Just did finished the entire Secret Wars II Omnibus. Which covered pretty much every issue of the crossover (minus the issues of ROM and Micronauts due to rights issues) A somewhat massive undertaking I suppose. The series, so far as I'm concerned was a little hit or miss depending on what you were reading. The main series suffered from bad art (Al Milgrom is not the most stellar artist to have worked for Marvel, but you can tell he was rushed with this series) the cross-over issues were good depending on how much the writers at the helm really cared about the cross over. You can tell for some of them, they kind of tacked the Beyonder in wherever to fit the story. Notably the final issue of the Defenders, it looks like he was just tossed in there which complicated tying up the whole plot.
Some of the best Secret Wars II stories however were in the X-Men, New Mutants, Avengers, FF, and Spider-Man stories. Notably, the FF story "Hero", one of the best ones of John Bryne's run of the series IMHO.
Another interesting note, check out the Omnibus if you can get a hold of it (it's $100 US, so it's a bit pricey), It has one interesting addition: Sketches by Sal Buscema who penciled the entire first issue of Secret Wars II #1 before dropping out of the project. The pencils were a *lot* better than Milgrom's work, it's a shame that Buscema never continues on with the series, or why they didn't at least use his pencils for the first issue...
Anyhow, back to doing summaries of the last two volumes of Essential X-Men... Then?? I'm not sure yet. Going to do some alternate reality profiles of characters and such, then decide where to go from there. I could do my non-Essential TPB's or hit my long boxes or do some profile work. Suggestions greatly appreciated.