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Champions (2019)

Campeones 01

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THE WORLD STILL NEEDS HEROES - AND THERE ARE HEROES ALL OVER THE WORLD! The Champions have gone global! The team has seen explosive growth under Ms. Marvel's leadership, with super-powered members ready to answer the call in a dozen different countries. They're saving people and improving lives across the planet while they inspire the next generation... But something sinister lurks beneath the surface of their expanded mission. It's a dark secret that could destroy the team and everything they stand for! Jim Zub (AVENGERS: NO SURRENDER, UNCANNY AVENGERS) and Steven Cummings (Wayward, Legends of the Dark Knight) ignite a new era of CHAMPIONS, filled to the brim with action, adventure and drama in the Mighty Marvel Manner!

COLLECTING: CHAMPIONS (2019) 1-4

136 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2019

62 people are currently reading
204 people want to read

About the author

Jim Zub

948 books321 followers
Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Disney, Warner Bros., Capcom, Hasbro, Bandai-Namco and Mattel.

He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program.

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5 stars
128 (25%)
4 stars
208 (40%)
3 stars
148 (29%)
2 stars
21 (4%)
1 star
3 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,061 followers
April 1, 2021
Ms. Marvel has expanded the Champions to the point there are actually three teams roving around at once. Mephisto makes a great appearance here. Giving some team members what they want, no strings attached, and of course, there is fallout from that choice. Zub does a very solid job of juggling a gazillion different young heroes. Then there's a great War of the Realms tie in that crosses over with the X-Men. Cyclops returns to help out the Champions and it's all very heartwarming.

I really like Steve Cummings art in the first 4 issues. Juanan Ramirez isn't bad on the War of the Realms issues either.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,203 followers
January 21, 2020
Champions gets a slight makeover, and it is for the better!

Jim Zub does a smart thing and expands the champions, bringing in plenty of new faces. However, the focus is still on Sam, Miles, and Kamala. When Miles makes a big choice to reverse choices he then has to live with that choice. It's a nice twist on "reverse the mistake" but also focuses on building a Larger group of Champions with plenty of fun interactions.

This book smartly remains light but with heavy themes. These are teenagers, with teen problems, but also deals with consequences of action. The art remains stylish and works really well for this style of a book. Most of the pacing is real good but the last issue was a little odd placed. Still good though. Overall, a nice step up from the previous run. A 4 out of 5.
Profile Image for Baba.
4,069 reviews1,513 followers
August 2, 2020
Despite the Champions more than doubling in membership with a widening global scope, Zub manages to keep the stories and characterisations coherent. So many Champions!!
.
Zub takes the team down a dark-side that rocks the team's core members. And although okay written, it's a path that so many Marvel teams have undergone, I would have preferred more innovation. On the upside the drama and tensions carry over well in to the final 2 issues despite them being War of the Realms crossovers. 7 out of 12.
Profile Image for RG.
3,084 reviews
August 22, 2019
Normally Im not the biggest fan of kid team up stories but this was really good. It didnt seem to have the YA feeling like a lot of them express. Ties in with war of the realms. Will probably follow this one..hopefully next volume is as good.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books169 followers
March 23, 2021
A direct continuation of Zub's work on the previous volume of Champions because creating confusing messes of overlapping reboots is what Marvel does nowadays.

Last time, The Champions accepted lots of youth heroes, and now Zub has to deal with an unsustainable cast. He does so by focusing on the core four (or five) and occasionally spotlighting one of the other characters. It works out pretty well.

The first four issues feature The Temptation of Miles Morales (by Mephisto, of course). Other than the ham-handed creation of the reason for the Temptation, it's a pretty good Temptation with unexpected repercussions.

The last two issues are a crossover not just with the War of the Realms, but also a ton of other comics that have the characters running off in a ton of different directions. It's fundamentally annoying, not just for the interruption of the main plotline, but also for the fact that we get little one-panel descriptions of why all kinds of characters are missing. But there's also a delightful crossover with Cyclops, offering some nice emotional resonance with Slim's early appearance in Champions.

Overall, this comic is trending downward, but that's mainly due to the annoying two War of the Realms issues. 3.5 stars.
Profile Image for Memphis Evans.
180 reviews5 followers
January 22, 2020
The best Champions book so far. Everyone in the large cast of characters gets an important story, even the villains. I usually find Mephisto tedious but he's perfectly utilized here.

Great story, great characters, great dialogue, great art! Easy five stars. I really don't like that this run ended after just 10 issues.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
August 10, 2019
Jim Zub's previous Champions run was a breath of fresh air after the original Waid run limped its way over the finish line, and this new series continues in that vein easily. Zub goes bigger, wilder, and more emotionally painful than ever, which is everything a comic about a teen superhero team should be. With Mephisto, time travel, and the War Of The Realms all thrown into the mix, you don't get a minute to breath while you're reading this one.

The first few issues seem to be team-building stuff, until things get heavy real fast by the end of the third and fourth issues, with the title of Beat The Devil being very accurate for a change rather than just metaphorical. No spoilers, but this one hurts everyone involved, especially those trying to do good things.

Issues 5 and 6 are your generic event tie-ins as the Champs try and deal with Malekith's attack during War Of The Realms. Zub takes the opportunity to reintroduce the adult Cyclops to the team, who now has all of his younger self's memories and so it becomes more of a heartfelt reunion than you'd expect. Otherwise these are just okay, again at least until the end where the fallout from the first few issues really comes to a head.

On art, Steven Cummings draws the first four issues while Juan Ramirez takes the second two. I miss Sean Izaakse, who was Champions' best artist, but he's gone on to bigger and better things, leaving Cummings and Ramirez as serviceable replacements.

Champions continues its hot streak, derailed a little by War Of The Realms, but not too much so that it loses any of the momentum the previous series built up for it.
Profile Image for Oneirosophos.
1,586 reviews73 followers
August 8, 2021
I'm sick & tired of this team to be disassembled for the millionth time, instead of doing interesting things.
Profile Image for Javi Ramos.
5 reviews
September 28, 2020
Los Campeones son el grupo de jóvenes de Marvel. A mi me encantan puesto que entre sus filas hay personajes como Miles Morales, Ms.Marvel o Viv. El primer arco del tomo es muy bueno y funciona bien. Los dos últimos números son un cruce con la guerra de los reinos y son más meh.
Profile Image for Christian Zamora-Dahmen.
Author 1 book31 followers
October 2, 2019
I am fairly impressed. After quite a few bumping issues, Jim Zub finally made his this complex team.
The book still suffers from important situations happening in other series, but Zub managed to keep it fun and deep. The hardest part for a writer is to make his characters come alive-- and he finally did.
Beautiful book.
Profile Image for Dimitris Papastergiou.
2,524 reviews86 followers
April 7, 2021
The second tie in for the event that I liked and I think that's it. All the rest were mediocre at best.

This one I don't even like the team, I mean besides Morales the rest of the cast is boring and not interesting to me, so I was mostly going into this one ready to get bored and read a bunch of cliche shit.

But, to my surprise, Jim Zub said to me 'No, fuck you and have fun reading' (he didn't actually) And that I did.

If not the best title from the event, (even better than the main) it's definitely the most fun to read.

Morales and the rest are ordered by Thor's mom to take her newborn baby and run. So they get into an RV and they do that. Fun times that I wouldn't mind reading just that for more than a couple of issues.

Great artwork too!
Profile Image for Michelle.
625 reviews89 followers
March 3, 2020
I have no knowledge of this superhero team, though I know a little bit about its members from reading their other titles (ie. Miles Morales, Kamela Khan, Unstoppable Wasp). Zub’s brief run with this team appeared on a number of “best of 2019” comics lists, which put it on my radar.

The story follows the new Champions, now being led by Kamala Khan who’s endeavoured to make the team a more global task force by increasing their members. Despite seeing quite a bit of success, her best friend, Miles Morales is acting cold and distant. Turns out he made a deal with Mephisto but it’s had consequences that he’s struggling to deal with.

Even with little to no knowledge of these heroes, I was able to enjoy this title. Zub provides a bit of background on everyone to bring newer readers up to speed which was much appreciated. Despite there being so many members, the story didn’t feel scattered, and there was a surprising amount of emotional heft to Miles’ story.

I know this run is very short-lived, but I enjoyed my time with volume 1 for sure. An accessible title for beginner/novice superhero readers.
Profile Image for Guilherme Smee.
Author 27 books189 followers
May 16, 2020
Jim Zub definitivamente é um escritor que sabe trabalhar com a dinâmica de equipes, seja na parate diegética como na extra diegética de uma HQ. Ele sabe lidar com personagens de equipe e sabe escrever em equipes de redação. Prova disso são algumas de suas inferências nas histórias do Vingadores e, agora, aqui nos Campeões. A dinâmica da equipe, mesmo com membros novos, é bem azeitada, me fazendo lembras de equipes juvenis que eram muito devotadas no passado como Novos Mutantes e Novos Guerreiros. Neste encadernado, Zub faz Miles Morales e Amadeus Cho enfrentarem moralmente o demônio Mefisto. A história é bem desenvolvida, com os dilemas e subtramas interessantes mas sofre da síndrome da Sociedade do Anel. Ou seja, o encadernado encerra bruscamente e não conseguimos satisfazer a nossa curiosidade sobre um encerramento na trama de pactos demoníacos de almas e vidas por vidas e almas. Um quadrinho bem divertido e amarradinho, pena que não tem um encerramento satisfatório.
Profile Image for Tyler Aaron.
173 reviews
January 15, 2022
Absolutely loved it. While some of my favorites like Snowguard and Ironheart didn’t get a ton of screen time, it made for an extremely compelling story with Kamala and Miles. I appreciate that Zub put less of an emphasis on setting up villain plot lines and instead we just focus on the core emotional struggles with the team.

No complaints with the art, and while the last couple of issues don’t quite keep up the tension of the first few, I still give it 5 stars for how good the writing between the Champions is. Champions has been a really solid series and I think this is my favorite of the trades so far.
Profile Image for mel.
197 reviews14 followers
March 2, 2021
3.5 stars // viv <3
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,271 reviews329 followers
January 29, 2020
I think this is the best this team has ever been, in this iteration. I feel like they finally have their own identity, as something other than Marvel's Teen Titans are a second try at Young Avengers. Now the cast is bigger, has a different focus, and the main characters are more mature. Which lets this take on the Mephisto plot really shine. Yes, Miles makes a deal with the devil, but it's a very different one than Peter Parker made, and this one is going to hurt a lot more for a lot longer. It's actually diabolical, which is rare enough. There's also one issue with the resurrected Cyclops, and I wasn't expecting that to be as cathartic as it was. I've been enjoying Champions all along, but I'm happy to see it finally at the top of its game.
Profile Image for Sarospice.
1,211 reviews14 followers
March 12, 2021
I don't know why but when I started this latest volume of CHAMPIONS the thought came to me that they could be Marvel's version of The Legion, sort of a club house for teen heroes to learn together and relate with someone there own age. The Miles Morales/Mephisto drama was interesting but shouldn't have been the only story with over 15 members on the team now. Most of the original team all have issues that they are taken off-page to resolve. Why? There's always a lot of potential in this title, but no one seems to get beyond teenage angst.
Profile Image for Emily.
728 reviews
Read
January 25, 2020
This is a good example of the problem with reading Marvel comics: there are so many characters and so many decades of backstory it's impossible to know what the hell is going on. It's nice to check in with the characters I know - Ms Marvel, Miles Morales, Viv Vision etc. - and I'm intrigued by some of the newcomers, but the reader doesn't really get to spend enough time with any of them to be truly satisfied.
Profile Image for José.
664 reviews8 followers
December 20, 2020
35/100.

Ha perdido el tono fresco que para mí tenía esta serie en particular. Joder, ha sido duro leerlo, ¿eh? No... entiendo cómo están escritos personajes a los que adoro. No los reconozco. Aun así, en el número 5 de este volumen está la vuelta de uno de mis personajes favoritos, así que eso les hace ganar una estrellita más.
Profile Image for Adam Fisher.
3,594 reviews23 followers
November 2, 2019
WOW! Someone decided to come in and shake this title up!
The Champions have grown their team enough that they can now take on multiple threats at once, making their team globally focused. With the original core team in stronger leader roles, they do well. Coming back from a successful mission, Miles suddenly seems much more angry and upset. We come to find out that during the mission, Kamala and Viv got killed, but Miles took advantage of a favor (not make a deal with) from Mephisto, to allow a redo. But.... the guilt is eating him from the inside out.
Mutant Dust joins the team (though probably temporarily because of the events of House of X) and we do get a return of Cyclops (taking place during the time when most of the mutants were stuck in Age of X-Man) finding out that his memories were augmented when young Cyclops returned to the past leaving him with all the experiences of young Scott's memories of his time on the team. (I really like this idea!)
At the end, despite being able to band together and take out a ton of trolls (during the event of War of the Realms), the secret of Miles' actions being revealed to Ms. Marvel has her doubting her role as leader. Will she give up leadership of the team she began?
AND... will Sam regain his Nova helmet?

This Volume was excellent! Nice to see Mephisto coming back into play in the Marvel Universe again. Really looking forward to Volume 2. High recommend.
Profile Image for Sarah.
1,746 reviews35 followers
March 3, 2020
A surprisingly intense read: *SPOILERS* Spider-Man makes a deal with Mephisto to undo a mission gone wrong in which, not only is there rampant collateral damage, but that also ends with the deaths of Viv and Ms. Marvel. And... wow. Talk about not pulling your punches. The editor's notes in this graphic called those issues "infamous" and... yeah, that's about right. Still, they were well-written, but I honestly find myself wanting to know more about Miles than the rest of the Champions. I know this was the tie-in to War of the Realms, but... how's Miles doing? If anyone knows what I need to read to find that out... I'd be very appreciative! (I'm guessing he has his own series... but I'm not as well-versed in Marvel as I am in DC.) Still... I'm dying to know what's going to happen next with the Champions. On to the next volume!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1,602 reviews11 followers
March 18, 2022
I can understand that the success of this volume of Champions only lasted ten issue. It isn't about the stories or the writing or the art (although some of the art didn't look like the characters on different pages at different times, but I think that too many heroes were thrown together too fast to get to care about them.

Miles's choice to save his friends was a huge story that should have (or could have) had repercussions across the MCU, but was sort of a blip that affected Miles and Amadeus more than anyone. They alluded to Dr. Strange and others feeling the timeline alter, but . . . maybe it was because the series was beginning its end that nothing came of it.

I still like these characters and wish that they could have continued, but then again, I have seen a lot of my favorites be cancelled and come back over and over again -- so it is okay.
Profile Image for WILL U READ.
61 reviews
October 14, 2022
Oh My Gosh! So Good!

I choose five stars because I love the story and the stakes. I really appreciate seeing young people being so empowered to save the day and reconcile with their losses. Emotional moments were felt and that means a lot because it means the piece of art touched me. I really feel the action scenes are spot on and bring themes of saving lives and how they addressed the theme of death is spot on. It was rather weird to see a few separate villains but that’s fine! I was on my seat. I want to say the champions are my favorite team of superheroes to read about. I love Ms. Marvel and all the other characters very well because we had time to see them respectively in their character arcs. I recommend this comic to anyone especially teens! I ultimately loved the vibrant art style and how it conveyed the multiple scenes!
Profile Image for Krystl Louwagie.
1,507 reviews13 followers
November 5, 2019
There's too many characters to really keep straight here, but as always, I love Miles Morales and Kamala Khan. Nice to see Dust again as well. Overall, these are interesting characters with interesting problems. I liked this volume and would like to read more. Nice humor, good heart. What I wasn't a fan of was the sudden attention and change to Kamala's outfit-------it's never been so TIGHT to her boobs before. Lets grow up, it's not the 90's. Graphic novel art needs to represent a variety of real body types and personalities and Kamala's never been portrayed like that before.
Profile Image for SA.
1,158 reviews
December 19, 2019
I like the concept of the team, and I think it's great that the Champions title was brought back.

But like -- in 10 volumes of Ms Marvel Kamala doesn't cry once and in like every volume of Champions she's weeping on a roof somewhere. What the fuck? Did Zub even read G. Willow Wilson's Ms Marvel??? Kamala is the leader of the team. She's displayed an incredible inner strength and growth. She's confronted terrible monsters and shitty people and that's without her costume on. Crying is not her response to stress.
Profile Image for Timothy Pitkin.
1,995 reviews8 followers
July 6, 2022
Now this is how you handle a Spiderman deal with the devil story. By forcing the Spider-Man (Miles) into a situation where a deal with Mephisto is the only solution to the problem. In this case a mission for the Champions goes so badly that most of them die and the only way to save them is accepting a do over from Mephisto but at the cost that Miles could not save a girl he saved in that same mission. I like this because it goes with the Great power comes great responsibility. It also fits with Mephisto seeing Miles suffer over his failure.
100 reviews
September 20, 2022
When Cyclops came in, my son and I marked out. So, kudos to Zub for being able to pull off interesting moments. Also, kudos to maintaining a focus on Miles, Sam, and Kamala since they're the 3 we most love...

...but we gotta either make this team smaller, or really focus-in on people like Locust, Falcon, Patriot, Dust, Pinpoint, and Power Man so we can care about these characters (especially with Miles and Sam leaving, Kamala threatening to quit, and Amadeus being thrust to the background) or it will be very hard to care about this team in very short order.
Profile Image for Danielle.
3,051 reviews1 follower
January 28, 2020
Lots of introductory stuff in the first volume of this run - there's a lot of promise, but it's mostly exposition. I'm interested in seeing where the story goes with the Champions' guilt once that's fully explored more. I'm a little less invested in Sam - it feels like his character was removed just to affect Kamala, even though he has his own story going on. The huge cliffhanger means that it's hard to rate this by itself, but it's a fine start.
825 reviews3 followers
July 2, 2021
Some good and some bad in this issue. I liked the return of Cyclops, but missed the younger version from the original Champions run. I like that the Champions team has expanded but breaking apart the core/original group hurts the story a little. There were larger story tie ins that were nice (War of the Realms) and I liked the appearance by Mephisto, who created drama by giving some Champions what they wanted, no strings attached.
Very interested to see if resolution comes in the next volume.
Profile Image for Bekka.
1,207 reviews35 followers
September 29, 2020
YEEEEEES! I loved this so much! I loved the storyline, the characters (and the character diversity too!) and just about everything! I'm not entirely caught up on the storylines leading up to this (working on it though!) but everything was really well explained, and I read it easily!
Will definitely, without doubt, be picking up the rest of this series!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews

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