The Secret Wars conclude when Dr. Doom takes control of the Beyonder and becomes a god!
Credits
Written By: John Semper, Mark Hoffmeier and Ernie Altbacker
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
THE PLOT: Doctor Doom attacks the F4 and kidnaps The Thing, curing him of his transformation and giving him the ability to transform back and forth from Ben Grimm at will. Doom promises benevolence, but Reed Richards isn’t so sure.
LONG STORY SHORT: Predictably, Doom goes mad and takes control of the Beyonder’s powers somehow. He loses control, but once the heroes gain the upper hand The Beyonder ends the contest. He mindwipe everyone except Spider-Man, and sends him to his greatest challenge ever…
MY THOUGHTS: With the end of the Secret Wars saga, we get more of a Fantastic Four episode than a Spidey one or that of a Marvel Super Hero crossover. Not saying it’s necessarily a bad or unwelcome thing, but ti does show how multi-polar this arc has been. I’ll get into it in a bit, but for now let’s talk about the Four and Doom.
For those who may not know, Dr. Doom was actually a frequent enemy of Spider-Man in the 1982 animated series. Him and Magneto fought the webslinger more often than Green Goblin or Doc Ock, and it’s a curious thing to consider when remembering Spidey’s extensive rogues gallery. But I thought it was sort of fun to see them go up against each other in this show, almost like a reunion. However this episode does feature the Fantastic Four more, specifically Ben. The background behind the Four getting on the show is interesting since they did have a 90s animated series running concurrent with Spider-Man at the time, yet only Quinton Flynn as Johnny Storm returned. Apparently John Semper didn’t care for the show much (the guy didn’t care for a lot of things really.) resulting in the cast change. I haven’t seen the F4 90s show in years, though I do remember the second season being much cooler than the first, even though the first season’s theme song is catchy as heck.
But we get Ben Grimm taking up the spotlight for the most part, and while I hate to be a broken record with this guy a lot of the episode’s consequences are all his fault. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Thing in the comics (not when he appeared in 60s Spider-Man though). In this three parter however he comes off looking very stupid. I know the plot of Doom tempting Ben away from Reed and turning him against him is a tried and tested one, from the comics to the movie. But in this episode, curing Ben’s disfigurement alone doesn’t really allow for such blind trust in the guy. He’s been a supervillain in the Four’s history for years, why would he change now? And Grimm goes on his side against his family, at least go back to them and try to bridge things over.
I did enjoy Reed’s high emotions towards Doom. It was a welcome show of character I honestly didn’t think was going to be in this episode. Sue was really the one member of the Four who got kind of shafted in the trilogy, only contributing once in part one. Admittedly, there was very little time for new characters to the show’s audience to get acquainted with them but it is a setback for what they were going for. This is the most pathos driven episode in the Secret Wars arc, and it that it’s a noble failure. I got the sense that Doom was honest-to-goodness trying to do what he thought was right, but the tragic irony of his villainy was completely overshot. With Doom’s new found Godhood, Reed’s anger over Ben being cured and Ben’s loyalties being tested, this really should have been a subplot carried over throughout all three parts. But alas…
I have to say that this overall was a failed opportunity of storytelling. From what I understand, the Secret Wars in the comics was a crossover gimmick initiated to sell toys for the Mattel line. The comics in themselves were made to have lasting ramifications for the respective characters involved. That’s part of what made it so memorable. Like I said before, this feels like Spider-Man plopped onto a G.I. Joe episode, and not a very good one. I understand for episode length’s sake that it had to be limited, but if the producers wanted an epic feeling crossover, this needed to be a season-long arc. All the emotions felt hollow, Black Cat was pointless and useless in her return, and it delayed what in my opinion was a much better crossover. “What’s that?” one who may not have seen the series finale might say? Tune in next week to find out…
3/5 “MARY JAAANE!!!”s
all images taken from Marvel.toonzone.net
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I had good memories of this arc and now I find that it wasn’t really so good, specifically for the reasons that Donovan and Stuart Green pointed out.
Thankfully the final two episodes of the series are better than this.
All this talk of secret wars light makes me wanna real the real secret wars, if only I had those comics(or trade).
Children’s cartoon…
This was the most disappointing entry of “Secret Wars” to me, because it should’ve had a big finale with lasting ramifications. There are some moments here that make it pretty awful, and sometimes laughable:
1.) The three heroes are fighting the rest of the villains in what I assume is either Red Skull’s hideout or the heroes’ base. But the Smythe, Doc Ock and the Red Skull vs. Storm, Black Cat and Captain America fight was shown for, what, five seconds? And then the villains vanish and Doom, with Beyonder’s powers, sends the three baddies back to Earth. Since this was the last time these three villains appear on the show, they deserved a better send off, especially Doctor Octopus. After being so badly written in seasons three, four and five, “Secret Wars” should’ve given him a better role like the first two seasons did. Nope. And Efrem Zimbalist Jr. doesn’t even voice Ock in his last appearance, because he did that in part two. Ugh.
2.) Before we see the villains vanish, Doom has thrown Spider-Man, the Lizard and three of the F.F. into the dungeon where they’re chained to the wall. After doing Doom takes Beyonder’s powers, he transports all of the heroes into his throne room. But rather than show the five mentioned heroes appear from the dungeon and the three heroes appear after their interrupted fight with the villain, it’s a repeat scene of part 1, with the heroes in the same scene with Lizard holding Spider-Man up by his arms. Way to save on the budget by having a repeat scene than show two different scenes from two different locations.
3.) The heroes are transported to the desert where they’re almost crushed under a mountain by Doom. It’s quite hilarious how we see like ten seconds of the mountain while Spidey says they can’t keep it from falling on them forever by holding it up and that they have to push through to escape. Umm… how do you PUSH through something you’re HOLDING UP, NOT INSIDE OF? Also, does anyone believe these guys working together could’ve held up a mountain? Keep in mind the Hulk and Thor weren’t there, and Thing was with Doctor Doom, so the other FF, Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Storm and Captain America COMBINED CAN HOLD UP A MOUNTAIN? Give me a break.
4.) Doom is defeated when the Thing separates him from the Beyonder with a whatever-it-was-called gun, thus proving that good will triumph over evil. That’s it? I waited three episodes to see the main villain appear in cameo in part one, be absent in part two, take up the main villain role for part three… and he’s defeated by a gun that separates him from Beyonder? End… the pain…
5.) All of the heroes and villains will remember nothing of the “Secret Wars” and will be returned to their normal places before they arrived. So basically, Beyonder COULD’VE kept Captain America from being stuck in the space-time anomaly vortex forever, but instead he sends him back in. What a jerk.
6.) John Semper said a fourth chapter was written where the heroes, mainly focusing on Spidey with the entire X-Men team, have to face off against a sixth villain, Mr. Sinister (who would’ve replaced originally-planned villain Magneto) and Spidey’s costume becomes damaged in the fight to the point where he temporarily bonds with a symbiote and wears the black costume again for a short time. I don’t know WHY Spidey would be dumb enough to wear a symbiote again or if any of the other villains would’ve popped up, but whatever. It’s a shame that it was too expensive to bring back the entire X-Men voice actors cast back for “Spider-Man”. Spidey and X-Men team-ups are always fun and cool.
Maybe it’s for the best the rest of the X-Men, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Woman and all of the other villains from Galactus and Enchantress to Absorbing Man and Magneto didn’t get to appear in these three episodes. They may have been off-limits due to Hulk’s existing UPN show and budgetary reasons, but had they participated, they would’ve likely been mishandled, lost in the shuffle, and gotten little to do since Broadcast Standards and Practices prevented a lot of violence to be cut out. And no one that DID appear in these episodes was even allowed to throw a punch. In three episodes called “SECRET WARS”.
Unbe-freaking-lievable. 🙁
Your memories about the Fantastic Four cartoon are pretty accurate. IMO, the first season is absolute garbage. However, I think the second season is phenomonal: both in story and animation and a hell of a lot better than the Fantastic Four and Doom we see in these episodes. It also had an episode with a better-looking Daredevil, though not better written because it was the lighter, carefree Daredevil from the Stan Lee days rather than the much cooler Frank Miller version we got in the Spidey crossover.
… We don’t see eye to eye about the Fantastic Four theme song.
Anyway, I can’t wait for the epic ending of the series!