Okay, so I've read Secret Wars. But I was born in the mid-1980s, so I just read it this year. Anyway, if you look into any Marvel sorts of things, they'll always claim Secret Wars as the "first" crossover... yet I (and most others) are fully aware of the existence of Contest of Champions. However, wherever I go, I never seem to find a synopsis of it, or a review... so what is it? What happened? And was it any good? If you're ever in the mood to do a review/recap, I'd love to see one on this.
I remember getting these out of the back issue bin; probably 3 or 4 years after they came out. I must have reread it 10 times trying to figure out why it wasn't a tie (the Grandmaster's team won in the story - you think they would have made it an odd number of contests so it would be clearer). You think the editors would have caught that.
This is still one of my all time favourite mini-series ever (despite the blatant mistake about which team Shamrock was on). The list of every superhero that was in the back of the third issue blew my 9-year-old mind when I first read it. It was the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe before there was an Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe.
The sequel in the Avengers Annual #16 and West Coast Avengers Annual #2 cross-over was every bit as good as this series. If you haven’t read it I strongly encourage you to go to your local comic shop and dig through the back issues to fid them. The plethora of guest artists (in the Avengers annual) makes it well worth the effort.
Okay, so I've read Secret Wars. But I was born in the mid-1980s, so I just read it this year. Anyway, if you look into any Marvel sorts of things, they'll always claim Secret Wars as the "first" crossover... yet I (and most others) are fully aware of the existence of Contest of Champions. However, wherever I go, I never seem to find a synopsis of it, or a review... so what is it? What happened? And was it any good? If you're ever in the mood to do a review/recap, I'd love to see one on this.
ReplyDeleteI remember getting these out of the back issue bin; probably 3 or 4 years after they came out. I must have reread it 10 times trying to figure out why it wasn't a tie (the Grandmaster's team won in the story - you think they would have made it an odd number of contests so it would be clearer). You think the editors would have caught that.
ReplyDeleteHey David, thanks for sharing. Check out my blog post on just that: http://marvel1980s.blogspot.ca/2009/05/let-game-begin.html
ReplyDeleteHey dough, thanks for the comment. Good point about the contest!
ReplyDeleteThis is still one of my all time favourite mini-series ever (despite the blatant mistake about which team Shamrock was on). The list of every superhero that was in the back of the third issue blew my 9-year-old mind when I first read it. It was the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe before there was an Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe.
ReplyDeleteThe sequel in the Avengers Annual #16 and West Coast Avengers Annual #2 cross-over was every bit as good as this series. If you haven’t read it I strongly encourage you to go to your local comic shop and dig through the back issues to fid them. The plethora of guest artists (in the Avengers annual) makes it well worth the effort.