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Champions #6

Jun 2019
Jim Zubkavich, Juanan Ramirez

Champions #6 cover

Story Name:

Dead ahead


Synopsis

Champions #6 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
This is the 2nd tie-in to War Of The Realms. Last issue Ms. Marvel's sub-team were fighting Rock Trolls in Australia. Now they've joined the rest of the Champions in Brazil.

Enchantress has taken over South America. Most of the occupation is done by the Draugr, the Frozen Dead of Niffleheim. The Disir, Hel's Valkyries, are being held in reserve to fight any more dangerous opponents. They are not here by Hela's command but because Amora has promised to free them from Hela's control. But if Hela finds out they will be punished. Hlokk and Gondul are eager for action but their leader Brun restrains them. However a Draugr brings them news that the Champions are defending Sao Paulo.

Snowguard in her wolf-form fights Draugr alongside Ms Marvel, Patriot, Power Man and Viv Vision. Kamala Khan sends Falcon to see how Red Locust's group is doing. From the air he easily spots the havoc caused by Bombshell. Locust is guiding civilians to escape through a portal created by Pinpoint. Bombshell sends Falcon on to check on Dust and Hummingbird.

Who's Hummingbird he asks, and so do we. She's a telepathic character from Scarlet Spider (2012) and New Warriors (2014) who's currently helping Dust find people who need help, and using her mental powers to clam them down. When Joaquin Torres lands she automatically tells him what she reads from his surface thoughts. And that she responded to MsM's call for help online on The Forums. Falcon lifts a girder to free 2 trapped kids.

The undead fighting Kamala's group are suddenly called off as 5 Disir arrive. Brun singles out MsM as the leader and introduces herself. She congratulates Kamala on an impressive fight but asks her to surrender without losing face. Ms Marvel says she can't do that as long as there are innocents to protect.

Battle commences, and the other Champions arrive to join in. Patriot gets injured. Viv's synthezoid strength surprises her opponent. Locust gets whacked defending Pinpoint, who then defends them both by portalling that Disir high into the sky, to fall down again with a thump. Kamala's malleable body allows her to evade Brun's thrusts until they get to close quarters.

Brun then detects that Ms Marvel has died, and shows her a vision of her death in #2. Miles Morales told her in #4 how he made a deal with Mephisto to rewind time and save her, but this is the 1st time she seen it for real and it rocks her back as Brun prepares a killing blow.

But Power Man leaps in to save her. Brun retaliates by stabbing *him* instead, and everyone thinks he's dead. But then he grabs her sword and pulls it out of his chest - and grows huge. He explains how he gains power from the chi in the surroundings or objects - chi that has built up over time. And this sword has chi in abundance. And now he absorbs more from the Disir and the Draugr. He attacks them, and when they fight back it just makes him more powerful.

The rest of the Champions are heartened by this and renew the fight with more vigour. The Disir exult in the fray but are soon defeated, and automatically return to Hel where Hela and Karnilla rule. And Hela wants to know what they've been doing on Midgard.

The Champions congratulate each other and lick their wounds. Viv thanks Hummingbird for her help, and HB is surprised to get no surface thoughts from her. Viv explains about being an android. Snowguard asks Power Man if he knew what would happen. He says he's grown big like that before, but didn't actually know whether it would work with the Disir. Amka Aliyak says it was reckless, he could have died. Victor Alvarez thinks she's just jealous of his kudos. Dust asks Kamala if she's OK. But MsM says she can't lead the team anymore.


 

Review / Commentaries


Champions #6 Review by (June 22, 2019)
Hela's skeletal warriors date back at least to Walt Simonson's Thor #360. I think the name Draugr was only attached to them starting with the Angela: Queen Of Hel series. In  actual Norse mythology the term refers to the Earthly undead.

Marvel's Disir were predecessors of the Valkyries, which is not totally inconsistent with Norse mythology. In Marvel mythology they were cursed for killing Asgardians. We 1st met them in Siege: Loki and the Trickster God continued to use them in his plans. We see here 3 of the 4 so-far-named Disir who were introduced in Thor #611-612.

Karnilla was killed in Thor #700 during the long build-up of the War Of The Realms. In #701 she joined her lover Balder who was then the ruler of Hel. Later during the current Thor series Hela returned and proposed a tactical marriage to Balder, for WOTR reasons, but Karnilla married her instead to free Balder to return to life. And so the 2 women now co-rule Hel.

That's the end of WOTR for the Champions. Next issue seems to concentrate on Sam Alexander's quest to get his Nova powers back. So we may have to wait until the following issue to see whether Ms Marvel really does quit.



> Champions comic book info and issue index

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Juanan Ramirez
Juanan Ramirez
Marcio Menyz
Kim Jacinto (Cover Penciler)
Kim Jacinto (Cover Inker)
Rain Beredo (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Falcon
Falcon

(Joaquin Torres)
Hela
Hela

(Goddess of Death)
Karnilla
Karnilla

(Norn Queen)
Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel

(Kamala Khan)
Snowguard
Snowguard

(Amka Aliyak)
Plus: Bombshell, Disir, Dust (Sooriya Qadir), Hummingbird, Locust (Fernanda Rodriguez), Patriot (Shaun Lucas), Pinpoint, Power Man (Victor Hernan Alvarez).

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