Contest Of Champions

Note:There's a 2012 hardcover reprint book called Avengers: The Contest that reprints the same stories. This review is based on a 1999 paperback.

Reprints Marvel Super Hero Contest Of Champions #1-3
Written by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant.
Penciled by John Romita, Jr.
Inked by Pablo Marcos and Bob Layton.

Grandmaster and The Unknown prepare to play a game.

All over the world, superheroes are disappearing!

In New York City, the Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil and others vanish. In the Soviet Union, the Soviet Super Soldiers disappear while battling the Red Ghost. This scenario plays itself out on every continent, until every superhero is removed from Earth.

The heroes find themselves transported to a very large arena that is orbiting the Earth. After exchanging pleasantries with one another, they are greeted by the Grandmaster, the cosmic gamesman. He's placed Earth and all its people in a state of suspended animation. 

Grandmaster's brother the Collector was recently killed and Grandmaster wants to recover his soul. He has challenged a cloaked figure known only as "The Unknown" to a game that will use the heroes as pawns.  If the Grandmaster wins, he will be granted the power to restore the Collector to life. If the Unknown wins, the Grandmaster will join his brother in "oblivion."

The two god-like beings will form teams of superheroes who will need to find pieces of a golden globe, which contains the power to resurrect the dead. The heroes will have to fight each other to get the globe parts. If the heroes refuse to participate, Earth will remain in suspended animation. But the heroes have a stake in who wins and loses.  f Grandmaster wins, he promises to never bother Earth again. If the Unknown is victorious, she will grant Earth a million more years of existence. 

In Round 1, two teams of heroes face off in the Arctic. Talisman, a magic user from Australia, Daredevil and Darkstar fight for the Grandmaster. The Unknown's team consists of Sunfire, Iron Fist, and Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl. Talisman uses his Bull-Roarer weapon to disorient his opponents. 

The teams fight a spirited battle, which results in the ice cracking beneath them. Daredevil uses his radar sense to locate the piece of the globe, giving the Grandmaster a lead in the contest.

For the next portion of the game, the heroes are transported to a "wild west" ghost town. She-Hulk, Defensor (guardian of Argentina...or Brazil?) and Captain Britain represent the Grandmaster, while Iron Man, Israeli heroine Sabra, and Arabian Knight from Saudi Arabia battle for the Unknown. 

Sabra and Arabian Knight aren't keen on working together, but Iron Man tries to get them to put their ethno-religious animosities aside long enough to win the round.

The battle turns in favor of the Unknown's team when Captain Britain and Defesnor collide with one-another, knocking them out of the fight. She-Hulk and Iron Man arrive at the site of the prize.  Shellhead zaps the Jade Giantess with a repulsor ray, which enables Arabian Knight to get the globe piece. The Unknown's team has tied the score, 1 to 1. 

Next up, two teams of heroes find themselves in rural China. Perigrine, a France-based flyer, is teamed with Wolverine and the Thing. Vanguard (a member of the Soviet Super Soldiers), Angel, and Black Panther are their opponents.

Wolverine gets a little too aggressive with his claws until Ben Grimm intervenes. Grandmaster's team locates the third piece of the globe and comes out on top, taking the lead 2-1.  

Lastly, six heroes materialize in a South American jungle. Fighting for the Unknown are Storm (leader of the X-Men), Shamrock (an Irish heroine), and Collective Man, who hails from China.  They're matched up against the Grandmaster's side, which consists of Sasquatch, Captain America and Blitzkrieg, a German crimefighter who shoots bolts of lightning from his fingertips.

Can the Unknown's team tie up the contest? Or will Grandmaster win and regain the life of his brother?  And what is the true identity of the Unknown?

Review:
Contest of Champions isn't great, but it's long been a favorite of mine since it was published in 1982 and it's still a fun "battle" story. I remember eagerly awaiting each issue of this limited series, so I bring a lot of nostalgia to this review.    
I realize the summary is rather threadbare, but telling a lot more would spoil the story. Yes, I know the tale is 33 years old, but it's not as famous as "The Death Of Gwen Stacy" or other major storylines, so I want new readers to be surprised.

Story:
Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant and Mark Gruenwald are all credited as writers of this story. There's not much to this story. It's basically a case of "superheroes captured and forced to fight each other." But that's okay since these are fun fight scenes. In some cases, these are decisive battles, something we don't see in many "hero vs. hero" matchups. But it should be noted that none of the Marvel A-listers are on the losing end of the fights.

But Contest Of Champions has some problems.
 
One is the portrayal of Wolverine. Even at this point, he'd progressed a lot since his early days with the X-Men. Yet Mantlo, Grant and Gruenwald write him as a bloodthirsty killer, ready to kill Black Panther given the opportunity.

The new "foreign" superheroes introduced here aren't very interesting and border on stereotypes.  Which is probably why they never caught on or made many appearances after Contest Of Champions.  At one point we're told Defensor is from Argentina. Later, he says he's from Brazil. Which one is it?

Plus, there's an error in the story that had to be fixed in a sequel contest. See below for more (non-spoilerish) info. Otherwise, the writers did a good job writing a story that featured so many characters.    

She-Hulk slugs it out with Sabra;
Arabian Knight duels Captain Britain.

Art:
John Romita Jr. and Pablo Marcos serve as penciler and inker of Contest Of Champions, with Bob Layton assisting (he's credited with providing "additional art") on part 1. The art is excellent, and considering how many characters Romita had to pencil, that's no small feat.

How does it look:
Here's a scan from the original story, borrowed from the excellent SuperMegaMonkey site:

 And here's how the same pages look in the tpb:

 
I'd say it's a reprinting that's faithful to the original colors.

Extras:
This tpb contains a nice introduction by Tom DeFalco about the background of the series, how it started it as a tie-in to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.

Due to a writer or editor error, the winner of the game was somewhat in doubt. So a sequel was published five years later, after the Bronze Age of Comics was over. That story is contained here as well.  

Contest Of Champions contains some very entertaining fight scenes, good art and is still a fun story three decades later. This book is recommended, but the problems mentioned above keep me from giving it a higher grade.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man

 Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15, Marvel Team-Up #100, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4.
Written by Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Denny O'Neil, Mark Gruenwald, Roger Stern.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Frank Springer, Tom Palmer, Bob Wiacek, Klaus Janson and Mike Esposito.

Spider-Man has been blinded by the Masked Marauder's opti-blast! His fellow superhero Daredevil tries to help him cope with this condition. But the wallcrawler is (understandably) distraught.  Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, Daredevil is also blind and uniquely qualified to help him. The heroes team up to stop the Marauder and his Tri-man droid from blowing up New York City.

Sometime later, Lucius Dilby, a servant of Doctor Doom, has created a device that will allow him to visit the Dark Dimension. Upon arrival, Dilby is given mystical powers by its ruler, Dormammu.  Doom wants Dilby to bring about the Bend Sinister with his new abilities.

Doom sends Dilby to the Dark Dimension.

Dilby arrives in New York and hits the city with a variety of mystical attacks. He creates a super-strong robot and sends it to battle Doctor Strange, the master of mystic arts. Dilby believes Strange is the only one who can stop the Bend Sinister from occurring. During a brief battle, Strange is beaten by the robot. Dilby needs a human sacrifice to bring on the Bend Sinister and decides to kill Doctor Strange.

Strange mystically contacts Spider-Man and asks for help. It's up to the webhead to stop Dilby and prevent the Bend Sinister. 

Shortly after that adventure,Spider-Man is swinging through New York when he's mentally possessed by someone. We observe a teenage girl on a rooftop, she is amazed how it feels to climb walls. The possessed Spidey is forced to attack a charity party held in a luxury apartment, where he tries to take two young children away from their uncle. The Fantastic Four are attending the party and try to stop Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man is subdued, the FF learn that he was possessed and not responsible for his actions. In short time, they learn he was controlled by a teenager named Xi'an Coy Manh. She was using Spider-Man to rescue her younger siblings from her gangster uncle. The heroes discover that Xi'an has a brother named Tran who is also able to possess people. But Tran uses his powers for evil. Will the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man be able to stop Tran before he can possess all of them?


Some months after that, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, arrives in New York. He's involved in a car accident with two drug dealers who work for the Kingpin of crime. Killgrave has the power to bend the  wills of other people, so he forces the Kingpin's men to fight each other. Spider-Man notices this and tries to intervene. But Purple Man forces him to hang from a lamppost and sing a song! Killgrave escapes from the scene.

Purple Man forces Spidey to sing an Elvis Costello song!

The Kingpin learns that Killgrave interfered with one of his drug deals and decides to take him out. But the Purple Man has other ideas. Killgrave visits Kingpin and tries to command him to do his bidding.  But it has no effect. Purple Man becomes a pawn of Kingpin. We learn that the Kingpin used earplugs to resist Killgrave's control.

A major charity fundraiser is coming up. All of the New York's "street level" heroes hear rumors of a major crime happening at the event. Daredevil, Moon Knight, Power Man and Iron Fist all show up to investigate the matter.

When Killgrave is introduced, Daredevil (still dressed as Matt Murdock) gets nervous. Purple Man knows that Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same. DD creates a diversion by starting a fire. The other heroes jump into action to help the people escape the theater. But Killgrave has other ideas and orders all the people in sight to kill the superheroes.

A mob of hundreds chases the heroes around New York, threatening to kill them. 

Finally, Doctor Octopus calls New York's Mayor Ed Koch and tells him he will kill five million New Yorkers. Doc Ock wants $5 million worth of gems or he will carry out his plans for mass murder. The villain is very cryptic about how he will commit this crime, but Spider-Man has a theory that may save the city.  

 At the same time, the Punisher is back in town and goes gunning for Doc Ock and Spidey gets caught in the middle.

Can Spider-Man defeat Doctor Octopus and save New York?

Review:
The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man contains some very enjoyable stories from the late-70s and early 80s. These are a step below the quality of his stories and art that appeared in Daredevil, but they're lots of fun.

Story:
The first story, a two-parter from Spectacular Spider-Man starts in the middle of a story. This is because Miller didn't start penciling until that point in the saga. Miller didn't work on the next issue, so it ends in the middle of another story. I'm not a fan of reprint books that do this. I understand Miller didn't draw the rest of the story, I still think it's a weakness (the full story is available in another tpb). Having said that, Bill Mantlo writes a good story featuring Masked Marauder and Tri-Man. The Marauder was certainly a B-list villain, but Mantlo presents him as a serious threat here. He blinds Spider-Man and threatens to blow up New York with a nuclear bomb.

Denny O'Neil wrote the Bend Sinister/Dilby story. It's a good story, with one problem. We never learn what the Bend Sinister is. But it's still a fun ride. O'Neil sends Peter Parker to see a punk band called Shrapnel at CBGB, which is a nice nod to the New York music scene of the early 80s.

Peter Parker checks out a punk band at CBGB.

O'Neil also scripted the Doc Ock/Punisher story and it's been one of my favorite Spider-Man stories since I first read it in 1981. Doctor Octopus is portrayed perfectly here, willing to kill millions of people just to demonstrate that he is capable of doing so. And I love the interaction between Spidey and the Punisher in this tale. O'Neil gives us a nice sub-plot that shows the reader how the Daily Bugle selects its front page story. 

The Marvel Team-Up story featuring the Fantastic Four was written by Chris Claremont and it's pretty good too. It's also available in another reprint book I recently reviewed, here.

Miller wrote the Purple Man/King and it's a fairly lightweight story, but it's still a fun read. It was a nice way to have Daredevil's former "greatest foe" meet up with Kingpin, who became DD's arch villain under Miller's pen. Miller does a good job writing all the other guest heroes, none of them act out of character.

Luke Cage punches through the walls of the theater.  Nice art from Herb Trimpe!

Art:
Some folks who purchase this book may be surprised that some of the art doesn't look at all like classic Frank Miller art. The first two stories feature the first time Miller penciled Daredevil, the character that would make Miller famous. But Miller is heavily inked by Frank Springer and Miller's art only shows through in occasional panels.

The next story, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 is an improvement. Miller is inked by Tom Palmer and the art looks great. Lots of Ditko-esque mystical images on display here. Miller and Palmer give us several pages from the fictional Book Of The Vishanti sort of serve as "chapter headings" within the tale.

Splash page from ASM Annual #14 features The Book Of Vishanti

The artistic high point for me is the Doc Ock/Punisher story from ASM Annual #15. Miller is inked by Klaus Janson, who served as Miller's inker on Daredevil. Many of the pages feature front pages of The Daily Bugle in progress and the fight scenes are gorgeously rendered. Miller and Janson are one of the best penciler/inker teams of all time and this story is further proof.

The Kingpin/Purple Man tale, from Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 features pencils by Herb Trimpe and is inked by Mike Esposito. It's a bit of a step down from Miller's work in the book, but it's still pretty good.  I always enjoyed Trimpe's work, and he and Esposito make a good art team in this story.

Extras:
The back of this book features a nice gallery of covers penciled by Miller that feature Spider-Man. We get 22 covers from various Spidey series.

The stories from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14-15 make this book worth purchasing. The other stories are fun as well. But I can't look past the fact that the first story is joined in progress, so The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man falls just short of my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5

3 and a half Sals.

Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up

Reprints Marvel Team-Up #59-70, 73
Written by Chris Claremont, Ralph Macchio.
Penciled by John Byrne.
Inked by Dave Hunt, Bob Wiacek, Ricardo Villamonte, Tony DeZuniga, Al Gordon.

New York is under attack from Equinox, the thermodynamic man! He's like Iceman and Human Torch rolled into one! Spider-Man teams up with Wasp and Yellowjacket to stop "Noxie" (as Spider-Man calls Equinox). But this villain turns out to be tougher than expected, nearly killing Yellowjacket.

Next up, Spider-Man is attacked by the Thing and the Human Torch...or is he? It turns out to be Super-Skrull, who is not only a shape-shifter (like all Skrulls), but also has all the powers of every member of  the Fantastic Four! Spidey teams up with the Human Torch and Ms. Marvel to take down Super-Skrull.

  

The battle leads them all over Manhattan, finally culminating in a punch-up on board the famous ocean liner known as the Queen Elizabeth II (or QE2 for short).

Spidey has little time to relax before his friend & fellow hero Iron Fist is attacked by the Steel Serpent!  He attempts to rescue Iron Fist, but it's too late! Steel Serpent has drained the life-force (also known as  "chi") out of Iron Fist. Spider-Man must stop Steel Serpent, but he'll need assistance from Iron Fist's friends, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, who are better known as the Daughters of the Dragon!  

In his civilian guise, Peter Parker meets British exchange student Brian Braddock. Empire State University needs to find temporary housing for Braddock and Parker needs money, so he takes Brian in as as roomate. But when Brian sees Spider-Man crawling out of Parker's apartment, he presumes the worst and attacks him...as Captain Britain!  

Eventually they sort things out and realize they're on the same side. But suddenly, they're captured by the assassin called Arcade! He imprisons them in his deadly amusement park, Murderworld!

The stakes get higher when the heroes learn that Arcade has also kidnapped Captain Britain's girlfriend,  Courtney Ross. 

Later, Spider-Man encounters his old foe Kraven the Hunter! They slug it out until Kraven shoots him with poison darts. When Spidey wakes up, Kraven forces him to battle Tigra. She's being controlled by Kraven, who forces the two heroes into a battle to the death!

Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson visit a circus. They're surprised to see a very rare creature on display: the Macabre Man-Thing! Parker changes into Spider-Man, frees Man-Thing and charters a plane to fly him home to the Everglades. But when they arrive, a helicopter collides with their plane, causing both vehicles to crash. But this is no random accident: the crash has been engineered by the demon D'Spayre! Only Spidey and "Manny" can stop him.   

On Scotland's Muir Island, the mutant heroes Havok and Polaris are attacked by a gang of thugs. Havok recognizes them as henchmen of his old enemy, the Living Pharaoh. He's captured and taken to New York. 

Spider-Man gets involved when Peter Parker notices the Pharaoh's flunkies stealing an ankh artifact from Empire State University. They get away, but he tracks them down to their hideout using a Spider-Tracer.  

Spidey finds Havok imprisoned and frees him, but then they're both hit with an energy blast by the Living Pharaoh. After a brief battle, Pharaoh uses Havok's energy to turn once again turn himself into the 33-ft tall Living Monolith!

Spider-Man is in over his head. The Living Monolith is stomping all over New York, crushing buildings. Thankfully, help arrives in the form of the mighty Thor, God of Thunder! The Monolith and Thor engage in an epic battle, that finally ends in New York harbor.  

Last, but definitely not least:

Peter and Mary Jane head to a new disco (it was New York in the 70s!) called Studio 13. Their date is cut short when an armed arson gang called the Rat Pack shows up. Thankfully, Luke Cage, AKA Power Man, is also at Studio 13. Cage & Spidey drive the Rat Pack from the disco, but they get away. 

The heroes track down the Rat Pack in the South Bronx. Power Man confronts them, but they blow up a building, sending Cage flying through the air and setting the building ablaze. It's up to him and Spider-Man to rescue the people endangered by the fire. But they'll need the help of another group of heroes: the firefighters of the New York Fire Department!

Plus, appearances by Captain Jean DeWolf, Spider-Man's closest ally on the NYPD!

Review:

When comic book fans hear the names "Chris Claremont" and "John Byrne" in the same breath, they probably think of their work on X-Men. But the first six stories in this book were published before Byrne started penciling the X-Men series. And prior to Marvel Team-Up, they had collaborated on Iron Fist, but that's another story.  

Story:

These are among the best issues of Marvel Team-Up. Super-Skrull is one of my all-time favorite villains. Kraven was one of Spidey's earliest & deadliest foes during the Lee-Ditko-Romita years, but he later devolved into a joke. Claremont gives Kraven back some of his dignity here. Living Pharaoh/Monolith is treated like a serious threat to New York City. 

Another thing I like here is the way Claremont connects these stories to others that were happening at the time. For instance, when Polaris contacts Beast, he can't help her because he's heading off to search for the X-Men, which ties in directly with Beast's guest appearance in X-Men # 111.

Art:

John Byrne's art here is still evolving, so it doesn't look as might expect. But it's still great to look at. The inkers are all a good match for Byrne. Most of us think of Terry Austin as Byrne's best inker. Dave Hunt, Bob Wiacek, Ricardo Villamonte, Tony DeZuniga, and Al Gordon aren't Austin, but they do a fine job at inking Byrne here. Special kudos go out to Byrne and DeZuniga for the art in the Thor/Living Monolith story. It's absolutely gorgeous. It includes a two-page fight scene that's too big to scan.  

How does it look?:

Here's a page scanned from an original copy of Marvel Team-Up #61:

The same page looks like this in this tpb:

Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up features great stories, great art and is lots of fun. It should be on the shelf of every Bronze Age Marvel Zombie.

4 Sals!