Contest of Champions. The phrase has great significance to the Marvel Universe. The term denotes a battle between great heroes. And in 1982, Marvel would provide such an event with their miniseries
Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions.
While not the very first miniseries in comics (DC's
World of Krypton in 1979 by Paul Kupperberg and Howard Chaykin would take that honor),
Contest of Champions was Marvel's first miniseries. It would also be regarded as the first "event comic": A comic that would be used to tell a massive story that would affect the fictional universe and its characters in a major way. It's why
Contest of Champions is regarded as one of the first "event comics". The comics also came with profiles of all the featured heroes, which led to the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
So, how did this Contest go down? Who were the contestants? What was the prize? Let's find out as I look at
Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #1!
The cover is pretty good. It's a John Romita Jr. piece, depicting the many heroes of Earth looking at something up in the sky. It gives the impression that something big is coming. Something powerful. Some threat that is so great that we need
all these heroes to work together to stop it. We don't see exactly what they're looking at, which allows us to use our imaginations. It's fun coming up with idea to what they're looking at.
"Gathering of Heroes"
Writers: Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo (story, Mantlo scripted)
Penciler: John Romita Jr., Bob Layton (credited for "additional art)
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorists: Andy Yanchus, Patricia DeFalco
Editors: Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
The story begins with two figures making an agreement. The heroes of Earth, called the greatest collection of super-champions in this star-sector, shall be the pawns in their game. The contest? A game of life and death. Our scene then shifts to Avengers Mansion, where we join Earth's Mightiest Heroes (
Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Vision, Captain America, and the Wasp) in a workout.
Beast is thrilled to be back in Avengers Mansion again. At this point, he was in the Defenders, and he's come by for a visit. I love Beast's characterization in the Avengers. Compared to the X-Men where he was angsty about his being a mutant, Avengers Beast was a fun-loving jokester (and quite popular with the ladies). You'd think his Avenger days would have made him more popular among the general public and helped the X-Men with their crusade of human-mutant peace. Just shows how cruddy the X-Men were at it. You suck at PR, X-Men.
Wasp teases that Beast has been a bit rusty since leaving the Avengers' ranks. Hank McCoy laughs it off and says he could take on all the Avengers at once. If he does, they have to party with Hank. Wonder Man tries to catch him, but he's able to dodge him. The Avengers all charge Hank, but they vanish.
The scene shifts to the island of
Novaya Zemlya. One of the Fantastic Four's sparring partners, the
Red Ghost, is preparing an attack on the then-Soviet Union. However, he gets some visitors who aren't fans of his plan.
They are Russia's premier super-team: The
Soviet Super-Soldiers! Twin heroes
Vanguard and
Darkstar!
Crimson Dynamo V (Dmitri Bukharin)! And arguably the most awesome member of the group: future Avenger
Ursa Major! He is a man who can turn into a bear. And he likes vodka. The four heroes attack the Red Ghost, but they also vanish.
We jump back to the United States. There, we catch up with Marvel's First Family: The Fantastic Four. They're at a dinner held by the
Adventurers Club in their honor. Reed gets up to give his speech, but like the Avengers and the Soviet Super-Soldiers before them, they vanish. It's shown that heroes are vanishing all over the United States. Luke Cage and Iron Fist in Harlem.
Spider-Man in Manhattan.
Dazzler,
Hellcat, and
Valkyrie in SoHo. Daredevil and (future Disney+ star)
Moon Knight in Staten Island.
Ka-Zar and
Shanna in the Savage Land. Doctor Strange and
Devil-Slayer in Greenwich Village. The
Jessica Drew Spider-Woman in San Francisco.
Machine Man at the Hudson River.
Quasar and
Jack of Hearts at Project Pegasus in upstate New York. Hulk and
Doc Samson in the southwestern US.
However, it's also shown that heroes, both famous and obscure, are being taken from all over the world. Future MCU movie stars the
Eternals in the Andes Mountains.
Sunfire in Japan.
Captain Britain and the (future MCU star)
Black Knight in the UK. The
Peregrine in France. Talisman in Australia.
Defensor in Argentina.
Shamrock in Northern Ireland.
Sabra in Israel. The
Collective Man in China. The
Arabian Knight in Saudi Arabia.
Blitzkrieg in Germany. In fact, many of these international heroes (Peregrine, Talisman, Defensor, Shamrock, Collective Man, and Blitzkrieg) made their first appearance here. Arabian Knight and Sabra were pre-established heroes, the Knight first appearing in
Incredible Hulk #257 (March 1982), and Sabra in
Incredible Hulk #256 (February 1981), both creations of Bill Mantlo (writer) and respectively Al Milgrom and Sal Buscema.
All the heroes find themselves in a strange room.
I imagine it must be
so cramped in there right now. We get to see some character interactions between the various heroes. Beast and
Sasquatch have a funny moment. Shamrock and Captain Britain are shown being rather suspicious of each other, considering the history between their homelands. Iceman and Darkstar have a moment, and he compliments her new look. They served in the Champions together. Vision and Machine Man discuss feeling like outcasts even among mutants, monsters, and gods.
Ursa Major tries to convince Colossus to return to the Soviet Union and use his powers to serve the state. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman meet up. Black Knight and Arabian Knight compare their magic swords. Xavier and Moondragon are only able to determine with their mental powers that they're not only in an arena, but it's somewhere out in space.
Welcome to Madison Space Garden. And the owner of the building reveals himself.
Meet the Grandmaster! If you've watched
Thor: Ragnarok, you may be familiar with this guy, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum. He is accompanied by a hooded figure, and they want to play a game.
The two have the earth in stasis, and the planet will not be released until the heroes play the game. So, what is this great game? Well, there are four pieces of this item called the Golden Globe of Life. Each of the four pieces have been hidden throughout the Earth. The Grandmaster and his opponent will each form a team of twelve heroes to seek out the pieces. Whoever gets the most pieces wins. For the Grandmaster, a win for him will mean the restoration to life of his brother: The Collector.
The Collector is not an unknown being to the Avengers. He was slain during the events of
The Korvac Saga. At the end of that saga, Michael Korvac's actions were all undone...except for the Collector's death. Okay, so what if the Grandmaster's nameless opponent wins? Well, basically...he'll die. Yeah, he loses, he dies. The two then choose their teams.
The Grandmaster's team is: Captain America, Talisman, Wolverine, Captain Britain, Darkstar, Defensor, Sasquatch, She-Hulk, Peregrine, Daredevil, Blitzkrieg, and the Thing.
The Opponent's team is: Iron Man, Vanguard, Shamrock, Iron Fist, Storm, Arabian Knight, Angel, Sabra, Invisible Woman, Angel, Sunfire, Black Panther, and Collective Man.
The teams are chosen, the quarters of the Globe of Life are hidden, and the game has begun. Meanwhile, the remaining heroes of Earth are just left...in the arena hanging out. Hope there's a barcade in that arena, because they will be
boooored...
This was a interesting, but rather flawed comic. The big flaw in my mind was the whole gathering thing. If the Grandmaster could pluck any heroes he wanted from Earth, why not just get the ones that they already chose for the Contest? Why grab all of them? I get that the idea was to show just how expansive Marvel's superhero community was at that time (and it's amazing how many active heroes there were at the time), but it does feel a bit pointless.
If the Grandmaster and his opponent had chosen their champions beforehand, we could have gotten some more focus on the brand new international heroes created for this series. Learn a bit more about their origins, personalities, and the like.
Speaking of these new heroes, I do like them. I will admit, they are rather...stereotypical. The Argentinian Defensor looking like a sci-fi conquistador, the Irish Shamrock having powers based on luck, Arabian Knight...oh GOD, Arabian Knight. He had a
magic carpet. I am not joking.
But I do like that the Marvel Universe is continuing to show there are superheroes based outside of the United States. It makes perfect sense, in my opinion. Why would all the superheroes be based in one country? It had already been established beforehand that Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and Canada had superhuman beings, so it would stand to reason that many other countries would have costumed heroes and villains of their own.
I also liked that we got to see little moments of interaction between the heroes, like Beast and Sasquatch. Black Knight and Arabian Knight comparing swords, Captain Britain and Shamrock's hostility towards each other due to their nations' history, Ursa Major talking to Colossus, that kind of thing. It helped show there are people in those costumes.
I also really liked the art in this comic. I admit, I honestly thought that John Byrne had drawn it in places, as the art does look a bit Byrne-esque. Also, it's really neat seeing how his art looked once before his style evolved into the more...angular, for lack of a better term, look it has today. It's somewhat reminiscent of his father, mixing a bit with the Buscemas. It's great art, and it does the job.
The events of this miniseries would be expanded on in
West Coast Avengers Annual #2 (1987) and
Avengers Annual #16 (1987). They revealed that the Grandmaster used the Contest as a way to steal the powers of the Marvel Universe's embodiment of Death, who was his opponent in the Contest. This would end up with Death banishing the Grandmaster and the rest of the Elders of the Universe from her realm, which made them immortal.
In 1999, Marvel published the miniseries
Contest of Champions II. Despite the title, it wasn't really a sequel to this miniseries. Written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Oscar Jiminez and Michael Ryan, it was about having Marvel's heroes battle each other as a ruse by an alien race known as the Brood to use their bodies as a way to invade the Earth. There would be a short-lived comic series in 2015 called
Marvel Contest of Champions that adapted the
mobile fighting game of the same name that was set in the main Marvel Universe.
If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2012 trade paperback
Avengers: The Contest. It collects the Contest of Champions miniseries, as well as the 1987 West Coast Avengers and Avengers Annuals that expanded on it. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! See you next time, when we join the Boy of Steel as he hits the sunny beaches of Hawaii...
