Customer Reviews

The Champions Classic, Vol. 1

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They say you can't judge a book by its cover... sometimes that can even be true about the book's first page. If I were to have judged the CHAMPIONS CLASSIC VOLUME 1 trade paperback solely by the first page of the first issue, I'd have put it back on the shelf. Thankfully, my curiosity got the better of me, resulting in my enjoying yet another gem in this age of quirky Marvel reprints.

This trade paperback collects issues #1- 11 of the ill-fated 1975 series that is often referred to in jest, if at all. Just look at that crazy team roster: Hercules, the Angel, Iceman, Black Widow, and Ghost Rider... what could possibly bring these characters together? Well, the answer is more interesting than you may think - in fact, their origin, which takes up the first 3 issues of this series, is pretty good storytelling. In short, all of our heroes are present at UCLA campus for various reasons, at the same time that harpies, Amazons, and Cerberus raid the campus searching for the golden age Marvel heroine Venus. Following this, Pluto, Ares, and Hippolyta arrive with an offer that Hercules and Venus can't refuse... but refuse they do, with help from the other heroes. After another adventure featuring mental hospital patients used as unwilling test subjects to recreate the super-soldier serum, the Angel (aka Warren Worthington III) realizes that, instead of attending UCLA, he'd rather form a team that will "champion" the ordinary man. As for Hercules, Black Widow, and Ghost Rider's reasons for joining - that's not so clear, but thank goodness they did or this'd be one boring team. Now bankrolled by Worthington's inheritance, the Champions encounter Hawkeye, the Two-Gun Kid, and Black Goliath, while finding time to battle Rampage, the Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, the Griffin, Darkstar, and even Stilt-Man. Maybe this isn't the most stellar list of villains, but it's certainly a nice break from more established characters that are seen everywhere else.

The stories are by a handful of writers, including Tony Isabella, Bill Mantlo, and Chris Claremont, who work effectively enough to keep the book on track. Early pencils were handled off and on by Don Heck, who was never the most stellar of Marvel's artists. Sure, he was dependable, but dependable and good are two different things; in fact, my earlier reference to the "first page" concerns Heck's work - sketchy, flat, and mundane, and normally not something that would encourage me to go any further into the book. If it's the first page of the first issue, do something with it! The arrival of George Tuska raises the artistic bar considerably - his mid-transformation Ghost Rider is especially creepy, and he perfectly depicts the rage of Hercules. Bob Hall pencils a couple of stories, and John Byrne shows up for his run with issue #11, which is unfortunately the end of the book; however, you shouldn't despair, because there's a CHAMPIONS CLASSIC VOLUME 2 on the way which will collect the remaining issues and showcase more of Byrne's work. Marvel's reprinting of this doomed series surprised me initially, but by the time I finished the book, I saw the appeal. So let's all raise a glass to the Champions... we hardly knew ya!

When I think of the Champions, the words that come to mind are "okay", "ehh", and "generic." If you ever had a group of heroes whose stories had so little impact, this would be them. They are the prime example of the generic super-team, and a cookie-cutter mentality. The characters really don't blend together well, or even seem plausible, and considering the history of their creation it's not surprising why.

When the Champions was first proposed in 1975, creator Tony Isabella wanted it to be a sort of buddy superhero comic between Iceman and The Angel. But Editor Len Wein disagreed and stated that every group comic needed at least 5 members. One of which who was strong, one had to be a woman, and at least one who had his own comic. Hence the additions, Hercules was the strong guy, Black Widow (recently having left Daredevil) was the female, and Ghost Rider was one of the few unattached superheroes with their own comic.

The series does hold some nostalgic appeal however, for those who grew up in the 70's era comics. Being generic, pretty much every comic cliché' of that time was in it. It certainly took me back to the old comics and brought back feelings of the old times, and joy I remember from reading them.

However for those younger readers, who didn't grow up reading the 70's era comics, you might want to give it a miss. It was written at the level of its key demographic, namely 12 year old boys, and the dialogue and situations do not go above that. If you really want to look at old school comics, they don't get more generic than this.

In short, it's a fun old comic, but contains nothing ground-breaking or of interest, beyond people beating each other up and yelling out ridiculous amounts of dialogue while in mid air.

The Champions Classic, vol. 1 collects issues #1-11 of The Champions, originally published between 1975-77. Like the other Classics editions published by Marvel, the production quality is fairly good: low-gloss paper, bright colors, a solid binding. There is no bonus content save for a reproduction of unused cover art for issue #7.

The collection features four self-contained stories, two of which are short, one-issue narratives. These shorter stories (one written by Chris Claremont, the other by Bill Mantlo) are simple, no frills heroes-battle-villains pieces--and, for what they are, they're pretty good. The longer stories, however, written by Tony Isabella and Bill Mantlo, are more convoluted, involving nonsensical premises and silly plot twists. As for the art, George Tuska, Bob Hall, and a young John Byrne (with Bob Layton on inks) contribute solid pencils. Don Heck's work, on the other hand, would be considered bad by most standards.

Readers who grew up on Marvel comics in the 1970s will likely find some nostalgic pleasure in this collection. Younger readers will almost certainly be bored. Most of the other Classics editions would be better buys.

I've been enjoying some of Marvels "Classics" series lately. Cheaper than buying a "Masterworks" volume and a step up from the bare bones, black and white reprints seen in Marvels "Essentials" series. The "Classics" are a great way to get nicely reproduced color reprints of obscure bronze age Marvel titles at a fairly cheap price.

The Champions Classics Vol 1 reprints Champions issues 1 thru 11. The Champions were a rather oddball assemblage of heroes based in California. The stories weren't exactly the cream of the crop, but they were kind of fun and reading them now, 30 years later, they do have a quaint, albeit dated nostalgia about them.

The Champions roster consists of Hercules, Ghost Rider, Black Widow and from the X-Men...Iceman and Angel. The team is assembled through coincidence and necessity, when the god Pluto turns up at UCLA with harpies, hellhounds, amazons and other various monsters to force Hercules into marrying Hippolyta and to force guest star Venus to marry Ares. But there are other heroes at the campus. An unemployed Black Widow is applying for a job teaching Russian to the college kids and Bobby Drake and Warren Worthington aka Iceman and Angel are also on hand. Both depressed at their inability to fit in with the world. Also nearby is Johnny Blaze aka Ghost Rider, recently freed from his ties to Satan and also feeling displaced and directionless. All of them band together to help Hercules fight off Pluto and his plans for a double shot-gun wedding.

Over the course of the volumes 11 issues, The Champions stay united to deal with mysteries in Black Widow's past, the Angel revealing his identity to the public and having his family fortune put at risk as a result as well as dealing with various villains including Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, The Griffin as well as two new characters; the down on his luck businessman turned super powerful villain called Rampage and Russian villainess turned Champions teammate Darkstar.

The best of this collection are the stories that feature the art of George Tuska, all of which look very good. The not so good are those issues done by Bob Hall and Don Heck which are pretty rough. Also on hand to do some of his earliest work for Marvel is John Byrne doing pencils on issue 11.

The Champions certainly wasn't the best comic to come out of the Bronze Age, but nor were they the worst stories ever written. The appeal to me then and now was the odd mixture of heroes that had a unique chemistry. It was a collection of characters that one would never have thought to put together into a team. The Champions seemed a dumping ground for unused heroes, but that gave the series a sort of "underdog" status. I recommend it to Bronze Age Marvel completists and George Tuska fans.

Who are the Champions? If you were reading Marvel comics in the 70's, you know the answer to this question, but for the uninformed, here's a history lesson. The Champions were a mish-mash super hero team that consisted of Hercules, Ghost Rider, Black Widow, Iceman, and Angel; and for a change of pace in the Marvel universe, were based on the West coast as opposed to the usual Marvel setting of New York. Though the title ultimately failed, The Champions solidified a place in the Marvel universe just by the fact of bringing these oddly matched characters together, and thankfully, the stories themselves actually weren't half bad either. In the first 11 issues of the series collected here, The Champions take on Stilt-Man, Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, and Rampage; and there's even appearances from Hawkeye and Black Goliath. There's a nice set of talent behind the scenes as well, including Tony Isabella, Don Heck, Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, and the great John Byrne to boot. All in all, this first volume of The Champions is worth picking up for nostalgia's sake alone, and even though all the characters featured here were utilized better before and after The Champions came to an end, the series has nevertheless solidified a small part of Marvel history.

Being a comic book fan of the 70's, I had fond memories of the short lived run of The Champions (all 17 issues of them). Naturally I was happy and a bit surprised when I saw Marvel was giving them the royal treatment with two TPB releases.

Then for the first time in 20 years, I read them...haha...oh what a grand time. There has probably never been a mish-mashed team in comic book history like the 5 core members of The Champions. We have X-men cast-offs Angel (far too grouchy and always riding Ghost Rider up and down the wall) and Ice-Man teaming up with solo artists Black Widow and Ghost Rider. Mix them all up and add in the Lion of Olympus Hercules (with the best bad dialogue in comic history) and we have some form of supergroup that ends up fighting pure D-list villains.

With that kind of review you'd probably think I didn't like my visit with The Champions. But, you'd be wrong. The reading is fun, kept me smiling, and harkens back to a simple time when comics didn't need to be dark and grim but could simply be about people in bright spandex costumes fighting each other while spouting off odd comments.

If you're a superhero fan I say read and enjoy! CHAMPIONS CHARGE!

And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes were united against a common threat! But that's not this team. Back in the mid-'70s, when comic books were only 25 cents, THE CHAMPIONS was writer Tony Isabella's light bulb over the head, except that this was a very fleeting, very short-lived brainchild. It says something about the dubious street cred of the Champions that probably even the Defenders think they're a low rent bunch of guys. The Great Lakes Avengers, who look up to most everyone, do NOT use the Champions as role models. Even D-Man thinks the Champions smell.

But there's one thing you can't take away from them. Before the Runaways, even before the West Coast Avengers, the Champions were the first Los Angeles-based superhero team. You look at the composition of the team, and there's this whimsical arbitrariness to it, and you wonder what freaky event could've assembled this band of outcasts and misfits that, on the surface, share nothing much in common. It starts one sunny autumn morning, on the UCLA campus. Warren Worthington and Bobby Drake (respectively, the Angel and the Iceman) are college students who don't feel they fit in. Elsewhere on campus, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, hopes to land a gig as a linguistics instructor. Hercules is also on site as a guest lecturer. And Johnny Blaze, the demonic Ghost Rider, happens to be just tooling around on his motor bike. Chances are these characters would've gone about their business without ever running into each other. But then Pluto, sinister god of the Underworld, makes his bid for control of Olympus. He deploys his mythological minions to seek out Hercules and the goddess Venus (who is in UCLA masquerading as a humanities professor). Pluto believes that with Hercules and Venus out of the way, his path to power is made much easier. So, cue the fighty fight and then the inevitable "Hey, why don't we form into Voltron?" You know what I mean.

The Defenders were also composed of unlikely teammates, but there was an appealing quirkiness to them that made them much more likable than the Champions. I got this trade - which, by the way, collects the first eleven issues - because I was curious about this team that everyone makes fun of. And I can see now why it only lasted for seventeen issues. There wasn't much chemistry, and then also factor in that each hero here is a bland B-lister (and when I say "B-lister" I'm probably insulting bonafide B-listers like Hawkeye and Moon Knight and Iron Fist). So, at the time, no, this isn't a star-driven project. Granted, several of these characters have progressed nicely since then. Angel is now much more lethal and dynamic in his guise of Death, and I look forward to Hercules's current adventures (even though he's presently "dead"). But the Iceman is as unsalvageable as ever.

There's the odd team dynamics and a certain hard luck element, and in the first couple of issues these guys weren't even formally a team as much as they were just hanging out with each other, uncomfortably. When they do decide to have a public inauguration as L.A.'s official superheroes, only two Champions show up and then they're right away attacked by super-villains. It figures.

What makes these stories interesting for me are the references to what else was going on in the Marvel universe at the time. Around this period, Beast was an Avenger, Black Widow had just broken up with Daredevil, Hawkeye had just partnered up with the Two-Gun Kid, and Marvel was trying to push Black Goliath as a major character. This was also an era when the Angel was sporting what has to be his ghastliest costume ever. There's no excuse for this, especially since Warren had just inherited a fortune.

Featuring appearances by Hawkeye, the Two-Gun Kid, and Darkstar, the beautiful Russian superhuman who ends up defecting in these issues. See the Champions bicker - and when not bickering - take on vile gods, Soviet super-villains, and the shadow soldiers of the Warlord Kaa!! There's also an Iron Man wanna-be called Rampage who actually gives the Champions a run for their money.

Whatever draw there is to THE CHAMPIONS comic book nowadays is predicated mostly on its being a nostalgia piece, and certainly you can't dismiss its place in Marvel history and continuity. But some experiments were never meant to last. Tony Isabella would fare much, much better years later over yonder in Comico, with his magnificent JUSTICE MACHINE series. Meanwhile, "magnificent" doesn't quite describe the Champions. Maybe, petulant. Maybe, ill-conceived.

Even the Craptacular B-Sides have more street cred.

...and a side of cheese!

Y'know if I was going to team Ghost Rider up with someone, it would be Angel and Iceman, two of the most inconsequential X-men and Hercules and Black Widow--both bad copies of better heroes.

For some reason, I laughed through my whole reading of this book.