Since it was first announced at the 2014 New York Comic Con, ‘Secret Wars’ has greatly changed the landscape of the Marvel Universe as we know it. However, it was supposed to be over by now. Even though we’re already sinking our teeth into the fallout of the House of Ideas’ latest epic crossover event as All-New All-Different Marvel books are occupying the shelves at our local comic shops, we still don’t know how Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s cataclysmic story ends. And now it looks like we won’t know until after the New Year.
Originally scheduled to end on October 7th, Marvel expanded the eight-issue story this summer by adding a ninth issue so that the creative team could “conclude this epic event as big and bombastically as it started” and deliver a conclusion worthy of an event of this magnitude. This news came after the delay of a few issues caused ‘Secret Wars’ to deviate from its initial schedule that was supposed to see two issues released in May and one each month following until December.
But this week Diamond Comics Distribution revealed that the conclusion would be delayed yet again. ‘Secret Wars’ #8 is now set for #9’s original release date of December 9, 2015, with the finale has been moved to January 6, 2016. By that time, a number of All-New All-Different Marvel titles will be on their second, third, fourth, and even fifth issues already. Hopefully nothing from those books spoils whatever Hickman has planned for the end of this insane story that he’s been building towards for years.
This is frustrating for True Believers to say the least. Sure, problems arise and delays happen, but considering that ‘Secret Wars’ was the biggest thing Marvel had going on at the time, it’s annoying that they couldn’t stick to their plan. At the very least, an explanation as to why the books are delayed would have been appreciated. We saw the same thing happen with Matt Fraction and David Aja’s ‘Hawkeye’ earlier this year, but that didn’t affect the entire line. I’m not going to say that it’s unforgivable because we’re going to buy the book whenever it comes out, but it’s surely a little annoying and inconvenient.
What do you think about ‘Secret Wars’ #9 being delayed again? Are you frustrated by the prolonging of Marvel Comics’ latest crossover event? Sound off in the comments.
