Champions #23: Review

Aug 2018

Jim Zubkavich, Kevin Libranda

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

An adventure into fear

Review & Comments

Rating:

Champions #23 Review by Rob Johnson (August 24, 2018)

Francesco Mann helps Kevin Libranda with the pencils & inks, but I wouldn't like to guess which pages he did.

Man-Thing has been busy lately. After his own 2017 mini-series he was heavily involved in the Dr Strange: Damnation mini and many of it's tie-in issues. I think the Man-Thing(s) currently appearing in Weapon H are Roxxon fakes, but the 1 recently in Deadpool:Assassin #4 and Avengers #6 seem to be the real thing. And I have no reason to believe this 1 isn't.

The title of this issue is taken from the Adventure Into Fear anthology book which was Man-Thing's 1st regular home.

This story will be continued in #25 because #24 will turn the spotlight on our Spider-Man.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Champions #23 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Last issue the Champions came to Tanzania to help a village with a contaminated water supply. However Snowguard and Viv Vision discovered the source of the contamination is Man-Thing who's living in the nearby swamp. The synthezoid had recently been suppressing the effects of her recent traumas and Man-Thing's touch had released her fears and burned her. Now Snowguard is fighting the magical muck-monster and her howls have brought the rest of the team running.

Man-Thing didn't burn Snowguard and the same applies to Brawn and Ms. Marvel who hold him steady while Wasp tries unsuccessfully to shrink him. (They must all be fearless.) Powerless Sam Alexander stays back while Ironheart blasts MT with her chest-beam. Her AI analyses the monster as a mass of vegetation which she tries to destroy with 4 mini-missiles. Snowguard lands on top of him and he's down. Snowguard reverts from her animal form to Amka Aliyak and they tend to fallen Viv.

Interlude:- The Master Of The World (the villain from #19-21) has been keeping track of the team. He lost them when they went interstellar in Infinity Countdown: Champions #1-2 but now he's detected them with an even larger energy source than the 1 he was mining in #19-21. So he plans to investigate personally.

In the Champions Mobile Bunker Wasp investigates Viv's state. Nadia Van Dyne tells Sam, Amka and Kamala Khan that the 'zoid is running some internal program that is taking up all her processing time. She daren't interrupt it so they'll just monitor what happens. Inside we see Viv talking to Viv 2.0 whose body she now inhabits (#18). 2.0 assures Viv she was right to kill her (#17), but she really must switch her emotions back on.

Amadeus Cho and Riri Williams have Man-Thing with some swamp water in a typical containment tube. The village's problem has been solved and the monster seems safe. But then he reacts to Viv's supercharged emotions as she lets the dam burst, and he breaks free. Brawn tries to hold him back but Man-Thing detects Cho's buried fear that his smarts are worthless. And then Riri feels fear as her blasts don't stop the Thing.

Luckily for them MT is more attracted to Viv who is still waging her internal conflict but whose body is now out in the open in midair. He senses her need to escape from it all and responds by opening a portal to somewhere - a vortex which tries to suck her through. 2.0 tries to stop her giving in to the temptation. But then Ms Marvel's elongated arms grab the synthezoid and hold her here.

Amka sends *Man-Thing* into the portal but he grabs hold of Viv in a tug-of-war. The vortex winds stop other Champions from getting close. But Sam allows the wind to pull him in so that he breaks MT's hand free and MsM can pull Viv to safety. Wasp flies in to shrink Sam and try to save him. But the portal swallows them and Man-Thing, and then closes up.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::