In Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars – Battleworld #1, we’re getting an untold story from the classic crossover, written by Tom DeFalco with art by Pat Olliffe.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars – Battleworld #1 Review:
Head back to the ’80s with this story set between panels as Spider-Man goes to get a snack, and instead ends up falling through different dimensions on Battleworld.
Host Pete LePage thought this was a good Secret Wars book, but a “great Spider-Man book… Right now Spider-Man is not enjoyable for me. So this was a great little vacation from Spider-Man that I got to go on. I love him in the black suit… He was quippy, and not angry. He was it was just a fun Spider-Man.”
LePage laughed out loud several times reading the book, and felt it was nice to get back to some classic “fighting and quipping.”
Alex Zalben noted that he felt, “It is interesting to throw it back to a time when an emotional hook wasn’t quite the thing.” For him, that was a little bit of a stopping point with the book, as Spider-Man’s main motivation is that he’s falling through dimensions and fighting people. “There’s no real emotional driver for him to go on this journey, necessarily.”
He was generally fine with that, though, as the book is still “fun to read.” At the same time as the book is a throwback, it also winks to things that have happened in the intervening years, like the dense continuity that has developed around Spider-Man’s black costume. “If you’re looking for an old-school book set during Secret Wars, this is fun times,” Zalben concluded.
Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars – Battleworld #1 Official Synopsis:
AFTER NEARLY FORTY YEARS, THE MYSTERIES OF THE SECRET WARS DEEPEN! Get ready for an ALL-NEW cataclysmic battle from when SPIDER-MAN first got his ALIEN COSTUME, when a mysterious being called the BEYONDER assembled super heroes and villains from Earth to do battle on a patchwork planet – yes, witness now an untold adventure set during the original SECRET WARS!
MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS set the standard for Marvel Comics events (as well as action figures and the characters existing on the forefront of pop culture), and this new story will at last reveal some secret connections and MISSING CHARACTERS going back to the 1984 original series, just in time for its 40th Anniversary! What SECRET TEST are the BEYONDERS conducting…and how will SPIDER-MAN, the HUMAN TORCH and the whole cast determine the fate of the universe? (PLUS: Surprise super-villain appearances inside!)
