Secret Wars II (Secret Wars, 2) by Jim Shooter

Secret Wars II (Secret Wars, 2) Reviews

• 
  Timothy Boyd

  While not as new and different as the original mini series this one was interesting. Good art and story., Recommended
• 
  Baba

  The greatest ever Marvel crossover... definitely at the time! With a sizeable X-men/New Mutants influence (unlike in Secret Wars I), but also the last ever episode of The Defenders, plus The Avengers, Alpha Flight, FF, Spidey, Dr Strange, Power Man & Iron Fist and even the Silver Surfer and many more including Magneto's reformation and the Molecule Man saga. A remarkable feat for a comic book crossover with
  Jim Shooter's valiant attempt at taking a look at existentialism, desire and true omnipotence using the Marvel universe to tell that story! 8 out of 12.
  
• 
  Matt

  Collects Secret Wars II issues #1-9
  
  In this sequel to the groundbreaking event (that had only come a year before this particular book's release), the Beyonder finally shows his face. His presence was felt in the original "Secret Wars," but we never actually saw the character. Here, Beyonder takes a physical manifestation and explores Earth and humanity.
  
  Having just read "Secret Wars," I was expecting this to be more all-out battling. The only thing I would qualify as being worthy of the title "Secret Wars" happens in the last issue. Most of the material before that is much more philosophical than you would expect from a Marvel comic. The Beyonder is questioning what it means to be a human. What is desire? What is love? What if there was no death? What would that mean for humanity?
  
  Before reading it, I mostly heard bad things about this 1980s event. I can see why some people were disappointed with it, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the philosophical questions that were being tackled. I also enjoyed having more light shed on what led to the events of the original "Secret Wars." This story also helped readers see even more why The Molecule Man is such an important figure in the Marvel Universe. This book got very cosmic, and all of the top space entities were present (not to mention virtually every important superhero from this time period).
  
  The way that the main title and tie-ins were released seems to be unique in that the tie-ins are very important to the overall flow of the Beyonder's journey.
  
  Since I am in the middle of reading the 2015 event (also called), "Secret Wars," reading this has been helpful in that I am getting more background information on some of the players in this current event. I find myself enjoying aspects of this older story more because I know which characters are important to the 2015 "Secret Wars," and I am reading this book through the lens of what is eventually going to be meaningful in the Marvel Universe.
  
  Final Rating = 3.5 stars
  
  SPOILERS:
  
  This story opens up the idea that the main Marvel Multiverse that we are familiar might actually be just one Multiverse in an Omniverse. Beyonder is from someplace outside of the main Multiverse.
• 
  Aaron

  The all-powerful Beyonder from
  Secret Wars gets curious about the meaning of life. He creates a humanoid body and comes to Earth, scaring the hell out of everyone he comes across. He goes from not understanding food or knowing how to go to the bathroom (thanks go to Spider-Man for teaching him how to do that) to developing a criminal empire, trying to buy the love of Dazzler with magic tricks, mind-controlling every being on the planet for a short time, and then giving birth to himself (not once but three times). All in the search for his role in life.
  
  A terribly boring, silly, weak story with an absurd protagonist and zero consequences other than the accidental self-abortion of Beyonder's mortal form, hopefully doing away with him permanently. I'm really not sure how this was allowed to be called "Secret Wars II" considering there is nothing resembling a secret war anywhere to be found here. I'm not sure how it even got produced. Maybe Jim Shooter was a god and could do no wrong after Secret Wars, I don't know. Anyone who rants about merely average comics has no idea what true crap is and needs to read this stat. I almost never come across something that boggles my mind and is this unintentionally hilarious, but this is right up there near the top of that list. It could all be condensed down into one issue, and in a way it was; all of the vaguely interesting portions happen in the last of the nine issues. I tossed it a second star merely for raising some really interesting questions about how an omnipotent being would ever be satisfied if no challenges exist.
• 
  Sans

  Woooooooow. This is why comic books have bad reputations.
  
• 
  Ed

  While I like Secret Wars, Secret Wars II is legitimately terrible. The art is bad, the writing is worse, and it's incredibly sexist. The only redeeming factor is Molecule Man, who continues to be an interesting character.
• 
  Jason

  I couldn't possibly hate something so delightfully awful that it entertained me as much as this did. Absolutely hilarious. And terrible.
• 
  Mela

  delightfully awful
• 
  Ginny

  So. Glad. This. Is. Over.
• 
  Nabila Tabassum Chowdhury

  Meh! Struggled to finish it.
• 
  Jeremiah Murphy

  Was this made to sell toys!??
  
  There’s some interesting thoughts here with a pseudo-God (the Beyonder) visiting Earth, getting a perm and obsessed with chopping carrots in the blender.
  
  But the dialogue is rough, the issues are repetitive and characterizations are stale. The writer seems to enjoy writing women as bimbos. Which is gross and the dialogue for men is mostly boring exposition. The exception being Boom Boom. She was the highlight for me.
  
  I knew what I was getting into. As a kid I’d stumble on issues in the quarter bin. I had really liked the first Secret Wars. I thought a sequel would be more of the same. But this ten year old couldn’t understand why it was just page after page of a man with a perm talking.
• 
  Jay DeMoir

  The art was so bad and the writing was even worse... the original secret wars was pretty awesome but this was a sequel no one ever needed.
• 
  Philly_Phiction

  Giving it 1 star out of 5 even seems wrong. This was dumb and boring. The amount of time and energy reading it for no reward urks me.
• 
  Shane Stanis

  Battleworld this is not! In the first Secret Wars, the Beyonder uses a battle royale to try to understand the human concept of “desire.” This time, The Beyonder decides the best way to understand humanity is to live among them as a white man (mostly). Issue by issue the Beyonder tackles a different aspect of his attempt at understanding humans.
  
  We jump in with the bonkers humor of SW1 dialed up to 11. Over 9 issues, we go from fun and light, to existential, to nihilistic.
• 
  Trevor

  After the success of Marvel's first big crossover event, Secret Wars, Jim Shooter planned an even bigger sequel for the following year. Unlike the first one, which affects several comics but is otherwise fairly self-contained, Secret Wars II contains tie-in issues in nearly every Marvel comic at the time, encouraging the reader to collect them all. I blatantly ignored this, only reading the main series, collected in this volume, and the tie-ins in Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Alpha Flight, Dazzler, and New Defenders.
  
  Not only is Secret Wars II huge and sprawling, it's also terrible.
  
  The premise is that the omnipotent cosmic being the Beyonder came to Earth and took human form. The first couple issues consist of him wandering around and pointing at things while saying things like "Why is food?" while Spider-Man teaches him how to poop. Then, after briefly becoming a gangster and then mind controlling the whole universe until he gets bored, the Beyonder decides he needs to fall in love and stalks Dazzler until she tells him to leave her alone, after which he becomes a New Age self-help guru in Hawaii.
  
  In the later issues, the Beyonder decides, for reasons not entirely clear, to destroy the entire universe, bringing him into conflict with all of Earth's superheroes as well as Mephisto.
  
  I think Jim Shooter was trying to be philosophical, asking questions about identity, desire, meaning, etc. But it all comes off very juvenile and shallow.
  
  The only enjoyable issue was #5, in which the Beyonder goes on a road trip with a suicidal teenaged mutant runaway named Boom-Boom. If that was the whole series, perhaps it could have been good, but it's just a brief break in an otherwise joyless slog.
  
  This is the nadir of comic events and it makes the entire medium feel less enjoyable.
• 
  Lee

  Boring and uninteresting. I suppose if you found the Beyonder's search for meaning to be compelling it might be but he wasn't even an interesting character.
  
  I gave it 2 stars solely on the strength of some of the outside stories using him. You can see the strength and creativity in some of the writers in using such a character (Claremont in particular had the most luck). Removing those stories and the main series is even more lacking.
  
  And while I understand having to recap for new readers periodically, the fact that some recaps took up multiple pages in some issues speaks to padding out a slight story.
  
  The concept would have been stronger if the series narrowed its focus away from everything except Molecule Man and the Beyonder. By juxtaposing them, it would have had made a better story about the nature of humanity and coping with one's own power in the universe.
  
  Why did the Beyonder not ever ask why MM didn't use his power more as he himself did? That question might've been interesting but the series never bothered.
  
  SWII wanted to tell two different stories and neither worked.
• 
  Derek Moreland

  Having now consumed the whole blasted thing, I can see why Secret Wars II has the terible reputation it does...the mini-series by itself genuinely doesnt make sense if read on it's own. And while some of the tie-in issues are superfluous (the New Defenders issue doesnt fit with where the Beyonder's character is at that point in the narrative; theres a Fantastic Four issue where the whole tie-in is a one-panel appearance with no dialogue), the story feels more complete with the other issues laid in. Not necessarily "good", but at least a more complete, more cohesive narrative than just reading the mini itself in a vacuum will offer.
  
  Minor nitpick: I sought out and purchased the ROM and Micronaut tie-in issues, not included here because they were licenced and Marvel doesnt have the rights. I'm curious, though, as to why the ROM issue, at least, is left out? The character never appears in the issue (he's not even on the cover!) And if nothing else, "Spaceknight" or some similar trademark Marvel does own could be plugged in for ROM if the name is an issue. It's a weird ask, but I feel like if Marvel had wanted to include that ish at least, steps probably could have been taken.
• 
  Shaun Phelps

  This is a frustrating and nearly pointless seeming crossover. The edition I read only collected secret wars II and none of the side comics (Spider-Man, avengers, etc...) so this highlights the story of a godlike being who is bored and infantile in his understanding of the world, hopping from place to place asking childish questions and acting childlike. Occasionally there are some interesting or actionable parts. Secret Wars II appears to be a catalyst for some changes in the main marvel storyline, though from what I can tell it's largely forgettable and more a story arc the comic writers were compelled to acknowledge and not much else occurs (while all of existence is unmade, made, remade, adjusted, swirled about, etc...ad nauseum). Who knew something so cataclysmic could be so empty. Maybe the omnibus with ALL of the crossover comics would have made this more fulfilling.
• 
  Don

  I liked this story a lot. It explores what truly makes us human and how our incompleteness causes us to have unmet desires, but also gives us purpose. I guess the Beyonder’s dilemma is similar to some of us in middle age: what happens when you get everything you want? If any gadget or possession is available, you need to find meaning that transcends the material. This isn’t a childish story, it’s extremely mature and asks very important questions to consider. Highly recommend reading this series.
• 
  David

  Jim Shooter's story is very muddled and convoluted. The whole story feels a bit like Stranger in a Strange Land-lite. This paperback only has the barebones story of the nine main Secret Wars II issues and misses a lot of the better moments of the event that are in crossover issues with other heroes/teams. It just seems half-baked in general.
  
  As for the art, well Al Milgrom's art is subpar I'm sorry to say. It's not terrible or anything, but it is quite ugly at times.
  
  Not really recommended.
• 
  Timothy Pitkin

  A weird story and while there are some interesting moments and a decent foundation but the execution was just odd. I do like the design of the Beyonder and again his goal to understand life is interesting and makes sense since he is basically a god trying to get down to the level of an ant. But the comedic focus seems out of place. The Beyonder feels like he was written to be funny as he really does not really do much which feels weird when the story does get serious in the later parts of the story.
• 
  Michael Dunn

  The first Secret Wars introduced readers to The Beyonder, a being of immense power who desired to find out which would triumph between Good and Evil by making teams of both sides.
  
  So naturally a follow up has The Beyonder….posing as a human who discovers what it’s like to enjoy food, the concept of money and go to the bathroom.
  
  I’ll give it this: It certainly doesn’t try to copy the original, but I feel like this book doesn’t know if it wants to be a more comedic story or if it wants to delve into more philosophical ideas.
• 
  Brandon

  The Beyonder comes to Earth seeking some sort of meaning, and spends the entire series screwing around with peoples' lives and cosmic powers of the universe before everyone punches each other. The end. The original Secret Wars was your favourite characters fighting each other a bunch. Now we have a day in the life of an omnipotent random as he does whatever he wants, except it's not one day it's several and it's a gruelling nine issues with little point.
• 
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• 
  Crazed8J8

  Weird and anticlimactic
  
  I loved the guest Secret Wars, bit this one took me forever to read. I also read several of the ties in stories. All said, it was interesting at times, and definitely touched all parts of the Marvel universe, bit it so managed to fall flat! It's not a horrible read, bit the other massive crossover events (I'm thinking the guest Secret Wars and the Infinity Gauntlet, for example) are much better plotted out.
  
• 
  Angela

  The Beyonder comes to Earth wanting to know the secret of humanity and what it is. This is a clever story with lots of facets, it has fights, to pondering the nature of existence. Romance, in the form of the molecule man. I am really liking that character, the complete reluctant hero. A very good read with lots of twists.
• 
  Daniel Frazier

  Not as horrible as most people make it out to be, but Secret Wars II is definitely a product of the 80s. The Beyonder, the main antagonist, looks like a Caucasian Michael Jackson. The book unfortunately wastes the premise of a literal god on Earth and how the planet’s heroes would deal with that. That said, this is one of those crossover events where some of the best material is in the tie-in issues of other series (one such issue sees The Beyonder finally grow tired of being attacked and MURDERS the entire New Mutants team—who are teenagers!). This is not a bad read but also not worth going out of your way to track down either.
• 
  Dimitris Papastergiou

  Wish I could give a billion negative stars on this one, granted it was made because the first one was good! No? No. It also sucked. Then it was definitely made because they wanted to sell toys?! Yes? Maybe. But it was a huge pile of garbage. I'm pretty sure this is the worst thing I've read so far in 2021.