Battleworld and offers his services to this new version of his former master.
Another case is Thanos, who confronts Doom directly and claims that he is using his new godhood ineffectively. Thanos, naturally, claims he was a better god when he had the Infinity Gauntlet.
In one of the most famous panels of this story, this does not go well for Thanos.
Eventually, Doom realizes that this is all a distraction, and rushes to Molecule Man's location where he comes face to face with his arch-nemesis.
Since neither one brought him any food, Molecule Man refuses to take sides, meaning that Doom can no longer access his godly powers, and it's just Reed and Doom, fighting it out to determine whether the universe will stay like this, a patchwork of worlds held together in Doom's iron fist, or be recreated with the help of Reed and his family.
It's this huge bombastic climax that Hickman has been building towards since his Fantastic Four run started. It has its flaws (aside from what I've already mentioned with Captain Marvel's lack of involvement and various villains accomplishing nothing, T'Challa forgives Namor way too easily), but it's ambitious and does an excellent job with wrapping up most of the plot points from Hickman's other runs, which is no easy feat given that they were spread out over at least four series.
Esad Ribic's artwork helps to give a sense of weight to the massive version of Ben Grimm standing up for the first time in years, along with showing the frantic and chaotic battlefields as various forces attempt to stand up against Doom or take his power for themselves. It reminded me of the climactic battle of Avengers Endgame in a sense, except where in that movie it was two sides against one another, it was basically everyone versus Doom (and the likes of Sinister and Maestro versus everyone) in Secret Wars.
This was a really rewarding read, and I'm glad that I chose to read the Fantastic Four and Avengers runs leading up to this. I wouldn't say the ending was perfect, though it's really hard to stick any kind of landing in a satisfying way, particularly when there's so much build-up and so much time for people to theorize about how it could all end.
Still, the ending does a good job at establishing some fundamental differences between Reed and Doom - Doom felt the need to control everything, while Reed was content with letting the newly-created universes live freely. Doom thought that only he could handle having the power of a god, while Reed shares his gift with his family and combines their abilities. Doom was so envious of Reed that he effectively stole Reed's family and took Reed's place, while Reed is so forgiving that he restored Doom's face even after everything that had just happened. Given that this came around the time that Marvel started downplaying the Fantastic Four and X-Men over petty squabbles about movie rights, I'm glad to see that the Fantastic Four went out on a high note before they took an extended break.
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