Secret Wars (1984) Reading Order

Overview

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars is a Marvel Comics company-wide crossover event, the first of its kind. It involves an incredibly powerful and enigmatic being, the Beyonder, bringing the major heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe to a newly created planet, called Battleworld. There, the Beyonder demands that the groups fight until a winner has been decided.

Secret Wars is very straightforward. It was teased in various issues from a number of comics and also received somewhat of an epilogue in many of those comics. However, the bulk of this event's action, and the only portion which is truly necessary, took place over the course of a twelve-issue miniseries.

Before Reading

There is no single comic that directly precedes Secret Wars but the event does receives a prelude in a number of different comic books. This prelude is not necessary to understand the main story.

The prelude takes place across the following titles:

• Amazing Spider-Man #251, collected in Spider-Man: Origin of the Hobgoblin; Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #89; and Marvel Team-Up #140 all show Spider-Man's entrance to the event.
• Avengers #242, collected in Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 2 (Review) , shows the Avenger's entrance to the event.
• Captain America #292, collected in Captain America: Death of the Red Skull, essentially just shows what happened in Avengers #242 but from a different angle.
• Fantastic Four #265, collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 4, contains a flashback that shows Sue Storm's reaction to the rest of the Fantastic Four's entrance to the event.
• Incredible Hulk #293 shows the Hulk's entrance to the event.
• Iron Man #181, collected in Iron Man Epic Collection: Duel of Iron, shows Iron Man's entrance to the event.
• Thing #10, collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 4, shows the Fantastic Four's entrance to the event.
• Thor #341, collected in Thor by Walt Simonson Vol. 1, shows Thor's entrance to the event.
• Uncanny X-Men #180, collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 10, shows the X-Men's entrance to the event.

Despite the existence of a prelude, the best thing fans can do to prepare for reading Secret Wars is understand the status of the heroes who participate in the event. They should be familiar with the Avengers and X-Men rosters at this time, be aware that James Rhodes is currently commanding the Iron Man armor, and know that Sue Storm is pregnant at the time of this event. It may also be helpful to know about the Molecule Man's recent reformation, a plot point from Avengers #216, collected in Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket (Review).

After Reading

The Secret Wars event is followed by the Secret Wars II event. This sequel event directly continues the story of the Beyonder.

Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, though published decades after the original event, expands upon what happened during the original Secret Wars. It adds Deadpool to the story and adjusts things to reflect his impact, which typically involves adding additional humor.

In addition, like the preludes to this event, there are a series of follow-up issues that show characters arriving back on Earth after the events of Secret Wars. These follow-up issues are not essential to the main event but may be interesting for readers who want to see what individual characters did after Secret Wars ended. These issues include:

•  Amazing Spider-Man #252, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90, and Marvel Team-Up #141 all show Spider-Man's actions immediately after the event. These issues and the issues following them help start a storyline about Spider-Man's costume change.
• Avengers #243, collected in Avengers: Absolute Vision Book 2 (Review), shows what the Avengers did after the event, though the fallout from the event is extremely limited here.
• Fantastic Four #265, collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 4, shows what the Fantastic Four did immediately after the event, most of which deals with the changes within the team.
• Incredible Hulk #294 shows what Hulk did after this event, which mostly deals with the changes he experienced during the event.
• Iron Man #182, collected in Iron Man Epic Collection: Duel of Iron, partially deals with Iron Man's return after the event. Issues after this deal with changes to the Iron Man armor.
• Thing #11 shows what the Thing did immediately after the event. For reasons that are obvious after reading the event, this issue and the issues following it are dramatically impacted by Secret Wars.
• Thor #383 essentially shows some of Secret Wars from Enchantress' perspective.
• Uncanny X-Men #181, collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 10, shows what the X-Men did directly after the event. Something that happens to them during Secret Wars directly impacts what happens in this issue. 

All Marvel Event Reading Orders