Champions No. 1 review: The not-quite Legion of Super-Heroes
By Alex Widen
Kamala Khan Has Expanded the Champions’ Reach! Yet Will Some Team Members Slip through Their Fingers?
Champions No. 1
Writer: Jim Zub
Artist: Steven Cummings
Colorists: Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega
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Behold the second “number one” issue of Champions in just over two years. That’s just about average in this relaunch-happy era of Marvel Comics. In 2016, the relaunch of the old 1970s team title by Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos was once the leading feature in an editorial campaign. Yet by its end, it’d been taken over by a second creative team, and its sales dwindled to roughly 5.4% of its peak. This means it’s time for another sales shot in the arm, and now Zub gets to be in on the ground floor, rather than simply be Mark Waid’s backup act.
Image by Marvel Comics
When speaking about this upcoming incarnation, Zub compared his new Champions pitch to DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes. The dilemma is that franchise’s popularity peaked in the 1970s and has remained on the fringes ever since (despite an animated series). Regardless, it spotlights the progressive theories of super-heroism by Kamala Khan. Now officially taking command as Champions’ leader, she has drastically expanded the roster to tackle 3 missions around the globe.
Image by Marvel Comics
Is It Wise to Be Inspired by a D-List Franchise from a Competitor?
As a result, the current Champions roster has gone from eight to fourteen — fifteen if readers include Viv Vision’s robot dog Sparky. Featuring a mix of former squad members like Patriot, Red Locust, and Falcon with other young heroes like Power Man (Victor Alvarez) and Bombshell, with one new team member in Pinpoint, the Champions are now engaged in Mexico, Japan, and Dubai. The team remains focused on natural disasters or systemic crime like human trafficking, while keeping battles with super-villains or giant monsters to a sporadic minimum.
Image by Marvel Comics
Unlike Mark Waid, it appears like Zub either read a book or spent 2 minutes on Wikipedia, and realized that no red locusts exist in Mexico, so it seemed silly for Fernanda Rodriguez to name herself after one. Now dubbed “the Locust,” she and Snowguard lead their squad against a cartel of sex slavers in Mexico. On the surface, things go well. Locust, Bombshell, and Snowguard pummel the goons, while Pinpoint acts as a portal for the victims, despite his poor Spanish.
Image by Marvel Comics
Meanwhile in Japan, Wasp and Ironheart lead Power Man and Patriot in providing disaster aid to victims of a natural disaster. Victor, who has been trained by Iron Fist and who’s been on at least two Avengers teams, is distracted by chatting up Riri. Thankfully, she manages to stay focused while Nadia Pym utilizes her intelligence — and her father’s infamous particles — to rescue a literal handful of people. The Champions prove that heroes can do more than punch people!
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Jim Zub Takes down a Timelessly Disturbing Story Trope!
Ms. Marvel, alongside Viv, Amadeus Cho (Brawn) and Spider-Man (Miles Morales) remain back in their airborne headquarters to coordinate these efforts. Yet when Hulk’s old enemy Zzzax trashes a nuclear power plant in Dubai, the founders of the Champions head off to stop him. Sam Washington — formerly Nova — remains on the squad as the rookie pilot of their base. This third mission becomes the ultimate test of the bigger, bolder, and more cluttered Champions team!
Image by Marvel Comics
Yet the circumstances of this mission are deliberately unclear. Once the Champions founders hit the ground, Zzax had created a disaster. By the next page, however, Ms. Marvel is declaring victory, and the day is saved. And while Kamala is eager to give her attempt at an inspiring speech to her new teammates and spearhead a party, it seems like both Cho and Miles are even more irritated than usual. Miles, in particular, locks himself into his room! Just what the heck happened?
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Yet it isn’t just the founding Champions who are having a crisis. Riri finds that her awkward scenes with Viv Vision are continuing. The young teenage robot is not only trying to learn to be human, but is trying to “come out” as lesbian. Yet Riri has her own stresses and isn’t eager to be Viv’s latest tutor. Zub takes on the trope mentioned in the prior volume’s finale. Simply rushing over to someone and kissing them without consent is awkward at best, and creepy at worst.
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The Devil Is in the Details…Of Miles’ Room!
While Ms. Marvel may have finally become a rallying figure to her peers, she’s frustrated by the actions of her best friends. Neither Cho, Sam, or Miles were there to back her up during her first attempt at a Captain America style speech. Sam’s absence was for a more predictable reason. Despite his budding pilot skills, he still feels very much like a hanger-on among a team of demigods, especially at having to experience losing his super-powers twice in a row.
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Amadeus Cho may have finally prevailed over his struggle to control the Hulk powers he’d absorbed from Bruce Banner, but the rage is back now. Not even Sam is safe from his irritation. However, Kamala may be the one who feels the worst wrath from Miles. The pair were once making doe eyes at each other in his solo series. Now, Miles doesn’t even want to be in the same room with her! Kamala learns quickly of the burden of being the leader, and having allies in pain.
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Yet that pain may not be something internal. Miles quickly finds himself confronted by the figure who may be the worst villain in the Spider-Man universe. The figure who shattered a twenty-year marriage and somehow altered reality around everyone that couple knew. A villain who has tried to corrupt the souls of random humans and even superheroes like Silver Surfer or Ghost Rider for decades. Yet his scariest role was as the avatar to an editor-in-chief’s misguided and ambiguously sexist promotional strategy. That’s right — Mephisto is back, and he wants to corrupt Miles’ soul!
Image by Marvel Comics
Does the Bigger Cast Make a Better Book?
Jim Zub crafts a debut issue which feels like the first half of a half-hour pilot. The team is already expanded and he’s taking its ideals to its logical conclusions. Ms. Marvel and the rest don’t want to stay local, or concentrate only on personal rogues. They want to make a difference and fight crimes that the Avengers or X-Men miss. However, by expanding the cast, Zub now has to struggle to progress key characters while they are wading through a sea of cameos and hangers on.
Image by Marvel Comics
The stars remain the founding cast — the seven or eight original members from the previous volume. Nadia has arguably been the one utilized the least since Zub took over; on the other hand, she frequently gets her own series. The rest of the team members seem to exist to keep spare Marvel heroes busy as well as test Zub’s knowledge of the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The formerly Red Locust is as fun as ever, although it is kind of a shame that Power Man has never evolved past background cameos in spare teenage teams like this, or the Young Avengers.
Image by Marvel Comics
The plot with Mephisto is a tad confusing, but the following issues may make this clearer. It appears evident that the Zzax mission went horribly wrong off-panel, at least initially. And while Kamala and Viv act otherwise, both Cho and Miles seem traumatized. Perhaps during that crisis, the demonic lord appeared and offered them a deal — success for their souls. And whatever Faustian bargain they made will have a terrible price that Mephisto will surely try to claim.
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Can This Title’s Execution Match Its Ambition?
Pinpoint from New Delhi is a new addition, but he may struggle to get much focus in a cast this large. Snowguard at least benefited from an adventure wrapped around her origin, and last month’s annual. And even if Pinpoint gets some focus, he’ll have to do it at the expense of over a dozen other characters. Part of the dilemma of the Legion of Super-Heroes was that the cast was so large, and clogged with so much dead weight or in-jokes, that its stars got lost in the shuffle.
Image by Marvel Comics
Steven Cummings is a journeyman artist, whose work has been featured at IDW, DC Comics, and Tokyopop. He’s done mostly covers or short runs on ongoing series, yet may be best known for Wayward at Image Comics, which he draws and co-created. His talents are spotlighted here, with an extensive cast of characters and costumes to work with. He prevails for the most part, especially with some of the sequences between Riri and Viv.
Image by Marvel Comics
Next. Snowguard Saves Her Hometown in Annual No. 1!. dark
In the final editorial page, Jim Zub talks a big game about reaching for the stars and being ambitious. Yet his run on Champions has sometimes struggled to be more than an above average superhero comic with its cast doing typical superhero things like going to space or alternate dimensions. Nor has he figured out how to follow along on its premise while providing a decent antagonist. That’s a problem bigger than the cast size, and hopefully future issues sort out how to get that balance. Miles Morales is a movie star, and his appearances can’t be wasted on any less.