Secret War (comics)

Secret War is a 2004–2005 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, consisting of a central, five-issue miniseries written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Gabriele Dell'Otto, and a number of tie-in books. It is loosely based on classified operations told to Bendis by an anonymous high-ranking officer in the United States Intelligence Community during Bendis' childhood. The storyline involves a large-scale super-hero crossover featuring Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Nick Fury fighting a wide array of supervillains who have received hi-tech armaments from a mysterious benefactor. The first issue was published in April 2004, and though intended originally as a bimonthly publication, it faced long delays. It was completed with issue five's publication in December 2005. The aftermath of the series was explored in stories in The Pulse and Bendis has gone on to use many of the same characters in his New Avengers titles. This event begins an eight-year-long series of cross-over events ending with Avengers vs. X-Men. The storyline in Secret War is unrelated to the original Secret Wars and Secret Wars II crossover limited series which Marvel published in the mid-1980s, although its title is clearly inspired by them. Those stories received their own spiritual successor in Beyond!, published in 2006. Bendis has noted that Secret War is connected to the "Secret Invasion" storyline, in which Skrulls have infiltrated several institutions of Earth.