When the Marvel Universe is gone, all that remains is Secret Wars Service: the new Multiversity Comics column looking to dig through the dense adventure that is Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s “Secret Wars”. As is per usual with our recap columns, we’ll do a spoiler-free review followed by a more thorough recap with spoilers.
Review
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Esad RibicALL THE DEVILS DANCE!
One of the craziest things people say about Jonathan Hickman is that he doesn’t really write characters. He does, but he usually fits them to his needs. So if he needs a diabolical mad scientist (as he often does), he’s just going to write one – or seven if he’s doing “The Manhattan Projects.” If he’s drafting up a war, as he has been doing with the Avengers since 2012, he’ll write soldiers. That’s where characters like Hyperion, Captain Universe, and Smasher have come in. While those characters, and plenty of others within his recent work, are more or less roles to be filled, their lack of focus did occasionally give the sense that they were merely players. An that sense only magnified when he got his hands on bigger storylines, like the war in “Infinity” which was basically a History Channel documentary in space.
However, with “Secret Wars” #3, Hickman has honestly found the balance between wild out-there action and character. That might be due to him working with his favorite characters (Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, anyone with a PhD really) but that personal charge he’s found really adds a groundswell of consequence to “Infinity.” In this insane game of houses and cabals, each character has, or at least seems to have, a giant stake in the situation. It’s a weird contrast to stories like “House of M” and “Age of Apocalypse” which have done something similar: world is changed, ruler takes over, people try and stop that from happening. Yes, Doom is now God Doom, but he’s still the same Victor that screamed in the face of the Beyonoders and lost, only now he’s trying to save everything he could. While most of Battleworld started anew, there are scars on the last world’s survivors that may not heal, be they physical or emotional.
That balance between the grand scale and the emotional is perfectly done by Ribic, who balances the massive scope this story requires to happen with the emotion it requires to work. I’ve tried to pinpoint a reason why his realist approach to art works so well and I think it’s because it’s not realist at all, you only believe it is. Looking on some pages of Thanos lit by a fire, it’s crazy to think of this art as “realist” at all. But then you have an endearing segment like Doctor Strange waiting on a stowaway and its not the world he’s making authentic but the characters. And as a result, the world is only enriched further. A lot of artists aside from Ribic could probably draw the landscapes in “Secret Wars.” Very few could make those landscapes matter.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – As of now, this might be my favorite issue yet. Aside from helping explain some of the more confusing aspects of “Secret Wars”, it brings a lot of depth I didn’t know the crossover was capable of.
Recap
Stephen Strange in the role of Littlefinger reads God Doom all of the minor incidents that have happened across Battleworld. Mister Sinister making a rude statue of the late Jamie Braddock, rumbling in Greenland, “Ulatimate End” being published, etc. Doctor Doom gets all moody and asks if Strange has to go over the recent transgressions as if he didn’t take responsibility for a planet full of nostalgia-fueled tie-ins. They also pass this statue of Owen Reece, the one member of the trio who faced the Beyonders who’s gone missing.
You’d think Doom would have retaken the photo or something but nope, Molecule Man’s cursed to be remembered with that face for all eternity. It looks like he wasn’t ready for his own bronze statue. After laughing at Owen’s face, Strange also takes this moment to tell Doom about how a Thor was slaughtered by an unknown force last issue and don’t sweat it.
Continued belowThe Cabal has run off from the site where they murdered that Thor last issue and Strange orders the other Thors to comb the desert. He also comforts the rookie Thor from last issue who apparently survived while raising up the dead Thor’s corpse and saying he’s still a sentinel, even in death. I figure Strange is just doing some burial ritual on the dead Thor, but if he’s actually sending his undead corpse to fight the other Marvel Zombies at The Shield, “Siege” is going to be the most metal tie-in comic ever. Now that he’s left with dumb pretty Thor, Strange calls out for the stowaway on the Cabal’s ship and who should pop out but The Greatest Comic Book Character of all time.
I can’t stress how happy I am that not only is Miles Morales a relevant character after four years, but he’s a major player in Marvel’s biggest crossover. All that’s left is a place in the MCU. Miles tells Strange about the events of the first issue and Strange basically mutters “oh, dammit” under his breath.
Back at Doomstadt, Doom goes to talk to his wife Susan Storm. Sue says she heard people singing about a Man in the Shun that day, specifically her brother Johnny who rebelled against Doom and was turned into the literal sun as punishment. Not only that, but he was punished specifically by Sue as a way to keep him from dying at Doom’s hand and to “honor” him. Holy hell. Either Susan’s gone full Cersei or she’s keeping him up there as a secret weapon to pull down once the rebellion against Doom goes full under way.
But that seems pretty unlikely as that revelation is followed up by the most emotional Doctor Doom scene of all time. Doom has finally achieved everything he wanted: godhood and a flawless world under his control. Yet, he also questions if he is failing Battleworld as a leader and if he’s just as bad as The Beyonders, if not worse. He actually questions if, in this flawless world “he is the only flaw” since ehe can’t even use his powers to fix his own face. But then Susan says she chose to be with Doom for a reason and asks him to take off his mask.
Holy shit. Honest question: is Doom the protagonist of “Secret Wars”? All we’ve seen him do is try and save what he could and now he’s dealing with the actual consequences of pursuing such a task while two sets of the accursed Richards try and bring him down. I… I kind of want him to win?
Over at Strange’s hidden base, he tells Miles and Rookie Thor that “Oops, kinda had another life raft this whole time!” He opens it to find Marvel Studios’ plans for Phrase 3.
You know Natalie Portman’s going to wield Mjlonir at some point in Ragnarok, no?
Also onboard is Phoenix Cyclops who is just chilling like the baddest man on the planet and Black Panther, who tosses Strange an Illuminati catchphrase while clutching Reed who’s still distraught over his dead family. Boo hoo. No one let him see where Sue is right now. Once everyone’s settled down, Strange tells them they’ve been in that capsule for eight years. He received it earlier, but decided not to for his safety, which makes sense considering the other Raft had freaking Thanos on it. He also explains that God Doom put together the world from remnants of Incursions and no one can really remember what happened. If none of the tie-ins make sense, it’s because this whole Battleworld system is a fragile last ditch effort created by a desperate and flawed god. Better than “Marvel’s creators wanted to get paid and didn’t read any of Hickman’s memos”. Of course, Reed isn’t pleased that Doom is the new god.
Couldn’t you let him have one thing, Reed? Just one?
Fine.
Meanwhile, the other life raft is sitting around a campfire plotting their next move. Maximus notices the sun, which means Johnny is definitely coming down sometime in the third act. Ultimate Reed gets pissy they didn’t interrogate the older Thor before killing him and smug ass Thanos is like “Well, uh…”
And with that, the third issue of “Secret Wars” comes to a close. The Cabal has been cornered by the Thor Corps and Reed Richards poses a bigger threat to Battleworld than anyone else.. Join us next time when Doom delivers a straight up soliloquy for twenty-two straight pages.
