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Post by Action Ace on Jan 30, 2016 21:34:07 GMT -5
In 2015 Marvel put out a collected edition of this series and I got it on the cheap this week. So now I will read this landmark comic event for the first time. Please hold all remarks about what I don't know about what's going on at Marvel at the time until the end. I was still reading a few comics in 1982, but I never even saw this first ever company wide crossover.
STORY by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo and Steven Grant
SCRIPT by Bill Mantlo
PENCILS and COVER by John Romita Jr.
INKS by Pablo Marcos
ADDITIONAL ART by Bob Layton
EDITED by Mark Gruenwald and Tom DeFalco
EDITOR SUPREME: Jim Shooter
Book #1
"A Gathering of Heroes!"
Published March 9, 1982
Cover Price: 60 cents
Our story opens in the training room of the Avengers. Former member Beast is visiting since the Defenders training area isn't as good. Hank is causing a ruckus, but promises he'll be good if the other six heroes can take him down in less than a minute. They finally get him surrounded, but they all disappear before capturing him. In the Arctic the Red Ghost is up to his usual no good when the Soviet Super Soldiers Strike! I've seen Darkstar and Crimson Dynamo a couple of times, but I don't know the other two. Vanguard seems to be a Soviet Thor since he has a hammer AND a sickle. Darkstar is able to affect the Red Ghost, but the heroes vanish before they can capture him. The Fantastic Four are being honored at a dinner by The Adventurer's Club when they vanish. We also see the rest of Marvel's heroes vanish in the next four pages. The next page sees eight international heroes I've never heard of disappear.
Then we come to the big double page spread in a giant arena with all of Marvel's heroes in it! Of course, the first hero I'm looking for is Captain Ultra. I don't see him, but he could be one of the flying shadows. Namor must be a good guy this week because he's there. Hank Pym decided to show up as Ant Man. I do see Texas Twister in the back. For some reason, Falcon is crying. Then it's high school clique time as the heroes mingle. Wolverine talks to Alpha Flight. Beast and Sasquatch exchange grooming tips. Darkstar and Iceman recall their days of romance in The Champions. Vision and Machine Man complain that even in this room of freaks and geeks they're still the least accepted. The Soviets try to get Colossus to come home. There are only two spider people at this time, so they hang out. Son of Satan senses that this isn't the work of The Devil. It's the work of Jim Shooter, so we're close. Namor walks over to Dr. Strange and a strangely calm Hulk for a Defenders reunion. Professor X and Moondragon talk about how much they like Kojak. Five African and African-American characters get together to talk shop. Meanwhile, it seems Professor X can't stand Moondragon any more than I can and he's made his way over to talk to his Illuminati friends, Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man. I guess Bendis didn't create that completely out of thin air.
It is at this point their host appears, The Grandmaster. He and his hooded friend (The Time Trapper's cousin?) are there to conduct the greatest tournament the world will ever see. As I recall, the upcoming 1982 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was excellent. Suddenly, all the heroes are paralyzed as is everyone on Earth. The Grandmaster promises that if the heroes play the game, the Earth will be freed at the end. The game objective is four parts of the Gleaming Golden Globe of Life hidden in four places across the globe. The Grandmaster and his friend will each pick twelve heroes to get the objects. The team with the most pieces wins. If this guy is so good at games, why isn't this best 3 out of 5. Doesn't this seem like an easy way to get a draw? Anyone suspicious? Reed? Tony? Anyone? If Grandmaster wins, he gets the power to bring back his brother, The Collector, to life. Unfortunately, it isn't the Comic Book Guy version, but the original. By the way, does the Grandmaster go to the same barber as Ace Ventura? His hooded friend decides that she will remain nameless. She states that if her team wins The Grandmaster will be stripped of his power and join his brother in oblivion. To keep it fair, the game will be decided among the planet's homo sapiens, no Immortals, Inhumans, Atlanteans, Eternals and aliens. Oh no, did they just leave the door open for the mutants? UGH! The Grandmaster with the first selection picks Captain America. As she picks Vanguard with her #1 selection, the hooded one says that if her team wins she'll extend the life of Earth's sun an extra million years. I guess that's a good incentive, Vangaurd seems happy about it. Two teams of twelve are picked and everyone is sent off. Last panel, there's Captain Ultra! Non participating heroes will receive a year's supply of Turtle Wax or Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco Treat.
And that's it, all set up and introduction. Damn these people writing for the trade!
up next... the battles begin!
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Post by Action Ace on Jan 30, 2016 22:55:16 GMT -5
BOOK #2
STORY by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo and Steven Grant
SCRIPT by Bill Mantlo
PENCILS and COVER by John Romita Jr.
INKS by Pablo Marcos
ADDITIONAL ART by Bob Layton
EDITED by Mark Gruenwald and Tom DeFalco
EDITOR SUPREME: Jim Shooter
Published April 6, 1982
Cover price: 60 cents
CHAPTER 2: "FRENZY IN THE FROZEN NORTH!"
After a one page recap our two teams appear in The Arctic. The Grandmaster's team is Daredevil, Darkstar and Talisman. The Unknown's team is Invisible Girl, Iron Fist and Sunfire. This Talisman guy probably has magic powers and shouts "By the eternal numa-kulla!" So I'm picking team Grandmaster to win this round. Invisible Girl and Iron Fist agree to team up, buy Sunfire flies off on his own since he wants all the honor for himself. I'm not sure why Invisible Girl doesn't put a bubble around them to keep them warm, but I think we're still before the Byrne power up at this point. Daredevil has heard of Darkstar due to conversations with Black Widow. Talisman introduces himself as a shaman and he is an aborigine from Australia. Darkstar sees Sunfire flying and takes off after him while the other two are happy that each others methods are better served as solo missions. Darkstar and Sunfire clash, while Iron Fist sees Daredevil and moves to intercept him. Sue laments the lack of teamwork and turns invisible to try to sneak up on Talisman. He had been suing his dreamself to try to find the object, but returns when he senses Invisible Girl approaching. He whips out his bull-roarer and sends Sue into the dreamtime. Iron Fist approaches Daredevil and they start to fight. Daredevil gets an advantage when he hits Iron Fist in the face with a snowball. Up above, Darkstar has Sunfire trapped in her darkforce, but he refuses to be trapped by a mere woman and blasts out. His explosion breaks the ice for miles around and reveals part of a Gleaming Golden Globe. (is this the one that Pia Zadora won?) The ice also interrupts the battles below as Sue escapes from the dreamtime and surrounds herself with the force sphere I mentioned earlier. Iron Fist slips on the cracking ice and Daredevil uses his senses to locate the object. Sue is floating along and she sees Daredevil dive into the water to get the object and she is in hot pursuit. The two airborne heroes dive toward the prize and Iron Fist starts to catch up too. Talisman decides to trap everyone in the dreamtime to get the object himself. Sue is able to ward off the effect since she's been in it before. However, just as she's about to claim the prize, Daredevil uses his billy club thing to somehow snatch the prize. I don't know how it worked, did it have some glue on the end? How does that club get the quarter piece into Daredevil's possession?
SCORE
Grandmaster 1
Unknown 0
CHAPTER 3: "GHOST TOWN SHOWDOWN!"
This fight takes place in the American Southwest and I'm mad Texas Twister didn't get picked. The Unknown's team is Iron Man, Sabra and Arabian Knight. The Grandmaster's team is She Hulk, Captain Britain and Defensor. Tony gets stuck with an Israeli and an Arab? I've got to pick the Grandmaster's team here. Sabra tells us that she is like the fruit, harsh to her enemies and sweet to her friends. Iron Man has zero luck in getting his team to work together and they all fly off in a huff. Defensor is from Brazil and his sad attempt at chivalry sends She Hulk leaping away in a slight rage. she finds the other chauvinist pig and tosses him off his flying carpet. She sees Sabra and jumps after her, but is struck numb by here energy quills. Iron man encounters Defensor and his repulsor rays are reflected by at him by Defensor's shield. Captain Britain leaps up to Arabian Knight's carpet and they match sceptre against scimitar. She Hulk overcome s the quills and hits Sabra a little too hard. The men abandon the flying carpet and Arabian Knight orders it to stop Sabra's fall. She's not grateful and says she'd rather be dead than fight alongside him. Captain Britain gets called a British swine before taking out Arabian Knight. He tries to leap over to Sabra, but she takes away his star sceptre. He falls to the ground and lands on Defensor. Iron Man finds She Hulk near the object and as they are about to fight he says, "ladies first!" She Hulk is again not happy and tires to choke him. He blasts her with repulsors and she falls. While he checks on her, Arabian Knight wanders in to collect the prize.
SCORE
Grandmaster: 1
Unknown:1
up next...the finals!
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Post by Action Ace on Jan 31, 2016 22:28:44 GMT -5
BOOK #3
STORY by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo and Steven Grant
SCRIPT by Bill Mantlo
PENCILS by John Romita Jr.
COVER by Ed Hannigan
INKS by Pablo Marcos
ADDITIONAL ART by Bob Layton
EDITED by Mark Gruenwald and Tom DeFalco
EDITOR SUPREME: Jim Shooter
Published May 18, 1982
Cover price: 60 cents
One page recap of previous events and we're off!
CHAPTER 4: "SIEGE IN THE CITY OF THE DEAD!"
Our next two teams materialize in China. The Grandmaster's team is Wolverine, Thing and Le Peregrine while The Unknown's team consists of Angel, Black Panther and Vanguard. There is no way Marvel is going to let wolverine lose, so I pick Grandmaster's team. Speaking of which, Logan hasn't had a cigarette in ten minutes, so he lights up as soon as he can. No teamwork here either as they all stalk off in search of the globe piece. On the other side Black Panther and Angel learn that they haven't been on the teams they're identified with for a while. Vanguard tries getting bossy and there isn't going to be any teamwork here either. Black Panther comes across a bunch of ceramic warriors and is ducks Wolverine's attack just in time with his jungle bred senses. Up in the sky, the first round goes to Peregrine, who looks like a member of G-Force. Thing and Vanguard exchange pleasantries as Vanguard deflects an attack by the arrogant American. Back at the statues, Wolverine has broke out the claws and Black Panther is complaining. It is a game he says, but Wolverine pins him and it seems like we're about to be down an Avenger backup. Angel steals a walking stick from some poor immobilized old man (Mutant Scum!) and uses it to knock out Peregrine. Thing takes the weapons out of Vanguard's hands and then knocks him out. He comes across the Wolverine/ Black Panther tussle and he too asks Logan why he's got his claws out in a game. Thing's fixing to go Clobbering Time on the midget when they sense the object close at hand. Ben smashes the ground open and claims the prize.
SCORE
GRANDMASTER: 2
UNKNOWN: 1
CHAPTER #5: "STRUGGLE IN THE JUNGLE"
This contest takes place in the jungles of South America. The Grandmaster's team is Captain America, Sasquatch and Blitzkreig. The Unknown's team is Shamrock, Storm and Collective Man. Since the Unknown's team needs to win to get the draw, I'm going with them to win. Blitzkreig of West Germany zaps off like he's Air Wave and it looks like not even Captain America can get anyone to work together. Why wasn't this just 12 on 12 solos then? Collective Man of China splits into five men. Storm and Ireland's Shamrock also spread out to seek the prize. Blitzkreig encounters Storm in the sky and tries to cage her in a lighting cage. I think Storm laughs. Cap drops a Johnny Weismuller reference as he swings on the vines and meets up with Shamrock. Her luck enables her to evade her opponent. Sasquatch meets up with Collective Man, who tries to uses the might of five men to no avail. Blitzkreig attacks Storm again with lightning, but uses the power of the wind, thunder and rain to knock him out. A python ignores Shamrock and coils around Captain America instead. He wonders why and I think it probably has something to do with how many snake villains he's taken down over the years. Collective Man calls on the strength of 10,000 of his countrymen to throw off Sasquatch, but the strain is too much for him. Captain America spies the prize in a tree, but Shamrock is lucky to be a little closer and captures it. As predicted, we have a tie!
SCORE
GRANDMASTER: 3
UNKNOWN: 1
Wait... WHAT? Let me review this, Shamrock is on The Unknown's team. It says it at the beginning of the chapter, the team graphics show her on the Unknown's team. What is going on?
CHAPTER 6: "WINNER TAKES NONE!"
The four winners appear back at the arena in front of Grandmaster and The Unknown. The Unknown says that three of pawns belong to the Grandmaster and he has won. Uhhhh...OK. If you can't be bothered to keep track of who is on your team, we'll just move along. Grandmaster announces that he will never use any of the heroes or denizens of Earth in one of his games ever again. I bet he breaks that promise before the Berlin Wall falls. The Grandmaster starts to put the globe together to bring back The Collector. Talisman is suspicious, because returning someone from death would require someone else to replace them in the afterlife. He uses his bull-roarer to bring Invisible Girl into the dreamtime since she's used to it. She sneaks up behind the Unknown and pulls down her hood. The Unknown is Death! Not the cute one from DC's Sandman either, the ugly one from Family Guy. Death announces that to use the globe to bring back The Collector it must energized with an equal amount of power. So in order to bring back The Collector, the Grandmaster must sacrifice his own life---or that of all the heroes assembled in the arena! The Grandmaster does the honorable thing and enters the globe and The Collector comes out the other side. He's not happy, but still departs with Death. The Earth starts to move again and the heroes are returned home. The Beast notes that they were gone about an hour, so he did wind up winning his bet.
THE END!
I'll be back with the All-State Post Game Report in just a moment.
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Post by Action Ace on Jan 31, 2016 23:05:19 GMT -5
POST GAME
This does have the reprint of the handy guide to all the Marvel heroes of 1982. It seems that Ant Man was Scott Lang at this time and Hank Pym was a villainous Yellow Jacket. Howard the Duck, Punisher and Rick Jones are listed under Quasi-Heroes. Carol Danvers, Nova and Ghost Rider are among the others listed as "retired."
Tom DeFalco tells us the rest of the story in his introduction to the 1999 trade reproduced here. It turns out this story was begun in 1979 and was supposed to be a Treasury Sized book to celebrate the 1980 Summer Olympics. That accounts for the contest theme and the large international contingent. 16 of the 24 heroes on the teams are from outside the USA. The story was written and John Romita Jr. started drawing and then pages were sent to South America for Pablo Marcos to ink. The book was cancelled with the boycott, but no one ever told Pablo. He worked on the forty pages of art in his spare time and two years later showed up in New York with the completed art. By this time Mark Gruenwald was Tom DeFalco's assistant and knew what Pablo Marcos had. They went to Jim Shooter's office and the Great and Powerful Editor commanded that it become a limited series. In two years, various heroes had changed costumes and teams so adjustments had to be made. By issue #3 Gruenwald had graduated to full editor and he wanted to edit the last issue. This may have lead to the screw up in the score. Jim Shooter called them into his office and he was not happy. It seems Marvel got a lot of mail and I bet many were asking for "No Prize"s. Gruenwald said that the mistake was intentional to set up a sequel. DeFalco claims that he didn't think Shooter fell for that improv, but he let them live. It took until 1987 for the sequel to come out in the annuals of West Coast Avengers and Avengers. (I'll let someone else review that)
The art is above average and the fights are pretty interesting, but the editorial snafu is a major problem. I'm just wondering what would have happened if it was a draw. Pick another couple of teams? Sudden Death overtime? (and I do mean Sudden Death!) Penalty kicks? Coin flip administered by Hawkeye? Considering it was originally going to be a Treasury story and they had to make a lot of adjustments two years later, this turned out pretty decent.
Did anyone get this as it came out in 1982?
Thank you for reading.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2016 23:16:46 GMT -5
I pick up a friend worn out copy and it's looks really interesting and sadly I didn't get a copy of this limited edition series Action Ace and I wanted to. Thanks for starting this thread and I'm going to get myself a copy of this series and proceed from there.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 31, 2016 23:19:01 GMT -5
I bought it and read it when it came out and thought it sucked. A big, loud, all consuming suck. Even words that rhyme with suck doesn't do it justice to how much it sucked. If you want I can go into more detail about the suckiness but I believe I have stated my case
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Post by Action Ace on Jan 31, 2016 23:31:00 GMT -5
I bought it and read it when it came out and thought it sucked. A big, loud, all consuming suck. Even words that rhyme with suck doesn't do it justice to how much it sucked. If you want I can go into more detail about the suckiness but I believe I have stated my case That was certainly my first impression. After I learned about what happened behind the scenes, I gave them a little more credit. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 1, 2016 2:31:03 GMT -5
I liked it, but it has bothered me for over thirty years that the appearance of Captain Britain in his original costume completely conflicts with his then ongoing continuity in the Marvel UK titles, in which he'd had a complete makeover a year before. Because of how tightly plotted the Marvel UK stuff was at the time, the only way the Captain and his sometime partner the Black Knight could possibly have been in this series is if they were somehow briefly abducted from their own recent past, midway through the Otherworld quest from 1979-1980, which seems highly unlikely. Marvel later screwed things up even more by claiming that the Black Knight's return to the present day in December 1982 (Avengers #226) takes place before the Marvel UK Black Knight series from 1979, in which the Knight found Captain Britain living as an amnesiac hermit in a coastal cave where he'd supposedly been for two years. For it to fit, all the Marvel UK stuff from 1979 to about 1984 has to be occurring several years after it was actually published!
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 1, 2016 4:59:37 GMT -5
All I remember of it, is that this series was basically Contest of Foreign Stereotypes.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 1, 2016 6:38:24 GMT -5
I was surprised not to see Captain Maple Syrup in there... Good thing Alpha Flight already existed, I guess.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 1, 2016 6:41:05 GMT -5
I bought it and read it when it came out and thought it sucked. A big, loud, all consuming suck. Even words that rhyme with suck doesn't do it justice to how much it sucked. If you want I can go into more detail about the suckiness but I believe I have stated my case That was certainly my first impression. After I learned about what happened behind the scenes, I gave them a little more credit. Good point... Even if the final book might have deserved a Hoover & Dyson award, it was retrofitted from another already-drawn story. It's amazing that Contest of Champions worked at all, given the circumstances! |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 1, 2016 7:31:05 GMT -5
All I remember of it, is that this series was basically Contest of Foreign Stereotypes. At least they were trying to acknowledge that there could be heroes outside North America. Whatever happened to Talisman, anyway? |
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 1, 2016 7:54:01 GMT -5
All I remember of it, is that this series was basically Contest of Foreign Stereotypes. At least they were trying to acknowledge that there could be heroes outside North America. Whatever happened to Talisman, anyway? By that time at least the X-Men were pretty much an international team. Talisman: I think he disappeared because Gateway was created and then they realised that they were basically the same character. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 1, 2016 10:18:46 GMT -5
All I remember of it, is that this series was basically Contest of Foreign Stereotypes. That was my impression of it at the time as well. It should have been edited by someone named "Hoover" instead of "Shooter" because it sucked. On the other hand, if Shooter had shot it, it would have been a mercy killing. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Feb 1, 2016 17:07:10 GMT -5
I liked it, but it has bothered me for over thirty years that the appearance of Captain Britain in his original costume completely conflicts with his then ongoing continuity in the Marvel UK titles, in which he'd had a complete makeover a year before. Because of how tightly plotted the Marvel UK stuff was at the time, the only way the Captain and his sometime partner the Black Knight could possibly have been in this series is if they were somehow briefly abducted from their own recent past, midway through the Otherworld quest from 1979-1980, which seems highly unlikely. Marvel later screwed things up even more by claiming that the Black Knight's return to the present day in December 1982 ( Avengers #226) takes place before the Marvel UK Black Knight series from 1979, in which the Knight found Captain Britain living as an amnesiac hermit in a coastal cave where he'd supposedly been for two years. For it to fit, all the Marvel UK stuff from 1979 to about 1984 has to be occurring several years after it was actually published! The Marvel Chronology Project places Contest of Champions and Captain Britain's other appearance in Incredible Hulk #279 between the Black Knight strips in Hulk Comic #13 & 14. I've not read those issues since 1979, so I don't know how much sense that would make. Under so-called Marvel time, isn't everything they publish, with hindsight, deemed to have occurred years after its publication date anyway? |
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