Interlude: Secret Wars (2015-2016)

This is it! Secret Wars! Marvel’s most ambitious event of all-time was a love letter from writer Jonathan Hickman to the history of the Marvel Universe, as well as an homage to DC’s classic Crisis on Infinite Earths. There are a few things you should know about this event:

  • It was built up to for years. Most directly in Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers runs, but seeds were even laid, I imagine, as far back Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four. ( I say “I imagine” because I haven’t personally read his FF run, but as prominently as Reed Richards feeds into everything and knowing how Hickman writes, I’m pretty confident in my statement nonetheless.) Anyway, I have not listed all of that as required reading in this Order, because you came here to read about the X-Men. But Hickman is a fantastic writer and I can personally recommend reading his entire Avengers/New Avengers run before this if you are up for it. It is fantastic and will only improve your enjoyment of this event. That said, if you only read the issues of that run that I have included in the last few eras of the Order, you should still have enough to understand and enjoy sufficiently.
  • When I said the event was like a love letter to the history of the Marvel Universe, that wasn’t just because of Hickman’s writing. It’s also because of a special feature this event has that we have never seen before in a Marvel event: Battleworld/Warzones. Basically, there is a planet pieced together out of alternate realities. Some of those realities have always been considered “alternate,” like the Age of Apocalypse, House of M, or the Ultimate Universe. Many others were sort of “What-if” style realities in which a major event from the past had gone a different way. The Order mainly focuses on X-Men-centric realities (or warzones), with only three exceptions – but there are many, many more.
  • None of the Battleworld series except for Seige are necessary to understand the main event. But a lot of them are fun!
  • Like Infinity Gauntlet years before, this is a huge, universe-shaking event that doesn’t involve the X-Men much at all (outside of Battleworld realities).
  • I’ve been describing this series as a Marvel reboot because that’s how it was sold to everyone and that does seem to be what it was meant to be – though Marvel probably never meant it to be a reboot to the extent that DC’s Crisis or Flashpoint were, no matter what they said. That said, one of the biggest disappointments Marvel has been responsible for in the last decade, in my opinion, is that within two-three years after this event, very few, if any, major consequences remained in place. I say that here to prepare you for the disappointment. Also because the X-Men experienced less major upheaval even directly after the event than some other heroes did.

So with all that said, WHY is this here? More importantly, why have I spent so much time building up to it? The Infinity Gauntlet interlude didn’t require me to weave in a bunch of Avengers and New Avengers issues with our X-Men reading to prepare for it. It was pretty much it’s own event – you could skip it if you really wanted to (though I obviously wouldn’t recommend that). But we’ve put in work to get here. WHY? Two reasons:

  1. Despite the lack of X-Men and long-lasting consequences, this event is still the biggest Marvel event of all time. It did matter at the time.
  2. It’s EXCELLENT. One of Marvel’s greatest events. They may have dropped the ball later on with how they dealt with the ramifications, but the event itself is magical. No comprehensive history of any major hero or team from the Marvel Universe would ever be truly complete without it. So don’t complain – read the thing. You’ll thank me.
  • Secret Wars #2
  • Years of Future Past (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • Years of Future Past (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • Years of Future Past (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • Years of Future Past (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Years of Future Past (Secret Wars: Warzones) #5
  • Inferno (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • Inferno (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • Inferno (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • Inferno (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Inferno (Secret Wars: Warzones) #5
  • X-Tinction Agenda (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • X-Tinction Agenda (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • X-Tinction Agenda (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • X-Tinction Agenda (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Infinity Gauntlet (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • Infinity Gauntlet (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • Infinity Gauntlet (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • Infinity Gauntlet (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Infinity Gauntlet (Secret Wars: Warzones) #5
  • Age of Apocalypse (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • Age of Apocalypse (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • Age of Apocalypse (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • Age of Apocalypse (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Age of Apocalypse (Secret Wars: Warzones) #5
  • E is for Exticntion (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • E is for Extinction (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • E is for Extinction (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • E is for Extinction (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • House of M (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • House of M (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • House of M (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • House of M (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Civil War (Secret Wars: Warzones) #1
  • Civil War (Secret Wars: Warzones) #2
  • Civil War (Secret Wars: Warzones) #3
  • Civil War (Secret Wars: Warzones) #4
  • Civil War (Secret Wars: Warzones) #5
  • Secret Wars Journal #1 (Story: “We Worship What We Don’t Understand”)
  • Secret Wars Journal #4 (Story: “Another Last Stand”)
  • Secret Wars #3
  • Secret Wars #4
  • Secret Wars #5
  • Siege #1
  • Siege #2
    • Star Lord and Kitty Pryde #1
    • Star Lord and Kitty Pryde #2
    • Star Lord and Kitty Pryde #3
  • Siege #3
  • Siege #4
    • Secret Wars #6
  • Secret Wars #7
  • Secret Wars #8
  • Secret Wars #9

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