4 out of 5

Okay, fine, maybe I like Marvel a bit more than DC.  Some of that is just personal preference – the hero-with-problems vs. the pantheon o’ the gods selection of big leaguers, but it’s also in the general approach both companies maintain.  Skipping past elaborating on that too much, something I think we see from Marvel more often than we do with DC is a sense of humor about itself, often expressed as a gag book.  In this case it’s ‘Secret Wars Too,’ the primary point of which is to poke fun at how delayed the conclusion to the yearly crossover event has been, with writer Jonathan Hickman confessing (jokingly…?) to his lack of ending.  Elsewhere we get some humorous bits taking the God Doom / Multiverse concept (a concept that will be inevitably overwritten by another event and so not worth explaining beyond what those buzzwords themselves can’t sum up)(and it should be noted that Hickman jokes about that endless cycle as well) and running with it, whether it’s in search of pizza, via Kath Leth, or a universe of Uncle Bens (Rob Guillory), or a pretty good day in the life of D-Man from Kyle Starks.  Al Ewing reminds us, in Great Incomprehensibility, how funny he can be when not leashed to the Might Marvel Continuity Machine, and Ryan Browne blesses us with a bear version of Daredevil.  Eric Powell closes it out with a “behind the tyranny” special on Doom.

The frankness of Hickman’s self-criticism is refreshing, and the definite majority of the strips here are laugh out loud with the remainder at the very least worthy of a chuckle.  An impressive humor book that almost seems like it’s giving some of the involved creatives a sigh of momentary relief (via parodying their publisher) they needed, much to the benefit of their readers.