Perhaps particularly if you were of a certain age, the toys really were exciting for both even though the quality of the Super Powers line was much better.

Star Wars figures had changed everything in the late 70's, and for so many years I wished my other beloved franchises, Marvel and DC, had done the same. G.I. Joe and MOTU hit in 1982, and again were awesome, but still no superheroes!

And then in 1984 we obviously got both, and there was no "crossing my arms" and holding them in judgment in terms of accuracy of the figures, association with the quality of the comic book tie-ins, or anything of that nature...it was like Wolverine, yes!! Spidey, yes!! The whole core JLA, YESSSSS!!! The Batmobile was absolutely awesome, even the Tower of Doom made for a great "base of operations" to have an adventure around (it was almost like a mini-Navarone playset to me).

And of course that was the other awesome thing back then with them coming out at the same time...everything could be a crossover!! Kang could steal the Batmobile just because...Doom could team-up with Brainiac and even Skeletor.

And back to more the topic at hand with the comic books, coming perhaps a little more from the toys themselves being the real stars, I felt like the original Super Powers mini connected better with the fun of the toys. Stuff was already getting a little weird with DC at that point, you had the whole Flash murder trial thing, Aquaman's life had been on and off again trashed since the 70's, Superman and Batman were no longer best bros...Super Powers was a little last gasp of classic fun to me. No, it wasn't nearly the level of storytelling the top books were at that point like Teen Titans, Legion, or Swamp Thing, but the classic era was quickly ending and I still smile seeing the Super Powers lineup resembling something from DC's classic glory days.

The thing I find funny about Secret Wars is that a number of the "impacts" weren't first revealed in the series itself...we already knew Spidey had the black suit 7 months previously before the "origin" issue, we already knew the Thing hadn't come back, etc. Yeah, they gave the full story of what happened, but by that point I don't know that I was really amazed.

Honestly, the main thing I remember pondering as a kid was "how could the Hulk hold a mountain".

Then I need to check that one out. 

Some of Secret Wars' supporters were younger when the mini was released, so it seems one should have been a certain age to enjoy it. The problem with the age explanation is that SW was not specifically written for young kids, but the rest of the Marvel readers (teens & adults) too, so there must have been a creative disconnect (or failing) if the older readers felt the mini was overblown like a bad 80s cartoon.

I'm not sure what an overblown bad 80's cartoon is supposed to be, but I WISH Secret Wars had been as entertaining as the cartoons I was watching during that time (G.I Joe, MOTU, Transformers, D&D). Those were so much fun.

And NO, none of this "the aging readers wanted" nonsense...it was our time, our memories. Viva la 80's Gen X!!!

Tried Secret Wars when a friend bought it, but lost interest pretty quick. I did enjoy Super Powers, though. Could not explain either this much later.

I remember someone saying at the time that Jim Shooter's Legion work was so acclaimed because while everyone else was writing one-dimensional characters, he gave us two-dimensional characters; but now everyone's writing three-dimensional characters, and Shooter is still doing two-dimensional characters.

Here's a rundown of the series if you can't be bothered reading it again:

Secret Wars

Man, Professor X's costume was ugly.