After a series of fairly mediocre events from the Big Two…..Marvel kicked off Secret Wars earlier this year with Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribic teaming up to create the Universe-altering mini series.
The core title remains one of my favourite reads whenever it hits the stands which is all the more surprising as I haven’t been the biggest fan of Hickman in the past. That being said he’s managed to bring a story with significant scale to it and pulled together a phenomenal roster of characters which are as we know them but equally different.
The Ribic visuals are key in emphasizing that scale with just as much input being added by colourist Ive Svorcina who completes an impressive creative team. Then there’s the Alex Ross covers which are just glorious. Originally set to be an 8-issue run it’s been extended to 9 but delays have disrupted some of the momentum that had been built up in those first few issues of the series. A sea of tie-ins added what they could but were really a mix of hits or misses and could never really come close to the quality the main title has (with a few exceptions) but the main title looks to be shaping the Marvel Universe for the future and this could well become just as significant as the previous Secret Wars events. We’ll see how this finishes up early in 2016 with issue #9.
G-Man