"Secret Wars"
"Easy Come…Easy Go!" The Avengers 242 (April 1984)
"The War Begins" Secret Wars 1 (May 1984)
"Prisoners of War!"Secret Wars 2 (June 1984)
"Tempest Without, Crisis Within!"Secret Wars 3 (July 1984)
"Situation: Hopeless" Secret Wars 4 (August 1984)
"The Battle of Four Armies!" Secret Wars 5 (September 1984)
"A Little Death..." Secret Wars 6 (October 1984)
Scene from "Code of Honor: The Street" Code of Honor 3 (April 1997)
"Berserker!" Secret Wars 7 (November 1984)
"Invasion!" Secret Wars 8 (December 1984)
"Assault on Galactus!" Secret Wars 9 (January 1985)
"Death to the Beyonder!" Secret Wars 10 (February 1985)
"...and Dust to Dust!" Secret Wars 11 (March 1985)
"...Nothing to Fear..." Secret Wars 12 (April 1985)
"Homecoming!" Amazing Spider-Man 252 (May 1984)
"Chain of Command!" The Avengers 243 (May 1984)
(1984/04/01)

Reader Rating: Average; Thunderbolts Interest: Extreme

Summary: "Easy Come...Easy Go!": The Avengers' party celebrating the engagement of Hawkeye and Mockingbird is interrupted when several members respond to the sudden appearance of a strange structure in Central Park...and vanish into it!

Secret Wars: Joined by numerous other heroes, the abducted Avengers find themselves forced to fight an army of super-villains on a Battleworld constructed by an extra-dimensional being called the Beyonder.

In the course of the conflict, Spider-Man uses one of the Battleworld devices to create a new, black costume, and ends up with more than he bargained for.

Code of Honor: While many of earth’s heroes are gone, the police battle super-villains to keep the streets safe.

"Homecoming!": Spider-Man returns to Earth and learns a few more tricks that the alien costume can do.

"Chain of Command!": The Avengers return to Earth and a membership shake-up follows.

Secret Warriors: The Absorbing Man, Bulldozer, Captain America, Captain Marvel (Rambeau), Colossus, Cyclops, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, The Enchantress, Galactus, Hawkeye, Hulk, the Human Torch, Iron Man (Jim Rhodes), Kang, the Lizard, Magneto, Mr. Fantastic, the Molecule Man, Nightcrawler, Piledriver, Professor X, Rogue, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Storm, Titania (McPheerson), the Thing, Thor, Thunderball, Ultron, Volcana, the Wasp, the Wrecker, Wolverine

Avengers on Earth: Henry Pym, Mockingbird, Quicksilver, The Scarlet Witch, Starfox, The Vision.

Code of Honor: The Abomination, the Ani-Men, Batroc, the Beast, the Black Widow, Brothers Grimm, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Electro, the Falcon, Hobgoblin, the Invisible Woman, Iron Fist, the Juggernaut, the Living Laser, Moon Knight, Plant-Man, Moonstone, the Rhino, the Scorpion, the Shocker, Tiger Shark, Stilt-Man, Whirlwind

Continuity: Code of Honor pages 29-37 only.

Venom's first appearance is as a black blob that is dropped out of an alien machine. Spider-Man believes that the machine created the blob to be clothing, but will later learn that the stuff is alive and was presumably being contained in the device. The blob becomes a new costume for Spidey that miraculously obeys Peter's mental commands.

The Avengers learn of Hawkeye’s marriage, and the Vision appoints Hawkeye as leader of a new West Coast branch.

Comments: Secret Wars was a groundbreaking, crossover event when it was first published, but time has dimmed its charm somewhat. The plotting is haphazard and the repetetive Battleworld buildings and landscapes form a bland background. In 1984, Dr. Doom becoming all-powerful and killing two dozen heroes was a big deal -- not so much when Jim Starlin has Thanos do the same thing every other year.

Code of Honor is a respectable attempt to recapture the magic of Marvels. This time the man-on-the-street is a cop and the events surround a much grittier group of heroes. Painted by several different artists with varying styles and talent levels -- none of whom are close to Alex Ross.

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This page was revised on April 7, 2009