Secret Wars Rankings: Mostly Overrated Edition

Well, we’re kinda, sorta nearing the end of Secret Wars.  Well, the tie-ins anyway.  The new Marvel Universe will launch next week(!!)…but the main Secret Wars series will still be running until December.  It’s odd, but the powers that be say that one won’t spoil the other.  And with the reported 8 month time jump when regular series resume, they do have some padding to avoid dealing directly with Secret Wars fallout.

Over the course of the 5 months or so of this crossover, we’ve seen lots of ebbs and flows of quality.  From series to series and even within series themselves.  Some have gotten better which each issue, some worse.

After the break we’ll look at some of those books among the biggest winners and losers of this weeks Secret Wars Power Rankings.  Tom and Ryan also drop by with their thoughts on the most overrated and underrated books of the rankings.

 Biggest Movers

• Weirdworld +5.  Rank: 18.  I’ve liked Weirdworld from the start, and maybe out of the gate the “weirdness” of it caused me to rank it more on the cautious and low side.  But like M.O.D.O.K. Assassin it’s one of those series where every issue has gotten better.  I’m really looking forward to the final issue.  And it’s unfortunate that the new Weirdworld series in the New 52 All-New, All Different Marvel Universe will feature a different writer and protagonist.  At least the art will remain amazing.
• Runaways +6.  Rank: 26.  See below…
• 1872 +5.  Rank: 40.  Overall, 1872 is still a disappointment.  Rising up 5 spots is nice…but it is still ranked 40th out of 49.  Part of that inflation was due to sub par to horrible final issues for X-Tinction Agenda and Years of Future Past.  But the latest issue did finally deliver at least average entertainment to give it a bit of a boost.

Most overrated

Where Monsters Dwell
Rank: 17

Tom:  Seriously, is this even part of Secret Wars, or was it something Ennis was working on that someone slapped a Secret Wars logo on?    I complained before about Ennis’ work here.  It feels censored.  Artwork is reminiscent of Darrick Robertson’s work on Ennis’ The Boys, but that’s about all I can speak well of right now.

Jimmy:  I still like this series.  I agree that Ennis feels censored here, but it doesn’t seem to bother me as much as you.  While I am enjoying it, in terms of Secret Wars it may need to drop slightly as it really isn’t related.  There are a couple of series like this that just seem like Marvel had them in the bank and made use of them.  If I had my time back, at the very least I may have moved Weirdworld ahead of it.  I have a feeling Weirdworld is going to pass it on it’s own merit soon enough regardless.

Old Man Logan
Rank: 4

Tom:   I burned out on Bendis ages ago, and he’s no Mark Millar when it comes to Old Man Logan.  This one is also the most baffling.  No one in Logan’s zone seems even the slightest bit aware that Doom or Battleworld exist.  The series seems to be more of a travelogue of Battleworld for Logan as it is.

Besides, I think Millar did a sequel to Old Man Logan already, namely that this timeline led to the same future that appeared in Millar’s and Hitch’s Fantastic Four run, which did feature a Hulk that called a Wolverine his godfather, to say nothing of a couple other clues.  I don’t think that was ever confirmed, but I have long suspected it to be true.

Jimmy:  I’m not the biggest Bendis fan either, but I like this series.  I’ll give you that he is no Mark Millar.  I haven’t read Millar’s FF run, so I can comment there.  I do find it odd that no one in the book from Logan’s domain is aware of Doom and  Battleworld.  There are similar inconsistencies in some other books, but this is the most blatant.

Ryan has complained to me as well about this book turning into “Wolverine’s Travel Guide To Battleworld”.  That doesn’t really bother me too much as I am a sucker for things that actually tie-into the core of the event.  That said, there is essentially no real story here.  It was set up nicely with the whole Ultron head mysetery, but since then it has just been “who is Wolverine gonna fight this month and in what zone”?

Years of Future Past
Rank: 45

Tom:  Ugh.  Just ugh.  The first issue wasn’t too bad.  Decent artwork.  Great covers from Arthur Adams.  Then each successive issue got worse and worse.  I’d put this at the bottom.  1602 is there now.  1602 is kinda dull and predictable, even with a reference to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, but Years actually kinda pissed me off when I finished it.  Boring is better than bad.

Jimmy:  I agree the last issue was the worst.  Possibly the worst issue of the entire event.  It’s still barely afloat from the bottom of the rankings but I can see moving it there, or further down at least.  I have Giant Size Little Marvel AvX ranked lower which may be unfair.  I think part of the reason I don’t have it last is that it did start out ok and got progressively worse, whereas 1602 was simply dead on arrival.

Armor Wars
Rank: 6

Ryan: This pains me to write (mostly because I didn’t do so last week) but let’s just get this out there: the last issue of Armor Wars wasn’t good.  It switched tone from the previous issues, abandoned what made the series interesting to read in exchange for a ton of nonsensical action, and then it ended with a couple pages of forced exposition to tell us everything that happened after (some of which we could care less about).  I don’t know what happened to this series to have it end so poorly, but I think it deserves to drop out of the overall top 10 for bellyflopping in the last issue.

Jimmy:  I touched on Armor Wars last week and the post was called “Disappointing Endings Edition” for a reason.  It touched on Armor Wars, Planet Hulk, Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders and Secret Wars Journal…all of which had final issues that were major let downs.  It’s really too bad as both Armor Wars and Planet Hulk lead up to their final installments with 4 stellar issues.

Most underrated

Runaways
Rank: 26

Ryan:  Look, I’m glad Jimmy bumped it up 6 spots in the rankings but Runaways has been bringing the fun every single issue and it just stuck the landing with its last issue.  It deserves to be much, much higher.  Jimmy is approaching it from the perspective of someone who never read the original series, and for that I’m very sorry because Jimmy‘s soul is just a little bit less joyous.  But even as a standalone I think this mini-series is incredible.  It is both fun and serious and captures a lot of youthful innocence while also dealing with larger than life comic book issues.  The ending was absolutely perfect–GO READ THIS SERIES!!

Jimmy:  I am so sick of talking about Runaways.  The last issue was good, I’ll give it that.  That rest didn’t do a whole lot for me.  I don’t dig on “youthful innocence” and “teen angst” and whatever else I am supposedly missing out on.  If you like Runaways, go read it.