THE CHAMPIONS: MARVEL’S EXTRA 1970s TEAM

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at Marvel’s short-lived 1970s team the Champions.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #1 (October 1975)

Title: The World Still Needs … Champions

Villains: Pluto, Hipollyta and Ares

Synopsis: With so many superheroes in its universe compared to 1961, Marvel Comics debuted this new group. The members:

a) HERCULES, the actual figure from Greco-Roman mythology. Formerly a member of the Avengers.

b) GHOST RIDER, Marvel’s horror figure. The only Champion who had not belonged to a previous team. Also, the only team member with his own solo series at the time.

c) BLACK WIDOW, the former Soviet spy turned superheroine and another former Avenger.

d) ANGEL, a founding member of the X-Men, now in California because Professor X. had formed a new X-Men team.

e) ICEMAN, another founding member of the X-Men, likewise out west after leaving that mutant team to make way for Charles Xavier’s new lineup. 

GUEST STAR: Venus, the actual Greco-Roman goddess of love and beauty. Marvel had introduced her as a superheroine way back in 1948.

As for the storyline, Marvel’s comic book versions of Ares, Pluto and Hipollyta plus various monsters from the Netherworld raided Los Angeles. All the superheroes who happened to be on hand gathered together to fight the evil forces.

In the cliffhanger ending, Pluto revealed that Hercules and Venus were the real targets of his latest evil scheme.   

NOTE: In this issue, Angel’s secret identity, Warren Worthington III, publicly revealed himself as the costumed hero Angel in hopes of calming public fear of mutants. This was a turning point for the character.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #2 (December 1975)

Title: Whom the Gods Would Join

Villains: Pluto, Hipollyta and Ares

Synopsis: As the battle continues between the three villains and six heroes, the details of Pluto’s plan emerge. The infernal deity has formed an alliance of other Gods of the Dead in other pantheons in order to throw their combined weight around.

Pluto is forcing Zeus to make Hercules marry Hipollyta, and Venus remarry Ares (the pair ended their marriage a while back in Sub-Mariner #57 – January 1973). 

He’s pretending to do it because Ares and Hipollyta have been his allies in the past, but he secretly plans to use the marriages to help him overthrow Zeus as the ruler of the Greco-Roman gods.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #3 (February 1976)

Title: Assault on Olympus

Villains: Hipollyta, Ares and Pluto

Synopsis: The Champions’ efforts to thwart Pluto and company’s plot leads all the way to Mount Olympus, where Pluto’s ultimate goal gets exposed.

Naturally, our heroes win out in the end and the attempt to put the Gods of the Dead in charge of all the world’s pantheons is defeated.

Hercules and the Black Widow, who had been fellow Avengers for a brief time in the 1960s, start a romance as the Champions decide to stay together as a team.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #4 (March 1976)

Title: Murder at Malibu

Villains: Dr. Edward Lansing and his mutated creatures

Synopsis: Angel faces a legal battle with greedy relatives who want to take his inheritance by claiming his parents wouldn’t have left him their fortune if they had known he was a mutant. Iceman ponders quitting the team but can’t bring himself to tell Angel yet.

The Champions face human guinea pigs who were mutated by the vile scientist Dr. Edward Lansing. The villain was forming an army of the super-powered creatures to do his bidding. Lansing and his army are defeated.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #5 (April 1976)

Title: Murder is a Man Called Rampage

Villain: Rampage

Synopsis: “Champions, Incorporated” is officially launched as a non-governmental, storefront team of superheroes.

Meanwhile, Stuart Clarke, the latest Marvel tycoon to design super-powered armor like Tony Stark has, snaps when he learns his company is going under because they can’t compete with Stark Industries.

Clarke dons his high-tech armor, calls himself Rampage and starts robbing banks around Los Angeles, with the Champions trying to stop him.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #6 (June 1976)

Title: Mad Dogs and Businessmen

Synopsis: Rampage manages to escape the Champions by using Angel as a hostage until he can get away. To streamline their approach when in action, the Champions name Black Widow their leader.

She goes on to lead the team to victory in their rematch with Rampage, who, facing defeat and prison time, tries to destroy himself.

Iceman saves his life and the lives of the other Champions from Rampage’s exploding armor. Clarke was injured so seriously that he is hospitalized.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #7 (August 1976)

Title: The Man Who Created the Black Widow

Villains: The Rampagers (Darkstar, the Griffin, the Outcast and Titanium Man)

Synopsis: The Black Widow’s long-ago mentor in spycraft, Alexi Bruskin, shows up in Los Angeles wanting to defect to the United States. He also warns the Black Widow about a villainous team being organized by the recovering Stuart Clarke.

Darkstar, a female mutant making her FIRST appearance, and the former Secret Empire villain called the Griffin bust Clarke out of the hospital despite Champions members trying to stop them.

Yuri Petrovich, the son of the Black Widow’s long-time chauffer Ivan, has been living as an Outcast since his father defected and he too is part of Clarke’s team. Titanium Man joins in the attack, too.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #8 (October 1976)

Title: Messenger of Death

Villains: The Rampagers

Synopsis: Stuart Clarke dons another suit of his Rampage armor and leads his team against the Champions. It eventually turns out that Yuri Petrovich, the Outcast, has really been the one pulling Clarke’s strings all this time, not the other way around.

Yuri has donned the armor of Iron Man’s old foe the Crimson Dynamo and takes over the Rampagers, killing Rampage in the process.

As the new Crimson Dynamo, Yuri leads the team against the Champions.   

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #9 (December 1976)

Title: The Battle of Los Angeles

Villains: The Rampagers

Synopsis: In scattered battles throughout the city of Los Angeles, the Rampagers manage to take all of the Champions captive.

For the cliffhanger ending of this issue, Yuri aka Crimson Dynamo III takes off his helmet and reveals to his hated father Ivan that he is still alive, after all.

The estranged father and son have an emotion-charged, very hostile reunion over the rough life Yuri faced because of Ivan’s defection.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #10 (January 1977)

Title: One Man’s Son is Another Man’s Poison

Villains: The Rampagers

Synopsis: The Rampagers leave Hercules, Ghost Rider, Iceman and Angel in a death trap within the San Andreas Fault. With California facing a massive earthquake that can’t be traced to the Soviet Union, the Rampagers load the captive Black Widow, Ivan Petrovich and Alexi Bruskin in a jet.

Yuri (Crimson Dynamo III) and his teammates are taking the trio back to the Soviet Union for punishment. The Champions all manage to turn the tables and defeat the Rampagers, but Alexi is killed and Yuri escapes. Darkstar defects to the U.S. and joins the Champions.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #11 (February 1977)

Title: The Shadow from the Stars

Villains: Warlord Kaa and the Shadow People

Synopsis: Black Goliath, in his secret identity of scientist Bill Foster, designs an aircraft for the Champions to use for short journeys. It malfunctions due to inferior material provided by racketeers. Bill reveals to the Champions that he is really Black Goliath and helps them deal with the malfunctioning vessel.

Soon the Champions are called to investigate an Arizona UFO incident. The Hulk’s old foe Warlord Kaa is leading his race of Shadow People in an invasion of Earth. Our heroes thwart the alien invasion. Iceman develops a romance with fellow mutant and teammate Darkstar, making him decide not to quit the Champions for now.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #12 (March 1977)

Title: The Stranger Strikes

Villains: The Stranger and Stilt-Man

Synopsis: After the Champions help Black Goliath in a battle with Stilt-Man the team gets caught up in the mystery of a high-tech box that the villain stole from Stark Industries West in L.A.

The cosmic villain called the Stranger, a former foe of the X-Men, Thor and others, arrives to take the box but the Champions fight him for it. It turns out the box contains the remnants of the Stranger’s old Null-Bomb that the Silver Surfer stopped him from using to destroy the Earth years ago.

*** The Champions series only lasted until issue #17 due to erratic sales. When the team broke up, Darkstar dumped Iceman and defected BACK to the Soviet Union, where she joined the Soviet Super Soldiers and later fought Iron Man and Jack of Hearts.

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