MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #6 (1984)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Zeck
cover by Bob Layton
Lots of stuff going on in these three issues, but not much about Doctor Doom so I’m lumping them together.
The cover is a nice group shot of the villains. It makes it look like Volcana can fly, but she can’t.
While exploring the Galactus ship that he infiltrated last issue, Doctor Doom runs into an unexpected guest: Klaw!
As we have already seen, Dazzler absorbed Klaw into her body…
…and threw the extra energy at Galactus in one of the most bonkers stories ever.
We now learn that Klaw was in return absorbed by the ship. No words about the drone Galactus used in the Dazzler story.
The ordeal has left Klaw a little kooky, and Doom is more interested in Galactus than in his annoying shenanigans.
So we have the rather unusual situation of Doctor Doom trying to stop Galactus.
A plan that involves sending Klaw to give a password to Ultron.
And that’s all Doctor Doom does in issue 6.
As for the rest, we have the Wasp befriending an injured Lizard (who has barely done anything this entire time)…
…which eventually gets her killed.
On the mutant side, we have Professor X being an ass when Storm points out the hypocrisy of randomly making Cyclops the leader of the X-Men while it was technically HER job at the time…
…Colossus falling for Zsaji after she has cured his wounds (the subtext is that it might be a by-product of her powers but it’s not explicitly stated)…
…and then being sad when she’s more into blondes.
Back to the main plot, the X-Men run into the villains and Wolverine ALMOST kills Molecule Man.
This is pretty much the ONLY useful thing the X-Men do the entire miniseries… doing the same thing that Doctor Doom was trying to do.
I’m not the biggest X-Men fan and I love this series, but I have to admit it’s not very kind to them.
MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #7 (1984)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Zeck
cover by Bob Layton
The pink background on the cover is a little distracting.
Without much warning, the debut of the second Spider-Woman!
She just randomly showed up because she’s from Denver, and it turns out that one of the many pieces the Beyonder used to build Battleworld came from Earth.
It’s also where both Titania and Volcana came from.
The heroes don’t pay much attention to her right now, since they discover that Wasp is dead and even Zsaji can’t help her.
The X-Men have a second fight with the villains, which has less consequences but is quite fun.
While this is going on, Doctor Doom is beginning to go mad…
…which is bad timing for him, since it’s when Galactus notices he has trespassed and kicks him out of his ship.
Also we have She-Hulk going against Captain America’s orders and sneaking into the villain base to avenge the Wasp.
It doesn’t turn out well for her.
With this additional offense, plus because the X-Men volunteer to guard Galactus, Cap changes his mind and orders a full-on attack on the villain base.
MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #8 (1984)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Zeck
BY FAR the most famous cover of the entire series, and arguably the most famous moment.
Doctor Doom barely appears in this one, spending most of the time recovering from being banished by Galactus.
Most of the issue is a big dumb fight, but a very entertaining one.
Easily the best moment is Spider-Man completely and utterly outclassing Titania despite being nowhere near her strength level.
He beat her so thoroughly that we will get a plot in the Spider-Man books about Titania being absolutely terrified of Spider-Man for a while.
Another highlight is the Human Torch defeating freaking Ultron on his own!!!
The Doctor Doom fight is a no show.
The heroes win the fight, and quite decisively. Also Zsaji was able to cure the Wasp!
And now for the moment you were waiting for: the origin of the black costume.
Which is mostly the Hulk’s fault for not giving good instructions!
Considering the insane amounts of backstory given to the symbiote race, it’s incredible that the introduction is almost an afterthought.
The costume will become a classic. “I’ll be an eight-ball’s uncle” won’t.
Well all things considered, everything turn out spectacularly good for the heroes!
Nothing could ruin this moment!
Except that, of course.
Historical significance: 10/10
The new Spider-Woman and Spider-Man’s black costume. Not exactly in that order.
Although it’s often forgotten that Spider-Man subconsciously based the look of the black costume on Spider-Woman’s look. Which is interesting because not only she’s a minor character, but she has barely interacted with Spider-Man over the decades (and I don’t think she’s ever met Venom).
Doom significance: 3/10
Unsurprisingly, since he barely shows up. His relationship with Klaw is about to be incredibly important, though.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Try to ignore everything you’ve learned about the black costume over the years and you’ll realize its appearance is quite random.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
The constant back and forth between locations can be quite annoying, and like I said the X-Men suffer a bit. But there’s a lot of great little moments, good action, and even if characterization isn’t stellar most of it holds up.
Crazy tech
Not much since, again, Doom is barely in this. But unless Galactus was being uncharacteristically gentle, the fact that Doom is still alive is a testament to just how durable his armor is.
Spider-man defeating Titania was fantastic. People forget what a scary menace she was in the beginning.
The constant immature bickering among the x-men was a real turn off for me. I was never interested in fining out more about them.
It’s interesting that in this series Doom and Cap are set up as opposite numbers.