“Everything dies.” With those words, Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers run marked the beginning of the end of the Marvel Universe. Where Hickman’s New Avengers was about death, then Hickman’s Avengers was about life. (To quote Thanos: “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”) Over 33 issues, Hickman’s New Avengers followed the Illuminati — the secret group that included Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Namor, and Doctor Strange — while Hickman’s 44-issue Avengers volume began and ended with two men. One was life, and one was death: Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. “And in the end, one always wins.”
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Hickman’s twin Avengers titles were intertwined in “Time Runs Out” (Avengers #35-44 and New Avengers #24-33), which counted down to 2015’s Secret Wars: both the end and the beginning of the Marvel Universe.
RELATED: Marvel Studios Announces Avengers: Doomsday Cast in Five-Hour Livestream
Now that Marvel Studios has confirmed the full Avengers: Doomsday cast — featuring an amalgamation of characters from both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Fox X-Men movies — we’re breaking down everything you need to know about Secret Wars, the 2015 comic book crossover that inspired the multiverse-spanning saga, below.
The announced cast members are: Robert Downey Jr. (Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/ Winter Soldier), Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/U.S. Agent), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova/Black Widow), Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds/Sentry), Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor), Danny Ramirez (Joaquin Torres/Falcon), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), and Tom Hiddleston (Loki).
From The Fantastic Four: First Steps, cast members Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic) Vanessa Kirby (Susan Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/the Thing) are set to reprise their roles. And from the X-Men movies, Kelsey Grammer (Hank McCoy/Beast), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier), and Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Channing Tatum (Remy LeBeau/Gambit).
Time Runs Out
When the Illuminati discovered that universes from across the multiverse were colliding in reality-destroying incursions, Earth’s mightiest heroes assembled and then splintered over their attempts to save the world. First, the Illuminati reassembled the Infinity Gauntlet and, wielding the six Infinity Stones, stopped an incursion (destroying most of the gems in the process). Then they did the unthinkable: using antimatter bombs to destroy other worlds so that theirs might live.
“There have been a series of contractions smashing two universes like each of ours together at the incursion point: Earth. Either both Earths are destroyed… or one is sacrificed, sparing both universes.”
— Reed Richards
One group that emerged to stave off the apocalypse was the Cabal, counterparts to the Illuminati: Thanos, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Terrax, the incursion survivor known as the Black Swan, the Inhuman madman Maximus, and Namor, who joined the Cabal in destroying Earths to save universes.
As the Illuminati’s great minds — which now included the mutant Beast of the X-Men, the genius Amadeus Cho, and a smart Hulk/Doc Green — attempted to prevent the end of everything, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Avengers team (including Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson/Captain America, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, and Sue Richards/the Invisible Woman) formed, as did the Multiversal Avengers (including Hyperion of the Eternals, Starbrand, Nightmask, Abyss, the cosmic Gardener Ex Nihilo, and Odinson, the then-unworthy Thor).
As the number of universes dwindled and hundreds of thousands became less than two dozen, the last two remaining were Earth-616 (the main Marvel Universe) and Earth-1610 (the Ultimate Universe). The two universes were on a collision course: the final incursion.
“What was once an infinite number of realities has, after today, now been reduced down to two final universes. This one and the one from which we came. And do you know what horrors await us on that world? The greatest heroes you have ever seen. The valiant. The courageous. If you want your world to live… we must find a way to kill them all.”
— Thanos
The Ultimate Universe’s Reed Richards, a.k.a. the Maker, began destroying planets, and joined forces with Thanos’ world-killing Cabal on Earth-1610. Meanwhile, on Earth-616, Reed’s Future Foundation had begun building a life raft, a vessel capable of surviving the collapse so that the remnants of their universe could restart humanity. Time ran out.
Everything Dies
As Earth-616 and Earth-1610 collided in a battle to determine the fate of both planets, 2015’s Avengers #44 ended where it began: with Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. “One was life, and one was death. And one always wins. Everything dies.”
Meanwhile, Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange had become the Great Eye of the Black Priests in an attempt to salvage the dying multiverse. He encountered the Black Swans, the disciples of their master, Rabum Alal, who turned out to be Victor von Doom.
Doctor Doom had been traversing the multiverse murdering Molecule Men, a.k.a. Owen Reece, a multiversal constant who had been created by the Ivory Kings as a ticking time bomb to destroy universes.
“All beings exist in various states across the multiverse. In one reality perhaps you were a poet, in another a beggar, in another a good man. You are somewhat unique in that there are less of you than there should be — the result of a great culling of Dooms. Still, what few of you remain are all to some degree… different.”
— Molecule Man to Doctor Doom
As the universe died, Doctor Doom discovered that the Beyonders, who had inserted an infinite number of Molecule Men as their self-destruct mechanism into the fabric of the multiverse, were the Ivory Kings responsible for the incursions.
Doom mounted an attack on the omnipotent Beyonders, using the Molecule Man as he was meant to be: a bomb built to destroy a universe. Doom destroyed the Beyonders, stole their power, and then stored that power in Molecule Man as a conduit. They would save the remnants of worlds and create a new one as the old one died.
“Would it be worth it if we could avoid our certain Doom? If we could save… something?”
— Doom
After Steve and Tony’s deaths in Avengers #44, 2015’s Secret Wars #1 was the death of everything. As Earth-1610 engaged Earth-616 in battle, the heroes of that world launched the Future Foundation’s life raft to evacuate a small number of survivors; meanwhile, the Maker and the Cabal also escaped aboard their own version of the life raft.
During the battle, the teleporter Manifold used his powers to bring Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Captain Marvel, Cyclops, and the Jane Foster Thor aboard the life raft. But when the life raft’s carrier section was destroyed in take off, Reed Richards watched as the rest of his family, the Fantastic Four, were killed. The final incursion ended as both universes collided and were destroyed.
Doom Messiah
At the end of everything, there was only Doom.
Once the multiverse was destroyed, it was revealed that Doctor Doom used the power of the Beyonders to create Batteworld: a patchwork planet composed of the fragments of worlds that were destroyed in the incursions. And its master was God Emperor Doom.
Emperor Doom ruled Battleworld from Castle Doom in Doomstadt, where a world-eating sentinel stood guard: Galactus. From Doom’s High Court, he sat on his throne, Yggdrasil, the World Tree. And the royal family included his consort, Susan Storm, and their daughter Valeria von Doom, head of the Foundation. As the Left Hand of Doom, the Foundation was a think tank of great minds that included Val’s brother, Franklin von Doom, as well as Alex Power, Dragon Man, Bentley 23, Nostradamus, Night Machine, and Psycho Man.
Doom’s Right Hand was Stephen Strange, Sheriff of Agamotto, and the Thor Corps — an all-Thor police force — enforced All-Father Doom’s will with the likes of Thor Odinson; Storm, the Goddess of Thunder; and the Stormbreaker, Beta Ray Bill.
The villainous Cabal eventually emerged from their life raft as refugees of the destroyed Earth-1610, revealing more survivors of the final incursion: Thanos, Reed Richards/the Maker, Yabbat Ummon Tarru/Black Swan, Terrax, Maximus, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and Namor.
Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of Earth-1610, also stowed away on the ship and revealed to Strange that he remembered what was before Doom and Strange made what is. On the Hidden Isle of Agamotto, Strange took Miles to his Sanctum Sanctorum and revealed even more refugees from the time before: the life raft containing Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Jane Foster/Thor, Scott Summers/Cyclops, and the final two members of the Illuminati: T’Challa/Black Panther and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic.
“Everything died, but in that moment of death, God made a new world… this one.”
— Stephen Strange, Sheriff of Agamotto
Doomsday
The life craft survivors spent eight years in stasis. Strange explained to these timeline-displaced Avengers how God Emperor Doom constructed Battleworld from remnants of the incursion points between collapsing worlds — and that no inhabitants of Battleworld remember the worlds before. “I looked into the abyss that was omnipotence and ran from it,” Strange admitted. “Doom did not. Then he saved all that there was left to save.”
The survivors of the final incursion — the heroes and the Cabal — eventually confronted Emperor Doom, who demanded his new subjects bow to their God. Doom killed a defiant Cyclops and then Strange, whose last act was to scatter the heroes across Battleworld before Doom could destroy them.
The presence of these outsiders sparked rebellion in several kingdoms across the Doom-made Battleworld, home to such amalgamations as the remnants of Manhattan (Earth-616 and Earth-1610), K’un Lun, Spider-Island, Domain of Apocalypse, the Deadlands, and the Wastelands. Meanwhile, the Reed of Earth-616 and the Reed/Maker of Earth-1610 put their heads together to answer what seemed to be an unsolvable problem: How to kill a god.
“My name is Reed Richards… and I’m the one who fixes things.”
— Reed Richards
The two Spider-Men infiltrated Castle Doom and discovered the Molecule Man to be the source of Doom’s power, and Black Panther and Namor returned to Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and found a god-killing weapon: the Infinity Gauntlet. Elsewhere, Thanos, who thought a mortal should not wield the power to rewrite reality, began to undermine Doom’s reign by awakening his enemies.
Reed and his counterpart the Maker teamed up with Star-Lord on a mission to take down Doom while the Thors mounted an attack on Castle Doom with the Maestro’s Hulk army of Worldbreakers and a giant-sized Thing (who had been made into the Shield defending Castle Doom).
The Thing duked it out with Galactus, Star-Lord turned Yggdrasill into a giant Groot, and God Emperor Doom ripped Thanos’ spine from his body when the Mad Titan led an Annihilation Horde against the supposed mortal. Namor and Black Panther, wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, then set out to end Doom’s reign.
Everything Lives
The nine-issue Secret Wars ended with Reed reuniting with his wife and daughter, Sue and Val, and told them the truth about “God.” Just as the two Reeds found the source of God Emperor Doom’s power, the Maker betrayed his Earth-616 counterpart but was defeated by Molecule Man. Doom realized that his fight with Namor and Black Panther was just a distraction, and then found Reed about his master plan: to convince Molecule Man that there is a better solution than Doom.
Reed defeated Doom, and then used the omnipotent power stolen from the Beyonders to reconstruct the multiverse, using infinite slivers of the Molecule Man as an “anchor.” And so the Marvel Universe was born anew. Reed Richards, who began the saga by saying that “everything dies,” also ended it by saying: “Everything lives.”
Marvel Studios will release Avengers: Doomsday on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.
