Marvel's Secret Wars: My First Pass

For a while now I've been reading up on the last few years of Marvel comics (specifically the "Marvel Now!" and "All-New" imprints) and for the most part have had a pretty good time. I've found some great titles; Greg Rucka's run onThe Punisher, Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers, and Ryan North's Unbeatable Squirrel Girl were all strong titles and one of them even made it onto my bookshelf for keeps.

But as I worked through each of these titles I kept seeing the same logo again and again:

There is only Secret Wars

Which led me to the Jonathan Hickman series Secret Wars - which he had been leading to in his Avengers and New Avengers tiles (both fun reads as well). Secret Wars is sort of a reboot series for Marvel, effectively letting them merge all of the massive number of storylines they have into a more cohesive universe.

So last year every title I had been reading either finished with a "The End" (darn it - I forgot to mention Mark Waid'sDaredevil - AWESOME!), or the promise of Secret Wars. Having now read the main event, I can say it's pretty fun, but it does require more Marvel know-how than I had with my 2012-current readings of their titles.

I'm currently reading my way through the Secret Wars tie-in titles, Warzones and Battleworld, which together amount to about 42 different trade paperback collections; and most of these tie in with even older Marvel titles I'm unfamiliar with; I'm currently reading Battleworld: Runaways (based on a 2003 series), Warzones: The Infinity Gauntlet (based on a 1991 series), and Inferno: Warzones (based on a 1989 series) (Although I would read Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars as the Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn Marvel Now! series was simply a delight).

Although I had some familiarity with The Infinity Gauntlet, I'm not actually familiar with the backstories of any of theseSecret Wars crossovers, and as a burgeoning Marvel fan, I'm starting to feel a little left out.

Also the newest production line is called "All-New All Different" so I'm not sure how much of this back story I need overall. But, as I look back over this very post, there are at least seven series I really REALLY enjoyed, so I think I'll be staying on.