shhhhhh secret wars is the big marvel summer event of 2015

But the Richardses are in some sort of extrauniversal space that the time travel/reset didn't (imo) apply to. After a few minutes of pondering it all I just decide that Hickman is yanking my chain and I go on to other topics. What is interesting is that a few combined-universe characters know about the multiverse collapse, Battleworld, etc. Miles Morales...T'challa...Dr. Doom...who else?

xposts

Apparently the Ultimate Reed Richards survived this even though it looked like Molecule Man turned him into pizza slices? I read somewhere that he's appeared in some of the All-New Marvel comics. So presumably he would know that he's not living in his own universe anymore?

Don't think about it too much

Picturing Tuomas leaning on his stack of no-prizes, pondering

I can't help it!

One also has to wonder, if Franklin/Molecule Man had the power to create the multiverse again, why didn't they also recreate the Ultimate universe, instead of putting the surviving Ultimate characters in the 616 universe?

(xpost)

I'm sure they'll get around to it when it's rebootin' time again.

I hope the reboot takes place soon. I'm hoping for a third number one issue of A-Force and Weirdworld before twelve months have elapsed.

One of the plotlines of New Avengers is Ultimate Reed trying to work out why the world is suddenly different. And then over in the Ultimates, they're following up Bendis's "time is broken" thing that got forgotten about. Al is basically in crossover plot-patch-up mode. (He's good at it though.)

self-confident chill Victor Von Doom can only last so long

tried reading secret wars for the third time last night, simply uninterested. it's kinda garbage.

I was going to "ok, shakey" you, but you did try

multiple times! hickman's penchant for multiple blank pages bookended by reams of unrevealing dialogue did me in.

he's guilty of having dialogue or plot beats that only resonant two issues later

*resonate

Or two years later, as the case may be.

By Hickman's usual standards, SW is about as accessible as it gets.

I read Secret Wars but found it quite hard to follow. The most notable thing about it for me was that the characters kept doing this facial expression.

i liked his FF run just fine! Don't see why he got given the keys to the kingdom based on that though. Woulda much preferred, say, Remender's vision of a revamped Marvel world. Hickman's is so convoluted and presumes you know SO MUCH about continuity... which I do! It's still too much of a slog to have a go at. Plus it fucked up any number of perfectly good series by spiking them with universe killing continuity. Ant Man / Howard the Duck were just about at a solidclip and then this nonsense forces them to restart.

The writers would have known years in advance.

I thought his F4 was solid but at least the first half of Hickman's Avengers run seemed like an amalgam of already existing stories. Its pretty much a darker The Authority/Crisis story told with the Marvel characters. It would have been better to have used the actual existing Marvel cosmic cosmology instead of adding this whole other layer.

I agree that the Builders were an unnecessary addition, when Hickman could've used Celestials or something, but the rest of the story did use existing cosmology. Even the existence of multiple Beyonders was apparently established in some older story, though I've never read it. The only problem I had with it was that their increased power level and motivation for destroying the multiverse was never properly explained... Though I guess that was part of the concept: these are vast cosmic beings whose minds operate on a whole other level, so their motivations would be inexplicable to us.

Also, while I get it that the story Hickman wanted to tell eventually had to deal with the Living Tribunal in some way, I didn't like the idea that Beyonders fight it and beat it. IMO the whole idea of the Living Tribunal is cool in that he has the highest judgment in the entire Marvel universe, and everyone and everything else should acquiesce to that. If he's just a big cosmic guy you can fight, that kinda ruins the concept.

I think a better way of dealing with the question "what would Living Tribunal do?" would've been that he simply doesn't interfere. Since he represents the Marvel universe God, and the Marvel universe God are the people who write these comics, the Living Tribunal would know that the multiverse won't be destroyed permanently, so he doesn't have to do anything with the Beyonders. Or would that have been to meta?

Beyonders as the cosmic versions of The Punisher... who kill the Marvel universe

so what was good in the tie ins

Thors

xpost
I can barely remember any of them... A-Force and Thors were decent IIRC.

yep, A-Force and Thors. None of the others were/are necessary.

(And, strictly speaking, only Thors contained a plot element that had a material impact on the main story line so that's the only one I'd call "necessary". I did enjoy the team configuration of A-Force though and hope it leads to Nico becoming more prominent in the mainstream Marvel universe.)

Siege and Angela were both good.

E for Extinction was a fun take on Morrison's x-men

I read one issue of E for Extinction and wasn't really interested *shrug*

It took me a couple to get into it

Enjoyed Weirdworld too.

Weirdworld might have been my favourite,

weirdworld isn't the garth ennis island of the amazons masturbation fantasy is it?

oh nevermind, that's "where monsters dwell" and it's shit.

Weirdworld was the only one worth a toss.

Marvel's UK franchise Panini Comics repackage American serial comics in bumper 100 page comics. So the other day I picked up Avengers Universe #26, which contains Hickman's Secret Wars 1-3. On a quick skim it fairly incomprehensible to this casual reader - are there previous comics that might help me a bit (nb I don't really have the time to read a HUGE run of other Hickman comics etc)?

Time Runs Out, specifically the Avengers/New Avengers issues, probably

although I don't think Secret Wars 1 - 3 is particularly incomprehensible on its own -- it might just be that there are a lot of completely new situations that become clear as the series continues

or you could scroll up and find our summaries :)

There's years of Hickman preamble but his Avengers and New Avengers basically serve as the main prelude. But that's still like over 60 issues cumulatively.

actually, that may have been on a diff thread xp

ty, maybe I will just be more attentive reading the cheap comic I already bought

It's standalone but the first issue is kind of a fight scene clusterfuck, the second is just setup and the third is where stuff starts happening. If you're not a regular marvel reader it might also be confusing sorting the analogues from the actual earth-616 characters. So, er, you are correct - but I'd still say it's worth persevering.

Keeping up with the Marvel U is a full-time commitment with lots of unpaid overtime.

I'm not caught up to Secret Wars yet but based on what little I do know, it may be worth brushing up on the backstory of The Maker. And as far as I know, that's not actually a BM joke.

I lost track of Secret Wars about halfway, I think I rushed through the Avengers/New Avengers dual storylines too quickly (without reading all the other Marvel books) to really understand what was going on and then Secret Wars was a giant shitshow of delays and confusion.

are the compiled uk versions just thick floppies or are they square on the spine? would love big old floppy comps, easier to read than trades

Thick floppies with slightly stiffer card covers

I recently reread the Hickman stuff leading to Secret Wars, so I'll try to summarize the things you need to know to understand SW...
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(WARNING! Spoilers for Hickman's FF and Avengers runs!)
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Fantastic Four/FF
* Franklin Richards' reality-altering powers were been mentally locked away to prevent misuse, but an adult version of Franklin travels back from the future and helps his kid version to learn how to use his powers again. Kid Franklin creates a pocket universe where he and his best friend Artie have adventures. Adult Franklin says that kid Franklin's powers will soon be needed, though he doesn't explain what this refers to.
* Valeria Richards (an alternate universe version of the kid Reed and Sue lost during Byrne's run, who's now living in the 616 universe with the Richardses as her parents) manipulates things so that he will go to live in Latveria for some time, with Doom acting as her guardian. She and Doom bond. Val is already almost as intelligent as Reed, and it's expected she'll grow up to be smarter than him.

Avengers/Secret Avengers
* The Illuminati (Black Panther, Reed, Namor, Iron Man, Beast, Captain America, and Dr. Strange) discover "Incursions", events where two parallel universes clash, and both are destroyed. They are happening at a growing rate, and ultimately the entire multiverse will be annihilated, if the Incursions aren't stopped. The collision point between two universes are always their respective Earths.
* The Incursions start to threaten the 616 Earth too. The Illuminati manages to stop one of the Incursions, without destroying either Earth involved, by using the Infinity Gauntlet. But this destroys the Infinity Gems, so the same trick can't be done again. The Illuminati gradually start to realize the only certain way to stop an Incursion is to destroy either of the Earths involved, which will stop the collision, and both universes will be saved (except for the one destroyed Earth, of course).
* Captain America doesn't agree with the idea that in order to save the 616 universe the Illuminati would need to destroy parallel Earths and kill of their inhabitants. The rest of the Illuminati feel that Cap's resistance to this idea will hinder their plans to save the universe, so Strange erase Cap's memory, making it so that he doesn't remember anything about the Incursions at all.
* When the first Incursion on the 616 Earth happened, a woman named Black Swan jumped from the parallel Earth that was about to collide with its 616 counterpart and destroyed the parallel Earth, thus saving both universes. The Illuminati capture him and she tells them that she is a member of a larger group of Black Swans, who worship a deity named Rabum Alal. Their task, given to them by Rabum Alal, is to try to stop the Incursions by any means necessary.
* When the next Incursion threatens the 616 Earth, the Illuminati can't find it in their hearts to destroy a whole parallel Earth... Except for Namor, who has founded a new Illuminati-like group called the Cabal (which included people like Thanos and Black Swan). The Cabal destroys the parallel Earth, saves the 616 universe, and continues destroying other Earths any time an Incursion is about to happen.
* It is revealed that the Incursions are caused by the Beyonders, who are not from the Marvel multiverse but from beyond it, and want to destroy it as an experiment. The Beyonder seen in the original Secret Wars was merely a child version of these Beyonders, so they are extremely powerful. They go on to defeat Eternity and even the Living Tribunal, so it seems no one can save the multiverse.
* But then it's revealed that Rabum Alal is actually Dr. Doom! He has discovered that the Beyonders are using the Molecule Man as living weapon with which to destroy universes. They created the Molecule Man, made sure he is in every universe, and every one of these MMs are connected to each other via a psyhic link. However, this also means that MM knows what the Beyonders are doing, and he's not happy with it. He helps Doom to come up with a plan to defeat the Beyonders.
* Doom travels back in time and creates the multiversal cult of Rabum Alal. The Black Swans' task is to kill the Molecule Man of each universe before the Beyonders use him. This transfers the dead MM's power to the other MMs that are still left, or something like that (this bit is kinda unclear in the story).
* Meanwhile, Cap's memory has returned, and he's not happy to learn what the Illuminati have done. The Avengers are split into two groups: those lead by Reed, who think that the 616 universe need to be saved by any means necessary, and those lead by Cap, who feel sacrificing other Earths is immoral, and some other way of saving the multiverse must be found.
* The number of universes dwindles to just a handful, then just to two: the 616 universe and Ultimate universe. At this point Doom and the 616 Molecule Man launch an attack against the Beyonders. It all seems hopeless, but turns out they have a secret weapon, and the attack ends in a huge white blast. What the secret weapon is is not revealed in the issue where the attack happens, but it'll be revealed in a flashback in Secret Wars. The Beyonders are dead.
* At the same time, the Incursion between the final two Earths (616 and Ultimate) begins. The Ultimate Reed (who's essentially a villain) has also figured out what the Incursions are, and has been destroying other Earths to protect his own universe. Ultimate Reed tells Ultimate Nick Fury what is about to happen, and they figure out the people the Ultimate Earth need to attack the 616 Earth and destroy it, before the 616 folks do the same to them. The Cabal moves to the UItimate Earth, planning on destroying it.
* The Ultimate superheroes and SHIELD attack the 616 Earth and a war breaks out between the two. Meantime, Cap has found Iron Man, and he's pissed off about the whole Illuminati thing. As they are fighting each other, the Ultimate Earth's forces bomb NY, and the two are killed in the esplosions. Among other major superheroes, Thor was already killed earlier while trying to fight the Beyonders. That's why you don't see the 616 versions of Cap, Iron Man, or Thor in Secret Wars.
* Reed has asked Valerie to figure out how to stop the Incursions. She tells him they can't stop them, so they should start to think how to survive them. The Ultimate Reed has also come to the same conclusion as Val.