Rating: 
Summary: Size matters?
Review: A big maxi-series, the success of which spawned a number of crossover series following this. A lot of action and changes occur in this series but the characters do not quite act like themselves, but as characatures. I agree that this was an ambitious project tying in a number of separate titles but it still falls short because Shooter tries to force a number of things to happen (Spidey's costume, Thing staying, Hulk losing intelligence, etc) in a certain time frame while sometimes losing track of the story. In fact, at times, it seems as if they came up with the titles of the stories first and tried to write a story based on the titles. Shooter did not have a clue about how to write the X-Men here and the characters lacked depth. Not the best work from Shooter or Zeck but upgraded because this series was a pioneer in the use of maxi-series and crossovers (actually, maybe we should DEDUCT for that).
Rating:
Summary: same as I expected less then I wiched
Review: a grand size war where each of the eivl & the good siide divided into groups , in which all have only one common enemy "the bionder" , that more stupid then the punch of them together , in which almost every one in this war get killed at least once & live again including the bionder , but over all it looked like a real war with all its tactics & planning , love & death , and of corse the big fights was my best parts
Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but I've had better
Review: A quick overview of the storyline: cosmic being becomes interested in what superheroes and supervillains think. To find out, it conducts an experiment transporting a couple dozen people to another world and has them bash each others brains out. Predictably, the good guys win.
What's good about the story: there are a few twists which enhance the value of the book, firstly, the X-men fiasco, then the Galactus event, the Doctor Doom thing and the somewhat weird ending.
The fighting scenes are good, and the powers of each character seem to get a good run.
However, there are quite afew areas which the story could improve on. Firstly, like most storylines, the ending is far too abrupt, leaving you somewhat disorientated by the sequence of events. Secondly, none of the characters get any real development (with the exception of Rogue), so the outcome is basically that this whole storyline is produced for an "ultimate slugfest" theme. Thirdly, the slug fest really isn't much of a slugfest. (and here I contradict myself) There is alot of fighting, but there is so much attempted to be crammed into so little space that none of the character's powers really registers, and it seems to resemble a super-powered bar brawl more than anything else. Finally, there are some really weird things which happen in the story which sorta leaves you thinking "huh? what was that all about?"
It's a good read, i'll admit to that, but Marvel has had much better to offer. The idea was pretty refreshing, and could have been developed alot better, but in the end, it stops short of being anything truly memorable. Buy it if you are a marvel die hard fan, or like reading about super heroes and villains fighting like street thugs, otherwise, see if you can borrow one off a mate before you test it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Fun Book
Review: Finding the issues in the flea market years ago around ten years of age, I was immediately hooked. All of the main Marvel characters are here, and even today its a fun read, though a little dated and the characterizations are a little out of date. Yes, it helped to start the mass cross-overs that later overwhelmed comics in general. But, this one is fairly well written, has excellent art for its time, and was a cross-over that actually had real impact in the ongoing books. This includes the replacement in the Fantastic Four of the Thing by the She-Hulk, the Hulk turning back to his more savage nature, permanent changes to the Molecule Man, Magneto sliding to the good side, and of course, the introduction of the black costume to Spider-man (probably the best of the changes in costume to occur over the years to different heroes) which eventually led to Venom, a great villain who was played out after awhile. The Doctor Doom characterization is dead on, and is one of the finest Doom stories. The only heroes to get a short thrift are the X-men, who are not portrayed particularly well, outside of Colossus. (And Daredevil, since he was totally left out). I recently gave it to my ten year old cousin and he was hooked on the Marvel Universe as well. It's not high concept, it's not full of philosophy, it doesn't try to change the world, it's just a really fun book. Remember those?
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Having just finished reading the story, I can tell you that this was not a bad story. However, I think a mistake was made in the original comics in making this 12 issues long, as there were many extraneous moments that really did not need to take place. (The Lizard/Enchantress battle, for example.)If you pick it up, you won't be disappointed, but there are better graphic novels.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Having just finished reading the story, I can tell you that this was not a bad story. However, I think a mistake was made in the original comics in making this 12 issues long, as there were many extraneous moments that really did not need to take place. (The Lizard/Enchantress battle, for example.) If you pick it up, you won't be disappointed, but there are better graphic novels.
Rating: 
Summary: The Secret Origin of $ecret War$
Review: I read this series back when it first came out and recently got a chance to see it collected in this volume. If you read between the lines (or the panels, as the case may be), you begin to get an idea of the conversations between mid-80's Marvel brass while developing this series: "Hey, DC is pulling out all the stops! For the past couple of years they've been working on a 12-issue limited series called "Crisis on Infinite Earths"! It has something to do with all their heroes getting involved in a huge cosmic conflict!" "Great idea! I'm glad we thought of it! SO...how can we milk the likely popularity of DC's endeavor?" "Why, that's easy! We'll hastily come up with our own derivative version, only not as well-written, not as well-drawn, and not as significant to the overall structure of our comics universe...not that we'll point any of that out to the readers!" "Genius! Pure genius! And years from now, we can reprint all the issues in an overpriced paperback volume with ridiculously poor reproduction! I can see those faded ink lines now! Bwah ha ha!" "It's agreed then! Rush '$ecret War$' to market, and make it snappy! Let's try to get it on the racks before DC's 'Crisis'! That way, THEY look derivative!" And so it was that $ecret War$ was born, and Marvel has since rejoiced at its overratedness!
Rating:
Summary: Big Heros, Big Battles!
Review: Ok, this book has it all. Big Heros. The biggest. Big Battles. The biggest. On an alien planet, all the heros of Earth must work together to win a common WAR! This is by far the most ambitious work from Marvel since Busiek's Marvels. Follow every Big heros from Marvel Universe in the 80's plow through the enemy. The fighting scenes were smartly and tightly drawn. I loved it. And the story and dialogue? Good as well! No shortage of good story and characterization in this department! Marvel should do this ever so often. A reunion of the Heros. So powerful a force. This is shown beautifully and excitingly. The price is a bit high, but remember, you are buying a BiG book! Lost of issues here crammed into one graphic novel. The single issues themselves would cost you the same amount, but treasuring this is much much easier. I missed it when the single issues came out. I didn't when the paperback came out. I'm glad I bought this. It gave me a great feel for the heros of the 80's. The Marvel Heros.
Rating:
Summary: A true classic!
Review: SECRET WARS is arguably the most popular and creative superhero team up ever conceptualized by Marvel. I have waited years for this compilation and I am very satisfied with the end product. Perhaps my only complaint, however, is the overall quality of the book, which is printed on thick but evidently acidic paper as opposed to coated/glossy paper typically found in DC/Image compilations which I personally prefer. Nevertheless, this is still a good buy even for those who do not usually follow the Marvel mythology since the story is more or less self-contained. I hope they follow this up with a SECRET WARS II compilation (probably unlikely since the second series was comparatively unpopular) with maybe the SECRET WARS III story (as seen in Fantastic Four) included therein. These stories bring back very fond memories of a time when comic books were really fun to read, a far cry from the current crop of "grim and gritty" titles most of which are all form and no substance.
Rating:
Summary: Huge battle of good vs. evil
Review: The previous reviewer who ridiculed the behind the scenes "brainstorming" of Marvel's editors probably isn't too far from the truth. I remember when this series came out and how it was put out around the same time as DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths on purpose and I also recall reading a Mile High Futures review that panned Secret Wars as a blatant attempt to compete with Crisis rather than come up with a great story that would bring the Marvel Universe together for some cosmic menace or something equally absurd. The Beyonder has to be the most contrived "villain" ever and the point of this story is that there is no point other than the strange Beyonder who has infinite power, but doesn't understand humans! He couldn't just read their minds or absorb a brain or something? The peripheral stories that took place after the Secret Wars ended were far better such as how Colossus dealt with his "love affair" in the X-Men and how Spidey got his alien costume in Amazing Spiderman. Mike Zeck's art is kind of weird (what's with the narrow ankles and massive thighs?!) but I thought it was still not bad (his better work was on Captain America where JM DeMattis penned some good stories and on the Punisher miniseries with Steve Grant). The problem is the dopey story by Jim Shooter. For 12 issues we get the heroes and villains getting played like chess pieces by the Beyonder and that's it! Nothing happens of any consequence other than a great deal of pining and whining and sporadic battles as the heroes are led by Captain America as their general versus Dr. Doom and company. I'm simply amazed that this book has an overall average that is so high! There's just no justice in this world! Please don't give Marvel any more money for this stupid series. Even as a kid I thought it was garbage, but in those days I paid .60 cents and used to buy a bunch of comics so it wasn't a big deal. No way am I paying for a tradepaperback for this junk now though. Go buy the far superior Crisis on Infinite Earths. You'll thank yourself in the morning.
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