Champions Appreciation 2020

[J. D. Guy]

Yeah, that's an aborted arc, I think that's probably been scrubbed from canon. I think Bendis's decision to go to DC and Superman caught Marvel's top brass by surprise too, which is why Miles's solo book was inactive for half a year before Ahmed took over.

Sucked, since I wanted to see where that would have gone, and I definitely appreciated Bendis for surreptitiously bringing together characters that got screwed over narratively in the past and that we hadn't seen in forever. (He brought back Reptil, who was together with Striker! And I coulda sworn there was another surprise in the returnees we saw.)

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Cloud 9 was also there - she also appeared in the recent Champions #1.

[Dragonick]

It's kind of crazy we still don't have some kind of SHIELD equivalent yet, Secret Empire was three years ago.

[Huntsman Spider]

It's kind of crazy we still don't have some kind of SHIELD equivalent yet, Secret Empire was three years ago.

If you've been following Ravencroft by Frank Tieri, the new clandestine government organization overseeing things in the Marvel Universe now is called JANUS, after the god of two faces . . . and its leadership is staffed with Malcolm Colcord from Weapon X, Monica Rappaccini from A.I.M., Viper from HYDRA, G.W. Bridge from S.H.I.E.L.D., Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (I think that's how her name goes) from Leviathan, and James Hudson/Guardian from Canada's Alpha Flight/Department H. Not very auspicious, in my opinion.

[Dragonick]

So it's basically a race to see who gets the first backstab in?

[Huntsman Spider]

So it's basically a race to see who gets the first backstab in?

Pretty much, yeah, though I could see JANUS doing some serious damage with the superhero community before the backstabbing really kicks in. After all, they cleaned up Norman Osborn after the whole Red Goblin/Absolute Carnage business so he could run Ravencroft for them.

[Digifiend]

If you've been following Ravencroft by Frank Tieri, the new clandestine government organization overseeing things in the Marvel Universe now is called JANUS, after the god of two faces . . . and its leadership is staffed with Malcolm Colcord from Weapon X, Monica Rappaccini from A.I.M., Viper from HYDRA, G.W. Bridge from S.H.I.E.L.D., Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (I think that's how her name goes) from Leviathan, and James Hudson/Guardian from Canada's Alpha Flight/Department H. Not very auspicious, in my opinion.

Are you sure it's Leviathan? That's a DC organisation.

[DigiCom]

Are you sure it's Leviathan? That's a DC organisation.

It was actually Marvel first, from Hickman's Secret Warriors series. Essentially the Russian version of SHIELD:

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Leviathan_(Earth-616)

[Huntsman Spider]

Are you sure it's Leviathan? That's a DC organisation.

It was actually Marvel first, from Hickman's Secret Warriors series. Essentially the Russian version of SHIELD:

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Leviathan_(Earth-616)

Pretty much, yeah.

[Nerwrax15]

I saw more comparisons to an Evil Illuminati for that group and not really SHIELD, I would expect the next actual successor of SHIELD to be a force of obvious good lol.

[Huntsman Spider]

I saw more comparisons to an Evil Illuminati for that group and not really SHIELD, I would expect the next actual successor of SHIELD to be a force of obvious good lol.

Hopefully, yeah.

[Digifiend]

Welcome back, Amadeus, Amka and Nadia!

CHAMPIONS #5
JAN210696
(W) Eve Ewing (A) Bob Quinn (CA) Toni Infante
The Champions are done running. The time to stand up and fight is here. But can they win when an entire government is aligned against them? And if they can't….where do the Marvel Universe's next generation of heroes go from here?
Rated T+
In Shops: Mar 17, 2021
SRP: $3.99

[Grimm911]

Welcome back, Amadeus, Amka and Nadia!

CHAMPIONS #5
JAN210696
(W) Eve Ewing (A) Bob Quinn (CA) Toni Infante
The Champions are done running. The time to stand up and fight is here. But can they win when an entire government is aligned against them? And if they can't….where do the Marvel Universe's next generation of heroes go from here?
Rated T+
In Shops: Mar 17, 2021
SRP: $3.99

This cover gives me some new-age Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven vibes. The solicit leaves it in the air whether this is the last issue or not. But hopefully we'll be getting more after this issue, either with a continuing issue #6 or another re-launch. I also remember hearing from Quinn's twitter in the past that if the series does continue that Simone Di Meo will likely hop back on as the series regular artist.

[Frontier]

Welcome back, Amadeus, Amka and Nadia!

CHAMPIONS #5
JAN210696
(W) Eve Ewing (A) Bob Quinn (CA) Toni Infante
The Champions are done running. The time to stand up and fight is here. But can they win when an entire government is aligned against them? And if they can't….where do the Marvel Universe's next generation of heroes go from here?
Rated T+
In Shops: Mar 17, 2021
SRP: $3.99

So I'm guessing a breakout happens to free Nadia and Amka and maybe some of the other members, and Cho finally comes back from his sabbatical.

No "Final Issue" or anything so I'm guessing this isn't a mini anymore.

[Nerwrax15]

Can i just say i love how much each cover has slapped so far?

Also hurray for Jim Zub's core lineup being represented(minus the one blatant omission for obvious reasons). Last issue really had me scared that Amadeus got benched but as he'd say, GO FOR CHAMPIONS.