Writer: Mark Waid / Artists: Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba / Marvel Comics
Avengers crossing over with the Champions? Yeap. We enter Part Two of this four-part crossover running between the Avengers and Champions titles. There was a bit of animosity that reared it’s head in Part One as the Avengers have some critiques of the Champions. It’s a bit of an “Parents Older heroes just don’t understand” Will Smith moment as the Champions felt they weren’t being respected as equals. They didn’t appreciate being treated like the Avengers’ “junior varsity” team, so to speak.
This month the teams are split up again as The High Evolutionary’s minions are causing specific tall buildings in certain countries to vibrate erratically. The Avengers and Champions break up into mix-matched groups and face the threats. We see Avengers again interact with Champion characters and if we’re talking favorite pairings then I gotta say, Miles, Cyclops, and Vision were my favorite collaborative effort. Young Scott Summers knowing Vision’s plans to save the building as well as how difficult it was for him to stabilize the building while keeping it from falling — it felt as if Scott was able to relate to Vision as a peer.
There’s father-daughter tension between Vision and Viv running through the books which plays out in the end. Overall, this team up doesn’t feel as big as it should. It feels more like filler to bring these two groups together again after the departure of the young legacy heroes from the Avengers. I’ll be glad once we get back to the Champions as their own entity and facing their own problems but I’m not knocking this too hard as a change of pace is needed to shake things up at times. Humberto Ramos and Victor Olazaba’s artwork make both teams look vibrant and good with one another. Ramos, of course, being the regular artist and all, gives these teen heroes a young energy about them but once the action kicks in, all bets are off. The artwork in Champions keeps me coming back and works incredibly well with the storytelling.
This doesn’t feel like a must-have crossover event but it’s still good to see where these two groups stand with one another months later. Let’s hope that there’s a big pay off now that we know The High Evolutionary world is coming into view as the plot thickens.
Reading Champions? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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