Secret Wars #9 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Despite all odds, Hickman actually makes this story understandable, at least in terms of the big picture.

If I'm correctly putting the pieces together, Reed ultimately acknowledges that Doom did a good thing:  he saved the Multiverse from destruction.  But, Doom's failure was the fact that he couldn't see beyond what he could rule:  his goal was dominion, and it limited his imagination.  In their final confrontation, Doom accuses Reed of thinking that he's better than he is, and Reed tells him that he's wrong:  he's just always thought that Victor could be better than what he is.  Doom asks Reed if he believes that he could've done better with all this power, and Reed says even Doom knows that he could.  Doom agrees, and Owen, hearing this confession, switches sides.

In the ensuing explosion, T'Challa holds onto either the orange or yellow Infinity Gem and finds himself on Wakanda, realizing that the plan (whatever it actually was) worked.  He tells a group of his young citizens that Wakanda is going to lead humanity to the stars, announcing the formation of Alpha Flight.  (The fact that "Ultimates" actually debuted months ago somewhat spoils the impact.)  The only other moment connected to a future series features Miles:  as he and Peter are exiting the White Space, Owen thanks him for the hamburger that he gave him a few issues ago, telling him that he owes him one.  That favor is revealed to the resurrection of Miles' mother.

Unfortunately, if you're a fan of the Ultimate Universe, we don't get any more answers for you.  The title card informs us that the Earth that we see here is "the Prime Earth" of the Marvel Universe.  It seems entirely possible that Miles and the Maker are the only Ultimate Universe counterparts to survive "the End," since, if I'm not mistaken, they're the only ones who we've seen so far.  Notably, Miles' typeface has changed, from the Ultimate format of lower-caps to the Marvel format of all-caps.  I'm guessing that we're going to have to wait for his series to get any more information on this front.  After all, the Maker appeared in "New Avengers," but I'm still not entirely sure what his deal was.

The good news is that Hickman does wrap up the major loose end, namely, how exactly Reed fixes everything.  Not surprisingly, Valeria provides the answer.  Earlier in the issue, when Owen told Reed that he was hungry, Reed responded that he imagined "an infinite number of missing mouths not being fed [would] do that."  It's our first hint that Victor hadn't really done everything that he could to resurrect the Multiverse.  After all, why would Owen be proverbially sitting on missing mouths?  According to Valeria, Owen is a "human repository of unlimited power."  Victor squandered that power by not using it to its potential; Reed is able to direct it better.  It's Franklin, a "universal shaper," that starts the process.  He creates the Universes and hands them to Reed, who uses Owen's power to make them reality.  Owen then splits off a part of himself to go with the new Universe (heh) as an anchor and, in the process, has begun making himself whole.

Honestly, it really does make sense.  I still have no idea how the physics of Battleworld worked, like how Apocalypse was killed in "Age of Apocalypse" but alive throughout the main series.  But, this set of physics does make sense to me.  Moreover, it shows us why Reed, Sue, and the Foundation are missing:  they're busy creating -- and then cataloguing and exploring -- these Universes.  The most poignant moment is when Reed and Sue discuss Ben and Johnny.  It's Reed who feels their loss here, but Susan reminds him that their acts aren't finished.  Speaking of last acts, Owen also seems to have bestowed a gift on Doom:  the issue with ends with Victor taking off his mask, revealing his healed face and a smile breaking across his lips.  It's a fitting nod to the original series, where Doom used his god-like powers to heal his own face.

Was this event perfect?  No.  Again, the lack of clarity of how the tie-in issues related to the main series eventually became the albatross around its neck.  But, in the end, Hickman does what this series was obviously created to do:  bring the Ultimate Universe to a close and send the Fantastic Four into the sunset.  It was a wise decision to expand it to a ninth issue, because Hickman and Ribic are able to take their time here; Ribic does amazing work showing T'Challa and Victor fighting in a variety of avatars.  In fact, it probably would've been better as 12 issues (like the original series).  Hickman would've had time to expand issues #6 and #7, doing a better job of showing how the revolt against Doom -- probably the most undercooked plot point -- came together.

But, it's water under the bridge.  Although this issue answers virtually none of the questions that we've had in the new round of series -- like what happened in those eight months -- it wasn't its job to do so.  We know how the Marvel Universe came to be reborn, and it's enough.  I'm giving this issue four stars not only because of the art but because Hickman manages to really save the concept of this series in a way that Fraction wasn't able to do in "Fear Itself" or Bendis in "Age of Ultron."  Now, hopefully, we can get the answers about the current Universe that we've been craving, particularly if anyone remembers the world before the End or Battleworld itself.  It's not much to ask, but we'll see if we get it.

**** (four of five stars)

Secret Wars #8 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Honestly, I don't have that much to say here.  Hickman seems to have given up explaining the motivations of the characters, so this issue is really just a blur of blasts and fists.

To recap the events (mostly fights):

- The Thing destroys Maestro's ship full of Hulks but then allows Franklin (controlling Galactus) to destroy him when he learns that he's Susie's son.

- After crash-landing into Castle Doom, Star-Lord is left to repair the ship while the Reeds head to Owen.  Black Swan confronts Peter on Doom's behalf, and Star-Lord injects the World Tree with the last remnant of Groot, creating a souped-up version of him.

- Doom confronts Thanos as he leads the Annihilation Horde, but we're not really given an explanation of how he took control of it, since it didn't happen during "Infinity Gauntlet."  At any rate, Doom destroys him and orders Annihilus to compensate for his treachery by taking on the rebels.

- Black Panther and Namor arrive with their army through the Siege Perilous, and Doom seems more scared of them than I think that he should be.

- The Reeds arrive at Owen at the same time as Valeria, who's brought Susan with her to show her that they've been living a lie.

With only one issue left, it seems unlikely that we're going to address some of the larger questions hanging over this series.  First, we've never really sorted out the various doppelgängers enough to know exactly who we see rebelling against Doom here.  Didn't Apocalypse die in "Age of Apocalypse?"  Didn't Sinister die in "Inferno?"  Are the same characters fighting Doom here the ones that we've seen in those series?  If so, how did they get resurrected?  Second, we've never really gotten a good explanation of why they're rebelling.  How did Jane convince the Thor Corps to turn against Doom?  Why is Black Swan siding with him?  In the case of the Thors, I'm still hoping that we learn that Jane was able to turn the Thors because Doom's power was waning.  But, I'm just guessing at that.  It goes to my main problem with this series, that we never got to see the moment, the moment that explains how and why Doom began to lose control.

At this stage, I think the minimum bar that Hickman has to clear in terms of explaining the events of this series is answering the following two questions.  First, how did Battleworld get created in the first place?  Second, did Doom really need to have the control over Battleworld that we've seen here to save the Multiverse?  The answers to these questions go to motives, whether Doom was just Doom trying to grab power or if he's really a misunderstood hero.  After all, Reed didn't save the Multiverse.  If we get at least those answers, I think that we could be OK.  Sure, it would've been nice to get a better sense of the dynamics of Battleworld and how the various actors related to each other.  But, if we can at least get down the motives and physics of this event, we can call it a day and move onto the new era.  (Of course, that "new" era already started a few months ago, but I won't get into that.)

** (two of five stars)

Secret Wars #7 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, the wheels come off the bus a bit here.

Let's start with the parts that I followed.  It's revealed that Maximus is the Prophet and that the plan is for him to distract Doom with a frontal assault while the Reeds and Star-Lord sneak into Doomgard to "steal the most valuable thing that's left of the Multiverse."  (I'm assuming that it's Molecule Man, but we'll see.)  Meanwhile, Black Panther destroys part of the Shield and, as King of the Dead, convinces the zombies to follow him through the Siege Courageous.  (I had to re-read my review of last issue to remember that he and Namor conveniently found it on Strange's hidden island.)

However, we have all sorts of other developments that Hickman presents as faits accomplis despite the fact that I don't recall seeing them happen (in spite of the numerous tie-in series that I'm getting).  For example, Thor has somehow convinced the Thors that Doom isn't God, recruiting them -- in just one conversation -- to join the forces fighting Doom.  (I'm assuming that we might see the background to that conversation in "Thors" #4, also released this week.  If we don't, you'd think that they could've at least given us an editor's note explaining where we can get more information.  After all, it's a pretty significant development.)  Separately, Swan is seen as working with Doom, even though I don't have any idea when that happened.  Similarly, Captain Marvel is working with Sinister in his betrayal of the other generals, but I don't even know which Captain Marvel it is.  Ditto, Apocalypse:  he's alive and well here, despite the fact that he was very much dead at the end of "Age of Apocalypse."  Is it yet another Apocalypse?

Now, I'll admit that part of my problem was that I read this issue two months after I read issue #6.  As I mentioned earlier, I was initially outraged that I had no idea what Black Panther and Namor were doing...until I read my last review and realized that I had just forgotten.  But, a faulty memory doesn't explain all the moments where I found myself thinking, "Wait, when did that happen?"  In fact, I feel like we're still missing the moment, the moment where the heroes come together with a plan.  Sure, we see the Reeds talking amongst themselves, but, ever since Dr. Strange dispersed the heroes, we've got no sense of how they could possibly be working together.  We seem to have a lot of uncoordinated events, even though Hickman seems to want us to believe that they're actually coordinating with each other.  But, since we never see them standing in a dark, dreary room committing themselves to the cause, it lacks a certain impact.

Hopefully it was just an awkward transition period as we move to the battle royale.  But, either way, the Big Two really need to consider bringing back editor's notes, particularly to help guide us through these sprawling cross-over events.  This issue would've been a lot easier to follow with some narrative nudges.

** (two of five stars)

Secret Wars #6 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I'm going with bullet points here, because Hickman is (quite ably) juggling a lot of separate stories all at once:

- Timing remains an interesting issue in this event.  In this issue, Madelyne Pryor is the baron of Inferno, meaning that it happens after the events of the "Inferno" tie-in series.  However, Apocalypse is still the baron of the Domain of Apocalypse, meaning that it happens before the events of "Age of Apocalypse."  At some point, a fan-made timeline would really be helpful.

- Reed has sent out drones to trace the energy in Battleworld.  It all leads to Doomstadt, and Reed sends the Spider-Men to follow the trail.  Not surprisingly, they find themselves at the Molecule Man memorial.  They encounter Valeria there, since Franklin and his team also tracked Doom's energy signature to the statue.  To agree to keep their presence quiet, Valeria asks them if they (or any of their companions) killed Stephen Strange.  When they confirm that they didn't (and thus her hunch), she allows them to enter, and they come face-to-face with Owen Reece.

- Meanwhile, a lot of people are working to dethrone Doom.  Someone that I don't recognize named the Prophet is leading an army to Doomstadt, and Doom orders Apocalypse, Madelyne, Maestro, and Mr. Sinister to put down his rebellion.  (Mr. Sinister is not surprisingly plotting something separately.)  "Our" Reed is arguing with Ultimate Reed over whether they should kill Doom, since "our" Reed fears that doing so might destroy creation itself.  Elsewhere, Thanos convinces Ben Grimm -- the backbone of the Shield -- that Doom has been lying to him about the nature of Battleworld.  Finally, Namor and T'Challa arrive at the Hidden Isle of Agamotto, where they discover that Dr. Strange has stashed an Infinity Gauntlet and a "Siege Courageous," which lets the bearer transport between Battleworld's domains.  A recording that plays when T'Challa correctly provides the password ("Illuminatus") tells them that it may be the only way to stop Doom.  (One small note here is that I'm not sure how they learned of the Hidden Island.  Did that happen last issue?  Maybe in a tie-in series?)  For his part, Doom is aware -- at least indirectly -- of the numerous plots in action against him and seems to be getting concerned.

- We also get an example of pet peeve #1 here, since Thanos doesn't fight any zombies (as the cover depicts).

I had thought that this issue might provide a little more information about Doom.  After all, some of the tie-in series that recently ended -- particularly "Guardians of Knowhere" -- implied that the heroes have learned that Doom hasn't been truthful in saying that he needed the power of a god to save reality.  Although we've had hints of that in the main series, we don't have anything to even remotely confirm it.  It's still hard not to argue -- based solely on the main series -- that Doom did what he had to do to prevent all reality from imploding.  It looks like we're going to have to wait at least until next issue for that revelation.

In the meantime, it seems like the real test of Doom's power is going to be whether he can fight off the various threats on the horizon.  In addition to the hints about the origin of Battleworld, we've also had hints that Doom might not be as powerful as he claims.  I wonder if it'll be one of the rebels -- in opposing Doom -- that proves that he's not who he claims that he is.

*** (three of five stars)

Secret Wars #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Hickman really lays it all on the table here, giving us the secret history of the "Secret Wars."  Since I didn't read his run on "Avengers" or "New Avengers," I'm not sure how much of the material that Hickman covers here is new.  At the very least, it's new (and exciting) to me.

We (or maybe just I) learn in this issue that the Beyonders had grown tired of experimenting with life, so they moved onto death.  They created Owen Reese as a bomb; his analogue in each reality was meant to destroy all reality when they each exploded simultaneously.  However, the Beyonders underestimated the fact that Reese's humanity gave him the power of free choice.  He wound up choosing to support Doom when he approached him with the truth behind the Beyonders' plan.  Together, they began setting off the alternate versions of himself early to diminish the final explosion's power, creating the "incursions" that the Illuminati discovered in "New Avengers."  Ultimately, they realized that they couldn't stop the Beyonders' plan, so they worked with Dr. Strange to steal their power.  With that stolen power, Doom was able to save some parts of reality and created Battleworld from them.

It is honestly a solid story.  If it's the first time that Hickman has revealed it since he started work on it with "Avengers" and "New Avengers," then the long-time readers of those series had to have their minds effing blown in reading it.

With the truth revealed, Hickman can now focus on the matter at hand:  where we go from here.  First, Doom is clearly worried (as Reese assures him that he should be) that his grip on power is loosening.  Hickman hints in the conversation between Doom and Reese (who is hiding from the rest of Battleworld in a "room" located beneath the statue of him at Castle Doom) that they jointly maintain Battleworld and that their grip on it may not be as strong as Doom has led others to believe.  Second, it's definitely true that Doom's hold on the truth is fracturing.  Over the years, Valeria and her team have studied the energy of Battleworld and identified that Dr. Strange's power existed as almost anti-matter to Doom's power (the "god particles" that comprise all other energy on Battleworld).  Although we don't learn why it would be the case (they themselves don't know), their ability to track the energy means that they know that it was Dr. Strange that dispersed the "strangers."  (I'm assuming they'll learn that the strangers' powers use energy also different from Doom's.)  Her suspicions heightened (since Doom tells the world a different story of Strange's fate), Valeria commits to finding the truth.  When you add into the mix Thanos wandering the world on his own, you begin to realize why Doom's worried.

The exciting part of this series at this point is that Hickman still doesn't hint how it's all going to be resolved.  Sure, Doom may have been a villain on Earth-616, but Hickman has made it clear that he is really the hero here.  You can't dispute that he saved as much of reality as he could.  Yes, he put himself on the throne, but you also understand why he had to do so:  it appears that keeping the domains separate is important to keeping the peace (and perhaps the integrity) of Battleworld.  Reed may well despise him for the reality that he's created, but it's not like Reed succeeded in saving the old one.  In fact, Hickman is turning on its head the usual event trope where the heroes save the day just in the nick of time.  What are they going to do here?  Undo Doom's work and destroy Battleworld?  If "saving the day" means "destroying all reality," are you really a hero?  Hickman keeps this question at the center of this event, and it's why it's one of the best ones that I've really ever read.  Usually, we're starting to fade at this point in an event, as some sort of logical fallacy overwhelms the story.  (I'm looking at you, "Age of Ultron.")  But, Hickman is not only going strong, but getting stronger.  I can't wait to see where we go.

***** (five of five stars)

Secret Wars #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Another win!  Hickman and I are getting along!  Woot!  Hickman sets everything in motion in this issue, and I can honestly say, in a good way, that I'm not sure where it's going to go.

Dr. Strange starts the issue bringing the Life Raft heroes up to speed on Battleworld, explaining that the Beyonders were the ones that initiated the incursions and Doom killed them in order to save what remained of the Multiverse.  If I'm not mistaken, it's the first time that we hear that Doom killed the Beyonders and it's also the first time that Hickman has established them as the cause of the incursions.  However, Hickman doesn't explain why the Beyonders were intent on destroying the Multiverse.  (At the base of it, it actually goes to the heart of the story that he's been telling since he took over the Avengers line.)  We'll need to put that on the list of questions that we still need answered, though it's clear that we'll get there. 

However, the Life Raft heroes arent' the only prime characters, if you will, in play.  The Thors are meanwhile trying to stopped the escaped Cabal villains, though they quickly realize that they're outmatched.  It's here where we get the first hint of the true significance of the arrival of the prime characters, with Valeria seemingly coming to the conclusion that they're more powerful than the inhabitants of Battleworld.  Dr. Strange takes the heroes with him to try to stop the Cabal, but it's Doom's realization that Mr. Fantastic is among them that brings us to the next phase of the story.  (Apparently, he has no analogue on Battleworld, unlike seemingly everyone else on the life rafts.)

Scott (as Phoenix) challenges Doom, and, for a moment, it seems that the prime characters are even more powerful than Doom, as Scott seems to have Doom on the ropes.  But, Doom survives, and Hickman makes it clear how strong he is, given that he's able to defeat Scott fairly quickly.  Before Doom can do anything else, Dr. Strange disperses the heroes and the villains.  Doom is furious and demands that he return them, since they both know that it's in their nature to try to overthrow him.  However, Dr. Strange refuses, and Doom kills him after Strange (correctly) observes that Doom fears what Mr. Fantastic will do once he discovers that he's stolen his life (a.k.a. Susan and Valeria).

Again, Hickman definitely makes it clear that we're moving into the next phase of the event.  But, Hickman really subverts the typical event narrative, where the heroes have to rally to save the world.  Here, the players are in place to dethrone Doom, though it's still unclear if they would "save" the "world" if they do.  After all, Dr. Strange makes it clear from the start that Doom did what he had to do to save the Multiverse.  Sure, he put himself on the throne, but Hickman has presented that fact as a logical outcome of his godhood.  In other words, sure, Doom is power-hungry, but he is actually god here.  It makes sense that he's on a throne.  It's the part that makes the event exciting at this point:  if the heroes "win" and de-throne Doom, they might actually destroy the world, not save it.  Talk about a twist.

**** (four of five stars)

Secret Wars #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I think a list approach is probably the best one for this issue:
- We finally learn that Doom and Strange do remember the old world, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of Battleworld.  We also learn that Strange could've just as easily been "god" as Doom, but he chose not to be.  (Intriguingly, we also see that Doom keeps a statue of the Molecule Man in his backyard, though Hickman doesn't elaborate on that at this point.  However, Owen was the other person with Doom to face the Beyonders, so it's intriguing to say the least.)

- I love the fact that Miles managed to get himself onto the Cabal's ship in issue #1.  I had actually forgotten that the Cabal had invaded the Ultimate Universe, and I now realize that they did so to steal its version of the life raft that Reed had built.  (I'm assuming that it means that the Reed of that world also built one.)  Moreover, we learn that the crew that we see survive at the end of issue #1 -- Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Mr. Fantastic, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, and Thor -- entered the same stasis that the Cabal did.  The difference is that Strange discovered them three years ago and left the that way, because he felt that Doom was actually a decent god.

- We seem to get the answer to the question why we have so many alternate histories in Battleworld.  Doom apparently built it from "remnants of incursion points between collapsing world."  I sort of get that, but, still, I thought all those points would've been destroyed when their universes were destroyed?  Shouldn't the only point left be the final one, between the Marvel and Ultimate Universes?

- Susan had Doom turn Johnny Storm into the sun rather than execute him.  Dayum.

- An obvious question that comes with the existence of pre-incursion heroes is whether they are going to be the only ones in whatever unified universe that we get at the end of this story to recall who they are.  Put another way, it seems possible that they are the only ones whose histories aren't on the table to change.  That said, we already know that other versions of them exist on this world, such as Captain Marvel in "A-Force."  It works with the idea that we're dealing with multiple universes pulled from incursion points but it's still unclear how Hickman is going to combine them all into one character (and history) at the end.  Moreover, Strange tells them some of Earth remains on Battleworld, so other "original" (if you will) heroes might have survived, even if they don't remember the previous world like the pre-incursion heroes do.  In other words, does being "original" matter?  I guess that we'll see.

*** (three of five stars)

Secret Wars #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised with this issue.

First, Hickman lays out a fairly easy-to-understand status quo in the opening pages.  We learn that Doom has somehow created a new world from the remains of the Earths of the Marvel and Ultimate Universes.  He's divided them into kingdoms, and each one has a baron (such as the Braddocks in Higher Avalon and Hyperion in Utopolis) that rules it  Moreover, Doom has created a squad of police consisting entirely of Thors to make sure that no one breaks the rules or asks too many questions.  After all, he presents himself as the God that created this world, even though some inhabitants (like Dragon Man) suspect that the world isn't a naturally occurring one and other inhabitants (like James Braddock) are actively working against his rule.  

But, it's really the tone that Hickman strikes that makes this issue as interesting as it is.  The original "Age of Apocalypse" was infused with tension because the entire point of the story was the X-Men's frantic attempt to bring back the original timeline.  Conversely, Hickman spends this issue exploring the mundane reality of this world, called Battleworld by the hoi polloi.  In so doing, he conveys the sense that virtually everyone accepts Battleworld as being the "real" Earth.  Moreover, he sets up the various cross-over issues that seem to be the main point of "Secret Wars."  I'll admit that I've read few events that set up the tie-in issues to tell such unique stories, rather than simply presenting off-stage asides to the main event.  Hickman makes it clear that a lot of stuff is happening on Battleworld, and I actually find myself excited to start diving into the tie-in issues.

That said, we still have a lot of questions.  We don't know how Doom created this new Earth, and we don't know if he's actually aware of the existence of the previous worlds (though he appears to be).  We're also left with questions of how Battleworld works.  For example, it's unclear how it could have as many legitimate Mjolnirs as the size of the Thors Corps implies or how it brought back previous eras, such as the "Age of Apocalypse" or "Inferno."  But, Hickman will clearly get there.

Finally, I've never heard of Esad Ribic before, but he's amazing.  He really makes you feel like you're taking a tour of this world, doing a great job of conveying both intimate details (such as the look of wonder on the new Thor's face) as well as the grandeur of Battleworld (like the horror of the denizens from the other side of the Shield).  It's great stuff.

Look at that:  I'm starting to get excited about this event.  Go figure.

*** (three of five stars)

Secret Wars #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I...dislike Jonathan Hickman.  I've previously said that I feel like his writing style is intentionally obtuse, like he writes a script and then randomly deletes 25 percent of the words to make it appear more "deep" and "mysterious."  I stopped reading "Avengers" and "New Avengers" because it felt more like I was reading outlines for plots than I was reading stories with characters.  I'm sad to say that this issue is no different.

I'll admit that it starts out OK.  I read enough of "Avengers" and "New Avengers" to know about the incursions, and Hickman makes it sufficiently clear in the first few pages that we've gotten to the point that the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe are the only ones left.  The Ultimate Reed Richards gets the Ultimate Nick Fury to send the Ultimate Iron Man against the heroes of the Marvel Universe, though he doesn't let them know that they're really a distraction so that he can have more time to...do something.  (It's never really clear what that something is, but we'll get to that.)  Meanwhile, the Marvel Fantastic Four are preparing an escape shuttle* so that the human race can survive if the heroes lose.  (This part, I don't get.  If the Marvel heroes lose, as I understand it, the Ultimate Universe will be the one to continue to exist; as such, humanity will continuity to exist.  It's just the Marvel Universe's humans that won't exist.  I get that Reed might want to save them, but I don't get where exactly they're going to go.  Is he planning on taking them into the Ultimate Universe?  If not, won't they just die with all the other people in the Marvel Universe?)

Unfortunately, the wheels fall off the bus quickly.  As someone that stopped reading "New Avengers" at issue #8, I get that I might be a little confused about the Avengers' status quo.  But, I read a lot of other Marvel comics, so I really shouldn't be that confused about the other heroes'.  Unfortunately, I am.  First, the Guardians of the Galaxy are inexplicably on Earth.  That part is easily explained, since it's not that much of a stretch that they'd come to Earth to help and it wouldn't take them that long to get here.  But, Cyclops is head of something called Nation X, he's controlling Sentinels, and he's in possession of a Phoenix Egg.  When exactly did that happen?  Honestly, I felt like I had somehow missed six months of comics.  I almost stopped reading the issue to check.

But, it's not just the lack of coordination with other series that starts to derail the story.  It's also that Hickman characteristically stops making sense.  With Ultimate Iron Man defeated, Ultimate Richards reveals that he was just a stalling tactic and launches a fleet of ships to attack the Marvel heroes.  I feel like we're supposed to be more in awe of them than I am, since Richards alludes to the fact that he's been manufacturing them in secret all this time.  To me, they're just futuristic fighter jets piloted by humans.  What's the big deal?  But, they suddenly start defeating the heroes, even though no one really explains why they would be powerful enough to do so.  It makes Marvel Reed Richards panic, so he uses Manifold to teleport heroes onto his escape shuttle and they depart as Earth apparently begins to fracture.  The ship then loses part of itself (and Sue Richards, her children, and the Thing in process), and we're left with a devastated Marvel Richards telling us that he believes in nothing.  Cue the page that says that the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe are both dead.

At this stage, it's unclear where we go from here.  My hope is that the Hickman phase of this story is done, given that we have no more incursions left to witness.  If he stays, we'll at least move to Battleworld and he'll be forced to give us a fresher concept.  But, my real problem right now is that it all still feels forced.  It's like Marvel's editorial staff decided to go with Secret Wars to bring the Ultimate Universe to a close, but they couldn't figure out a way to launch it that didn't involve exactly the same premise as the first "Secret Wars," with the Beyonder just kidnapping everyone.  It's like someone just interjected, "Hickman is destroying universes.  Why not just let him destroy both of them?"  It feels like it could've just as easily been the Black Vortex bringing everyone to Battleworld as it was the incursions.

[Sigh.]  I'm going to try to be optimistic that the tie-in series are at least good...

** (two of five stars)

* "Secret Wars" #0 (a.k.a. "Free Comic Book Day (Secret Wars) (2015)" #1) details how the Future Foundation kids constructed the escape shuttle while Reed and the Illuminati focused on trying to prevent the incursion.  It's not exactly an essential read, but, if you're interested, at least it's free.