Longbox Legerdemain: Who the %$#& Are The Champions?
By Matthew Sunrich
"I guess there must be a fracus [sic] in
the wind."
What do Hercules, Black Widow,
Iceman, Angel, and Ghost Rider have in common?
If you answered "not much,"
I'd be inclined to agree with you.
Yet once upon a time they came
together as a team and kept things going for an impressive seventeen issues and
a handful of guest appearances.
How on earth did this happen, you
ask?
Well, it's not something that's
easy to pin down, but perhaps we can shed some light on it by examining what
was going on with the individual characters at the time.
In 1975, a new crop of mutant
superheroes were introduced in the pages of one of the Bronze Age's most
groundbreaking books: Giant-Size X-Men
#1. These new members, including Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler,
revitalized the team and famously rescued the title from reprint limbo. One of
the unanticipated consequences of this was that three of the original X-Men,
viz. Beast, Iceman, and Angel, wound up striking out for greener pastures.
Beast joined the Avengers, while
Iceman and Angel decided to give college a go.
Originally a villain, Black Widow
changed her ways and became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a member of the
Avengers during the Silver Age. In Amazing
Spider-Man #86 (1970), her appearance was overhauled into the one we recognize
today (i.e., red hair and black bodysuit). Next, she split billing with the
Inhumans in the first eight issues of Amazing
Adventures before taking a spin in the pages of Daredevil.
Labels: Angel, Black Widow, comics, Ghost Rider, Hercules, Iceman, Matt Sunrich, reviews, The Champions