Review: Champions #1

Writer Eve Ewing and artist Simone Di Meo are an incredibly talented team working with incredibly strong characters in Champions. Unfortunately their talents are constrained by an overall narrative arc which is simply a watered down Civil War.

Kamala“s Law has been enacted by the government banning teen heroes from operating without an official mentor since Viv Vision mistakenly destroyed Coles Academic and injured Kamala Khan seriously. Because of this the United States government sends their anti child hero task forces C.R.A.D.L.E. to round up our favorite teen heroes.

This issue starts out promising, focusing on the controversy from the perspective of Miles Morales and his school friends. It“s interesting seeing the conflict from the perspective of other students around him. Miles then swings right into a trap as a purse-snatching victim turns out to be an undercover cop trying to capture teen heroes.

Miles then meets up with the Champions where they debate how to respond to the law before being attacked by C.R.A.D.L.E. Most of our heroes escape only for readers to discover who snitched on them, Viv Vision herself.

No matter how talented the creative team, the premise weighs this issue down. The art and dialogue are fantastic but the underlying story is simply too close a repeat of Civil War and Civil War II. It is ludicrous to see a cop pretend to be a crime victim in the hope of entrapping teen heroes. Clearly they could have easily been ”˜rescued“ by an adult hero and risk distracting that hero while real crimes were happening.

The teen heroes“ debate over how to handle government policy disenfranchising our young heroes is meant to have added relevance in our current political landscape, but the dialogue between characters feels entirely interchangeable and is way too similar to what Mark Millar had Captain America say decades ago in Civil War.

These characters have so much potential but this Outlawed crossover feels way too familiar at this point. It“s a waste of great story-tellers who can do so much better.Â

Writing: 3 of 5 stars
Art: 4 of 5 stars
Colors: 4 of 5 starsÂ

Overall: 3.6 of 5 starsÂ

Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Simone Di Meo
Colors: Federico Blee
Publisher: Marvel ComicsÂ

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.