Avengers: Secret Wars Is A “Loose” Adaptation Of Every Secret Wars Comic

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has decades of source material to pull from, but its films and shows have always taken a loose approach to adapting the comics. Aside from a few head-scratching choices, that’s made for a successful franchise, and the Russo brothers — returning to direct after a five-year break from Marvel — intend to keep that winning streak alive with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

The Russos have directed some of Marvel’s most well-regarded films. From Captain America: The Winter Soldier to Avengers: Endgame, the directing duo and their collaborators have a healthy respect for the comics, but they also know just how to seamlessly adapt those stories for the big screen. That said, Doomsday and Secret Wars may present a challenge for the Russos, especially the latter. The films won’t just bring together over 60 MCU characters; they’ll also merge disparate parts of Marvel’s vast multiverse.

Fortunately, the Russos won’t be creating something out of nothing. Two Secret Wars comics could serve as inspiration for the upcoming film: the original 1980s run written by Jim Shooter, and Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s 2015 reimagining. These two comics couldn’t be more different, though, which has left fans wondering if the Russos will favor one storyline over another.

Earlier this year, the Russos revealed that their Secret Wars was inspired by a story they felt they “needed” to tell. “Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us,” Anthony Russo said back in January. Said idea was cooked up by screenwriter Stephen McFeely, who the Russos have worked with for each of their MCU efforts. The specificity of McFeely’s story is being kept under wraps, but in a new conversation with TechRadar, the Russos revealed that Secret Wars will be a “loose” adaptation of each Secret Wars event.

“We always create our own version of the story, so we use the comics as loose inspiration,” Joe Russo explained. “But, you know, I grew up on the original run. That’s something that got me into Marvel comic books. The Hickman run is also fantastic [and they’re] very different from each other in a lot of ways, so we’ll draw inspiration from both of them.”

The original Secret Wars began as a ploy to sell more action figures, so the story behind it is pretty simple: Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains are transported to a realm called Battleworld, where a being called the Beyonder forces them to fight in a battle royale. Despite its straightforwardness, this comic gave birth to plenty of iconic characters. Without Secret Wars, Spider-Man never would’ve gotten his black symbiote suit, and Marvel never would’ve created Venom. Secret Wars also positions Doctor Doom as a terrifying, nigh-unstoppable antagonist, a plot thread Hickman and Ribic would use for their own take on the story.

The Secret Wars reboot reinterprets a handful of the original’s ideas. Hickman uses the multiversal phenomena known as incursions to remix the concept of Battleworld: multiple universes collide, and Doom manages to merge the broken worlds into one, naming himself God Emperor in the process. Hickman’s take is much more complex and filled with a lot of scientific mumbo-jumbo, but it’s a great story all the same.

The Russos can’t go wrong borrowing from Hickman’s comic run, but merging it with the original Secret Wars may prove challenging. The directors have pulled off the impossible before: each of their MCU films was an amalgam of multiple comic storylines. That said, they’ve never had to deal with the multiverse. Secret Wars will be Marvel’s most ambitious crossover to date, but with cherished source material to fall back on, the risk might just pay off.