Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #3 (Marvel UK, 1985) is the British reprint edition of what is arguably the single most character-generative chapter of Marvel's first large-scale crossover event: it reprints the issue that introduces both Titania and Volcana, two enduring villain creations who went on to become fixtures of the Marvel Universe decades after their debut. Titania in particular became She-Hulk's defining arch-nemesis and later crossed into live-action as a major character in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). As a Marvel UK production, this issue also exemplifies the publisher's distinctive approach to repackaging American material for British readers — splitting the story across a larger page format, mixing colour and black-and-white pages, adding a backup Alpha Flight strip, and bundling a cover-mounted Doctor Doom sticker — making it a small but telling artefact of how Marvel's 1984 event was experienced by an entirely different audience on a fortnightly schedule.
In "Marvel's Secret Artist," the heroes and villains clash in the first major battle of the Secret War, ending with the heroes capturing their foes—only for Doom to seize the moment and awaken Ultron to turn the tide. When the villains return, they’re forced to accept Doom as their reluctant leader. Meanwhile, the heroes secure a new base, but it’s quickly overrun by Magneto, who steals the Wasp. Amid the chaos, the Thing reverts to his true form as Ben Grimm—revealing a shocking twist in the midst of the conflict. Written by Jim Shooter and illustrated by Mike Zeck, with inks by John Beatty, colors by Christie Scheele, and letters by Joe Rosen, this 1985 UK edition features cover art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty.
In "Prisoners of War Chapter Two," the heroes' early victory in the Secret War takes a sharp turn when Doom seizes the moment to unleash Ultron upon the captured villains, reshaping the battlefield. With the remaining foes forced to accept Doom’s leadership, the heroes face a new threat as Magneto strikes their base, abducting the Wasp and leaving the team scrambling. Meanwhile, the Thing’s transformation back into Ben Grimm adds a personal weight to the chaos.
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The underlying American story was conceived by Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who proposed the all-heroes-versus-all-villains format to satisfy a licensing requirement from Mattel, which wanted a major publishing event around which to build a toy line. The series was written by Shooter with pencils by Mike Zeck, inks by Bob Layton and John Beatty, and was originally announced under the working title 'Cosmic Champions' before being renamed at Mattel's suggestion because focus groups responded positively to the words 'secret' and 'wars.' The Marvel UK reprint series launched on 27 April 1985 as a fortnightly title and was early enough in its run — issue #3 published 25 May 1985 — that it still carried the full 'Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars' banner, free cover-mounted sticker gifts, and the original 'Marvel's Secret Artist' humour strip alongside reprinted Alpha Flight pages, all formatted to the larger British magazine page size with selectively coloured pages.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published 25 May 1985 by Marvel Comics Ltd. (Marvel UK) as the third issue of a fortnightly reprint series that launched on 27 April 1985.
- Reprints the content of American Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2 (June 1984) as its lead Secret Wars strip — not US #3 — with pages split across UK issues #3 and #4/#5 due to the fortnightly, divided-page format.
- The issue was distributed with a cover-mounted Doctor Doom sticker badge; removing these stickers from the cover typically caused tearing, making undamaged copies with the gift intact particularly hard to find.
- Backup strip reprints pages from Alpha Flight #1 (August 1983), written and drawn by John Byrne, providing British readers with an introduction to the Canadian super-team alongside the main Secret Wars story.
- Formatted at 8¼ × 11 inches, 30 pages, with only select story pages printed in full colour and the remainder in black and white — a cost-driven production choice standard to Marvel UK's weekly/fortnightly titles of the era.
- The US issue whose content drives this reprint run — Secret Wars #3 (July 1984) — contains the first appearances of both Titania (Mary MacPherran) and Volcana (Marsha Rosenberg), two new villains empowered by Doctor Doom using alien technology on Battleworld; both characters were created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck.
- Titania's name was drawn from a real Marvel production assistant, Mary MacPherran, with Jim Shooter's blessing — a nod to the then-common comics tradition of naming background characters after colleagues.
- Titania later made her live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), portrayed by Jameela Jamil, demonstrating the lasting cultural reach of her Secret Wars origin.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Alpha Flight #1 (1983), Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #2 (1984)
Key issues in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars
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