This year’s company wide crossover from Marvel is upon us, but the question remains just how relevant and important it will be.  Company wide crossovers started in the 1980s as they drew together large segments of shared universes (or multiverses) and even in certain cases helped to clarify the mess that was continuity.  This year’s Secret Wars is a bit of an oddity, specifically because it shares the name of a crossover that came before, specifically that of the first Marvel crossover.  This crossover is strange as it also covers the problem of Marvel continuity.  As stated, part of the basis for many crossovers is to help clarify continuity, but this has been a bigger factor at DC than at Marvel.  After all DC was the early comic giant that gobbled up many of its early competitors and thus had to deal with how to integrate the likes of Shazam and Captain Atom.  Marvel has never really had this problem as it maintained its own continuity, but in recent years this has spread most notably with the introduction of the Ultimate universe.

It is in one such universe where the entire action in this issue takes place.  Featuring a lot of the big names from Marvel (though also missing a few notables), this universe has to fight to survive in the face of an interdimensional incursion from an alternate Earth.  As Marvel is known to do it takes a more scientific approach to the threat, or at least what passes for comic book science.  The characters that this focuses around are those with the great mind power to solve such a crisis, and as they struggle against an unknown threat they at least put up a good fight.  There is a little bit of the bigger picture to tie this together, as a few notable powerhouses watch on, but mostly this is the fight of this universe against that of another.

There are still a lot of answers left for this series.  This first issue introduced what the overall tone of the series will likely be, but offered little more of substance other than a long action sequence.  It is not a bad introduction to the threats ahead but neither is it very descriptive of what is to follow.  As far as being a crossover it is therefore pretty much of a blank slate, which could be good as crossovers tend towards being disappointing as opposed to being monumental.  For now it is “wait and see” but at least the ride for the first issue was entertaining enough.

Story: Jonathan Hickman  Art: Esad Ribic
Story: 8.2  Art: 8.2   Overall: 8.2  Recommendation: Read