If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a bit of a run on Avengers-related material of late. And it’s no wonder.
The spring blockbuster film, Avengers: Age of Ultron just came away with $225 million in box office receipts during its opening weekend. With a big box of popcorn in my lap, I thought the flick was great. You can read our spoiler-free review of it right here.
Also, we’ve been more than a little focused on the final issues of Marvel Comics’ Avengers and New Avengers titles.
Why final issues?
Well, that’s all ‘cos of this week’s release of Secret Wars #1. Follow me after the jump for the scoop!
Secret Wars #1
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by: Esad Ribic
Published by: Marvel Comics
For about three years now, acclaimed writer Jonathan Hickman has been regaling readers with his Marvel Universe-shaking magnum opus. It’s a little like when you hear the words “everything he’s every done has been leading to this moment”.
And now we’re at “that moment”.
The Marvel Universe is made up of multiple, parallel, dimensions with multiple versions of the same heroes and villains. I know. It sounds a lot like the other major publisher, doesn’t it? Sometimes I wonder what came first and who influenced whom: writers and artists and the comic book multiverse or scientists and their string theory?
In any case, Hickman had has been working this plot for a long, long time – and, as a reader, it’s been an amazingly fun ride!
Here’s the short strokes: those parallel universe or smashing into each other in what’s called “incursion points” that just so happen to be earth. Either one earth is sacrificed in order to save the other or both earths (and dimensions) are annihilated. This has proved a troubling quandary for our Marvel heroes who have had to make impossible decisions.
And now, after the destruction of innumerable earths, with Secret Wars #1, there are only two left (the well-known Marvel Universe and the Ultimates Marvel Universe (for those keeping count). At all costs, both want to survive.
A war is brewing within the pages of Secret Wars, a book who borrows its title from a revered and important Marvel Comics miniseries form the 1980’s. This twenty-first century version should prove to be no less important, and, certainly, no less entertaining.
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up Secret Wars #1!
