20 best superhero comics to read after Infinity War

4. Secret Wars

Your particular opinion of the Secret Wars storyline may vary. On the one hand, it’s an interesting concept that brings out all the Marvel superheroes (more or less) to fight all the Marvel villains. Plus, these issues include the debut of the Beyonder, an ultra-powerful being from, well, the Beyond. The Beyonder summons everyone to the Battleworld where they fight each other and eventually rebel.

Then again, Secret Wars was also created to sell toys. In a pretty blatantly crass display of consumerism, Marvel debuted this storyline along with a very popular line of toys. Writer Jim Shooter was tasked with applying a plot to the overall theme of every hero fighting every villain. Mike Zeck and John Beatty were recruited to create the art for the huge series.

If that second paragraph hasn’t completely turned you off, there are plenty of interesting and even intriguing things going on in Secret Wars. The whole stage of Battleworld is silly, but it allows for interrogation of who, exactly, is “bad” or “good.” Magneto, for instance, starts off as ostensibly “good” but quickly becomes quasi-neutral when the Avengers become suspicious of him.

The X-Men decide to keep to themselves, but everyone else divides themselves into heroes and villains. There are plenty of requisite skirmishes, which will surely please the battle-hungry comics reader. This is also the arc where Spider-Man finds his black costume for the first time, later revealed to be a symbiotic life form. The life form eventually becomes the villain Venom.

Once the Beyonder has been defeated, everyone travels back home. Well, except for the Thing, who goes on a gap year vacation through the galaxy in order to find himself.