Secret Wars was a 1984-1985 line of action figures and playsets, launched as a tie-in between Marvel Comics and the Mattel toy company.
The line was a reaction to DC Comics' 1984 deal with Kenner Products for the Super Powers Collection. Mattel, concerned about losing the DC account to Kenner, made a similar deal with Marvel. Mattel's request was that the line would be supported with an event comic book that included the words "secret" and "wars", which Mattel's market research found worked particularly well with children in focus groups.[1]
Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter came up with the concept for a year-long twelve-issue crossover called Secret Wars, in which Marvel's most popular heroes and villains would be plucked out of their daily lives to a distant galaxy, where they would be given alien weapons and technology and forced to fight each other.[2]
Some of Mattel's choices for the toy line impacted the look and direction of Marvel's superhero characters. Shooter introduced the idea of a new, black costume for Spider-Man,[3] which was not intended to last for long, but Mattel was very enthusiastic, because it allowed them to sell two versions of the same toy.[1] The "alien costume" was revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man to be a living creature, who separated from Spider-Man to become a new character, Venom.
At Mattel's request, Marvel designed updated, "high-tech" costumes for Iron Man and Doctor Doom.[2] Mattel also requested new female characters, and Marvel introduced two villains, Titania and Volcana, as well as a new version of Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter.[1] None of the three female characters were produced as part of the toy line. In fact, while dozens of characters were involved in the comic miniseries, Mattel's initial Secret Wars series only included eight characters: four heroes (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Wolverine) and four villains (Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Kang the Conqueror and Magneto).[4] The toy line featured several vehicles, as well as figures in the later series, that never featured in the mini-series.
The line included two series of action figures, along with vehicles and playsets, as well as a third series of figures released outside North America.