Champions: Worlds Collide

Champions (2016) (Collected Editions) #3 + Worlds Collide

by Mark Waid

Worlds collide as the Champions come face-to-face with the Avengers! The countdown for a clash of generations begins when the twisted High Evolutionary sets the Earth on a catastrophic collision course with its opposite number: the unnatural Counter-Earth! Can the two teams put their turbulent history aside to meet this planetary threat - or will they be at each other's throats? And assuming they can find a way to work together, can even this awesome assemblage of heroes save two entire planets from destruction? Our young squad might not all make it out of this in one piece - which can mean only one thing: time for a membership drive! Pretty much every teen crimefighter wants to be a Champion for a day - but who will make the grade when the new order changeth? Champions (2016) 13-18, Avengers (2017) 672-674

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel

200 pages, Paperback

Published April 27, 2021

About the author

Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.

Reviews

[Hayley Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite crossover events to date.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. I had a good time with the action-packed parts in the first half and then while initially I did not at all enjoy the mid-book character death fakeout, I DO like that I read the Champions-centric version of this, which delved right into the immediate fallout and really fleshed out what happened and why. Sure, we ultimately kind of remain status-quo at the end of the day, but it's done in a way that at least gives us a lot of insight into a character that I hadn't personally clicked with and now feel like I know a little better.

Note if you read this one, it makes Champions Volume 3 almost entirely superfluous, with the only thing that version having that this does not is the Monsters Unleashed tie-in, which is fairly superfluous to the MU story so, grab this, ignore Vol. 3 and enjoy.

[Tshepiso · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

In many ways, Worlds Collide was a successful story. This Champions Avengers crossover sees the two teams facing off against the High Evolutionary. A superbeing from an alternate Earth attempting to fuse the worlds together. The emotional core of this arc is the relationship between Vision and his daughter Viv as the High Evolutionary's schemes leave them trapped in separate worlds and fighting to get back to each other.

Mark Waid effectively tugged on my heartstrings in that regard. Seeing Viv and Vision navigate constantly shifting life or death stakes was compelling and I deeply felt the love between the duo. This volume especially felt like somewhat of a successor to Tom King's The Visions. It similarly approached uneasy family drama and though Waid's writing isn't to that calibre it pulled at those threads effectively. I do However wish Waid had signposted some of the reveals in this volume earlier in the series. Doing so would have done a lot to make the Champions feel like a cohesive culminating series.

Outside of Vision and Viv's arc, this story didn't click with me. Waid's inability to establish a meaningful team dynamic in earlier volumes made some of the emotionally impactful moments in the volume fall flat. This failure makes me nervous about the introduction of four new members to the Champions at the end of this volume. The six current members felt underwritten and underutilized so I can only imagine that these new editions may feel like background fodder.

Overall Mark Waid's stint on Champions has been fairly disappointing. The lacklustre character work and didactic storytelling were only tempered by brief moments of solid writing. I'm willing to give the new writer-artist team taking over for Waid and Humberto Ramos a chance but I fear Champions will continue being a lacklustre series with solid ideas and good intentions but poor execution.

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I didn't really enjoy the first half of the story because there was too much fighting and not enough emotions/character moments. I took a lil break in the middle, but I'm glad I finished the book, because the second half was a lot more interesting to me.

I'm going to seek out more Champions stories because I like the characters.

[viv reads whatever · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pacing in this is perfect. I find the Marvel comics I’ve read so far have pretty quick pacing when it comes to fight scenes but this one was in the sweet spot. I loved the story!

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this run of Champions. Lots of good characterization and the stories were great.