Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Secret Wars #1 of 8
Marvel Comics
Hickman, Ribic & Svorcina
Secret Wars is here with a dense read that carries a five-dollar coverage charge. For the most part, the book ends both the Marvel and Ultimate Universes by issue's end, which sounds like a lot to cover in a single issue. However, it appears an awful lot has occurred prior to this issue that may not be required reading but would appear to have been very helpful. What you have is a comic that is not too new-reader friendly but is probably the payoff a reader of the regular Avengers title has been waiting for. This is an okay read.
I have a unique perspective coming into this issue. I haven't read a single Ultimate Universe comic in years. I am not reading any other Hickman Avengers comics. I didn't read the zero issue for this series that was part of free comic book day. In that regard, I would label myself as the casual reader. I found this to be a confusing comic book. Not that the plot was hard to follow but the characterizations. Marvel characters, like Reed Richards, seems to know the world is ending but is obsessed with saving people on his ark, especially his own family. The way it was presented he didn't seem too heroic. Other characters give off a very ugly side to their pending doom. However, the one-page sequence with the Punisher was fantastic, which makes some of the characterizations in-line with what you might expect. I'm not sure what to make of some of these versions of the characters. The book just felt foreign to me.
The comic has a lot of characters and the comic throws some out there that without the rundown in the front I would have never been able to identify. Whereas others, like Spider-Man, get such minor and odd roles. I wasn't sure what I was looking at when it came to Cyclops, which made me curious where all of the X-Men were. I can't say the large cast helped this comic too much. There just seemed to be too many characters doing little things, which made the focus of the book shift too rapidly.
The comic has a lot going for it. It truly has an epic presentation to it. It looks like a movie. When planets are blowing up, this is probably what you picture. There is a ton of madness. Hickman also has a nice narration to start and end the book. Its fairly depressing stuff and the narration captures that with a touch of beauty.
The artwork is very solid. The story allows for plenty of big panels with a lot happening on them. The artwork has a softer touch to the inks and colors but doesn't take away from the details. Much of the book has backgrounds and small pieces of action to fill out the pages. Overall, the book looks very sharp and takes on the 'event' level status.
Secret Wars has a lot of build-up. It appears to have a lot of prerequisite reading. A reader coming into this cold will have a lot of questions about the plot and won't find too many answers in this comic book. Readers of either Universe may miss some of the background on the intended characterizations. Overall, the book's goal was to kill off two worlds and it appears to have been successful in that regard. This is a decent read.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
