What is Secret Wars (2015)?

If you read one explainer before the films, make it this one. Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars, by Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić, is the comic Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are named after - and it’s Doctor Doom’s crowning story.

The setup: the multiverse is dying

For years leading in, Hickman’s Avengers comics built toward incursions - collisions between universes that destroy both unless one Earth is sacrificed (incursions explained). By the start of Secret Wars, the incursions have run their course: the entire Marvel multiverse collapses. Everything ends.

Doom becomes a god

In the ruins, Doctor Doom - not the heroes - seizes the moment. He steals the near-omnipotent power of cosmic entities (the Beyonders) and uses it to salvage fragments of dead realities, stitching them into a single patchwork planet: Battleworld.

Doom rules it as a literal deity: God Emperor Doom. He rewrites history, takes Reed Richards’ family as his own, and is worshipped across the land. It is the ultimate expression of the character - the story where Doom wins and remakes reality in his image. Our God Emperor Doom theory covers how the films might use it.

The heroes fight back

A handful of survivors - including Reed Richards - awaken on Battleworld and slowly realise the truth. The climax pits Reed against Doom one final time, with reality itself as the prize. In the end, the multiverse is rebuilt - a rebirth that resets the board.

Why it matters for the MCU

• It’s the definitive “Doom conquers everything” narrative - perfect for a saga villain.
• Its collapse-and-rebuild structure is an ideal way to merge franchises and reset the MCU (will the MCU reboot).
• The 1984 Secret Wars shares the name and Battleworld idea, but the 2015 version is the clear inspiration here.

Bottom line

Secret Wars (2015) is a story about the end of everything and the god who rebuilds it. Swap in the MCU’s characters and you can see the shape of where Doomsday is heading.

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