Secret Wars #1
The Planeta DeAgostini/Forum edition of Secret Wars #1 (June 1985) brought Marvel's first true universe-wide crossover event to Spanish-language readers just over a year after the American original. The source material — Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 (May 1984), written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Mike Zeck — is widely recognized as the template for every publisher-spanning mega-event that followed, gathering the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and a roster of major villains onto a single artificial world at the command of a nigh-omnipotent cosmic being. The series permanently altered the landscape of serialized superhero storytelling by demonstrating that a self-contained limited series could drive changes — most famously Spider-Man's black symbiote costume — across an entire publishing line simultaneously. That Spain received its own full Spanish-language edition in 1985, with a run that eventually stretched to 50 numbered issues absorbing both Secret Wars and Secret Wars II material, reflects how broadly the event resonated beyond North America.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars originated from a business arrangement: toy company Mattel wanted to license Marvel characters for an action-figure line and requested an editorial concept that could unite the publisher's most recognizable heroes and villains under one banner. Marvel's editor-in-chief Jim Shooter wrote the series himself, with pencils by Mike Zeck and inking by Bob Layton; it was announced internally under the working title 'Cosmic Champions' before being renamed Secret Wars, as documented in Marvel Age magazine issues 11 and 12 (early 1984). The Planeta DeAgostini/Forum Spanish edition launched in June 1985, reprinting the American #1 alongside a backup story from Moon Knight (1980) #35; it was published in a staple-bound, full-color format measuring approximately 7.5" × 10.5" in Spanish, with the series eventually receiving a second edition in 1991–1992 and a hardcover collection in 2003.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Publisher: Planeta DeAgostini (under the Forum imprint), Spain — June 1985; reprints Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #1 alongside a Moon Knight (1980) #35 backup.
- Original American issue creative team: written by Jim Shooter (then Marvel's editor-in-chief), penciled by Mike Zeck, inked by Bob Layton; released January 24, 1984 with a May 1984 cover date.
- First (cameo) appearance of the Beyonder, the nigh-omnipotent cosmic entity who kidnaps Marvel's heroes and villains and deposits them on the artificially constructed Battleworld.
- The series is widely cited as Marvel's first true line-wide mega-crossover limited series — a 12-issue event that seeded status-quo changes across multiple concurrent monthly titles.
- Heroes' departures for Battleworld were depicted in their own monthly books (Amazing Spider-Man #251, Avengers #242, Uncanny X-Men #180, and others), making Secret Wars one of the earliest events to require reading companion titles to follow the full story.
- First printings of the American original contain a notable 'Blue Galactus' printing error caused by missing magenta plates, corrected in subsequent printings — the Spanish reprint does not replicate this error.
- The Spanish Forum/Planeta DeAgostini series ran for 50 numbered issues total, transitioning to Secret Wars II content from issue #13 onward; a second edition of the first 12 issues was published in 1991–1992, and a hardcover omnibus followed in 2003.
- The broader Secret Wars saga is the narrative source for Spider-Man's black symbiote costume (introduced in American issue #8), which had already appeared in the monthly Amazing Spider-Man title before Spanish readers reached that chapter of the Forum run.
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↩ Reprints Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1 (1984)
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