#Champions : Heroes of the new generation!

Originally intended to be a 'buddy series' featuring former X-Men Angel and Iceman, THE CHAMPIONS series developed into a team book with about as much cohesion as THE DEFENDERS originally had. With the UNCANNY X-MEN sporting an all new team, Bobby Drake and Warren K.

Worthington, III found themselves without a gig. Tony Isabella pitched the book with these two characters as an odd couple of sorts along with Black Goliath; a new character who rocketed into his own book (and designed by Isabella) and, thus become unavailable. So with only two main characters, editor Len Wein laid down the law and kindly suggested the book needed 5 characters.

“One must be super-strong, one must be female, and at least one must have his own comic. Hence, the addition of Marvel's version of Hercules as the strong guy, The Black Widow (fresh from a relationship with Daredevil) as the female and The Ghost Rider as the guy with a title of his own.“

However, a few months into the project, Tony Isabella went to work for the competition, DC, and write his own book Black Lightning. Possibly he was still feeling the pain of not being able to write Black Goliath. I'm not sure. But this left the project in the capable hands of Bill Mantlo who saw the Champions through to it's not so epic end. 17 issues was all we got from this strange group, but they have their place in Marvel's varied past.

Unlike the original team, the new group brought together under the name CHAMPIONS do so with a purpose and an intentional mission. The totally awesome Hulk, Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, Nova, the Vision's daughter and the soul searching younger verision of Cyclops make up a younger faction of Marvel that, much like their Millennial fans, want to do something positive in the world around them.

Now, when Marvel dropped these new characters on us in the last year or so, I thought it was a gimmicky move to just have young heroes to relate to. But, they've taken them far beyond a simple marketing ploy. Having Morales, Marvel and Nova quit the Avengers over the whole Civil War fiasco was an amazing move. Amadeaus Cho, the new, younger Hulk, also seems to be on a quest to the right thing with his powers. And Cyclops is living in a world where he has to deal with a legacy of his older self that he's not that happy with. So, instead of getting caught up in the constant nonsense battles, they step in where their needed.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of Ms. Marvel (probably too old) or Nova. Although the new story line with the return of Richard Ryder has my attention. The death of Bruce Banner and his Secret Wars replacement, Amadaus Cho, was fine by me as I liked the character, although I'm not a big fan of the comic. I have nothing against Miles Morales albeit the long standing bad taste I've had in my mouth over the whole Ultimate Universe storyline; never liked. And the gimmickly act of pulling the young, original X-Men out of the past never set well with me. And, although I haven't went back to see how it was written, the Vision's daughter thing seems a bit weird. All that being said, I'm hopeful for this new title, THE CHAMPIONS.

Under the twitter hashtag #Champions, they are focused on real problems in their world and are determined to do something about it. First thought that came to mind was 'Oh, great. Social Justice Warrior stuff'...but, after the first real story line, I was proven wrong. Instead of going for fluff, Marvel creative team Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos went for the meat.

I have to applaud them for taking on a subject that is important in our day and age and not simply a part of the talking points of the times. First issue tackled human trafficking. But for a second story they took on what most modern news agencies won't even come close to tackling; ie. the state and oppression of women in Muslim society. Most are much too afraid to draw a negative light on anything Islamic these days. But this comic grabs it by the horns.

So, long story short, this comic is worth a look. It will be interesting to see where they take this concept from here and the strange dynamics of this young team. Also look for more young Marvel NOW heroes to show up in the near future.