Several years ago my friends and I ran a website called
Obscene Newg and I wrote many toy based articles for that site. Some of that content has actually been re-posted here. This article about the Secret Wars toy line was never posted to that site, although it was written for Newg. Frequently, I'd write articles more often than the other contributors, and my buddy who was the webmaster wouldn't post two of my things back to back. This resulted in several dropped or lost articles. Here's the lost Secret Wars article (it's a little dated now)
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I recently purchased a trade paperback
that contained all twelve the issues of the original Marvel Super
Heroes Secret Wars. So, between reading that
and researching the DC Super Powers toy line for my Superman article
I was inspired to write about the Secret Wars comics and toys.
If you have never read the series, or
if like myself (until just recently), you have not read Secret Wars
since you where a kid. The story is that this cosmic being called the
Beyonder constructs a planet called Battleworld by taking chunks of
various planets in the galaxy and smashing them together to form a
new planet. Then he teleports a bunch of Earth’s mightiest heroes
and villains to battle it out on the world he created. Do you see
where the name of the planet came from? To make things more
interesting he made sure there was plenty of crazy alien technology
and fortresses set up on the planet to facilitate the battle. The
Beyonder gave the heroes and villains little explanation as to why he
brought them to this rocky world but he did issue this brief
statement to start the fight.
“I am from beyond! Slay your enemies
and all that you desire shall be your! Nothing you dream of is
impossible for me to accomplish!
This was Marvel Comics gimmick to fight
the Super Power franchise of merchandise put out by their competitor
DC Comics. They sold comics (odiously), action figures, coloring
books, stickers, and all sorts of other merchandise with the Secret
Wars logo on it. The Secret Wars Puff Stickers pictured below were
purchased at a store that was liquidating their inventory because
they where going out of business years after Marvel stopped putting
out Secret Wars Merchandise.
Marvel obviously used this marketing
campaign to promote their most popular heroes. Of the characters in
the Marvel Universe the following where transported to Battleworld.
Captain America, who served as team
leader for the heroes. Three of the four members of the Fantastic
Four: Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and Thing. Susan Storm was left at
home because she was having a baby (Not optimal conditions for a
gladiator style fight to the finish) Captain Marvel II, Hawkeye,
Hulk, Iron Man II, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman II, Thor, and
The Wasp were all fighting for good.
Doctor Doom was in charge of the bad
guys and his army was made up of Absorbing Man, Doctor Octopus,
Enchantress, Kang the Conqueror, Klaw, The Lizard, Molecule Man,
Titania, Ultron, Volcana, and the Wrecking Crew
Galactus was present, but he was more
interested in devouring the planet for energy than fighting the
Heroes or Villains.
There were also several mutants
present, and they formed a 3rd front in the battle which
sided with Captain America. Colossus, Cyclops, Magneto (usually a
Villain), Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rouge, Storms, and Wolverine
represented the popular X-Men comic series. The Beyonder did several
things to help heroes be in prime fighting condition including
providing Cyclops with his uniform which he was not wearing when he
left Earth, and he restored Professor X’s ability to walk. This
gave the X-Men a bit of a dysfunctional nature. Storm the current
leader of the X-Men and Cyclops the previous leader where now being
bossed around by Professor X whom usually stayed out of battle.
Of the Secret Wars merchandise the
Action Figures are probably the most well know. These action figures
where the first toy representations of many of the Marvel characters.
There were two waves of action figures released in America and then a
smaller 3rd wave that was released only to foreign
markets.
Series One was made up of all
characters that appeared in the comics. Many of the figures used the
same bodies molds and where made to look like different by have
individual head sculpts and unique but minimalistic paint
applications. The heroes came with red shields and the villains
silver ones. These secret shields had little cards that could be
placed inside them to create an image morphing effect.
Captain America
|
Doctor Doom
|
Spide-Man
|
Doctor Octopus
|
Iron Man
|
Kang the Conqueror
|
Wolverine
|
Magneto
|
Even though Magneto helped the heroes
in the comic his toy was packaged as a villain with the silver
shield. This also helped to give the first series of figures an even
numbers of good guys and bad guys.
Series Two got off the beaten path a
bit with the figures they included. Of the five figures released only
one actually appeared in the comics.
Spider-Man (Black Costume)
|
Hobgoblin
|
Daredevil
|
Baron Zemo
|
Falcon
|
|
Spider-Man’s black costume was
probably Secret Wars biggest affect on the mainstream Marvel comic
books. Not only was it a striking costume, but it also evolved into
one of Spidey’s most popular villains. The Daredevil figure is also
interesting because he may be the character that was most overlooked
for inclusion in the Secret Wars Mini-Series. I have always thought
of him as one of Marvel’s hard hitters yet he was left out. The
people in charge of the toy line should have made the Lizard over
Hobgoblin if they wanted to make another Spider-Man villain, to keep
it more comic book accurate. Like with the male characters, if they
had created on female body sculpt they probably could have made most
of the female characters with just individual heads. Although the
girls were probably left out because most toy companies claim their
research says boys don’t want to play with toys of girls.
The Third Series that was only released
overseas. It contained only three figures and none of them appeared
in the comics.
| Iceman |
Electro |
|
Constrictor |
Once again they produced a toy of a
Spider-Man villain and it wasn’t the one from the comic book. They
also produced an X-Men character while passing up several members of
the team which did appear in the comic. I’m kind of glad they did
make Iceman, even though he wasn’t in the comic. He’s my favorite
X-Men.
I think that Series One figures are
probably the most common, but I am making this assumption on the fact
that I have all but one of those figures, without even trying to
collect the Secret Wars toys. I really should look into getting that
Iceman figure.
As mentioned before perhaps the biggest
affect the Secret Wars Mini-Series had on the Marvel Universe was the
creation of Spider-Man’s Black Costume. After a number of issues and
several battles Spiderman’s uniform was looking kind of ratty. Even
though it was far from being completely destroyed, showing off his
private bits, or revealing his secret identity he decided to mess
around with an alien device that produced his new costume.
To his surprise the suit produced its
own web, giving him an additional super power of sorts. He no longer
has to make web cartridges in his spare time and load them into his
web shooters during battle. Spider-Man also points out in the Secret
Wars comic that he can control the suit with is mind and demonstrates
by having it turn into a short sleeve version. It seems out of place
and pointless in the Mini-Series because he never uses this for
anything useful during the Secret Wars, but it does play a bigger
role in later Spider-Man comics.
As a kid I was so impressed. I loved
that costume. It always looked so great in the comics. I remember
drooling over the Black Spider-Man figure at a toy collector’s shop
as a kid wishing it was in my price range. I don’t think I ever saw
Series Two in regular toy stores or I probably would have bough the
figure. I am looking forward to seeing the Black Costumes appearance
in the upcoming Spider-Man 3. Although I don’t think it is nearly as
cool without the large white spider logo on the chest.
