Secret Wars #9

Secret Wars #9 (2016)
by Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribićcover by Alex Ross

The conclusion to the latest Secret Wars. This literally took longer than expected: originally the series was meant to be 8 issues, but the script ended up being so long that issues 7 and 8 were split into two parts and we got this full finale.

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I should talk a bit more about the cover because, in addition to having awesome Alex Ross art (but that’s always awesome), it does have some neat easter eggs.
First and foremost, and it took me an embarrassing time to notice… the white spaces for the silhouette of Molecule Man.

But while you probably noticed the arrival of Phoenix, the death of Elektra and the birth of Franklin Richards…

…you might have missed the nods to other facets of the Marvel Universe.
Like a shot of the Howling Commandos, Bruce Banner being blasted by the Gamma Bomb, a shot of Marvel’s western heroes…

…and the hardest to notice. Recognize this?

It’s a reference to Avengers #1, with Loki directing the Hulk towards the formation of that team!!!

It’s really a shame that some of the artwork was covered by the series title.
You have a shot from Spider-Man’s origin, the Celestials, one of Doctor Strange’s weird dimensions…

…and most impressively, the birth of Namor!!! Appropriate that it’s the first image of the cover, considering he’s the oldest part of the Marvel universe still running around (sorry original Human Torch).

What a great cover. I don’t think I’ve talked so much about a cover, especially one not by George Perez.
Is there anything else?

Oh, right, I’m supposed to also talk about the story.

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Continuing where we left off, God Emperor Doom is confronted by Namor and most importantly by Black Panther wielding the Infinity Gauntlet.

First move: turn Doom into glass and shatter him.

Bonus: it almost did something!

We’ll get back to the fight in a bit, but first we have a reunion of the Richards.
Honestly their relationship has seen worse.

Mister Fantastic doesn’t really need a catchphrase. But if he did, this would be a good candidate.

Although even he didn’t bring food to poor Molecule Man.

In case you missed it from the previous issues: Doctor Doom doesn’t technically hold the power of the Beyonders. Molecule Man does, and Doom is just borrowing it.

Reed is not alone here; he’s working with The Maker, who is really Evil Reed From The Ultimate Universe.
Surprising absolutely nobody, he immediately betrays Regular Reed.

What might surprise you (it surprised me at least), is that Molecule Man takes it upon himself to save Regular Reed!
Of course this is not ENTIRELY a shocker, if you’ve followed Molecule Man’s evolution right before, during and after Secret Wars… but it’ wasn’t a guarantee given his current mental state.

The fight between Doom and T’Challa is going on in the background, and it’s really creative.
They turn into giant mechas and weird avatars, the implication being that this fight is happening on multiple layers of reality.

This is quite impressive for Doom. To the best of my knowledge, and I’m a huge fan of Cosmic Marvel so I’m pretty confident here… this is the first and only occasion where the Infinity Gauntlet has been straight up OVERPOWERED by anything.
Even the Living Tribunal had to switch off the gauntlet because it wasn’t sure it could take it out in a fight.

That’s kind of the problem with Emperor Doom. He has all the power of the Beyonders but no omniscience. That means he’s more powerful than any other Marvel character has ever been… but we’re EXCLUSIVELY talking about firepower here.
If you don’t have to factor brute force, Doom is as vulnerable as ever.

So he goes to confront Reed, but not before being dealt another painful blow to his ego.

We have finally reached what this has been building up to. The “final” confrontation between Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic.

Even after Doom has stolen his family and erased all traces of him from existence… Reed’s fist instinct is to talk things through.
That’s one of the most Reed things I’ve ever seen him do.

Equally in-character, Doom’s first move is to torment Reed about his failures while simultaneously boasting Doom’s accomplishments.

When Doom then tries to destroy Reed with his powers, though, it doesn’t work.

I find it hilarious that, even with all the incredibly complex plans by the heroes, what truly dooms Doom here… is just lack of common decency.

Molecule Man DID tell him to bring food, back in issue 5!!!

So because Doom didn’t think it was important to do a small favor TO THE GUY WHO MADE HIM GOD, now he has to fight Reed without his divine powers.

Only Doctor Doom would argue try to position himself as the victim when talking TO THE GUY WHOSE LIFE HE STOLE.

This is a great philosophical debate between the two. Unfortunately, some of it is hidden withing this awful splash page.

Honestly, that page makes me nauseous. Which is really a shame because the dialogue is amazing!

When you get to the real core of their rivalry… Doom’s problem is that he simply can’t CONCEIVE that Reed doesn’t think he’s better than him.

But Doom is not talking generally here. He’s really upset at the idea that Reed thinks he would have handled divine powers better than him…

…because deep down, that’s what Doom thinks too.

Overcome by anger and frustration, Dooms lets the truth slip.
Yes, Reed WOULD have used these powers better than him.

Well if that’s the case… why should Molecule Man keep lending him the power?

And ba-da-doom, that’s the end of Doom’s new reality.

This is technically the beginning of a new version of the Marvel Universe.
We’ll learn HOW this happened in a bit.

Miles Morales now exists in the main Marvel Universe… because he gave Molecule Man a burger.

But how, exactly, do we even HAVE a Marvel Universe? The entire multiverse was destroyed at the beginning of the event.

That’s because Molecule Man and Franklin Richards are REBUILDING EVERY SINGLE UNIVERSE FROM SCRATCH, under the supervision of Reed.

That doesn’t just tell you a lot about how stupidly powerful Molecule Man and Franklin are… but when you think about, this means these three are basically the gods of the new multiverse.

This does, however, completely cut off the Richards family from the rest of the Marvel Universe. They won’t be back for a couple of real-life years.

In fact, the rest of the Marvel Universe will believe the Richards are dead the whole time.
We’ll discuss that in the rest of the retrospective, but we have now reached the finale.

Turns out that Reed (or possibly Molecule Man) has made a few adjustment to the old Marvel Universe, when it was re-created.

Including FIXING DOOM’S FACE.

And that’s how the event comes full circle. It began with Reed fixating on the concept that everything eventually dies, but he’s found a new perspective.
Doctor Doom, despite having lost everything he achieved… still literally gets the last laugh.

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Doom significance: 10/10
This will actually stick to Doom for a shocking amount of time, as it won’t be before 3 years before he return to his old status.
By recent standards, that’s a lot.

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
The multiverse is saved because of a burger.

Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
If the new Secret Wars has a flaw, is that it’s unfocused… a lot of time is spent on tangents that ultimately don’t mean anything.
But when the series DOES focus, you get gems like this issue.
Hickman really gets both Reed and Doom; their whole conflict is based on decades and decades of rivalry and them influencing each other, highlighting parallels and differences between the two.
It’s also one of the clearest signs that Doom, despite his need to achieve power, ultimately doesn’t really know how to use it once he gets it… because even when he has good intentions, like Reed says when he doesn’t want to lose something he holds it too tight.
You might think that Doom admitting Reed is better than him at something is out of character, but I disagree. Doom HAS occasionally admitted a mistake, and this comes years after continually trying and failing to fix the new reality he has created.
I’ve also seen speculation that, since Doom laughs at the end, he might have even predicted Reed would fix him if he got the power.
I wouldn’t go THAT far, but I can absolutely believe that’s the story Doom tells himself.
I wish the series stayed more focused on Doom to show this journey better; if the whole series had been to this level it might have been remembered more fondly.