#Contest of Champions

[splooosh]

Myriad

John Romita Jr - Pablo Marcos

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

The contest of champions' about to start, the tension's already building up as Dalinar and Taranavgian are talking, and then, all of a sudden Sanderson hits me with the biggest plot twist...

Elhokar???!!! What are you doing here? What do you mean you're Odium's champion?

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[braddocklegacy]

Marvel Contest of Champions Shines partners with Marvel artist, Luciano Vecchio, for this years Pride piece!

“The diversity of our Developers, Summoners, and Champions forms the core of The Contest. We are honoured to partner with @LucianoVecchio to create this art piece that celebrates some of our 🏳️‍🌈 Champions!”

[marvelousmrm]

Contest of Champions #1 (Gruenwald, Mantlo, & Grant/Romita Jr., June 1982). I think this is Marvel’s first limited event crossover series? The whole issue is spent assembling every hero on the planet and establishing the rules of the contest. Former foes, allies, or lovers get brief moments to greet each other — which is honestly worth the price of admission. Some of the Z-list international heroes are harder to get excited about…

[fuckyeahalisonblaire]

Concert of Champions incentive variant by Ivan Talavera

[nerds-yearbook]

Marvel launched their first miniseries with Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions. The first issue had a cover date of June 1982. The issue featured a huge cast of Marvel heroes (Aurora, Guardian, Northstar, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Angel, Beast, Hellcat, Iceman, Gargoyle, Son of Satan, Valkyrie, Ajak, Hero/Gilgamesh, Ikaris, Makkari, Reject, Sersi, Sprite, Thena, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fanfastic, the Thing, Black Bolt, Crystal, Gorgon, Karnak, Lockjaw, Medusa, Triton, Quicksilver, Acroyear, Acturus Rann, Bug, Devil, Marrionette, Microtron, Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar, Ursa Major, Vanguard, Cyclops, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Sprite, Storm, Wolverine, Firebird, Texas Twister, Shooting Star, Red Wolf, Lobo, Night Rider, Iron Fist, Power Man/Luke Cage, 3-D Man, Aguila, American Eagle, Ant Man/Scott Lang, Aquarian/Wundarr, Arabian Knight, Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Valinor, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blue Shield, Brother Voodoo, Captain Britian, Captain Ultra, Clea, the Comet, Daredevil, Dazzler, Devil-Slayer, Drax, Doc Samson, Doctor Druid, Doctor Strange, Falcon, Firebird, Guardsman, Havok, Hawkeye, Her, Hercules, Hulk, Jack of Hearts, Jocasta, Karkas, Ka-Zar, Living Mummy, Machine Man, Mentor, Mockingbird, Moondragon, Moon Knight, Multiple Man, Namorita, Nighthawk, Nova, Paladin, Polaris, Powerhouse, Quasar, Razorback, Rom the Space Knight, Sabra, Shanna the She Devil, She-Hulk, Shroud, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Star-Dancer, Starfox, Stingray, Sub-Mariner, Sunfire, Tagak, Tamara Rann, Thundra, Tigra, Torpedo, Union Jack, Venus, Werewolf by Night, Whizzer, Yellowjacket/Hank Pym, Zabu, and Korvac) as well as introducing Titanis, Xaphan, Blitzkrieg (Franz Mittelstaedt), Captain Universe, Collective Man (Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu), Defensor (Gabriel Sepulveda), Peregrine (Alain Racine), Shamrock (Molly Fitzgerald), and Talisman. They were created by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo, and John Romita Jr. The Grandmaster and Death played a global game using heroes with the possibility of bringing the Collector back to life at stake. ("Gathering of Heroes," Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions 1, Marvel Comic Event)

[dirigibleplumbing]

Civil Warrior angst collage I made for @nostalgicatsea for the 616 Steve/Tony server stockings exchange.

[dchuntress]

it IS amazing to me to see that panel where they're introducing the lineup of MUTANT artists and they still specifically dazzler as "out and proud" uh huh. could be a reference to her song but still, the out and proud singer? come on they're all openly mutant, so this can only mean...

happy pride month alison 🩵🌈

[splooosh]

“When heroes Gather, Part 2

Bob Layton - Pablo Marcos - John Romita Jr

[keepsmagnetoaway]

Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions 3 (August 1982)

Mark Gruenwald/John Romita Jr & Pablo Marcos

This awful, awful miniseries comes to a merciful end. There's some actual X-Men content in this one, mind you, so I guess we should talk about it a bit.

Logan needs a cigarette. So do I.

Angel, meanwhile, meets an, 'ow you say, fanboy.

They don't really get on.

Storm is in this one too, up against a tastelessly named German, Blitzkrieg (his name was, unsurprisingly, changed in the German edition of this comic).

Thankfully, this all comes to an end with a very unsurprising twist about the identity of the mysterious hooded god-being who was controlling one of the teams.

Yeah, cool, whatever. Nothing much comes of this: Death and the Grandmaster come to some sort of further cosmic bargain and everyone gets sent home again.

This was a very easy series to clown on but sadly it sets the tone for many more such series - we're reading Secret Wars soon, which was the first really big, successful one of these, but was patterned pretty closely on Contest of Champions. There's a direct throughline that starts here and ends with non-stop exhausting Civil War-style stuff. Alas. Happily though, in the shorter term, we're finally going back to reading some mainline X-Men issues.

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[classicartverso]

Paco Medina - Marvel: Contest of Champions

[marvelousmrm]

Contest of Champions #1-3. “…a complete list of every super hero,” as of 1982. Ooh, I love a list. This is my favorite supplement since they did cutaways of the Baxter Building and Daredevil’s billy club!

[themarvelproject]

Marvel house ad for Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, the first-ever limited series from the House of Ideas (1982)