Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars , commonly known as Secret Wars , is a 12-issue American comic book crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics . The series was written by Jim Shooter , with art by Mike Zeck and Bob Layton . It was tied in with a similarly-named toy line from Mattel and a role-playing game of the same name from TSR, Inc.
48-458: The series was conceived by Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. The series was announced under the title Cosmic Champions in the eleventh issue of the Marvel Age news magazine, cover dated February 1984. The series was renamed following feedback from Mattel's focus group, which indicated that children responded positively to the words 'wars' and 'secret'. Mattel's involvement influenced
96-475: A Spider-Man movie (in which Erin is playing Gwen "Spider-Gwen" Stacy / Spider-Woman ), Octavia Otto and the Web Warriors invite the duo to join the team, initially not noticing the pair to be actors shooting the film. On clearing up the misunderstanding, Octavia nonetheless makes the offer again, if either of them would be open to it, and excitedly noting that she learned three different types of martial arts for
144-547: A Spider-Totem, the Queen cannot control her, and sends her on a mission to Horizon Labs to collect a device to suppress the Queen's control over other spiders and Spider-People. Listed as "Spider-Gwen (Erin Hasko"; in her character description, Erin is revealed to have been acting since she was three-years-old, with the film she was filming on her recruitment having been titled Spider-Woman: Goblin's Revenge . An unrelated earlier Spider-Woman
192-467: A machine that absorbs Galactus' power, even after he absorbs his own ship instead. With his newfound power, Doctor Doom steals the Beyonder's power. Molecule Man brings the villains to Volcana's apartment on Battleworld then takes the suburb of Denver back to Earth. Doom summons the heroes to his new "Tower of Doom" where he revives Kang and sends him back to own time in front of them and reveals that Galactus
240-585: A new Secret Wars miniseries, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Esad Ribić , that picked up from where the "Time Runs Out" storyline running in Avengers and New Avengers at the time had ended. The storyline involved the Marvel Universe combining with other alternate universes, including the Ultimate Universe , as well as the 2099 Universe , to form Battleworld, a world which exhibits aspects of
288-513: A previous role, Erin joins the Web Warriors and ventures into the multiverse with them, leaving her shocked crew behind, as Felix asks if they were still filming. Erin returns in the video game Spider-Man Unlimited , now wielding a specialized set of web-shooters made for those lacking spider-strength as a "real" Spider-Woman. After the Spider-Queen escapes from Spider-Force custody, the game's protagonist Spider-Man realizes that since Erin isn't
336-416: A sequel series, Secret Wars II , from Carol Kalish , Marvel's Direct Sales Manager at the time, was first met with boos. Kalish was even quoted saying: "Let's be honest. Secret Wars was crap, right? But did it sell?" In 2011, IGN listed Secret Wars as one of the best comic book events. Their writers found the action and goofiness of the story to be enjoyable. They also highlighted the effect it had on
384-478: A village brought to Battleworld where Galactus has summoned his ship so he can consume the planet. Everybody fights him. Doom's faction returns and attacks the heroes, while he sneaks onto Galactus' ship and persuades Klaw to join the villains. Professor X has the X-Men fall back and then attack the villains who are attacking volcanoes set off by Cyclops. Colossus falls in love with an alien healer named Zsaji. Wasp befriends
432-634: Is a ninja of the Spider-clan in the Marvel Mangaverse , and another version is featured in the Exiles series. Mayday Parker, Peter and MJ's daughter from the alternate future MC2 who is commonly known as Spider-Girl, began calling herself Spider-Woman after her father's death. A character called Spider-Woman ( Valerie the Librarian ) appears in the recurring live-action skit " Spidey Super Stories " on
480-411: Is commonly the link between the publisher or proprietor and the editorial staff. The term is also applied to academic journals , where the editor-in-chief gives the ultimate decision whether a submitted manuscript will be published. This decision is made by the editor-in-chief after seeking input from reviewers selected on the basis of relevant expertise. For larger journals, the decision is often upon
528-896: Is impossible for me to accomplish!" The heroes include the Avengers ( Captain America , Captain Marvel , Hawkeye , Iron Man , the She-Hulk , Thor , the Wasp , and the Hulk ), three members of the Fantastic Four ( Human Torch , Mister Fantastic and the Thing ), solo heroes ( Spider-Man and Spider-Woman ) and the mutant team the X-Men ( Colossus , Cyclops , Nightcrawler , Professor X , Rogue , Storm , Wolverine , and Lockheed
SECTION 10
#1732863341142576-623: The Lizard , the Molecule Man , Titania , Ultron , Volcana , and the Wrecking Crew . The cosmic entity Galactus also appears as a villain who immediately becomes a non-aligned entity. The heroes (the X-Men choose to remain a separate unit) and villains have several skirmishes. Ultron is drained of energy by Galactus, who tries to confront the Beyonder with Doctor Doom, but both are easily defeated. When everyone else reaches Battleworld, Magneto leaves
624-479: The 1970s PBS children's television series The Electric Company , portrayed by Hattie Winston , who originated the character as the girlfriend of Easy Reader (portrayed by Morgan Freeman ) before she become Spider-Woman. She also appears as Spider-Woman in the spin-off comic book series Spidey Super Stories #11 (August 1975) where she has no superpowers. In the Squadron Supreme series, Nell Ruggles
672-664: The 2007–2008 Loners miniseries . Charlotte Witter is a supervillain who used the Spider-Woman name. Veranke is a Super-Skrull and a queen of the Skrulls who impersonated Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman over a long period of time and was a founding member of the New Avengers . A gender-swapped clone of Spider-Man appears in the Ultimate Marvel imprint. Gwen Stacy is Earth-65's version of Spider-Woman. She plays this role in
720-729: The Dragon ). Magneto is featured as a hero, but immediately becomes non-aligned when the Avengers question his presence. In 2015, Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars revealed that Deadpool was also a chosen hero, but the Wasp accidentally caused the other characters to forget his involvement. The villains include the Absorbing Man , Doctor Doom , Doctor Octopus , the Enchantress , Kang the Conqueror , Klaw ,
768-509: The Hulk has an injured leg from Ultron and the savage side is re-emerging (to culminate in a totally animalistic, inarticulate and mindless Hulk in #299–300). Secret Wars was a best-seller when it was published in 1984, selling more copies than any other comic in the previous 25 years. While it was a financial success, it was not well received by critics when it was published, being criticized for its uninspired and juvenile content. An announcement of
816-519: The Lizard but is gravely wounded by the Wrecking Crew before being returned to the heroes. The second Spider-Woman , Julia Carpenter, is introduced. The X-Men win another battle against the villains. Galactus sends Doom back to his base, where he notices the volcanoes and tries to fix the planet. Professor X tells Captain America to fight the villains while they take care of Galactus. Zsaji revives Wasp. In
864-542: The Marvel Universe (designated Earth-19529) where characters aged in real time and debuted in the same year as their first issue publications, the Secret Wars began in 1984 when a number of United States-based superheroes were transported to Battleworld by the Beyonder. This causes the start of the "Russian War" (the World War III of this reality) on Earth due to the absence of the majority of America's superheroes. Among them
912-418: The Marvel Universe by introducing the symbiote and new characters. In 2011, Alex Zalben of MTV News ranked Secret Wars as the second biggest comic event ever, after only DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths event. Zalben praised Secret Wars' story and lasting effect on the Marvel universe, as well as honoring the storyline as the "semi-official first Event Comics ever". One year later, Secret Wars II
960-493: The animated movies Spiderman Into the Spiderverse and Spiderman across the Spiderverse. In the pages of Old Man Logan , Ashley Barton is the daughter of Tonya Parker and Hawkeye who did not like the way that Kingpin was running Hammer Falls. She becomes "Spider-Bitch", allying herself with a new Punisher and Daredevil, and plans to take back Hammer Falls, only for the group to be captured and Daredevil and Punisher to be fed to
1008-532: The carnivorous dinosaurs. Hawkeye breaks his daughter out of her cell, whereafter Ashley immediately beheads Kingpin which avenges Daredevil and Punisher's deaths. Then she attempts to kill her father, before taking over Hammer Falls as the new Kingpin. Old Man Logan rescues Hawkeye as Ashley sends her men after them. The character appears in the " Spider-Verse " and Spider-Geddon storylines, now referred with her father's surname as Ashley Barton, and alternately referred to as "Spider-Girl" and "Spider-Woman" due to
SECTION 20
#17328633411421056-464: The energy from the Beyonder that was released has turned Battleworld into a place where wishes are granted. Soon Mr. Fantastic builds a portal that can take everyone home. However, the Thing, having gained the ability to revert to his original human form of Ben Grimm at will, chooses to remain on Battleworld for a year to explore the galaxy. The next issues of series tie-ins with Secret Wars open right after
1104-561: The entire realm mad. Escaping with the rest of the Ant Men, who were formerly known as the Microns , Spidra and the rest of the Ant Men are charged with watching Immortus. They are later present at the wedding of King Britain and Medusa . During the Web Warriors ongoing series, on accidentally coming across actors Felix Lifson and Erin Hasko , in a world where Spider-Man is fictional, shooting
1152-649: The family-friendly nature of the narrative, and is among the spider-powered characters who are recruited by Superior Spider-Man ( Doctor Octopus 's mind in Peter Parker's body) to help fight the Inheritors , before returning to the Wastelands in " Venomverse " and " Old Man Quill ". On Earth X , a character named Spidra appears. She was one of the last survivors of the Microverse following Psycho-Man 's attempt to drive
1200-514: The heroes feeling rejected and Kang blasts Doctor Doom to the heroes' base when he tries to rally the villains. The heroes win the first skirmish, causing the villains to fall back, only to be assaulted by Ultron, having been rebuilt by Doctor Doom. The heroes then attack Magneto, but he captures Wasp and takes her to his fortress where they are trapped by the weather; the X-Men decide to join Magneto. Doom creates villainesses Titania and Volcana, then leads
1248-593: The inconsistencies. An four-issue miniseries titled Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld was released in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original series, beginning in November 2023. The series starred Spider-Man and the Human Torch and claimed to "expose never-before-told secrets" from the 1984 storyline. Some issues of What If? revolve around the Secret Wars: In May 2015, Marvel published
1296-481: The name, because it's the type of thing [where] someone else might say, "Hey, why don't we put out a Spider-Woman; they can't stop us." ... You know, years ago we brought out Wonder Man , and [ DC Comics ] sued us because they had Wonder Woman , and ... I said okay, I'll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they've got Power Girl [after Marvel had introduced Power Man ]. Oh, boy. How unfair. Following that initial Spider-Woman series, more followed. Volume two
1344-469: The original event. These tales include him receiving the Beyonder's power and creating "New Parker City", Spider-Man and the Thing spying on Dr. Doom, and a story featuring Spider-Man's suspicions concerning the Hulk. It was released in conjunction with Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet and Captain America & The Korvac Saga , similar self-contained, all-ages re-imaginations of past events, that appear to take place in their own separate continuities in
1392-409: The recommendation of one of several associate editors who each have responsibility for a fraction of the submitted manuscripts. Typical responsibilities of editors-in-chief include: Spider-Woman Spider-Woman is the code name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics . The first major version is Jessica Drew (and later impersonated by Veranke ),
1440-525: The remaining villains in a successful assault on the heroes and their base, which they bury under a mountain. After Thor and the Enchantress return from elsewhere, Thor vanishes trying to fight the villains. Doom also has Ultron kill Kang as payback. When the X-Men arrive to fight Magneto, they form an alliance but Wasp leaves. The Hulk is revealed to have saved everyone from the mountain. Thor also returns, having hidden his escape with lightning. The heroes find
1488-515: The return of the Marvel combatants. Immediate developments include: the Thing replaced by the She-Hulk in the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man has a new costume initially unaware that it is actually an alien symbiote (the symbiote would subsequently bond with journalist Eddie Brock , giving birth to the villain known as Venom ), Colossus ends his romantic relationship with a heartbroken Kitty Pryde , and
Secret Wars - Misplaced Pages Continue
1536-517: The role in the early 1980s and returned to her mantle by the late 2000s. Julia Carpenter is the second Spider-Woman, a former member of the Avengers and Omega Flight , and also used the Arachne and Madame Web mantles. Mattie Franklin briefly impersonated the then-retired Spider-Man before receiving her own short-lived comics series as well as also appeared in Alias #16–21, before going on to appear in
1584-465: The same creative team as Volume 5. This volume saw her wearing the same costume as in Volume 5, but now she was pregnant and working as a private investigator. In October 2020, Spider-Woman #5, the fifth issue of Volume 7, being written by Karla Pacheco, marked the 100th issue of the title and Marvel celebrated the occasion with a special giant-sized issue. Jessica Drew is the original Spider-Woman who left
1632-522: The second major version is Julia Carpenter , and the third major version is Mattie Franklin . Several alternate reality incarnations of the character have additionally received notoriety, including the Ultimate Spider-Woman , Ashley Barton , and Gwen Stacy . Marvel Comics ' then-publisher Stan Lee said in 1978, shortly after Spider-Woman's debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Feb. 1977) and
1680-412: The standard "Marvel Adventures" manner. The four-issue miniseries Deadpool 's Secret Secret Wars was released during the 2015 Secret Wars event . It retold the events of the original miniseries from Deadpool's point of view and used retroactive continuity to fix inconsistencies with later stories. In the end, the Wasp accidentally caused everyone to forget his involvement in the storyline, creating
1728-410: The start of the character's 50-issue self-titled series ( cover-dated April 1978 – June 1983), the character originated because, I suddenly realized that some other company may quickly put out a book like that and claim they have the right to use the name, and I thought we'd better do it real fast to copyright the name. So we just batted one quickly, and that's exactly what happened. I wanted to protect
1776-618: The storyline and character design, including making Doctor Doom and Iron Man's armor more high-tech to appeal to kids. They also requested new fortresses, vehicles, and weapons to increase play value and promote playsets. Shooter believed he was the only one capable of writing the series. Crossover titles include The Amazing Spider-Man #249–252, The Avengers #242–243, Captain America #292, The Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #294–295, Iron Man #181–183, The Thing #10–22, Fantastic Four #265, Marvel Team-Up #141, The Uncanny X-Men , #178–181. and Thor #341. In 1987, Thor #383
1824-562: The various universes. The core limited series was nine issues long, and ran for eight months, ending in January 2016. One of the core miniseries, Ultimate End , had ended the Ultimate Marvel imprint after 15 years at the time. Ultimate End is written by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley , the team that began the Ultimate Marvel universe with Ultimate Spider-Man . In Spider-Man: Life Story , which depicts an alternate version of
1872-435: The villain's base, Hulk and Thor show Spider-Man an alien device that they have used to recreate their clothing. Spider-Man finds and wears his black costume for the first time. Galactus begins to devour the planet. Mr. Fantastic suggests they let him, then the Beyonder will take away his eternal hunger, but Captain America and everyone else convinces him against it. Back at the heroes' base, Doctor Doom uses Klaw's body to create
1920-522: Was Spider-Man, who received the Venom symbiote/black costume like his Earth-616 counterpart. A film titled Avengers: Secret Wars is in development and will be released on May 7, 2027. It will be the sixth Avengers film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . The mobile game Marvel Realm of Champions is loosely based on the 1984 Secret Wars storyline. In 2016, a novelization of Secret Wars
1968-649: Was a miniseries published from November 1993 through February 1994; volume three was published from July 1999 through December 2000; and volume four, featuring Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman, was published from November 2009 through May 2010. Volume Five ran from November 2014 through the fall of 2015, featuring Jessica Drew as Spider-Woman. In the March 2015 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 #13, Jessica boasts "I have never needed rescuing. Ever. See my wiki entry." In November 2015, Spider-Woman Vol. 6 launched as part of Marvel's All-New, All-Different event with
Secret Wars - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-594: Was a young troubled girl, who upon gaining her powers killed her classmates, who had bullied her in the past. However, her superhuman powers allowed her to be traced back to a device which the Icarus One astronauts brought back from the Moon. Running away from home, she was captured by the Blur and turned over to Nick Fury 's S.H.I.E.L.D. Thanks to an electroshock collar, she has been prevented from leaving, though she appears to be making
2064-539: Was presented as a previously untold tale from Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars . A cosmic entity, the Beyonder , becomes fascinated with Earth's superheroes in the mainstream Marvel universe . He creates " Battleworld ", a planet in a distant galaxy, and stocks it with weapons and technology. He teleports groups of heroes and supervillains against their will to Battleworld, declaring: "I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of
2112-641: Was published by Harry "A" Chesler 's Dynamic Comics in 1944. She was Helen Goddard , a non-superpowered crime-fighter who made her first and only appearance in the Golden Age comic book Major Victory #1. In the unified Marvel 2099 reality of Earth-2099, a Spider-Woman with the real name of Sivern Dru appears as a member of the 2099 version of the New Avengers . She comes from an as-yet-unidentified alien species. There are several alternate versions of Mary Jane Watson known as Spider-Woman. The first version
2160-456: Was published by Marvel. Written by Dwayne McDuffie and illustrated by Scott Kolins, it referred back to the original Secret Wars event with a similar premise as Beyonder again transported superheroes and supervillains of Earth to fight on Battleworld. Spider-Man & the Secret Wars , a Marvel Adventures all-ages non-canonical miniseries, was released in 2010. It tells the story from Spider-Man's perspective and features major discrepancies with
2208-414: Was published, with the Beyonder visiting Earth and having a tie-in with almost every Marvel comic book written at the time. Marvel published a third Secret Wars tale written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Keith Pollard within two issues of the Fantastic Four series: the " Secret Wars III " story in Fantastic Four #318–319 (September–October 1988). In 2006, a six issue series entitled Beyond!
2256-503: Was taken away by Nova . He kills all the heroes with a bolt when they refuse to join him and attack. Zsaji revives them at the cost of her life, and they battle Klaw and monsters he created, including Ultron, while Doom's powers go out of control thanks to Klaw convincing him to use them again. While Wasp destroys Ultron and the others take care of the rest, the Beyonder, who had possessed Klaw, takes back his powers and teleports Doom and Klaw away. After Zsaji's funeral, everyone finds out that
2304-498: Was written by Alex Irvine . Editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief ( EIC ), also known as lead editor or chief editor , is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members and managing them. The term is often used at newspapers , magazines , yearbooks , and television news programs. The editor-in-chief
#141858