CREDIT: Marvel Comics
Rating: 5/5 – It’s about time… #Champions
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Adam Brunell
With the release of the first issue of Champions a new revolution has begun. Teenage heroes in the Marvel Universe are fed up with taking orders from veteran heroes with priorities different than theirs, and they are banding together to put the word “Hero” back on the map. It’s not about just saving people; it’s about being an all-around hero. When you think of a hero, you think of the people in this world that not only work hard to save lives, but help pick up the mess afterwards. That’s what this team is about, and that is why this team is here.
Tired of the typical routine of fighting the bad guys and walking away, Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, has let her aggression build up towards the older generation Avengers, and she is at the breaking point. This scene at the beginning of the comic is so quick that you can tell by the dialogue that Kamala’s outburst was a long time coming. Kamala doesn’t even talk for long to justify herself, she just walks away knowing that her older Avenger members won’t give her the time of day to even consider what she has to say. The Goddess of Thunder is obviously not a veteran hero, but Jane Foster holding Mjolnir is not taking her full actions into consideration and has become part of the issue. I guess with time and age, you just want to go in and get the job done, but the teenage heroes of tomorrow aren’t on the same page. Nova and Spider-Man already quit the All-New Avengers team for the same reasons, and all these former Avengers are now running their own show.
The comic takes place after Marvel’s second Civil War, but because the Civil War comics are still being released it’s good to see that Writer Mark Waid and Artist Humberto Ramos have beautifully kept the aftermath of Civil War still a secret by delivering a well written and illustrated comic of a team formed during the aftermath. I don’t want to refer to Waid and Ramos’s work on this comic as if it was a boxing match, but they deliver blow after blow and by the end of the comic they delivered a full knockout. The dialogue of the characters are emotional and well thought out, the way the heroes work together are actually as a team, they all work off of each other’s powers to get the job done. Waid and Ramos provide an emotional ending to this first issue, and just when I’m sitting on the edge of my seat chanting in my head with the outraged public for Hulk to drop some heavy bombs on the villain, Kamala comes in with a speech to end all speeches. As I read the last part at the end of the comic all that I could think was, “It’s about time, #Champions.”
At first I wasn’t going to grab this comic, but the clerk at my local comic shop spoke highly of it. She said it was probably the most emotional and well thought out comic she’s read this year, especially with everything going on in the Marvel Universe. I guess with everything going on in the world these days this comic could hit close to home for some of us. We all have a voice and just because we aren’t as experienced or older doesn’t mean we can’t have a more sensible and rational way of dealing with things. The Champions is now a “need to have” comic for me!
Reviewed by: Adam Brunell
(adamb@comicspectrum.com)
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