2007-04-11 - NO TIME FOR LOSERS: THEY WERE THE CHAMPIONS, PART II

Previously, in COMICS 101: Last week, we introduced you to the Champions, Marvel Comics' 1970s super-team with little in common and not much of an origin story. Having returned from Olympus after their inaugural adventure, readers were left wondering, "What next for the Champions?" As it turned out, the Champions were wondering the same thing...

Apparently, after their I-guess-you-could-call-it-a-victory in Olympus, the Champions elected to just crash at Warren Worthington's beach house for a while, which was where Hercules and the Black Widow, going for a stroll on the beach, get ambushed by a pack of armed mercenaries working for one Dr. Edward Lansing.

Lansing, a scientist looking to recreate the fabled Super-Soldier Serum, had instead only managed to create mindless mutates, great in strength but miniscule in intellect. Lansing manages to brainwash Herc and the Widow, and sets them against the Angel, Iceman and Ghost Rider, although precisely why is never made clear.

Anyway, the Widow manages to shake the mind control, and in classic TWILIGHT ZONE fashion, Lansing winds up mauled to death by his own mutates. Still, the whole affair encourages the Angel to propose that the five of them stick together and continue to put their collected power to good use:

Warren's proposal is made a little easier to execute in the next issue, CHAMPIONS #5, when the Angel gets a good look at his family inheritance:

Funding in hand, Warren proposes making the team official, a prospect that the Black Widow's sidekick/flunky/hanger-on Ivan isn't too keen on, as he informs Natasha, who's once again wearing civvies over her superhero out fit, an odd look, to say the least:

Still, thanks to Warren, at least the Champions now have a concept; "Extending a needed hand when ordinary people face out-of-the-ordinary problems." Yeah, because the Avengers weren't helping anyone all those times they saved the world from would-be conquerors and alien invaders. Selfish bastards.

Not long after that, the Champions are taking on their first foe as an official team: a disgruntled inventor/CEO named Stuart Clarke, who has lost his company in the 1970s economic downturn, and decides to take his revenge using the super-strength-giving exoskeleton he'd invented (but only on FDIC-insured banks, so the general public wouldn't lose money) as "the Rampage!" Yes, Marvel was using '70s economics in its origins -- Rampage was even talked up on the splash page as "the first menace born of the Recession!" Hard to believe this book didn't catch on with the kids...

By the way, sometimes this series can just catch you off-guard, such as this quip from Iceman in the heat of battle:

"Short-hairs"? And people complain about Bendis' dialogue...

The battle with Rampage continues on into issue #6, which may be most notable for its Jack Kirby-drawn cover:

And by the way, check out this jewel from the splash page:

Sure, I could be the Rampage, if I were a criminally insane CEO who also just happened to have invented an amazing exoskeleton that granted me the power to smash through walls. Buuuuut, I'm not. And neither is anybody else.

Anyway, after Rampage whups the Champions in their first encounter, with Ivan ending up in the hospital, Warren decided their problem is a lack of leadership, and quickly nominates the Black Widow for the gig, a decision that everyone agrees with (at least for now). Sure enough, on their second go-round, thanks to a little strategy and focus from the Widow (plus the Angel cracking him on the noggin with Hercules' mace) Rampage is defeated, and rather than go to jail, he tries to off himself by detonating his jetpack. Iceman cushions the explosion, so Clarke remains alive and well.

With issue #8, Bill Mantlo took over the writing duties from Tony Isabella, as the plotlines took a decidedly Widow-centric turn, as the Black Widow is kidnapped by Soviet agents the Titanium Man and Darkstar, along with her mentor and trainer from the USSR, Alexei Bruskin, a.k.a. "Der Commissar."

Mantlo does the best he can with this mess of a storyline that Isabella left him, which also involved the Griffin, the Crimson Dynamo and another suicide attempt by Rampage. On the upside, Angel does finally get a much improved costume, which he debuts at the Champions' official dedication, which, in grand comic-book style, is disrupted by an attack from Titanium Man, the Crimson Dynamo and the Griffin.

I gotta ask: why would anyone attend the dedication of a superhero team? You'd have to expect a villain attack, and if you wind up with a face full of energy blast, well, it's really your own fault.

By the end of the storyline (and after an intriguing bit where most of the Champs are imprisoned in a cell deep within the San Andreas Fault, forcing Iceman and Ghost Rider to stop Hercules from trying to punch his way out, thereby causing massive earthquakes), Darkstar has defected and becomes for all intents and purposes a new Champion, while mistrust and divisions already begin to fester between the members.

Bill Mantlo is joined by a new artist for issue #11, none other than John Byrne, in some of his earlier work for Marvel. Here we also see for the first time the Champscraft, the new team's answer to the Quinjet, bought by Warren's money and designed by the L.A. branch of Stark International; more specifically, by its supervisor, scientist Bill Foster. When the Champscraft turns out to be a lemon on its maiden flight, Foster is forced to reveal his own secret identity to the Champions, growing to his colossal height as Black Goliath in order to catch the airship and stop it from smashing their brand-new office-building HQ.

A quick exam by Foster reveals that while the ship's design was sound, its actual construction, undertaken by contractors hired by the Champs' lawyer, was shoddy. Note to Angel: next time, pay full price and have Stark build it, eh?

The Champscraft limps along well enough to take the Champions out to New Mexico, where they hook up with Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid to tackle the shadow-creature Warlord Kaa -- a minor adversary, but it's always good to see Hawkeye, even if only for a brief guest-spot.

Mantlo and Byrne started to get onto a pretty good groove on the series with issue #12. kicking off a more cosmic storyline involving the Champions struggling to prevent a null-life bomb from destroying all existence, with the help of soul-gem possessor and Elder of the Universe the Stranger, who sets the team in the direction of super-obscure Thor bad guy Kamo Tharn, whose staff was supposedly the only thing capable of stopping the bomb. There's some great business here as the Champions all hallucinate each others' demises, while not-even-a-real-Champion-yet Darkstar does all the dirty work.

And meanwhile, Black Goliath fights a really big robot.

CHAMPIONS #14 introduced one of the sillier supervillains to take center stage in Marvel Comics: Swarm, a walking humanoid swarm of bees wearing a hood and cape. Not only that, the Champs wind up fighting their own headquarters, as the faulty construction that plagued the Champscraft turns out to be a problem with the Champions Building as well:

Goofy villain aside, Mantlo and Byrne were improving on every issue, telling solid stories while building some strong character subplots, with Hercules subtly chafing under Widow's command, and Iceman continuing his poor lovelife with an unrequited crush on Darkstar, while Ghost Rider's resentment for their newest recruit continues to simmer:

And by the way, one of the best things about Byrne's rendering of the Champions was the was he consistently made Ghost Rider so creepy-looking.

Maybe my favorite Champions appearance wasn't even in their own book, but a guest-spot in IRON MAN ANNUAL #4 (1976), "The Doomsday Connection," written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by George Tuska, in which the Champs and Iron Man team up to tackle that classic bigheaded baddie, MODOK, and his new super-weapon, the devastating "Doomdsay Chair." Oooooh. It's frighteningly comfortable, I'll bet.

An aside: CHAMPIONS is the only book I can remember that would frequently use the word "VASHTOOM" to represent an explosion. Observe:

Was this a Mantlo thing, I wonder? Anyway, I digress...

THE CHAMPIONS ended their series not with a grand huzzah, but more of a whimper with issue #17, a kinda average issue involving old-school X-Men villains the Vanisher, the Blob and Unus using some secondhand Sentinels to try to kill Angel and Iceman, in the hopes of luring more X-Men to their deaths. The plot doesn't go well for the Vanisher, who winds up halfway stuck in mid-teleport thanks to Darkstar's darkforce power. Bleagh.

Most humiliating of all, the Champions don't even get to break up in their own book. Instead we see the team dissolve in flashback in the pages of PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, as Bugle photographer Parker, sent out to Los Angeles to cover the breakup, gets the scoop from sole remaining member Warren Worthington. Why the breakup, you ask? They pretty much just got sick of each other, from the looks of it. It's not you, it's me.

Spidey and Angel wind up teaming up against a brainwashed Iceman (courtesy of the Champions' only home-grown enemy, Rampage) inside the still wildly malfunctioning Champions Building. Two high points here: Angel finally getting a measure of satisfaction against the crooked contractors who went cheap on his building and airship:

...and Spidey defeating the Iceman thanks to a trip through the carwash!

Despite never having any truly outstanding adventures, the Champions always remain a sentimental favorite with me, probably just because of the nostalgia factor. Marvel has collected all of the CHAMPIONS appearances into two well-produced trade paperback collections, and hey -- I can think of a lot worse ways to spend your money.

And thanks to Hasbro's recent Marvel Legends action-figure assortment, which included a long-time-coming Prince of Power, another childhood request has finally been fulfilled: Champions action figures!

Sweet.

Scott Tipton wouldn't mind Black Goliath and Darkstar action figures to round out the team: but hey: let's not get greedy. If you have questions about the Champions or comics in general, send 'em here.

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