This week’s Secret Wars #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic showed the Marvel multiverse -- aka all of existence -- being destroyed, but believe it or not, that’s not the most surprising thing about it. The most shocking thing is that Marvel decided to make it so their big summer event has three years of convoluted backstory as a barrier to entry.

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Granted, you don’t have to read everything that came before in order to buy Secret Wars -- a fact that Marvel is no doubt banking on -- but it does seem strange for such a hyped event to have an extraordinarily high fence around it. I’ve tried to explain the nuances of the lead-in story to several people, but they all got that confused look in their eyes once I started talking about Builders and Mapmakers and World Incursions -- and that’s before I even got to Rabum Alal! That the issue #1 recap page has a whopping 58 characters on it reinforces the idea that there will be a lot going on in Secret Wars.The road to Secret Wars began in late 2012/early 2013 when Hickman started two comics: Avengers, which showed the Avengers saving the world as heroes, and New Avengers, which showed the Illuminati fighting a secret threat. It’s New Avengers that started with a science lesson about how the multiverse was ending prematurely, sending us down a deep rabbit hole of sci-fi constructs that take more than a minute to wrap your head around. It’s cool that Hickman fleshed out the concept of a dying multiverse and filled it with different players with grand, abstract motives, but keeping track of it all is another thing entirely.Not since Grant Morrison’s Batman run has there been such a strong feeling that you’re reading something important without fully understanding what any of it means. But that’s exactly what Marvel asked of Hickman. He had been writing Fantastic Four for years, turning it from a fun family adventure into a fascinating, multi-layered sci-fi epic. The conclusion to that run is one of the best ever, taking many different plot threads and bringing them to a satisfying, cosmic-scaled conclusion. Marvel told Hickman that they wanted him to do that with the Avengers, and he obliged.After years of planning and executing various Avengers storylines, the payoff is here. Both Avengers comics saw their series finales last week, which acted as a big prologue to Secret Wars, Marvel’s big eight-part summer event.What’s so strange is how Marvel planned to have Hickman weave such an explanation-heavy tale when the lack of an easy-to-follow story has consistently been a sticking point for many readers. There’s not just the lives of fictional superheroes on the line, after all; there’s also quite a bit of money to be made. Both of Hickman’s Avengers comics have remained in the top 30 on the sales charts, with Hickman’s Infinity event debuting at #1 and pulling in big numbers, which certainly isn’t bad. And it stands to reason that given the hype of “the end of the Marvel Universe!” along with the nostalgia-factor of the name, Secret Wars will sell well regardless of how accessible it is. But that’s what makes this an odd step for Marvel, a publisher that prides itself on how accessible its comics are. Issues are written so that they’re easy to jump into if you don’t know any prior continuity. Stories are generally told in digestible four- to six-issue arcs. And recap pages are always there to remind you of the story so far.Hickman’s Avengers comics laugh in the face of accessibility -- they’re lathered, dipped and sprinkled with continuity. To the point where the only “jumping-on point” is the beginning.For Marvel to bank their summer event on such a heady, ambitious, confusing-to-explain story is a curious wonder. The first issue of Secret Wars starts in the middle of the action with dozens of characters fighting and multiple plots firing on all cylinders, and if you want any hope of understanding the battle in full context, you’d have to read 44 issues of Avengers, 33 issues of New Avengers, Hickman’s Ultimates work, the New Universe titles, and a handful of other comics that link to the overarching story in one way or another.Yes, it is a big deal that the Marvel Universe came to an end, but it’s also impressive how we got to this point. Hickman is such a unique mind in the world of comics that it’s unlikely we’ll ever get a story this grand again -- at least anytime soon -- so as overly complex as his Avengers comics can be, they're still something worth appreciating, especially given that they embrace every faction under the Marvel umbrella -- Fantastic Four, X-Men, Inhumans, Avengers -- despite what might be going on in movie studio board rooms.The end of the Marvel Universe is only the beginning of Secret Wars, but it’s such a breath-taking event that maybe now isn’t such a bad time to stop, catch our breath, and turn back to the twisting, winding road of continuity that got us here and look at it with awe… and confusion.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Green Lantern, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN