Avengers: Secret Wars is a story that had been a saga of a multiversal battle of epic proportions. Written by Jim Shooter, the comic book series is a 12-issue compilation that came out between May 1984 and April 1985 and featured a crossover event unprecedented in the history of Marvel comics.
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe dives headlong into the multiverse and time travel, it becomes not only important to revisit the central theme of what Secret Wars entails but crucial, too. It could mean the return of some of the fallen for an epic showdown against Kang the Conqueror, who is definitively being set up as the primary antagonist of the Multiversal Saga.
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Secret Wars and a Journey Into the Past of Marvel Comics
During a renaissance in the comic book world, Jim Shooter had been weighted with the extraordinary responsibility of bringing together a story that would make Marvel hip again. So Shooter proposed “one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it” (as requested by the fandom’s kids). When the limited comic book series had been published by Marvel Comics, it immediately skyrocketed to the levels accorded to divinity because of its vision and scale.
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However, the 12-issue series of the mid-80s only incorporated the Beyonder and his Battleworld with heroes and villains from the mainstream Marvel universe. The 2019 revival issue of Secret Wars was the only one that began etching the story into the multiverse. With Marvel Cinematic Universe doing the same, it is now only a matter of time before the looming threat of battle becomes a tangible reality and the heroes will need all the help they can get. And here is where time travel and Marvel’s Legion of the Unliving come into play.
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How Legion of the Unliving Sets Up the Return of Tony Stark
In the original comics, a misfit and dysfunctional team of villains had been crafted by Kang under the advice of his future self, Immortus. They were to lead the team into battle with the Avengers in their timeline and destroy them, enabling the big bad to cease control of all time and become all-powerful. However, the plan consisted of using variants of the deceased Avengers such as Iron Man, Black Widow, and Quicksilver by pulling them out from the timeline moments before their death and bringing them into the future to fight their contemporaries — and thus becoming Legion of the Unliving.
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Although the group achieves some form of success with their mission, it is not enough to hold them under the control of Kang as they eventually turn against him and help the Avengers instead. The primary focus of the entire plot is the return of the beloved heroes who are now gone and Secret Wars and the Multiversal Saga provides a perfect opportunity for the return of RDJ’s Iron Man aka Tony Stark along with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will premiere on 2 May 2025 followed closely by Avengers: Secret Wars on 7 November 2025.
Source: The Direct
