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Secret Wars #3: Review

Jun 2015
Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic

Story Name:

The Eye of Doom

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Secret Wars #3 Review by (June 6, 2015)
COMMENTS: Includes a one-page tribute to the late Herb Trimpe. REVIEW: Clearly this epic event can only be judged in its entirety so I won’t waste your time and ours by trying to review something this strange. Catch me when it’s over.


Secret Wars #3 Review by (June 6, 2015)
Drs Doom and Strange presumably got here via their confrontation with the Beyonders at the end of New Avengers #33. Molecule Man was with them there, but he's seen here as a large statue. I believe a later issue will explain. This issue makes it clear that only DrD and DrS and the inhabitants of the 2 escape craft survived the end of Marvel Earth and Ultimate Earth. Everyone else in Secret Wars and its tie-ins are either survivors of other Earths (which applies to most Battleworld zones and explains all the multiple versions of the same character) or created by Doom (which presumably applies to Susan Storm and her family). Note that this means none of our Libraries main characters have survived. I don't know what happened to Hulk, but Captain America and Iron Man went down fighting each other in Avengers #44. And Thor supposedly died with his team fighting the Beyonders in NAv#32. All of our secondary characters went too, except lady Thor. I don't think the Odinson survived as any of the current Thor corps. My guess is that they are inventions of Doom, rather than survivors of a planet of Thors. It should mean that the Spider-Man in Ultimate End is also an alternate, and therefore that applies to all his companions too. But they are certainly written there as though they *believe* they came from Marvel Earth or Ultimate Earth. However, as I commented in UE#1, there *are* discrepancies with the pre-SW versions. Doom says in this issue that the inhabitants of the zones don't remember their past before SW. But the UE characters do. And so I think do Arachnia's denizens in Spider-Verse. There are also holes in the theory that the zones are pieces of previous worlds. Planet Hulk's Greenland definitely conforms to that. But UE's Manhattan claims to be a combination of the cities from Marvel Earth and Ultimate Earth. And the Arachnia characters come from different Earths.

More BATTLEWORLDS tie-ins:- SIEGE #1-4 Abigail Brand runs a section of the Shield Wall, aided by Leonardo da Vinci (as in Jonathan Hickman's SHIELD series). Ms America has been banished here (from A-Force #1). Kang arrives with a warning that Thanos will destroy the wall within 3 weeks. So they start trying to figure out which of the many Thanos's in Battleworld it will be, while Ultron launches an all-out attack on the wall - his forces led by a robot Nick Fury. Until Kang takes Fury into the timestream and destroys him. Then the Earth-616 Thanos turns up. The Shield Wall turns out the be the Thing from the Fantastic Four which produced Dr Doom's Sue Storm. Thanos stirs him to revolt, and the wall goes to seek Doom, with the robots and zombies following. STAR-LORD & KITTY PRYDE #1-3 The real Star-Lord is hiding from Dr Doom since Secret Wars #4. He meets his love Kitty Pryde, but this version doesn't remember him and is working for Doom. They team-up to try and get a maguffin off Gambit, who captures them. Drax rescues them, and the maguffin turns out to be Rocket Racoon's tail. THORS #1-4 The Thor Corps versions of Ultimate Thor and Beta Ray Bill investigate why someone is murdering alternate versions of Jane Foster. Then BRB gets killed. Then the murderer runs out of Jane's and starts on Donald Blakes. UltThor brings homeless guy Loki in for questioning, and the answers aren't what he expected. And the unworthy Odinson gets involved. Rune Thor and Destroyer Thor have been killing Janes and Dons to keep the worlds before Battleworld secret. But the 616 female Thor (herself a Jane Foster) stirs up a revolt against Doom and leads them to Secret Wars #7. UltThor probably dies but his hammer flies to 616 Asgard.

ULTIMATE END #1-5 This isn't a 'last days of the Ultimate Universe' series. Instead we're in the Manhattan Zone of Battleworld which combines the Manhattans of both the Ultimate and Marvel Earths. Some heroes from both Universes seem to know what has happened because they managed to get themselves through the end of the Multiverse intact. (Or maybe things aren't what they seem because some of the Marvel heroes don't exactly match up with their current versions.) They discuss secret plans to 'fix' things. But then the Thors arrive (sensing a theme here?) to tell them to desist. But the 2 Tony Starks plan to continue in secret. And everybody tries to stop a fight between Ultimate Hulk and Marvel Hulk at Ryker's Island. This allows Ultimate Punisher to escape, kill Marvel Punisher and go on a spree. The 2 Iron Men break Marvel Banner out of SHIELD custody to help them. But the Starks fall out, precipitating all-out war between the heroes of 2 worlds. However that war is interrupted by Miles Morales calling all the heroes to fight Dr Doom. And they all die. Except Ultimate Spidey who wakes up in the new Prime Earth, with his friends and previously-dead mother.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Secret Wars #3 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

On Battleworld, Doctor Doom and Dr. Strange fill us in on how this universe came to be, that when everything fell apart the two of them created this world and determined that Doom should be its god and so Strange as sheriff concerns himself with all of the world’s problems, large and small—while Doom rules. The whole population accepts this, as they have no memories of any previous universes….

 

Dr Strange goes to Utopolis, the site of the crashed space vessel where the veteran Thor was killed (last issue); with the all-seeing eye he discovers that the craft is from another world. Strange dispatches the Thors to track the new arrivals then raises the fallen Thor as a sentinel. Strange then detects a stowaway aboard the ship: the Ultimate Universe’s Spider-Man (Miles Morales) who surprises Strange by remembering his past….

 

At Castle Doom, a conversation between Doom and his consort Susan Storm reveals that her rebel brother Jonathan was recreated by Doom as the sun for this world. Doom however, expresses second thoughts about being a god but Sue suggests he remove his mask and go among his people as a loving god….

 

Dr. Strange takes Spidey-Miles and the young Thor to the hidden Isle of Agamotto where he shows them a craft identical to the one that landed in Utopolis. Opening it reveals refugees from the 616 Universe: Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Thor (Jane Foster), Star-Lord, Reed Richards, Black Panther, and Cyclops who is now powered by the Phoenix Force. Strange explains to them that the universes ended eight years previously and their ship was discovered three years ago. What shocks them the most is the Doctor Doom is now god—and a very good one….

 

Thanos and the Cabal are camped out in the wilderness of Utopolis wondering where they will find answers to all their questions. The answers find them as the Thors arrive….



Esad Ribic
Esad Ribic
Ive Svorcina
Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Mr. Fantastic
Mr. Fantastic

(Reed Richards)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Star-Lord
Star-Lord

(Peter Quill)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)



> Secret Wars : Book info and issue index

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