Summary
From the moment it was released back in 2015, Marvel’sSecret Wars, written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Esad Ribic, signified nothing less than a seismic shift in the history of Marvel Comics.Secret Wars(borrowing its title from the1984 original run) served as the climactic conclusion to Hickman’s long-runningThe AvengersandThe New Avengersstorylines. The events of Hickman’s momentous miniseries effectively ended the Marvel universe as fans knew it, and reset the modern canon of Marvel Comics. An early panel inSecret Warsreads: The Marvel Universe 1961-2015, The Ultimate Universe 2000-2015.
SinceDisneyacquired21st Century Fox, fans have wondered how Marvel Studios will introduce all the newly available characters and intellectual properties that were previously locked under the Fox banner, into the ongoingMCUtimeline. Marvel has announcedmyriad of upcoming projectsfor Phases 5 and 6, one of which being the long-anticipated big screen adaptation ofSecret Wars,Avengers: Secret Wars.Kevin Feige, and theRusso Brothers(who are set to direct bothAvengers: DoomsdayandAvengers: Secret Wars), are aiming to tell their own version of the iconic comic book storyline, while simultaneously integrating the deep roster of characters that Disney acquired for them via the 21st Century Fox deal.
WhenSecret Warsbegins, the multi-verse is already collapsing. The story opens during the incursion event between the only two remaining universes in all existence: Earth 616 (Marvel Prime Universe) and Earth-1610 (Marvel’s Ultimate Universe). The MCU timeline has beenconfirmed as taking place on Earth 616. An incursion event, asMister Fantastic(John Krasinski) explains toDr. Strange(Benedict Cumberbatch) inDr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, “occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes, and they collide, destroying one or both entirely.”
Nowfive phasesand almost twenty years deep into the MCU, on the brink of a new era, Hickman’s massive, multi-versal saga could be the perfect blueprint for how Marvel could conceivably do both.Secret Warsweaves together nearly every major character that Marvel is looking to introduce into the MCU. Including but not limited to: theX-Men,The Fantastic Four,Miles Morales Spider-Man, and, of course,Dr. Doom.
Battleworld and God Doom
It is revealed early in theSecret Warscomic that a mysterious, omnipotent race of beings known asthe Beyonders, who manipulate the multiverse from behind the curtain of reality, are in fact responsible for the rapid collapse of the multiverse. As the incursion event took place, Dr. Doom, stood before the Beyonders at the end of all things, accompanied only byMolecule Manand Doctor Strange, and challenged the all-powerful beings for supremacy. After facing down the Beyonders, and effectively “saving” existence, Doom, or God Doom as he is now referred to, sets about gathering the shattered chunks of the last two universes, and reshaping them into a giant, patchwork realm of separate kingdoms, known as Battleworld.
With power akin to a god at his fingertips, Doom recreates the world in his own image. His high citadel of Doomgard, floats perpetually above Battleworld, a personal army ofThorsdefend and serve him at his beck and call, the world-eating titan himself,Galactus, stands guard over his mighty fortress of Castle Doom. Doom fashions his throne out of the world tree Yggdrasil, from which he hands out judgment to his kneeling subjects, banishing anyone who displeases him to a virtual death sentence into the dead lands that lie beyond The Shield; the great wall that bisects the lower half of God Doom’s domain. Battleworld is a vast setting, comprised of forty-one different regions carved from the scraps of Earth 616 and Earth 1610 including (Egyptia, The Monarchy of M, Higher Avalon, K’un Lun etc.). So vast, in fact, that Hickman’s comic doesn’t even visit half of the dominions that are numbered and identified in the official map of Battleworld. Battleworld’s sovereign territories are run by barons, demagogues, and warlords from both the major Marvel Comics timelines.
A New Era for the MCU?
There are many clear differences between Hickman’s timeline and the current state of the MCU timeline. For one, Thanos and his cadre of villains known as the Cabal, play a major role in Hickman’s narrative. The MCU version of Thanos (at least in Universe 616) is dead. There are also many consequential events that were seemingly set in motion during phases 4 and 5. Did Dr. Strange trigger the incursion event while dreamwalking inDr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?Will the events ofDeadpool and Wolverine,Lokiseasons one and two, andSecret Invasionsomehow contribute to bringing about the eventual collapse of the multiverse? With the recent announcement ofRobert Downey Jr.’s casting as Dr. Doom, one can easily start to picture RDJ sitting upon the throne of Yggdrasil and commanding a room of cowering subjects. But when the mask comes off, how will they address the obvious resemblance thatVictor von Doomhas toTony Starkfrom Earth-616?
Will Dr. Strange serve as Doom’s sheriff and right-hand man in Battleworld as he does in the comic? Will the twisted Ultimate Universe version of Reed Richards (aka the Maker) make an appearance inAvengers: DoomsdayorThe Fantastic Four: First Steps? If so, will Marvel cast yet another actor in that role? The Dr. Strange Incursion event stuff? Thecharacter of Molecule Manis literally foundational to the very concept of Battleworld. As of now, Marvel has made no official confirmation of the inclusion of the character in Phases 5 or 6. As much as the MCU has prided itself on balancing the telling of multiple storylines at once, an adaptation of Hickman’sSecret Warswould be a more expansive and complex endeavor by several orders of magnitude.
Aside from the plot, characters, and sheer number of locations, how will the overall tone of Hickman’s writing influence the next phases of the MCU, if at all? The world Hickman creates is often grim, mature, genuinely epic, and almost Shakespearean in its style of character drama. Of course, even during Hickman’s run, the Spider-men are always show up to lend some much-needed levity to an otherwise quite dramatic story. But with the stakes being nothing short of universal throughoutSecret Wars, it seems hard to imagine there will be much room for the “quippiness” that has defined so much of the MCU stylistically and tonally thus far. Are Feige and co truly ready to strike that kind of gravely emotional tone? The answers to nearly all of these questions about the future of the MCU, still remain unclear. But during this moment of unprecedented uncertainty, the brain trust at Marvel Studios could rely on the rock-solid blueprint of Hickman’s seminal comic, and use it as a guiding light as they transition into a new epoch of the MCU in phases five and six.
