Marvel Comic Super Heroes Secret Wars

Jim Shooter (w), Mike Zeck, Bob Layton (p), John Beatty, Jack Abel, Mike Esposito (i)

From the Cover: "It's the Big One True Believers! The fate of the entire Marvel Universe hangs in the balance as all of Earth's greatest super heroes face their deadliest foes on the mysterious planet known as Battleworld!
"The First mega-crossover of it's kind, Secret Wars still stands as a milestone in the comic-book industry"

What it is: It was Marvel Comic's way of marketting a toy line. Yes, a toy line. The nerve.
Ok, but the story is this a group of heroes (Avengers, Fantastic Four sans Invisible Woman, X-Men, and Spider-Man) and a group of villians (Galactus, Dr.Doom, Magneto, Absorbing Man, the Wrecking Crew, Enchantress, Molecule Man) get brought together by the mysterious Beyonder to fight... to the death! The Beyonder shows his power, makea a planet out of pieces of other planets, and offers the victor, basically, anything they want.
And so, they fight it out. Boy, do they. People die, they don't die, they die again... wait, they don't. Alliances shift, teams kinda change, and things will be confusing.
Did I mention they fight?

What I think: The story is almost pointless and confusing. Jim Shooter tries to write this epic story, but everything comes off as an exaggeration. Everything is beyond larger than life, and just scaled beyond any reasonable point. Is this excess an 80's thing? And maybe that could work, but the artists don't seem to be able to convey an epic scale. The fights don't seem to be on a big enough level, and the detail is basically lacking where there should be plenty. Really, at this time Marvel Comics had plenty of writer/artist teams better suited for a comic event like this (Claremont/Cockran come to mind), but I guess everyone else was busy.
And if you think about it, look why DC Comic's 1st Crisis worked, and why Marvel's Inifinty Gauntlet worked: you had artists and writers who could go epic. For a comic event that is supposed to draw in new readers and (*sigh*) launch a toy line you NEED to bring your best guys to the plate. Instead we get the B-Team at best.
And when it is all said and done nothing major really happens that changes the Marvel Universe. Some small ones, sure, but nothing big time.

Final Word: Do you buy this or pass by it? That's the question, really. Is this comic book series/graphic novel worth it? I mean, the biggest thing in is (and I'm sure everyone knows by now) is the origin of Spider-Man's original black costume. Everything else in this book just sets up stuff that happens in the other comics. Like Thing out and She-Hulk in the Fantastic Four. Or Colossus breaking up with Kitty Pryde. Or, well, not much more.
What it boils down to is if you have the comics of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, and X-Men from that time period, but not the Secret Wars series, and you've always wondered what happened then buy this to fill in the gaps.
If you're a comic book history buff and always wanted to read this (like me) pick it up.
However if you're looking for a good read with awesome art, move on trooper move on. There are far better graphic novels to pick up, especially considering the price tag of $29.99 on this one

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