10 Things You Need To Know About Marvel's Secret Wars Retcon
4. They're Doing Things They Promised Never To
One of the most interesting things about Secret Wars is that it involves Marvel going back on a promise it seemed like they'd never break. Back in the early noughties comics fans were freaking out in a similar way to now thanks to the introduction of the Ultimate line of comics, alternate-reality tales which updated some of the publisher's biggest books for new, contemporary audiences. People coming off the new X-Men and Spider-Man films didn't want to wade through deades of history, or read comics from the sixties, so the Ultimate line provided a perfect substitute. And they did some genuinely cool things with it. Ultimate Spider-Man went off in all new directions, with the main hero replaced by young black/Hispanic Miles Morales, that sort of thing. When the Ultimate line launched, people were worried it would replace the real Marvel Universe. The publisher promised that the twain would never meet. Then Spider-Men happened, then Miles joined the regular X-Men, and now the universes are being smushed together. Go figure.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
