With the annualisation of the summer event in comic books, it’s become a regular thing for publishers Marvel and DC to bring their publishing line to a complete halt in order to push a new limited series plus 20+ tie-ins in order to drum up sales over the summer. This is in full effect right now over at Marvel with “Secret Wars” as the majority of their titles ended way back in May to make way for a slew of tie-in titles that explore the Battleworld that the event takes place on.
This recurring summer event blockbuster, with each one trying to one-up the last in scale to the point where Marvel were destroying entire universes as the build-up this year, has been pretty taxing. For me, the event fatigue has set in hard, especially with having to read and review pretty much every Battleworld title.
Because of this, I wanted to go back to a simpler time where an event that would change the status quo of the universe could be encapsulated in one, five-issue miniseries. A time long, long ago… in 2004.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Gabrielle Dell’Otto
When Nick Fury finds a connection between many of Marvel’s deadliest villains, he puts together a team of the most misunderstood heroes for a secret mission to do what the U.S. government could never allow.
Even though it ended up, in a lot of ways, kicking off a series of events that changed the face of the Marvel Universe, “Secret War” isn’t brought up a lot. I’m not entirely sure why as it’s a book that I’ve always thought encapsulated the best of what comic book events can be. The story it told, written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Gabrielle Dell’Otto, was encapsulated in only five issues with a sixth supplementary issue providing some extra information. There weren’t any tie-ins. It didn’t disrupt the flow of the any of the series being published around it, didn’t interrupt any storylines already in progress to make it feel like it had some universe-spanning scale like the events that came after it did. Instead, it told a simple mystery over five issues that explored the nature of superhero morality and just what happens when superheroes are forced to make the ugly choices in order to save the world as well as the repercussions that come from those choices.
Brian Michael Bendis is kind of infamous at this point for his penchant for decompressed storylines and lackluster events like “Age Of Ultron”. However, there was a point in the mid-2000s where he was king of Marvel and I think “Secret War” is a pretty good example of why. Over the course of five issues, Bendis presents a mystery that is coming back to haunt a specific group of heroes. They are being targeted for something they don’t remember doing and the series explores just exactly what happened and who was behind it. This does allow Bendis to employ some of his favourite decompression techniques as it feels like the first couple of issues end on pretty much the exact same cliffhanger, but reading it collected solves that problem. It also allows to explore the scope of the mystery surrounding these characters as the pieces begin to slot into place.
This is not a happy-go-lucky kind of superhero story. This is a darker, espionage-tinged story that just happens to take place in a world full of costumed heroes and the way Bendis explores that in the writing is fascinating. With Nick Fury as a major role, the grey morality of the whole affair becomes even more muddied as the question of just how far he’s willing to push things in order to keep his world safe leads down some pretty dark paths. And where those paths lead ended up rippling through the Marvel Universe leading to books like “Secret Warriors” and “Original Sin”.
Though the espionage feeling of “Secret War” doesn’t mean it’s all just people standing around talking. When things kick off, they do so hard and it allows Gabrielle Dell’Otto to showcase just how beautiful his artwork is. Each issue is painted by Dell’Otto and the detail put into the world is simply stunning. The level of realism in how Dell’Otto presents the settings and characters brings a grounding to Bendis’ script and the darker themes therein, but Dell’Otto doesn’t shy away from the inherent camp of costumed heroes. He brings the same level of realism to the costumes of the heroes in the story as to the rest of the world and it makes everything just seem so much more impressive. Seriously, I have never seen Captain America’s costume look this good.
Continued belowDell’Otto’s art in the first couple of issues keeps things slow and muted, focusing on characters out of costume as Bendis builds the mystery of the Secret War. It allows for a lot of tension to build in each issue that finally kicks off in the third issue with Daredevil and Spider-Man being attacked before all-out war happens in the middle of Manhattan in the fourth and fifth issue. This kind of ramp in scale is something I think “Secret War” has over the events that succeeded it. All those events tried to start at 10, tried to immediately be the next biggest thing ever, but it’s impossible to maintain that level for five, eight or ten issues. Instead, “Secret War” starts off small and personal before calling in everyone for the grand battle royale at the end.
And the artwork really shines in the action scenes in the fourth and fifth issue. With so many heroes and villains, from the Avengers to the Fantastic Four, all participating in the one battle, it could have been easy for things to get lost, but Dell’Otto does a fantastic job here. The full scale of the battle is only really shown in the double page spreads that are eye-meltingly amazing before Dell’Otto and Bendis break off and focus on one character at a time and their personal fights within the larger battle. This makes it much easier to focus on the personal stakes within the battle and ensures that the fight doesn’t implode under the weight of its own scale.
In the end, I think “Secret War” was an event that maybe got lost in history because of how self-contained it was. Without thousands of tie-ins, it became just another mini-series drowned in the backcatalogue of Marvel. I think that’s a major shame as revisiting the series made me wish that more of Marvel’s events had kept this kind of self-contained format as it allows for a much more personal story surrounding the characters while the ramp in scale allows for the final battle to feel event-level epic without sacrificing that personal focus.
This is something I think Bendis and Dell’Otto nailed here as much of the first two issues of “Secret War” focus on the heroes out of costume and looking at how their lives are being affected by the past while the third issue brings in some of the action that really dominates the fourth and fifth issue. The structure is really balanced and feels a lot more even than, say, the current “Secret Wars” event which feels like it has so much going on that it doesn’t know who or what to focus on and the sheer number of tie-ins has made it feel inescapable.
If you’ve never read “Secret War”, I would definitely recommend giving it a go as not only is the story really engaging with fantastic art, but each issue is supplemented with additional write-ups on the political situations surrounding the event. If you have read it and are like me and find yourself wishing for simpler events, I think it’s well worth revisiting.
