Champions #1

Review: When I was a dumb kid, I made up a story which showed a three-way battle for power between the Mummy (Kharis), the Phantom of the Opera, and Godzilla, who for this exercise had been shrunk to human size. How could anyone devise such an oddball scenario? Simple, those were the three Aurora model kits I had to use as fragile action figures. If I had had anything else, that would have gone into the weird mix as well. So why am I bringing this up now? Well, every time I see the Champions, Marvel’s strangest team, I think of that stupid story. Why? Because the members of the team seem to have been chosen based on which action figures the writer found at the bottom of a drawer. Check it out: a Greek god, a sexy spy, a demon-possessed biker, and two ex-X-Men (including Angel whose mutant power was “wings”). And I did buy their comic faithfully in the 70s! Really, I did, even though I was old enough to know better (complete set still in the basement)! And even then Marvel didn’t seem to have any strong commitment to the series with its irregular publishing schedule and constantly shifting creative teams, most of whom were not seen at their best. Even Tony Isabella, who came up with the concept, is gone after scripting only five of the first seven issues. The early series is rather pedestrian, rarely rising above the mediocre. To my surprise, with issue #11, Bill Mantlo’s writing much improves and John Byrne takes over as artist and the quality rises, though it never quite overcomes the oddball teaming. But the last seven issues are a lot better than the first ten.

Comments: Part one of three parts. First appearance/origin of the Champions though technically they do not become a team until issue #5. Hercules is coming off a guest run in THOR #221-238. Black Widow has just left her co-starring role in DAREDEVIL #81-124. Iceman and Angel left the X-Men for college in X-MEN #94. Ghost Rider is between issues #13-14 of his book. Ivan Petrovich returns in issue #4. First appearance of Richard Fenster, whose snarky comment about a “scrawny, mop-haired New York writer” is likely a dig at Roy Thomas. Venus had her own Marvel series from 1948-1951 for 19 issues; her first Silver Age appearance was SUB-MARINER #57, where she first had the identity of Victoria Starr; this is her second Silver Age appearance. Cerberus’ only Marvel appearance was in THOR #130. The mutates were previously seen in THOR #163-164; this is the first appearance of the harpies and the Amazons. Hippolyta (in DC Comics, the mother of Wonder Woman) previously appeared in THOR #127-128; later a member of the all-female Fearless Defenders. Pluto and Ares are frequent foils for Thor and Hercules.