SECRET WARS II
Secrets of Secret Wars II
This section is composted of little known facts about Secret Wars II, taken from interviews and unpublished artwork.
Secret Wars II, as envisioned by Sal Buscema?
In 2001, the original art for the complete first issue of Secret Wars II was sold on eBay. The twist? It was 22 pages of unpublished pencils by Sal Buscema! It turns out that Sal was the original series artist, as confirmed by Jim Shooter in an interview with CBR's Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed column.
I asked Jim Shooter about it, and he said that he was not pleased with the job that Buscema did on the first issue, and that Buscema was not enjoying the series, either (Shooter said it was because of having to draw so many characters - I do not know if that would be Buscema’s take on it). Shooter countered that it was worth doing anyways, because the royalties would be high.
Buscema was still not happy doing the book, so Shooter had him removed, and had Al Milgrom and Steve Leihola re-draw the first issue, so the book would have a consistent art team throughout.
Shooter noted that Milgrom and Leihola did, in fact, make a sizable amount of royalties from the series.
If you are the owner of these pages, or have scans of them, please contact this site: beyonder@secretwarsii.com
Rejected Power Man & Iron Fist cover with unseen Beyonder design
In 2004, the following piece of original art was sold on eBay, featuring a somewhat different design for the Beyonder. In the published cover to Power Man & Iron Fist #121, the Beyonder is depicted with his usual black curly hair. In this unpublished version, he is drawn as a long haired blonde by artist Mark Bright, who says, "The Beyonder was redesigned after the sketch for the unpublished cover was approved. At that point we decided upon a cover that would better feature his new look... the character was constantly being rethought by the editorial staff". |
LARGER IMAGEDavid Mazzuchelli art reveals an early design for the Beyonder
Yet another alternate design for the Beyonder shows up in these unpublished David Mazzuchelli artboards. In these pages, drawn for Daredevil #223, it looks like the Beyonder decided to pattern his physical appearance after the Vision, rather than Steve Rogers.
| Daredevil #223 page 5 |
| Daredevil #223 page 9 |
Behind every good man (in this case, Mike Mignola), is an uncredited woman
In an interview for the book Mantlo: A Life in Comics, Mike Mignola has admitted that his inability to draw children at that point in his career resulted in his then-girlfriend's Marvel pencilling debut!
"Bill gives me this flashback story of Bruce Banner's childhood. I couldn't draw babies and little kids! in that issue, all the babies and kids were drawn by my then-girlfriend. Even with that I still remember hating every minute of doing that one."
Bill Mantlo was involved in the creation of several Secret Wars II crossovers, and the book Mantlo: A Life in Comics from which the above quote was taken is a highly recommended read.
The case of the disappearing ROM.
The website ROM Spaceknight Revisited has noticed that ROM was originally supposed to appear with a myriad of other Marvel heroes on a promotional poster for Secret Wars II. The website has compared the published poster with scans of the original art, and has discovered that ROM had indeed been removed in the final poster.
Secret Wars II™ and © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. unless otherwise noted herein. All rights reserved.