The original Secret Wars crossover event by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, which took place in 1984 and 1985, is one of the most memorable events in Marvel comic book history. Its sequel, however, often gets forgotten.
Written by a returning Jim Shooter and penciled by Al Milgrom, Secret Wars II was published in 1985 and 1986, almost immediately after Secret Wars ended. It was the bestselling comic book of 1985 and yet, in comparison to its predecessor in terms of how memorable it was, it may as well have never even existed.
THE LEAD-UP
The story spawned from the idea that Jim Shooter - Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time - wanted to make the sequel to Secret Wars more personal than the original. With that in mind, he had the Beyonder - the enormously powerful cosmic entity who instigated the first epic event - travel to Earth in an attempt to learn how mankind lived.
It could be argued that the original series comprised the lead-up to Secret Wars II, as the Beyonder sought to continue his studying of the human race that began a year earlier. After he'd previously kidnapped Earth's most powerful individuals and pitted them against each other on a distant world, he was intrigued by humanity and wanted to learn more.
Unfortunately, the Beyonder's search for knowledge ended up being a recipe for disaster.
WHAT HAPPENED?
From the moment the Beyonder landed on Earth - a moment that was witnessed by Molecule Man and Volcana - the heroes of the planet became wary of his presence and determined that a threat was looming. Once the Beyonder became aware of this fact, he retreated to an island in an effort to escape them.
After starting out as what looked like a clone of Steve Rogers, the powerful being made an incredibly quintessential 1980s human form for himself and proceeded to do everything a typical guy would do in said decade, in order to experience life as a mortal male - including learning to use the bathroom with a little help from Peter Parker.
He went on to work for a mobster, fall in love with Dazzler and attempt to start a relationship with Boom-Boom (both of whom rejected him), and turned a large Manhattan office building into gold - but those things were small in scale compared to his most impactful and destructive actions that eventually warranted the attention of the Celestials and Watchers.
He resurrected Doctor Doom by reconstituting the villain's body from its disintegrated particles and sent him back in time to the beginning of the Secret Wars, forcing him to live the events in reverse order. He killed off the New Mutants, destroyed the majority of The New Defenders and made the X-Men face the future depicted in Days of Future Past.
While there were only nine issues in Secret Wars II, the series also tied-in with a whopping thirty-six more titles across Marvel continuity. This turned the event into a confusing mess of derailed plots and horrible continuity, and made following the complete story a nightmare.
In the end, it was Doctor Strange who encouraged him to find enlightenment rather than causing mayhem on Earth. However, the Beyonder failed to do so, which prompted him to attempt to destroy the entire multiverse. He failed and was defeated by a conglomerate of Earth's superhumans alongside the Silver Surfer, with Molecule Man ultimately killing him while he had temporarily transformed into a child during his re-birthing process.
IMPACT ON THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
Secret Wars II was notable for introducing Tabitha Smith - the aforementioned mutant superhero Boom-Boom - into the Marvel universe, but it also had a much larger impact on the company (and indeed the comic book industry as a whole).
Prior to the event, comic book crossover events were generally self-contained, with very few tie-ins in other titles. However, starting with Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's Crisis on Infinite Earths a year later in the DC universe, major crossover events having multiple tie-ins began to become a little more commonplace - even if it did take Marvel a few years to do another one on the level of this one.
With the whole of Secret Wars II being somewhat chaotic, it's also quite evident that the company learned their lesson about overly complicated tie-ins. While the concept of tie-ins has continued, it's rarely on the same level as this series.