Secret Wars #0 (2015)
by Jonathan Hickman & Paul Renaud
cover by Alex Ross
We’ve finally reached the new Secret Wars. In an effort to push the event, Marvel included an “issue zero” in the Free Comic Book Day.
I really don’t have to say it, but the Alex Ross cover is AWESOME.
It features several Marvel heroes in their 2015 look facing off against various alternate reality characters, some of which from rather obscure sources.
We begin at the Baxter Building, where Valeria Richards and the Future Foundation kids have built a raft that is going to be used to escape the destruction of the multiverse.
There are currently only TWO remaining universes: the regular Marvel one, and the Ultimate universe. And they’re about to fight for survival.
And that’s it, leading to the official big start of the event.
Secret Wars #1 (2015)
by Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribić
cover by Alex Ross
All the issues of the miniseries will have Alex Ross covers. Because if he’s available, there’s absolutely no reason not to.
We see from another angle the encounter between Doom, Doctor Strange and Molecule Man gathering to fight the Beyonders.
As a reminder, Doom is facing being that have destroyed all the super-gods and have annihilated nearly the whole multiverse leaving only TWO universes.
Most of the issue deals with the fight between the Marvel and Ultimate universes; since this is a big crossover and ultimately (spoiler alert) the Ultimate stuff won’t matter much, I’m going to skip A LOT.
One character from the Ultimate universe who will matter, both for Secret Wars in general and Doctor Doom in particular, is The Maker (that’s the guy in the goofy helmet)… who is the Reed Richards from the Ultimate universe who went insane and evil.
I considered reviewing the Ultimate stories featuring their Doctor Doom, and while I eventually might… he wasn’t even a big factor in Reed going nuts.
One thing this section does rather well is selling you the apocalyptic scale of the event.
The Ultimate universe is a disadvantage because it doesn’t have nearly the same amount of superhumans of the Marvel universe… but they’re willing to do pretty much anything to save themselves, while the Marvel heroes definitely don’t want to obliterate their counterparts.
Not everyone is taking the end of the world as a bad thing…
…in fact, some are quite happy about it.
Since nobody is destroying either version of Earth, the last Incursion continues.
Several Marvel heroes manage to escape inside the raft, which in a nod to the original Secret Wars is shaped like the teleportation gate that the Beyonder used to kidnap the heroes.
Unfortunately the raft doesn’t hold, and the section that gets lost has the Fantastic Four… without Reed.
The last Incursion is now complete: the last two universes are destroyed.
And the last thing Reed Richards sees, as he understands that he has failed… is a flash of Doctor Doom’s mask.
This marks the complete destruction of both the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. 
Or is it?
Secret Wars #2 (2015)
by Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribić
cover by Alex Ross
Yeah the news about the destruction of the multiverse might have been slightly exaggerated.
We are in a new universe now, where the Thor Corps acts as the police…
…in service of their god: DOOM.
We will learn how this new universe works slowly and organically. It’s important that, unless otherwise noted, nobody remembers how things used to be. As far as they know, Doom created the only universe that has ever existed.
This is the new Battleworld, a place built by Doom using scraps from multiple universes.
It doesn’t exactly follow the old laws of physics, and it has an almost dreamlike or mythological aspect to it.
And that’s where the raft crashed.
The capital of this world and universe is Castle Doom, guarded by a mind-controlled Galactus.
This is where God Emperor Doom holds his court.
Invisible Woman and Valeria are at his side; neither one remembers their past.
Also there are Doctor Strange, Odin and Captain Britain.
There’s a lot of politics at this court. Doom keeps a bunch of “barons” that control different parts of Battleworld, and Strange is basically his sheriff.
It would take too long to get into the specifics of who’s following Doom, but luckily only a few barons will actually be important.
The duel between two of the barons, Mr. Sinister and Captain Britain, is stopped by Doom himself.
I find it truly fascinating that Doom, despite having achieved super-omnipotence, is still fixated on having people swear total allegiance to him.
As is the fact that there ARE people who disagree with his rule. Remember that Doom has recreated this entire universe from nothing, twisting some people to his twisted vision… but he didn’t do it to everybody.
Perhaps his deep need of having someone challenging his position is still alive.
It’s also telling that he recreated Susan to be at his side not as a lover, but as his conscience.
There are two Captain Britain here. Doom’s first instinct was to punish both, but Susan convinced him to condemn only the guilty.
As you might have expected, Doom’s new universe runs on both magic (handled by Dr. Strange) and technology (handled by Valeria).
Valeria’s scientific curiosity leads her to discover the existence of something older than this universe.
Strange is onto it. We will see that he’s not as heroic as you’d expect.
I mentioned that Battleworld has a sort of mythological feel to it. For example, its civilized regions are surrounded by the worst nightmares of the previous reality.
The Thor Corps eventually finds the raft… but it’s not the one used by the heroes.
The Cabal has survived the destruction of the multiverse.
And so, as Thanos learns the origin of this new universe, we end with a map of Battlerworld.
Doom significance: 10/10
As you might expect, Doctor Doom becoming the super-god of the entire multiverse is going to have a bit of an impact.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Some of the realms of Battleworld are a bit silly, but none of that shows up here.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
That the involvement of the Ultimate Universe in the first story is wasted, as we barely get to see anything from the fight. Admittedly we see SOME of it in the tie-ins, but obviously it pales so much in comparison to the destruction of the multiverse that it can’t have the impact it wants.
My only other critique is the artwork; I love most of it (though I recognize Esad Ribić is a bit of an acquired taste), but some characters here and there are BARELY recognizable.
I’ve seen some complaints about the fact that when we shift into issue 2 the change in… well everything is too jarring. But I think it’s to the advantage of this miniseries: you get to slowly unravel the mystery of what Doom did to become God Emperor, why and how he changed people into their new personas, and what happened to characters that are noticeably absent… Reed Richards above all. If anything, this event has the opposite problem of most of its immediate predecessors: the main miniseries is the best one to follow, while the tie-ins often don’t add much.
It doesn’t help that there are SO MANY of them, almost rivaling those from Secret Wars II; thankfully Doom doesn’t appear in all of them, so I’ll be able to get through them quickly.
It was a Doombot all along
There are no Doombots throughout the whole event. I think.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 132
This event is going to be a bit tricky. I usually count those fighting either Doom or fighting someone who works for Doom. Considering he’s the ruler of everything this is complicates things; I’m not going to count absolutely everyone who fights the Thor Corps or Doom’s generals, but I will count those who oppose his rule.
Right now it’s not super clear who wants what, so no new additions.
Take over the world: 30
It wasn’t exactly Doom’s only goal for saving the multiverse, but I’m sure it was part of the plan.
Times Doom has saved the world: 22
That’s reductive, considering Doctor Doom has saved THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE.
Destroy the FF! : 60
It will only be apparent later, but that was also a deliberate part of Doom’s actions.
Universes created by Dr. Doom: 2
Technically, the only universe currently existing.
And given that our own reality is considered to be part of the Marvel Universe… did you notice you stopped existing for a while, in 2015? It was a bit of a drag.
Times Doctor Doom has gained ultimate power: 15
And this is the highest power Doom has ever achieved, dwarfing absolutely everything he’s accomplished before.
Times Doctor Doom has taken over the world: 5
An understatement, considering that he’s currently ruling what’s left of THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE.