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I’ll be the first to admit that I found myself adrift in tie-ins like Micronauts #18, which felt so dense and heavy with the arcane lingo and lore of its mythology that I couldn’t even jump on board for 24 pages. The first of the Fantastic Four counter-epilogues (FF #316) has to work itself through the most convoluted summation of previous issues that it reads like a parody of those scenes where someone has to bring the audience up to date. Other issues like the Doctor Strange and Hulk tie-ins go the opposite route providing insightful origin stories, or approximations thereof, that place the respective individuals into atypical contexts by the impressions that they make on The Beyonder.

My single favorite issue of Secret Wars II proper would have to be #3, which is both the cheesiest and the most emotionally sincere. In an amusing “omnipotent being” take on Scarface, The Beyonder (nicknamed Frank by his cohorts) aspires to become ruler of the world the old-fashioned way, by rising up through the ranks of a criminal organization. He loses the blond Adonis look he has briefly morphed into and settles for a mashup of ‘80s soap opera and pop star. He becomes a glutton for food, sex, and electronic devices:

“Will you needing more things to chop up in your Cuisinart, sir?”
“Not yet! I still have some vegetables and some Styrofoam left.”

Eventually, he exerts his will over all people and all living things only to find dissatisfaction at being so, well, powerful. And out of this dissatisfaction and various ways to alleviate or quench it come the impetus for the majority of the battles, tantrums, and occasional universe vanquishings that follow.

My favorite of the tie-ins (with a special mention set aside for the epilogue in The Avengers) is probably Amazing Spider-Man #274, in which Peter Parker finds himself in the center of a most Biblical wager between The Beyonder and the infernal Mephisto. Cursed like Job, our hero must find a way to fight through a dizzying array of illusions and ailments, all to keep one of his most loathed arch nemeses from being assassinated. Although there is little doubt that our Spider-Man will prevail physically, it is the moral and spiritual aspect of his conundrum that serve as a reminder that what makes a super hero is not simply treading in where others fear to follow, but the ability to find a morality worth fighting for, and to use that to rise above, when all hope seems lost.

It could be argued (at least, I can and will) that Secret Wars II is also the story of another all-powerful being set loose on our planet. Well, that might be an exaggeration. The Molecule Man (at least his circa mid-‘80s incarnation) appears to be quite happy eating TV dinners while watching F Troop reruns or playing Trivial Pursuit with his live-in girlfriend Volcana. Owen Reece is the first character to appear in Secret Wars II issue #1 and (almost) the last one to appear in the closing panels of The Avengers epilogue. Short, meek, unassuming, but blessed with powers almost akin to The Beyonder and far more powerful than just about any being in our universe, his struggles to maintain a balance and equilibrium between himself and the world around him serve as a signpost and a warning to The Beyonder. I can see his appeal to me when I was younger, the 98-lb weakling makes good and kicks sand back at the bullies, but there is a tremendous amount of nuance writers Jim Shooter and Roger Stern bring to the character that help him resonate even with my adult self.

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