Pop! Goes the Icon

I have to admit it: There is nothing more I love than the Marvel Universe circa Secret Wars. I’m guessing Mark Millar might feel that way, hence his tribute to that four-color era of bombastic awesomeness, the forthcoming limited series 1985. If you haven’t heard about this puppy yet (yeah, as if that’s possible), it’s pretty simple, actually: Marvel’s villains invade our “real” world of 1985, the superheroes follow, and chaos ensues.

I’ve been pretty excited about this since I first heard of it, but the artwork for Jim Cheung’s variant, 2-part cover (seen above) was released today, and it got me reinvigorated. That cover (which I hope gets released as a poster) is very reminiscent — to me — of those great Mike Zeck Secret Wars covers, where the characters and action were bright, bold and larger than life. And even though the world of 1985 is seen through the perspective of a 13-year-old comic fan (yes, that’s all of us at 13), I think the book will promise to capture some of the magic of the mid-’80s Marvel Universe.

While I’m here, I’ll list just 5 of the many reasons why that mid-’80s Marvel Universe ruled:

1. The best X-Men lineup: Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue. Phoenix II sorta came around then too, but I never considered her an X-Man.

2. Magneto as a “good guy” — so many great stories spun out of this, including the X-Men  vs. The Avengers limited series, featuring art by Mark Silvestri just before he became a superstar on Uncanny X-Men. Asteroid M, Magneto’s retrial, and an ambiguous ending (which original writer Roger Stern did not plan, hence Shooter’s takeover on No. 4).

3. The New Mutants - Chris Claremont’s was good, but once Louise Simonson took over, man, was this some good stuff. I can’t even begin to describe how good. I’d say just pick up the whole series up until Cable shows up. I think once Cable appeared in the Marvel U, everything went downhill.

4. Secret Wars I & II - Yes, the first series was conceived as little more than a tactic to sell action figures (and what great figures they were — all Marvel characters should carry magic image shields!!), but the existential questions posed by the existence of the Beyonder — before he was retconned into a Cosmic Cube accident — were timeless. What is desire? What does it mean to be fulfilled? What does it mean to be mortal? The last issue of Secret Wars II is amazing. No, really — the decision made by the Multiple Man to terminate the proto-Beyonder baby before it could be “born” was … wow, was that an abortion in a Code-approved comic Shooter snuck in? It’s tragic and powerful — Reed Richard’s reaction to Molecule Man (”Are you MAD?!”) says it all. Sadly, I don’t have this issue anymore. I should rectify that, stat!

5. Iron Man: Tony Stark on the bottle again, Rhodey going nuts, Stane taking over Stark Enterprises — all this and Luke McDonnell art. Gotta love the Luke.

I might list more reasons tomorrow. Stay tuned, true believers.