1981 - Marvel 20th Anniversary by Frank Miller and Terry Austin Panel Power Comiccon III, Sydney, Australia

1982: The Dreadful Druid part I: The Doctor is in!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Telepaths and the Avengers, it's never been a good match. Forget Moondragon, the most notorious mindreader to ever burden Earth's mightiest has to be Doctor Druid. His delusions of grandeur would lead to the team's 1980s destruction. Let's review the decade of the Druid! 

"I am Dr. Druid!" 

Well, technically, your name is Dr. Droom. Y'see, the character first saw print in June of 1961, a few short months before Fantastic Four I#1 hit the shelves and the Marvel Universe was born. Debuting in Amazing Adventures I#1, Droom was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and portrayed as a magician type adventurer who had a few typical run ins with monsters before vanishing into obscurity. Never one to waste a decent idea, Lee would later recycle most of the concept when he dreamed up Doctor Strange.

In the 1970s, Droom was salvaged and retroactively inducted into the Marvel Universe with a new origin and name: he was Anthony Ludgate, a psychiatrist who discovered his druidic ancestry after encountering the Ancient One who unlocked his mystical potential. This granted a paunchy, balding middle aged man considerable psi-talent, while also turning him into an expert hypnotist and master of the occult. Oh, and Droom became Druid to avoid confusion with a certain Latverian monarch.

In 1998, Roger Stern wrote the short-lived Marvel Universe that featured a band of adventurers called the Monster Hunters to go on, well, adventures. Remembering Dr Druid's original origin, Stern included him in the mix, thereby retroactively cementing his backstory well over 35 years after the fact. Clearly taking a liking to both the Doc and this team, Stern included the Monster Hunters when he wrote the 2000 limited series Marvel: The Lost Generation. They ran into the First Line around 1958, when hunting for a monster that turned out to be an early Skrull invader.

"As you wish" 

Mind you, the Marvel Universe still relies on the sliding timescale. This concept, introduced in the 1980s, means that the events in Fantastic Four I#1 always occured roughly 15 years after whatever year it happens to be. Imagine that, it's 2017 and the rocket flight that gave the FF their powers happened after 9/11. 

That still doesn't change the fact Anthony Druid was, physically speaking, past his prime by 1958 or even 1999 standards. Yet, as we enter the 1980s, he would slowly but surely rise to be a major player. Perhaps advanced meditation techniques, mental discipline or clean living slowed his aging but he didn't exactly look like a fitness guru. Not even when the Avengers first encountered him in 1982's Avengers I#225. To say they got off on the wrong foot is a bit of an understatement.

"They'll suit our purposes well!" 

Here's Druid using his powers to enter Avengers Mansion undetected, clearly testing the team and its abilities to see if they fit his needs. The doctor is looking for heroes capable of saving the Black Knight, a former Avenger currently stuck fighting the crusades, and about to be killed by the Fomor, an ancient band of demonic, Celtic baddies. But instead of simply asking for help, he does this...

"I am Doctor Druid... And my powers stem from the earth magic of my ancient namesake" 

So, can we talk about the codename "Doctor Druid" for a second? It has a nice, alliterative quality to it in the grand ol' tradition of smilin' Stan. But a druid is also a healer, a doctor if you will. This means his actual superhero name is "Doctor Doctor".Which is on a level of redundancy with the La Brea tar pits which translates as "the the tar tar pits". 

" Even if that power were not augmented by another's...
My super-hypnotism would still stop you in your tracks!"

Yup... During his first official encounter with the Avengers, Druid ambushes and kidnaps them in their own headquarters with a casual arrogance to rival many a supervillain. The team is then strong armed into fighting the Fomor on his behalf. In the end, they're successful and the Black Knight returns to the present, seemingly none the worse for wear. But you'd think they'd be pretty ticked off at Druid for treating them as pawns. 

You'd be wrong.

"Until we meet again, my friends!" 

And meet again they did... Apart from a brief and entirely too inconsequential encounter during the Contest of Champions published later in 1982 the Avengers and Dr. Druid wouldn't cross paths until Roger Stern was well into his fourth year as writer on the book and about to launch his defining story arc: the Mansion Siege.

After months of careful preparation, Baron Helmut Zemo led his new Masters of Evil in a successful take-over of Avengers Mansion. Things were looking grim, with Hercules and Captain Marvel out of the picture, Captain America and the Black Knight captured and the mansion closed off by an impenetrable darkforce barrier, courtesy of the mentally addled Master known as Blackout.

Luckily, Dr. Druid happened to be in town promoting his new book...

"I've an old debt to repay".

By this time, Doctor Druid has made a name for himself writing books, dispensing advice and using his image as a professional celebrity guru to make a more than decent living. In essence, he's Dr. Phil with more incense. Now imagine Phil McGraw suddenly dressing in skintight hot red bodystockings and a cape, ready to use his knowledge of the mind to aid the troops. Sounds nuts, right?

Yet, that is exactly what is going on here. But, Dr. Druid actually has super powers...

"Listen to me! Do not resist... the barrier must fall! It must fall!" 

How else would he have gotten past the guards, mentally forcing the loopy Blackout to let him in? And yet, pay attention to his motivations here. Yes, he shows up to help out, but not to be a hero. He only wants to settle a self perceived score. And in doing so, he doesn't care about the military that has scrambled to secure the mansion. Unfortunately for dear ol'  Anthony, having a big brain doesn't mean he's immune to gunfire. As soon as Zemo spots him talking to Blackout on the roof, the Doc gets zapped. Druid's down, but not out...

"Though paralyzed by the needler, Dr. Anthony Druid reaches out with his powerful mind, desperately appealing to Blackout's psyche" 

Thanks to Dr. Druid, the Avengers manage to retake their mansion and defeat the Masters. In the aftermath, the team is in understandable disarray. With Avengers Mansion in ruins, Jarvis hospitalized and several members suffering physical and emotional wounds, it was an awful time to be with the team. You might say they needed a doctor and Druid happily stuck around, offering to accompany the Black Knight when he left the hospital for Hydro Base, the floating, artificial island the team had been using as launch pad for their Quinjets. 

"Quite sure, dear lady! There's not a thing to worry about!" 

Well, apart from the fact you actively helped an insecure, injured adventurer with brain injury get away from proper medical treatment would be a thing to worry about. Especially when Hydro Base gets attacked by the Atlantean strongman Tyrak a few pages later. Here's Doctor Druid showing he can mess with the best.

"I shall take no more such indignities!Foul air-breather, you will not entrance me!"

Silly Druid, you can't mess with the mind of a merman who's delusional enough to dress like that.

In the end, with a timely assist from the Wasp and Captain Marvel, it's the Black Knight that takes Tyrak down by puncturing his armor's water supply, after which Marvel quickly dehydrated him. Robbed of his strength, Tyrak is tied up and put in an aquarium of all things. Afterwards, Druid and Wasp have a heart to heart...

"Doctor, I held back because I wanted someone else to save the day!" 

Talk about irresponsible and self involved. No, not the Wasp, though she's no prize either. I'm talking about Druid, who once again proves his "heroic" actions were simply motivated by self interest. He only came to see the Black Knight at the hospital to study the man's magical sword. And when he realized Dane was dead set on leaving for Hydro Base, he did nothing to stop him while making sure he got to tag along. Not exactly the kind of behavior you'd expect from a physician, let alone a superhero. 

So, there's no way Doctor Druid would ever become an Avenger, right? He's temperamentally unsuited for the job, more of a pop culture oddity than a superhero and let's not forget he kidnapped the team and forced them to fight for their lives. 

"The ayes have it. Welcome to the Avengers, Druid!" 

... Never mind. 

It's easy to forget the Avengers have always been eager to hire criminals. After all, their first line up change saw the founders get replaced by two mutant terrorists and a criminal, commie loving archer who broke into the mansion and tied up Jarvis as part of his audition. But would Druid prove himself to be as heroic as Quicksilver, Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch? We'll find out in part II of The Dreadful Druid: The Doctor Is In Over His Head

1984: Alpha's Initial Outing Part II: The I In Team

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The year is 1984 and John Byrne is bravely soldiering on with Alpha Flight, a series he writes and draws but really doesn't care for. Still, Byrne didn't let on and even came up with some remarkably innovative ideas as we'll see in part II of Alpha's Initial Outing.

Before we get to the often discussed sixth issue, let's briefly cover issue 5 which was the first of a series of standalone tales. Byrne figured that since Alpha Flight was still effectively disbanded as far as the government was concerned, there was no team to speak of.

In a way, that makes sense. The book opened with Alpha Flight's funding getting cut and even though the team decided to stay together after defeating Tundra in their debut issue, they still had no money, no charter, not even a headquarters or place to gather. Is it any wonder they drifted apart?

That's why the fifth issue deals with Puck, one of Alpha's newest members who almost died when fellow recruit Marrina went nuts and nearly disembowelled him back in issue 2. Now we find out how Eugene Milton Judd, the dimunitive dare all's real name, is doing.

"You chicks must think I'm about the dirtiest guy in the hospital, eh?"

Truth be told, it was a bold choice on Byrne's part to focus pretty much an entire issue on a virtually unknown character who only had a handful of lines in the two issues he ever appeared in. Still, to his credit, John Byrne figured the best way to introduce readers to his latest creation was by showing just how awesome a hairy, pint-sized Canadian adventurer could be... Even without claws or a healing factor.

Judd accidentally uncovered a drug ring operating out of the hospital, after catching one of the nurses shooting up one night. Rightfully suspicious, the still gravely injured hero decided to don his duds and investigate the matter. He was able to covertly snoop and sneak, eventually hitching a ride on top of the van that delivered the latest supply to the hospital. One back at the supply depot, he fought and defeated the dealers, only to realize he was nowhere near healed.

                                       "Urrg... must be... losing... lot... blood..."

One really has to admire Byrne's visualization choices. Puck's impending black out is slowly hinted at. From the obvious trail of blood in the first panel, to the subtle whiting out in the second shot, followed by the bottom sequence that really tells the complete tale without any necessary dialogue. 

In the end, Puck is saved and the issue ends with him unmasking the ringleader of the drug cartel: the doctor Shaman entrusted Judd's care to. The physician tried to subtly kill Puck with a fatal insulin injection but Puck was ready for that and smacked the syringe right out of his hand.

"You create junkies, doc. That makes you about the lowest slime I can think of, eh?"

Just look at Puck without his mask. It's obvious this is the face of man who's been to hell and back. He's known suffering, hurt and loss but still he soldiers on, even if he's about to literally spill his guts. With him properly established, the issue closes out and that brings us to Alpha Flight I#6, the infamous white issue. 

It all started with a bunch of miners who accidentally set the Great Beast Kolomaq free. He's the second member of this feared band of evil deities that managed to return to our plane of existence in a relatively short while... and he couldn't be more happy about it.

"Free! Free! After a thousand years!"

Since this is still the Alpha Flight era in which the actual team doesn't appear, Byrne left it up to Snowbird to deal with Kolomaq. The issue was actually loaded with information about the Beasts, Narya, her ancestory and many other tidbits that would prove essential down the road. And it all led to a monumental fight that no one would see because Kolomaq whipped up a blizzard.

For about six pages, this was all we got. Blank panels, sound effects and dialogue that told all we needed to know about a mostly white heroine fighting an equally white villain in the heart of a snowstorm. Pretty ingenious as far as gimmicks go, though most consider this the ultimate in Byrne's shameless attempts to cut down on his workload.

Fair's fair: this story took place during 1984's Assistant Editor's Month, a line-wide event that had all the books' regular editors taking a break to attend the San Diego Comic Con. They left their assisants in charge, which allowed them to go a little crazy and experiment with the format. In

And if you still feel this was a poor excuse for Byrne to phone it in... Remember he was also writing and drawing Fantastic Four at the time... And that month's issue, #262 to be precise, featured the trial of Reed Richards who was facing galactic judgement after saving the life of Galactus. Not exactly a quick and easy topic to cover, especially when the Big G himself showed up during the proceedings. In a memorable moment, we learn that the cosmic devourer is so sense shattering every alien race processes his presence differently.

                      "A million and more alien eyes look upon him who is Galactus...
                                             And for each race the vision differs" 

For my money, inventive and memorably pages like that allow you some leeway. One can forgive Byrne for extending the white-out "gag" a page or two more if you consider he compensated by taking the time to come up with over 25 alternate Galactus lookalikes in the same month. In the end, as the captions assure us, Snowbird emerges injured but victorious after burying Kolomaq beneath an avalanche she caused right in the middle of the blinding snowstorm.

Issues 7 & 8 still don't feature Alpha Flight in, well, Alpha Flight. Taking so much time to focus on individual members was positively unprecedented and left a fair number of fans to wonder what the point of having a team book was when the actual team was nowhere to be seen. Still, this is all part of Byrne's devil-may-care approach to the title... Wildly experimenting just to see what will stick. In this case, he put the spotlight on the super speedy twins Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie Beaubier.

Back in issue #2, Jeanne-Marie acted a tad flakey when her schizophrenia took over during the fight against the Master. No wonder her slightly protective brother wanted her to get help. In this case, by taking her to meet with one of Montreal's finest psychiatrists.

                                  "There is nothing "the matter" with me, Jean-Paul (...)
                                      Doctor Bosson has simply confirmed that fact"

Considering Aurora/Jeanne-Marie would actually prove to be a semi-functional schizophrenic, the dear doctor is indeed a bit of a quack. But with the matter of his sister's mental health left (un)resolved for the moment, Jean-Paul is confronted by another ghost from the past, his old gay lover Raymonde Belmonde.

"A-hem!"

Now, despite the fact the late, great Tallulah Bankhead was famous for claiming there was "a touch of the homosexual in all of us", what caused John Byrne to make Northstar of the same sex persuasion? Well, back in 2004 he had the following to say about the subject:

"One of the things that popped immediately into my head was to make one of them Gay. I had recently read an article in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN on what was then (the early 80s) fairly radical new thinking on just what processes caused a person to be homosexual, and the evidence was pointing increasingly to it being genetic and not environmental factors. So, I thought, it seemed like it was time for a Gay superhero, and since I was being "forced" to make ALPHA FLIGHT a real series, I might as well make one of them Gay.

From there, it was a process of elimination. I didn't want the homosexual character to be one of the girls, since that was something people tended to associate (rightly or wrongly) with Claremont books. Mac Hudson and Heather were happily married and I did not want to mess with that. Michael was widowed with a daughter, and that way lay what I considered too much of a cliche, if he turned out to be Gay. Besides, as a Native Canadian he was already the resident "minority". The new guy, Puck, had his own set of problems. Sasquatch would be just too damn scary!! So I settled on Jean-Paul, and the moment I did I realized it was already there. Somewhere in the back of my mind I must have been considering making him Gay before I "decided" to so so.

Of course, the temper of the times, the Powers That Were and, naturally, the Comics Code would not let me come right out and state that Jean-Paul was homosexual, but I managed to "get the word out" even with those barriers."

And so he did, even though Mr. Belmonde wasn't too long for this world. He was the next victim of a gangster known as Deadly Ernest, a World War I veteran who was unable to die after he spurned Mistress Death back during the Great War. Properly annoyed, Death granted St. Ives' wish to survive and made him immortal. She did add a vengeful twist by making sure his touch instantly killed all living things. This curse first manifested itself when he returned home after the war and hugged his wife and infant daughter, inadvertently murdering them. 

In the end, "Deadly Ernest" was killed by his supposedly deceased daughter Isabelle who returned from the grave as the enigmatic Nemesis and ended up dismembering her dear old dad.

"The silver blade glimmers, ghostlike, invisible when seen on edge.
A shining white scythe flat on.
And in less than a second... it is all over."

Now, while all these solo tales of the individual Alphans were perfectly fine and serviceable, it didn't exactly tell any kind of cohesive story about the actual group. That's why the issues started to include short backup stories that briefly told the team's origins. The first few issues revealed how James McDonald Hudson went from being a bookish scientist who designed a mechanized mining suit to becoming Vindicator, Canada's premiere superhero. 

Byrne then recounted the history of the other Alphans, starting with Shaman. Born Michael Twoyoungmen, this Canadian Aborigine refused the teachings of his people, prefering to study the white man's medicine. He became a physician who married, had a daughter Elizabeth, and moved in next door to Heather McNeil's family.

All was right in the world, until Michael's wife got cancer and he ultimately proved incapable of healing her. Thereby breaking a promise he made to his daughter who did not respond too well to this double betrayal.

                                                 "Don't touch me! Liar! LIAR!"

Following the loss of his wife and his daughter turning against him Michael grew ever more despondent until one day a woman arrived with a package. Turns out it was the skull of his recently deceased grandfather who had served as his tribe's shaman. And despite the fact he lacked a mouth, let alone any inclination to scream, ol' grampa Twoyoungmen had quite a few things to say.

"Now, place my skull to one side, and take up the medicine bag on which it rests.
Open the bag grandson... Open it, and take out a handful of pine needles"

Spoiler alert: when he tried, he failed. Over the next two issues (5&6), Byrne showed how Shaman slowly embraced his legacy. A Native American (or, Aborigine) well versed in the western ways, who all but renounced his roots following an intense, personal tragedy... Only to realize his ultimate salvation lies in embracing his inescapabe legacy?

Why yes, that *does* sound a lot like Forge, the Cheyenne sorceror/mutant turned corporate mogul/inventor who Chris Claremont would introduce a few months later in August 1984's Uncanny X-Men I#184. A total coincidence to be sure, and at any rate, Shaman was still first ánd best.

Just look at these inspired panels.

                           "Do not think of pine needles. Know them. Touch them.
                                                 Feel them. Smell them (...)
                                                       Let them be real."

With Michael Twoyoungmen in place as Shaman, the next two issues (7 & 8) focused on telling the origins of Snowbird. Turns out the shapeshifting Alphan was actually an Inuit demi-goddess tasked to fight the gods' ancient enemies: the Great Beasts. But how she came to be is a tad ironic, if you consider who the gods chose to be the father...

"Now, mortal, will you grant yourself one night of pleasures... as the price for saving the world?"

Eagle eyed fans at the time realized Nelvanna's blonde sperm donor with the fancy headband was actually Richard Lawrence Easton, the weird little hermit responsible for raising the Ancient Beast Tundra back in Alpha Flight I#1. For, y'see, Easton was an archeology enthusiast contacted by Nelvanna and Hodiak just after he discovered Tundra's headpiece on a dig. 

He agreed to a one nighter with Nelvanna, but no one told him the gods have a slightly different concept of time.

"Thus does Richard Lawrence Easton flee the lands of men, into the realms of madness."

If nothing else, it's obvious Byrne used Alpha Flight to indulge his love for the spooky and the macabre. This particular sequence with Easton alone feels like something out of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, especially with the knowledge Easton would eventually be the one to raise Tundra.

Talk about an ironic twist. Still, he delivered the goods or so to speak: Nelvanna was pregnant with child and in time, needed a physician to guide her during birth...

So, who you gonna call?

 "TWO-YOUNG-MEN!"

As one of his first real acts as Shaman, doctor Michael Twoyoungmen assisted Nelvanna. Unfortunately, to bind the otherworldly baby to Earth, he used a spell that literally bound her to Canadian soil, which would prove a horrible mistake down the road. Shaman brought Snowbird into the world and took it upon himself to raise the rapidly growing faerie child, assisted by his old neighbor Heather McNeil and her husband James Hudson who considered both viable recruits for Department H's Alpha Flight initiative.

Speaking of recruits... John Byrne introduced yet another subplot in these issues. A mystery woman who began visiting some of the former Flight recruits... like the extremely smart and thoroughly unpleasant Alec Thorne. 

                                           "My name is Delphine Courtney.
                              My employer and I are involved in a project you may find of interest."

More on that in the third part of Alpha's Initial Outing: Oh My, Omega!

"Marvel Now-ish"

Have a read of Sequart's take on Marvel current direction in Marvel Now-ish.

"Marvel, on the other hand, pretty much admitted defeat in trying to expand their audience beyond the core super-hero fans. But even new titles and characters are given a link to an already established brand name..."

"This reeks of desperation – they basically admit to themselves that House of Ideas ™ has no new ones."

"Despite putting its people on the same-old-concepts, one cannot deny that Marvel employs some of the better writers and artists on the market; they have creators with extremely distinct voices that, thankfully, are not stifled by the weight of the titles they work on. One could easily argue about the quality of the titles Marvel produces nowadays (and certainly most of them will end up on my shelf) but not with their distinctness."

"There’s a sense of uniqueness to Marvel’s output. DC’s latest work seems, more and more, to be the result of committee"

Your thoughts? I find the lack of continuity in the Marvel titles distracting. While I love the creative direction of some of the Marvel books, I feel that they don't mesh well together. For example, Captain America is off in the Z-Dimension, but at the same time is being mind-controlled by the Illuminati and then leads the defence of the Earth against an alien attack. That's where the editorial control is lacking.

There's no overall attempt to help guide new readers, let alone old ones. If someone loved the Avengers movie, how the hell are they supposed to go into a comic book store and figure out which Avengers title to pick up. I can just imagine the look on their face as the comic book store guy breaks down all the Avengers titles. A great book like Fraction's Hawkeye is getting overlooked amid all the Avengers titles.

And then on the cosmic side, Marvel is actually doing a reboot of Star-Lord, Nova, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. This effort confuses me as the rest of the Marvel Universe isn't undergoing a reboot, so the inner fanboy in me struggles to reconcile past continuity. I'm also frustrated as I loved Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's run on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy and I feel that this reboot wipes out the great run they had.

More details on DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI'S DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: ARTIST'S EDITION

Here's the official solicitation write-up:

Daredevil Born Again. That title strikes a chord with comic fans who know what it means. Fans who know that it represents two of the finest creators at the absolute peaks of their game. David Mazzucchelli's superhero work had reached an artistic apex when this series was released, and the same is true for Frank Miller's writing. Together they combined to craft a story of extraordinary impact that is still regarded as a true masterpiece. 

Collecting the entire storyline of Born Again, this book will feature the complete issues of Daredevil numbers 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232 and 233, plus covers and extras. Each page was personally scanned by Mazzucchelli from his own original art. This is the largest Artist's Edition yet, weighing in at a rock solid 200 pages of beautiful Mazzucchelli art in the way you've always wanted to see it—the next bet thing to holding the actual original art! 

HC * BW * $95.00 net discount item * 200 Pages * 12” x 17” * ISBN: 978-1-61377-238-6 

Bullet points:
* What is an Artist’s Edition?
AN ARTIST'S EDITION PRESENTS COMPLETE STORIES WITH EACH PAGE SCANNED FROM THE ACTUAL ORIGINAL ART.
While appearing to be in black & white, each page has been scanned in COLOR to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art—for example, you are able to clearly see paste-overs, blue pencils in the art, editorial notes, art corrections. Each page is printed the same size as drawn, and the paper selected is as close as possible to the original art board.

1986 - Marvel Sticker Album

Marvel Solicitations for January 2010 - 1980s goodness

A rather light month for 1980s-related content.


EXCALIBUR VISIONARIES: ALAN DAVIS VOL. 2 TPB
Written by Alan Davis and Scott Lobdell, penciled by Alan Davis, Dougie Braithwaite, Will Simpson, James Fry, Joe Madureira, Sam Kieth, Steve Lightle, Ron Lim, Brian Stelfreeze, Dwayne Turner, Jae Lee, Malcolm Jones and Rick Leonardi, cover by Alan Davis.

Secrets of the Phoenix Force! Dinosaur subplots resolved! Captain Britain and Spider-Man vs. a pack of human dogs! These and other astonishments await as co-creator Alan Davis takes Excalibur into space and down the rabbit hole! Plus: a battle with the X-Men across time and a team-up with the X-Men against Trolls! Collecting Excalibur (1988) #51-58 and Excalibur: XX Crossing One-Shot.




DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN TPB

Written by Frank Miller, penciled and cover by David Mazzucchelli.

"And I have shown him ... that a man without hope is a man without fear." The definitive Daredevil tale, by industry legends Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli! Karen Page, Matt Murdock's former lover, has traded away the Man Without Fear's secret identity for a drug fix. Now, Daredevil must find strength as the Kingpin of Crime wastes no time taking him down as low as a human can get. Collecting Daredevil #226-233.

248 pages, $19.99.

1982 - Let the Game Begin!

Contest of Champions miniseries - #1-3 

June - August 1982 

Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald/Steven Frant/Bill Mantlo

Art: John Romita Jr./Pablo Marcos

The Contest of Champions launched Marvel's new initiative to publishing self-contained miniseries featuring fan-favorite characters. The success of this miniseries would launch the Hercules, Vision and Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, and Hawkeye miniseries. Jim Shooter would also carry forward this idea and create the Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars in 1984.

This story was originally planned to be published as a Treasury Edition as an homage to the Olympics, but when the United States withdrew from the International Games in early 1980, this project was shelved. Two years later, Marvel brushed off the dust and touched up a few things to make up for what had gone on in the Marvel Universe since and put out this miniseries which highlighted a cast of international heroes. Talisman, Sabra, Arabian Knight, Defensor, Le Peregrine, Shamrock, Blitzkrieg, and Collective Man all make their first appearance in this miniseries.

The plot is straightforward. The Grandmaster and a mysterious entity, later revealed to be Death, gather all of the Marvel Heroes and pick from them to act as champions in their competition. If the Grandmaster's team wins, Death will restore his fellow Elder, the Collector, to life. But if he loses, Death will take the Grandmaster's life. 

The first issue is rather dull as each hero gets plucked out of their daily routine. They're addressed by the Grandmaster who explains the rules and then along with Death picks their contestants. The second issue pits Daredevil, Darkstar, and Talisman against Sunfire, Invisible Woman, and Iron Fist for the first piece of the Globe of life, as well as Iron Man, Arabian Knight, and Sabra versus She-Hulk, Defensor, and Captain Britain for the second piece of the Globe of life. And, in the final issue, Vanguard, Angel, and the Black Panther face off against Wolverine, Thing, and Le Peregrine for the third piece of the Globe of life, as well as, Storm, Shamrock, and Collective Man are up against Sasquatch, Captain America, and Blitzkrieg for the final piece of the Globe of life. The Grandmaster wins the contest, but learns that Death is not a force to be challenged lightly.

While this miniseries may not stack up against some of Marvel's best stories, it's still an entertaining read. It was interesting to see some of the Marvel characters meet each other for the first time, like Wolverine and Black Panther. I also enjoy cosmic story lines involving the Elders of the Universe so with appearances by the Grandmaster and the Collector, it made this miniseries enjoyable.

As a precursor to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which would hit the market in 1983 and then the deluxe version a few years later, each issue offers a brief write-up on every Marvel character as well as listing their first appearance.

A sequel to this event was published in 1999.