10 Best Secret Wars Tie-Ins, Ranked

In a few short years, the Avengers will return for their sixth movie, Secret Wars (after they survive Doomsday first). Right now, fans don’t know much about how Marvel will adapt the multiverse-shattering story other than that Robert Downey Jr. will play Victor Von Doom. However, based on an Easter egg in Deadpool and Wolverine, audiences might assume that Marvel is adapting Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 event as opposed to the 1985 classic. This would certainly be an ambitious storyteller to adapt, far more challenging than even the Infinity Saga was.

The multiverse collapsed in the Marvel Comics event, yet Doom saved pieces he used to form Battleworld. The entire makeshift planet was divided into domains ruled by a different baron. The domains, or the fragments of the multiverse, were separated by giant barriers and, when it came to Hulk territories, an ocean. When Secret Wars debuted in 2015, Marvel released nearly 50 tie-in stories, with some of the best miniseries and one-shots standing out to fans.

10 X-Men ’92 Brought the Animated Series to Secret Wars

The animated return came long before X-Men ’97

X-Men ’97 was a monumental success on Disney+, but it wasn’t the first time the beloved animated series had been revised. For Secret Wars, Marvel Comics delved back into everyone’s favorite Fox series, making the show a part of Doom’s Battleworld. Originally released as an Infinite Comic, Scott Koblish’s art nailed the feeling of the series, especially with how Matt Milla colored it. Writers Chad Bowers and Chris Sims also successfully replicated the tone of X-Men: The Animated Series.

Readers got to experience the old series while the creative team brought in new material, like Cassandra Nova and a new iteration of X-Force. Though there are mentions of Secret Wars, such as noting that Robert Kelly is the baron of this domain, the story stands on its own very well. Any fans of the old show can jump right in.

9 SiegeExplored a Vital Part of Battleworld

It was called Siege because they were under attack

While Siege shares a name and cover design with the 2010 event, the similarities end there. This series was about an actual siege on the “Shield,” the great wall between the civilized domains of the north and the unruly ones of the south. The comic starred Marvel Comics characters from all over the multiverse in an intense four-issue series. As Abigail Brand, the director of the Shield, explained, “There is no “win” here. We just can’t fail.”

The numerous artists who contributed to the story also made this series unique. The switching styles and tones sometimes made it chaotic, but that was the entire point. They were always fighting. However, the revolving artists also helped make Siege truly feel like it was made up of a multiverse.

8 Inferno Brought Hell to Battleword

Baron Scott Summers was in charge of the domain

The original Inferno event had wide-reaching ramifications for Marvel characters like the X-Men and even for Spider-Man. But this Secret Wars tie-in showed what it would have looked like if the X-Men lost Manhattan to the Darkchild, the demon that Colossus’s little sister Illyana became. Possessed by demons, Manhattan sat in a dome maintained by various magicians and scientists. Baron Scott Summers doesn’t allow anyone into the dome except for one day a year. On each anniversary of Illyana’s fall, he allowed Colossus to lead a team into Limbo-Manhattan to try and save his sister. He failed every year.

While there are a few mentions of what’s happening in Secret Wars and even a visit from Sheriff Strange and a couple of Thors, the tie-in primarily stood on its own. It also put a spotlight on Colossus, which fans of the steel giant rarely get to see. Instead of a featured character, he is the main character and narrator of the comic. Javier Garrón’s art was also great, bringing to life a variety of colorful demons.

7 Civil War was One of the Most Intense Secret Wars Tie-Ins

The Warzones miniseries also tied into other events

Civil War, the original event, ripped Tony Stark and Steve Rogers’ friendship in half dramatically. It took them years to mend the rift that formed between them. However, in the Secret Wars tie-in, their feud only worsened. The miniseries depicted a reality where the superhero civil war didn’t just continue but also worsened. A literal split formed in America. Even God Emperor Doom couldn’t mend the divide…or perhaps didn’t care to. President Tony Stark is in charge of the East, or “the Iron,” while General Steve Rogers is in charge of the West, or “the Blue.”

How bad is the divide between the two Avengers? They know that Doctor Doom is a god ruling over the planet, and they don’t care. Soule brings even more intrigue to the story by tying in elements of other major Marvel events of the same era. There are also some epic battles thanks to Leinil Francis Yu’s pencils. The story is self-contained, with barely a mention of Doom, but it’s hard not to imagine Doom laughing at how preoccupied Captain America and Iron Man are with their hate for one another.

6 Planet Hulk was the Most Savage Domain on Battleworld

Even Doom was concerned with the realm

Like Siege, Planet Hulk only shares a name with the famous storyline that came before it. Instead of a planet where Hulk becomes the ruler, this Secret Wars tie-in was about an entire planet of Hulks. A gamma bomb went off that, instead of killing everyone, turned them into monstrous savages. And the ruler of this realm? The Red King.

This tied into Secret Wars a lot more than other miniseries had. It started with a Conan the Barbarian-like Captain America fighting in Arcade’s arena alongside none other than Devil Dinosaur. Doom sent Steve to kill the King because he was incredibly concerned about “Greenland.” He intervened to stop the Red King from becoming more powerful and spreading outside the borders of their domain to threaten the rest of Battleworld.

5 Spider-Verse Put a Wrinkle in Secret Wars

They broke the rules of Battleworld

The rules Doom set for Battleworld were pretty simple: each fragment of the multiverse had its own domain, and no one could cross borders without Sheriff Strange or God Emperor Doom knowing. So, how did six Spider-People from six different universes end up in the domain of Arachnia without any memory of where they had been before? That’s not supposed to be possible in Battleworld, but it happened.

However, the characters were most curious about what Mayor Norman Osborn, the baron of the domain, wanted with the six of them. The series tied into Secret Wars a lot more as the story progressed. While some mysteries weren’t fully answered, it was fun to see Spider-Girl, Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man India, Spider-Man UK, and Spider-Man Noir all team up together.

4 Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows was a Great Spider-Man Story

It had one of the best Secret Wars tie-in creative teams

Renew Your Vows was everything a Spider-Man story should be. Fun, but serious when it needed to be. And above all, full of heart. Readers meet a Spider-Man who is one of the last remaining heroes of Manhattan, ruled by a new character: Augustus Roman, AKA Regent. In this domain, Regent killed and stole the powers of dozens of superheroes, which forced others, including Spider-Man, into hiding.

The problem? Peter and MJ’s daughter, Annie May Parker, really wanted to use her powers. Seeing Peter Parker as a concerned civilian who could do something while struggling to keep his family safe was a great dynamic to explore. The story didn’t tie into Secret Wars too much, but it works so well as a standalone Spider-Man story that it didn’t have to. It inspired an ongoing series that further explored the characters, though it wasn’t the only one to spin-out of Secret Wars.

They lived on the island nation of Arcadia

With the Secret Wars tie-in A-Force, G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennet let their love of Wonder Woman shine. Instead of Themyscira, readers are introduced to Arcadia, a domain of Battleworld ruled by women. The baron of the domain? She-Hulk. She is one of the most respected barons in Battleworld. When America Chavez breaks Doom’s law by crossing borders, She-Hulk rallies the A-Force to defend her.

Like a handful of others, this tie-in was so good that A-Force got an ongoing series when the Marvel Universe was restored after Secret Wars. Readers loved how Wilson and Bennet wrote the various women of the Marvel Universe. Plus, they introduced a great new character: Singularity, a girl who is also a pocket dimension. The miniseries worked as both a tie-in and a standalone story.

2 Thors Explored a Vital Component of Secret Wars

The miniseries took a surprising direction

One of the most inventive aspects of Battleworld was that the police force was made up of Thors from all over the multiverse. Throughout the main series and several tie-ins, a Thor or two would show up from time to time. Every time they did, the story got much more interesting. They turned several tie-ins from barely tying into Secret Wars into a stark reminder that Doom was a god above all of them.

In the miniseries Thors, Jason Aaron took the idea of a Thor police force and amplified it. Given that these characters were all various forms of a Norse god, it might have made more sense to offer a more straightforward grand epic, which Aaron had already been doing with his Thor run. Instead, Jason Aaron gave readers a hardboiled Noir starring Thors. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did.

1 Old Man LoganWandered Beyond the Wasteland

The Secret Wars tie-in explored multiple domains of Battleworld

The original Old Man Logan story followed a retired Wolverine as he trekked across the Wasteland trying to provide for his family. The arc was instantly beloved, so much so that it was the main inspiration for the film Logan. Thanks to Secret Wars, fans returned to the grizzled Wolverine in Old Man Logan: Warzones. However, this tie-in felt different from all the others in the massive event.

A good tie-in should enrich the main event, and Old Man Logan did just that. While most of the other tie-ins stayed within their domains, Brian Michael Bendis took Logan on a journey across Battleworld, having him land – sometimes violently – in different domains. Thanks to the storyline and Andrea Sorrentino’s artwork, readers saw more of Battleworld through Logan’s perspective. All the while, the miniseries was still very much about Logan. Old Man Logan’s journey also continued after the event, as he landed in the mainstream Marvel universe and joined the X-Men.