For Your Consideration: Marvel Masterworks: The Champions Vol. 1

Robert Greenberger

Robert Greenberger


by Robert Greenberger

What began as a promising buddy concept featuring Ice Man and the Angel blossomed into Marvel’s most unlikely superteam of the 1970s. According to Tony Isabella, he pitched the notion of contrasting the ultra-wealthy Angel with the younger and middle class Ice Man as they traveled America. He was informed by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman that teams had a specific formula starting with a membership of five.

Marvel Masterworks: The Champions Vol. 1

Marvel Masterworks: The Champions Vol. 1


“That’s when I came up with the idea that the Champions would be heroes for the common man, a cool idea I never managed to pull off during my stint on the title,” he told Back Issue!s Karen Walker. However, the short-lived team found their small but fervent audience which has now resulted in the latest offering as Marvel Masterworks: The Champions Vol. 1. The mammoth collection includes Champions #1-17, Iron Man Annual #4, Avengers #163, Super-Villain Team-Up #14 and Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18.

Adhering to the formula meant he needed, in addition to Ice Man and Angel, a strong guy, a woman, and someone who had their own book. Given the five other teams operating at the time, the pickings were slim but he wound up finding Hercules, Black Widow, and Ghost Rider. Partnered with artists Don Heck and Mike Esposito, the action begins at the UCLA campus when all five principals happen to be present as supernatural disaster strikes. As the dust settles, a new team is literally forged by hellfire.

The series, arriving with an October 1975 cover date, was plagued by deadline delays creating an erratic publishing schedule, hampering the title’s ability to successfully build its audience. Nor did it help that the seventeen issue series saw it created by a dozen different writer/artist combinations, all all-too common problem during this era. Heck, it had a fill-in team by its fourth issue.

Champions #7

Champions #7


Still, the stories went in different directions compared with the other titles of the time. For example, the problems ranged from supernatural gods and demons to the economic woes of the military-industrial complex. Plus, the team was led by the Widow, a rarity in its day but logical given her training and background in comparison with her teammates. By the time Isabella seemed to be settling the series down, he left for a job at DC Comics.

Replacing him was Bill Mantlo and if anyone could be called the regular penciller, it was Bob Hall. Mantlo wrote a two-page memo outlining his ideas to Editor-in-Chief Gerry Conway and his assistant, Jim Shooter. “It’s clear from the two-page memo that Mantlo had a true enthusiasm for the book and the team’s composition, including the seemingly misfit Ghost Rider,” Walker noted. “He wanted to emphasize that the members with past team affiliations had severed those ties, and the Champions was their team now. He envisioned them as ‘a team that grows into a fighting unit slowly, organically’.”

Champions #14

Champions #14


Their woes were not helped by the eventual establishment of a headquarters that turned out to be a lemon if ever there was one. Not that they spent much time in it as Mantlo sent them to confront the Soviet Super-Soldiers, who had kidnapped the Widow to be returned to her homeland. Darkstar wound up joining the group at this point, attracting young Bobby Drake’s attention. They later took on Stilt-Man and then The Stranger which also saw the HQ mercifully demolished. Then came Swarm before the team began appearing elsewhere in the Marvel Universe.

First, they fought alongside shellhead against M.O.D.O.K. in Iron Man Annual #4, from Mantlo, George Tuska (who previously also few a few issues of the team’s book), and Don Perlin, Here, Mantlo made clear that although Johnny Blaze was developing feelings for the Widow, she seemed to prefer Herc’s company. Then the tables were turned as they fought the Golden Avenger in Avengers #163 from Shooter, Tuska, and Pablo Marcos. (They also showed up in Godzilla #3 not included here.)

Doctor Doom decided to enslave mankind, releasing a gas that would capture everyone’s free will. Only the Beast and Magneto seemed immune to the gas setting up the events in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 from Mantlo, Hall, Don Perlin, and Duffy Vohland. Such a tale could not easily be wrapped in one issue so it carried readers to Champions #16. It’s Beast who feels his former X-Men pals could help their cause but first they had to be freed from Doom’s mist. The climax at the White House nicely raised the stakes.

Champions #17

Champions #17


And then came the final issues as Mantlo, Tuska and John Byrne, who previously penciled a few issues, pitted the team against the Blob, Vanisher, Unus the Untouchable, and Lorelei. They arrived because the evil mutants were being hunted by the Sentinels. Or so it appeared.

As historian John Wells noted, “The Champions #17 had gone on sale October 18, 1977, just eleven days after the chart debut of a song that could have been the team’s anthem: Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’.”

Spectacular Spider-Man #17

Spectacular Spider-Man #17


In a nice meta-touch, words reaches New York City that the team has disbanded. Smelling a story, J. Jonah Jameson springs for a ticket and sends Peter Parker west to get the scoop. Mantlo tidies things up in Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18 with art from Sal Buscema and Dave Hunt. Ice Man and Angel, the two the series was intended to spotlight, reveal the breakup in flashback before Ice Man is an old foe’s victim. The webslinger and high-flying Angel partner to rescue their friend.

Yes, it’s a hodgepodge of talent creating some uneven moments, but the series had a heart and it was firmly rooted to the Marvel Universe, with Mantlo at his best bringing in various elements to entrench the team in the firmament. There are more than a few nice moments making this a good read.

Purchase

Marvel Masterworks: The Champions Vol. 1

Classic covers from the Grand Comics Database.

USER COMMENTS

We'd love to hear from you, feel free to add to the discussion!


Notice: Undefined variable: user_ID in /home/wfcomics/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/westfield2010/comments.php on line 73