COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Secret Wars #12 vs. Crisis on Infinite Earths #12
This is it! The big finale! Which maxiseries reigns supreme??? We’ve hit the end of the road. Fred Van Lente’s COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH returned in 2024 as a monthly feature, pitting Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars against DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. See, Marvel this year celebrated the 40th anniversary of 1984’s 12-issue Secret Wars by re-releasing each installment as a Facsimile Edition every month. And of course, what is the DC event it’s always compared to? Why, 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. And that series is also being re-released monthly. (It started in April.) It’s been a great time to revisit two maxiseries that redefined comics for good and for bad. You can click here to find the previous entries, but right now the tally stands at Crisis 6, Secret Wars 5. (The Secret Wars #12 Facsimile Edition is out Wednesday, Dec. 18, and so is the Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 Facsimile Edition.) Will Crisis pull out a 7-5 victory, or will Secret Wars end this thing in a 6-6 draw? Ring the bell, Fred! — Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars #12: “…Nothing to Fear…” What Secret Wars has had over Crisis this whole time, in this reader’s eyes, is that it’s trying to tell a straightforward story about characters whose motivations I clearly understand: Some people, kidnapped to an alien world, have to fight to survive and get home. Is it an overly simplistic story to sell toys? Yes. Is it a ripoff of a Star Trek episode? Yes. (Actually, of two Star Trek episodes? Double yes.) But because it only exists to sell toys, it is also trying to be a relatable story for everybody, not just rabid fans. On the other hand, Crisis is very much by and for hardcore DC readers. For that reason I have found it, at times, nigh incomprehensible in its storytelling, like getting stuck behind your comic con table by an overeager fan that won’t stop talking your ear off. So I am more inclined toward Secret Wars from the jump. That said… Knowing Marvel’s relationship with DC as I do—which is to say, the former being the schoolyard bully who lives to beat up the latter for his lunch money—I would assume Jim Shooter caught wind of Crisis’ development and declared that Secret Wars would be 12 issues too and rushed out first… without really...
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