Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Secret Wars II - the crossovers

Given the success of the original Secret Wars series, it's not surprising that a sequel quickly followed. Having previously taken the heroes to a far off place to encounter a fantastical being, it was only natural that this time the reverse would happen and the fantastical being would come from that far off place to encounte the heroes on their home territory. And as a way to boost sales right across the line, the series would have tie-in issues in just about all the line. (Once again this is something that both Marvel and DC did at about the same time. Since DC only started adding tie-ins to Crisis on Infinite Earths midway through the run I'm guessing Marvel decided on this first.) Fortunately, unlike some later crossovers, Secret Wars II only dipped in and out of individual series, rather than the later practice of hooking an individual book into a bigger event for months on end.

Once again the series has yet to be collected in its own right in the Essentials, though issue #4 can be found in Essential Dazzler volume 2 and a handful of the crossover tie-ins can be found in various other Essential volumes. However it's had other reprintings, the two main ones at the moment being a tradepaperback carrying just the main series and a huge Marvel Omnibus edition carrying virtually the entire crossover. The full list of the crossover, in the order of the Omnibus edition, is as follows:
Omitted are:
  • Rom #72
  • Micronauts #16
This is due to Marvel having lost the rights for these two toy tie-in series.

In later years a few additional comics would serve as additional tie-ins, including:
  • Fantastic Four #316
  • Fantastic Four #317
  • Fantastic Four #318
  • Fantastic Four #319
  • Quasar #8
The Marvel Omnibus edition collects all of these as well. The inclusion of the Quasar issue is a surprise because it's actually a follow-up to the original Secret Wars series, in which the temporary enhancements to Iron Man's armour take on a life of their own. For that matter the Fantastic Four issues are part of a storyline actually called "Secret Wars III".

However the Omnibus only includes reduced versions of the first few pages of:
  • Deadpool Team Up #1
Well this issue was mocking the tendency for inconsequential tie-ins to big crossover events. Only the first few pages are set at the time and see Deadpool encountering the Beyonder; the rest is set years later.
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