Review: CHAMPIONS #1

CHAMPIONS No. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Mark Waid
PENCILS: Humberto Ramos
INKS: Victor Olazaba
COLORS: Edgar Delgado
LETTERS: VC's Clayton Cowles
COVER: Humberto Ramos with Edgar Delgado
VARIANT COVERS: Alex Ross; Mark Brooks; John Tyler Christopher; Jay Fosgitt; Rahzzah; Art Adams with Jason Keith; Mike Hawthorne with Matt Milla; Skottie Young
40pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (December 2016)

Rated T

Back in 1975, Marvel Comics introduced a new team of superheroes known as The Champions.  Marvel Comics' new publishing initiative, NOW!, offers a new version of that semi-classic.  Entitled Champions, it is created by writer Mark Waid and artist Humberto Ramos.  The comic book is written by Waid; drawn by Ramos (pencils) and Victor Olazaba (inks); colored by Edgar Delgado; and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Champions #1 opens in the home of Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel.  The teen girl's life is in a state of flux.  Just five days ago, she quit the Avengers.  Now, she calls on two other former teen Avengers who quit the team before her, Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and Nova (Sam Alexander).  Kamala is going to try to convince her former teammates to start a new team, one that wants to “put the wold back together” whenever their superhero activities break it.  Can she convince them and maybe a few more young heroes to go along with that idea?

Sometime in the long-ago, I am sure that I read The Champions, either that or a comic book in which they appeared.  That is not important here because the new Champions are something different.  They want to fix the things that they break because they believe that the “grown up” or “older” superheroes are not concerned with damage control or the mess they leave behind, or are at least not as concerned as they should be.

I am curious to see where this goes.  When Mark Waid is good, he is quite good, and he starts good here.  I am a sucker for most anything drawn by Humberto Ramos and have been for over two decades.  I should be upfront with that.  I am partial to giving this creative team a shot, and I am willing to recommend the first issue, at least.  But I'm coming back for more and will review this series again, probably soon.

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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