Secret Wars

First launched in 1984, this 12 issue mini-series was the great grandfather of all the myriad team ups, crossovers, and mega storylines that has struck the comic world. Conceived as a tool to launch a toy line it brought forth a new medium in comic story telling. For some this is probably the devil for all the things it has wrought in the Marvel Comic World...Secret Wars II, Mutant Massacre, Inferno, and of course Civil War (see previous rant on that!). Overall Secret Wars isn't too bad. It is kind of fun and takes you back to when comics certainly were more innocent. My guess is when Dark Knight Returns became the hit that it was it also caused a ripple in the comic world by making our heroes a bit darker...but I digress. The word that comes to mind for me is "campy"...Jim Shooter's dialogue is hilarious in parts especially spidey's quips. The amazing thing is how many elements grew out of this series...the biggest being spidey's black costume. Throw in that the Thing stay behind and she-hulk took over the roll of the big smasher for the fantastic four is pretty big. A reintroduction of spider-woman. The series certainly had its fair share of action although the whole Dr Doom beyonder thing didn't quite work out and the ending was a bit of a let down but overall I think the series certainly showed what a mega crossover could be like...