REVIEW: Champions #20: Champions or Replacements?

I am not a huge fan of carbon copy heroes. I took a little time away from Marvel Comics and when I returned I did not recognize the Marvel Universe. Steve Rogers was not Captain America. Tony Stark was not Iron Man. Thor was not Thor. Wolverine was dead and the X-Men were treated like unwanted step siblings. The a Fantastic Four were gone. However,Â we did have Spider-Man, several of them actually. It just turned me off and I drifted pretty heavily to DC.Â Champions #20Â is a book populated with the copycat versions of my childhood heroes that turned me off from Marvel.

I wish I could say that despite my dislike of the cast that at least it had a solid story, but I can“t do that. The story was kinda hokey. Jim Zub brings us part 2 ofÂ Northern Lights and delivers a very unimpressive tale. Â The team travels to the Arctic after receiving some unusual ice level readings. Not something you would imagine superheroes keeping track of, but ok. Â They encounter the obviously a villain and badly hiding it guy, who has the very creative moniker of “The Master of the World”“ whoÂ claims to be healing the ice caps and is looking out for humanity. He also strains noticeably hard not to smite protesters in front of the Champions. Â We also get a scene where replacement Nova hits on replacement Vision (who while having a female appearance is a machine) because she held his hand after he got shot through the gut with a laser. You can“t even say he misinterpreted the gesture as she explained she did it because she was told it“s just what you do to make a wounded person feel better.

The book wasn“t all bad. Sean Izaakse at least made the characters look good. I may not be a fan of most of them, Miles Morales being the only one I like, but Izaakse at least kept my attention. Â In fact the art was the only thing that got me through the book. I“m going to have to check out some of his other work. If he can get me through this issue then I“d love to see what he can do with characters I am a fan of. Marcio Menyz had a large hand in the issue“s great aesthetics with a color palette that breathed a lot of life and vibrancy into a pretty dull and uninteresting story.

All in all I was pretty underwhelmed and have no desire to check out the next issue.

Story: 1.5
Art: 3
Overall Rating: 2.25

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(W) Jim Zub (A) Sean Izaakse (CA) Stefano Caselli