Secret Wars

Secret Wars literally pulled together the most popular of the many superheroes of the Marvel Universe, pitting them against their most dangerous enemies in an all-out battle that was meant to be the ultimate battle of good vs. evil. It introduced an enigmatic, all-powerful, godlike character called the Beyonder to the Marvel Universe. At the beginning of the story, the Beyonder had apparently been observing the events of the Marvel Universe for some time. For reasons of its own, it snatched about two-dozen of Earth's greatest heroes away from their lives, along with a similar amount of their greatest super-foes, transporting them all to "Battleworld", a planet in a distant galaxy created by the Beyonder for just this purpose, stocking it with various types of alien technology and weaponry. He then issued the following message: "I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!"

Several battles between superheroes and supervillains were fought, at one point the mutant X-Men leaving the side of the heroes to form a 3rd, neutral faction and the planet-consuming Galactus, claiming allegiance to no one, representing his "own" side. The tide of the war turned in favor of one side to the other. Even the Beyonder found itself caught up in a battle for its life, as Doctor Doom temporarily stole his vast power. In the end, the heroes won and everyone returned to Earth (though the Thing remained behind for another year, starring in his own comic book series at the time).

Unlike DC's 12-issue epic, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Secret Wars had few long-lasting repercussions in the Marvel Universe. Thing remained on the Beyonder's world, so She-Hulk joined the Fantastic Four in his place, a couple new supervillainesses (Titania and Volcana) were created, and Spider-Man used some of the alien technology on the planet to create a new costume, which later evolved into the supervillain Venom, but otherwise Secret Wars is seen as merely an entertaining diversion from the long, drawn-out plots and subplots of the various Marvel comic book series. Nevertheless, the series was an enormous hit for Marvel, breaking sales records for monthly comic book series of the time.

Marvel Comics also began its series of yearly, company-wide "crossover epics" with Secret Wars. It followed up the story with Secret Wars II a mere few months later. Soon, both Marvel and DC settled down into a yearly routine of having one "epic" crossover series (sometimes even more than one), classified under such storylines as The Fall of the Mutants, Mutant Massacre, Acts of Vengeance, The Infinity War, and Heroes Reborn.

Cast of Characters

Good Guys

• Spider-Man
• Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic,Human Torch, Thing)
• The X-Men (Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler)
• The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man (Jim Rhodes), Thor, Captain Marvel [the second Marvel Universe incarnation], The Wasp, Hawkeye)
• The Incredible Hulk
• She-Hulk
• Spider-Woman
• Magneto (by virtue that his activities are directed at aiding an oppressed minority rather than his own gain)
  

  Bad Guys

• Doctor Doom
• Enchantress
• Galactus
• Ultron
• Doctor Octopus
• Molecule Man
• Absorbing Man
• Wrecking Crew
• Volcana
• Titania
• Kang the Conqueror
• Klaw
• The Lizard