Which Superheroes Actually Needed Introductions During Secret Wars?

Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

In Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 (by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and John Beatty), the powerful being known as the Beyonder brought a group of superheroes and a group of supervillains to Battleworld to force them to fight each other for his amusement.

When the superheroes found themselves together, they introduced all of the superheroes to each other...

Reader Kelly wrote in to ask, "As a child, one of the earliest comics that got me hooked was marvel superheroes secret wars, I still remember the first issue and the blatantly reader friendly introduction scenes where each group of heroes and villains basically introduced themselves to each other.

My question though is that in continuity at that time how many of these heroes ( villains too I suppose) had already met.

It seemed- especially with the x-men- that most of the heroes were unknown to each other, which simply added to the drama as a wide eyed eight year old and something that seems lacking in today's comics where everyone bumps into each other every other month.

Was it really the case that after nearly twenty years the wasp didn't know professor x? Or that Wolverine and the Hulk hadn't unfinished business?"

Great question, Kelly.

Before Secret Wars, the biggest gathering of superheroes had been a couple of years earlier in the Contest of Champions...

If you believe that that should count, and honestly, I don't know why it WOULDN'T count, then that would take care of pretty much all of the superheroes meeting up right there.

That would just leave the following superheroes to address, as they were not present at the Contest of Champions:

Captain Marvel

Rogue

Iron Man (who was Jim Rhodes at the time)

Magneto (as he wasn't really a superhero at the time)

Let's address them one at a time!

Magneto

Magneto had fought the Avengers a few times by this point. In Avengers #49, he faced off against Hawkeye...

and the Wasp...

Then Cap and Thor (among others) in Avengers #110-111...

Magneto fought the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #104...

Magneto fought the Hulk along with the rest of the Defenders in Defenders #15-16...

Amazingly enough, as far as I can tell, Spider-Man and Magneto had never fought each other before Secret Wars.

So that means Magneto still needed to meet: Spider-Man, Rogue, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel and Jim Rhodes.

James Rhodes

He met the Wasp when she was dating Tony Stark in Avengers #224...

And then he met her as Iron Man along with Cap in Avengers #232 when they freaked out after he quit the Avengers after he had to take over for the now completely so drunk that he was dropping out of society Tony Stark...

He met Rogue, Colossus and She-Hulk in X-Men Annual #7 when the X-Men were forced to steal something from Avengers Mansion due to an absurd scavengers quest they were sent on by the Impossible Man...

So that means Rhodey still needed to meet: Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Hulk, Spider-Man, Magneto, Mister Fantastic, Thing, Human Torch and Captain Marvel.

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Rogue

Obviously, Rogue infamously met the Avengers when she fought them as part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in her debut in Avengers Annual #10...

The Avengers she fought there who later showed up in Secret Wars were: Captain America, Thor and Hawkeye.

As noted above, she fought She-Hulk and Iron Man (Jim Rhodes) in X-Men Annual #7.

So that means Rogue still needed to meet: Spider-Man, Magneto, Hulk, Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing, Wasp and Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel

Monica Rambeau famously debuted in an Amazing Spider-Man Annual, so of course she met Spider-Man! She also met the Thing in that issue...

Monica met the Fantastic Four in a fun "crossover" between the Avengers and the Fantastic Four where the two teams tackled a force fields from both sides.

Monica met the Hulk when the Hulk almost joined the Avengers after he was given a pardon by the president (Monica could have met pretty much every other superhero had she been on the team a few months earlier when the Hulk actually officially received his pardon, as nearly every superhero in the Marvel Universe came out for that)...

So that means Captain Marvel still needed to meet: Magneto, Cyclops, Professor X, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Iron Man (Jim Rhodes).

That makes it particularly odd that Shooter had Captain Marvel be the one who confronted Magneto when he showed up on the superhero side of things...