Secret Wars: Battleworld #1 - Review

Sadly, no Howard the Duck or
Franken-Castle in this issue.

Published by Marvel Comics: May 20th, 2015.
Rating: 4/5.

The biggest thing that Secret Wars has going for is the pure opportunity for fun. Regular runs of comics within the established universes of DC or Marvel, whether it be 616, Ultimate, New 52, Golden Age... whatever... is that they're beholden to the larger continuity that's at work. Now, usually, I find this to be what makes these comics amazing. It makes each tale larger than life and allows you to get lost in the world of these books. But sometimes you want to shed of those shackles and just have some ridiculous fun.

Secret Wars: Battleworld #1 is broken into two separate minis. Learning from the success of the "Spider-Verse" books during the Spider-event of the same name, Marvel is taking the chance to just let some of their writers go balls-to-the-wall insane with their stories. Even if the story doesn't have a multi-issue potential, why not just go for it? If the insanity of Frank Castle merged with Doctor Strange makes your eyes widen excitedly rather than roll, this book is for you (although I'd HIGHLY advise that you read Secret Wars #1 and #2 to get the context of what's happening).

*****SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT*****

Story #1: "Soldier Supreme"
Written by Joshua Williamson. Art by Mike Henderson.

As I said earlier: it's Frank Castle merged with Doctor Strange. Sound insane? It is and that's everything that's right about this mini. The story is quick and to the point. It spends just enough time setting up the situation here (this Doctor Strange got attacked by vampires and so his soul latched onto the closest person it could, a Frank Castle). Now with his own magical passenger, we get the skull costumed Punisher wearing the Sorcerer Supreme's cape. It's a ridiculous and beautiful sight.

If that's not ridiculous enough, Castle is wandering through the Kingdom of "2099," the 616 world of Spider-Man 2099 when he is encountered by four of Doom's bounty hunters, who he conveniently refers to as simply "The Four." The Four consists of a Hulk, a Ghost Rider, a Wolverine, and a Spiderman. Note the use of "a," since none of these are either of our universe's versions of the characters, which is nice because it lets the writers do whatever they want with them (including Castle simply saying "Calm." at The Hulk, shrinking him into Banner, and then turning him into dust). This probably isn't 616 Frank, but it might as well be. He's familiar enough that we get the character immediately.

Anyway, this fight is pretty much just pure fun. The Punisher whips out some magic sorcerer uzi guns, a conjured Rocket of Raggadorr, and even a spirit grenade called Weapon of Watoomb. It's awesome. Wolverine wins the day, but not before being saddled with the wandering spirit of Doctor Strange. Creepy and dark in a way that is perfect for Wolverine.

There are two moments worth noting in terms of the larger Battleworld in this story. One: The Four mention that people are not allowed to leave their Kingdoms without permission. This makes sense in terms of writing because it allows them to remain sectioned, as opposed to King James England running around with technology from 2099. I am curious, however, what the in world explanation is. Is it just a way for Doom to exert his control? Or does keeping it separate somehow allow the God-Doom to keep his power?

I think lots of future is hinted in this panel.

Two: Doom's Strange appears to be going after other versions of himself, but to what end? Does he just want to be the only Sorcerer? It would make him truly the Sorcerer Supreme. During Spiderverse, I always thought the different Spiders would wind up literally merging to make 616 Spider-Man stronger (ie what happens in the Spider-Man Unlimited game). This might be what's happening here... we'll see.

Oh and Limbo is currently ruled by a Baron Summers! Is it Scott or Alex?? Is it crazy alternate dimension Limbo? Just a name? So many questions!


Story #2: "M.O.D.O.K. Madness"
Written by Ed Brisson. Art by Scott Hepburn.

Have you ever thought, 'I like M.O.D.O.K. but I wish there were a lot of different M.O.D.O.K.'s teaming up and running around together'? No? Well, too bad because that's exactly what Ed Brisson. This story makes Soldier Supreme look downright grounded by comparison.

A classic looking M.O.D.O.K. (potentially our 616 model) decides that now that he can, he's going to create a little army of different versions of himself in order to overthrow Doom. Apparantly M.O.D.O.K.s don't come in the same shape and size often because these alternate universe models are insane. There's a cycolops M.O.D.O.K., a biological-fire-breathing M.O.D.O.K., a Spider-M.O.D.O.K., a Ghost Rider M.O.D.O.K., a M.O.D.O.K. that joined SHIELD, and even a little baby girl M.O.D.O.K. with an extreme set of daddy issues.

Of course that creates hilarious chaos. The story itself was alright. It was cute, funny, and exactly what this story was supposed to be. I imagine it's helping to set up the M.O.D.O.K. Assassin book that is coming out soon. For me, it didn't quite hold up to the first story but it does what it needed to and it's a nice little mini.

Gotta love that ending line: "Put me out of out of my misery and spare me from myself!" It almost begged to be followed by a sad trombone.

As for larger world stuff, we met a few more Thors at the tail end. A brunette male Thor and a redheaded female Thor. So picking up the hammer doesn't automatically make you blonde as it turns out! We also hear from their talking that apparantly A.I.M. facilities are found hidden throughout the Battleworld and whiping them out is one of the Thors' duties. So this suggests that Doom is actively trying to take out any supervillain competition. It'll be interesting to see this play out more as we go forward. Villains and heroes teaming up to take on Doom maybe?




Did you like this little mini-collection? Which story did you prefer? If you were going to make some kind of insane character mashup like the Supreme Soldier, what would you do? Let me know in the comments below!