The big news coming out of Marvel yesterday was that everything ends this Spring. The 616 Universe, the Ultimate Universe, all the other alternate universes.....gone. OK, actually merged together, not gone. The Secret Wars event starting in a few months will be the culmination of the Time Runs Out arc running through the Avengers and New Avengers series, where worlds are being sacrificed in something called an Incursion in order to save the main earth in the 616 universe. The final incursion will occur between the 616 Earth and the Ultimate Earth and then it's on to Secret Wars, where everyone that's going to exist afterward (and at least one or two token sacrificial lambs) will make it to Battleworld and duke it out. For all intents and purposes this is Crisis on Infinite Marvel Earths. When it's over, bad plot turns will have been erased by way of retcon, some of the cooler more recent characters will get a chance to shine in the new, singular Marvel Universe (I'm talking about you, Miles Morales and alternate world Gwen Stacy), and there will probably be at least one resurrection (prime candidates are the soon-to-be killed off Deadpool, Charles Xavier, and that guy they killed off last year....I think his name is Wolverine).
The reaction I've seen so far is mixed. Some are excited and ready for what the event could bring, but others are having a similar reaction to the one DC received from a lot of longtime readers when they launched the New 52. Marvel has already been catching heat from readers and collectors over their annoying habit of making new number one issues for series that weren't even being cancelled, and now EVERYTHING could possibly start over with a new number one, save the handful of series that just started within the last few months. Let me tell you, that sucks. A lot of people who were close to fed up over the new number one issues situation are claiming that they're done with Marvel over this. Marvel is likely gambling that the new start will bring in new readers similar to how the New 52 brought people like me in because there was a recent jumping in point. With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is a pool of thousands of potential new customers to reel in and there are characters whose existing series have grown in popularity because of the MCU (Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy) or are about to get an MCU close up (Ant-Man) and have the chance to catch fire with a new title.
As someone who is more reader than collector, the only thing that ultimately matters is good stories. There are a few things I hope do or do not happen, though. I really hope they keep the tie-ins and crossovers to a minimum. That's beyond wishful thinking, of course, but there are only so many books one can buy and read. Second, I hope they don't undo all of the new developments that happened last year. We all know that it's only a matter of time before Wolverine is alive again, Steve Rogers is Captain America again, and the hammer is back in the hands of Odin's son. But seeing as how those things just changed late last year it would really suck for them to get undone in mere months time. And lastly, let's hold off on the resurrections, ok? We know Wolverine will be back either during this event or shortly after by way of something that happens during it. But please, no bringing back Uncle Ben or Professor Xavier for that matter. Those deaths are crucial parts of Marvel lore and would be stupid too undo now just because you can.
All in all, this should be pretty damn interesting. Even though I'm more of a DC guy, I will more than likely be checking this out. Marvel has a really good chance to polish off their current continuity and kick off a new one in pretty spectacular fashion. We'll see how it goes.
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