SECRET WARS (1984) - The Comic Book That Changed Marvel Forever

In this video, Owen explains the history behind the 1984 comic book, Secret Wars, the original idea behind Jim Shooter's ambitious crossover and how it changed the landscape of the Marvel Comics universe for generations.

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▶ Special thanks to Aeric Azana and For Every Kind of Geek for providing additional voiceover.

▶ Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:56 - A War Like No Other
6:10 - A World Shaking Battle
10:30 - The War Is Over
12:41 - Conclusion
16:03 - Outro

▶ Music Used:

#SecretWars #Marvel #ComicBooks

[OwenLikesComics]

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[ewduke]

As a child of the 80s, I'll never forget the anticipation for every single issue. great memories.

[aztektheultimatewoman]

I met Jim Shooter at a convention a few years back. He signed an issue of Secret Wars for me. Seemed like a nice guy.

[owensreviews]

I remember when the 90s Spider-Man cartoon did an adaptation of this storyline for its last season. Super excited to see what you’ve got in store for us with this one.

[LowellLucasJr.]

Secret Wars! That Time Spidey whooped the X-Men til Professor X made him forget and precursor to the Infinity Gauntlet! Plus, it's kinda funny seeing Cap and Human Torch work together as they'd later share the same actor years later!

[GamingintheAM]

There's something wholesome about Jim Shooter writing the story himself because he didn't want the Marvel writers to foster jealousy among each other and he figured "I'm the boss, they all hate me anyway."

[postoffice]

The Secret Wars was massive. I still have the original 12 issue run from 1984-85 stored away. The sequel, Secret Wars II, ran for 9 issues and apparently not remembered as fondly as its predecessor. Not only that, this series finally ends all arguments as to who is the baddest Marvel villain ever....and mantle goes to Doctor Doom (sorry, Thanos!) Great synopsis.

[Tymbus]

As you mention, Shooter had worked for DC for over a decade before going to Marvel so "Crisis on Infinite Earths" may have been an influence BUT DC had been having three issue "Crisis" events in the JLA almost every year!

[AceMcSchly]

Really miss when marvel comics looked liked this, so colorful and vibrant.

[Atimix]

Dude this was the first time I’ve watched a video on the secret wars comic run that actually explains what happens coherently. Genuine thank you.

[daelen.cclark]

For all the issues Jim Shooter has, he knew how to run a comic company pretty damn well.

[mattiesavannahpahl]

Secret Wars was always my favorite set of Spider-Man animated episodes! Looking forward to learning bout the comic

[fitelite]

Oh yeah. This is 100% the direction the MCU is going for the next End Game type Avengers movie at the end of phase 6.

Spiderverse, Venomverse, the X-men, and the young and regular avengers vs literally all the other villians with Galactus and Dr.Doom being at the fore front of the charge for the villians. And Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie leading the heroes

[theycallmerisky]

Duude did loki set up secret wars? If soo is Dr. Doom gonna be the next Thanos?? 👀

[eduardoruiz]

Now I’ll forever wonder what would’ve happened if Claremont or Miller had been given the writing duties on Secret Wars

[toshibavoodoo]

This series got me into COMICs! Buddy loaned me the series and was blown away!!

[alexandrefrauches]

Even though I think the Hickman's version is far superior, the classic Secret Wars still alot of fun. I remember being introduce to the event after watching it's adaptation from Spider Man TAS. Interesting enough, much like in the event was crossover between many heroes from different comic books, the Spider man TAS version was crossover between heroes from the Marvel animated series at the time (Spider man, Lizard and Black cat from Spider man TAS, Iron Man from Iron Man TAS, Storm from X-men TAS and Fantastic Four from their own animated series).

[dominoprzybilski]

Secret Wars is a fun read. Nice video!

[LowellLucasJr.]

Without the Secret Wars there' d be no Symbiote...and without the Symbiote there'd be Brock/Venom! Without either of those...Sony wouldn't have much to market...

[axldinosaur]

I really enjoy pausing videos like this every couple of seconds to read the panels.