We Are The Marvel Champions Part 2

Picking up where we left off, more on Marvel's Champions!

Champions #11 (February, 1977) was a big issue for the team in more ways than one.

First and foremost, it had the team meeting Black Goliath (a West Coast super-hero with growth powers and ties to Hank Pym/Ant-Man and the Avengers).  It also guest-starred ex-Avenger archer, Hawkeye, and his time-misplaced cowboy buddy, the Two-Gun Kid, and the team faced off against the shadowy threat of Warlord Kaa (as well as getting use to having Darkstar around).

The team also was to deal with the Stilt-Man, and a threat from Black Goliath's recently cancelled title, and artist John Byrne came aboard as Champions artist at this time (through issue #15), joining Bill Mantlo's wild scripts (which were a part of the rest of the Champions' run!).

Things did get wilder, as Hercules, Black Widow, Ghost Rider, Iceman, Angel and Darkstar faced the Stranger (a cosmic powered villain who had previously faced the X-Men and the Silver Surfer) in Champions #12 (March, 1977), and dealt with the item that Stilt-Man stole....and might end the Earth, all while half the team ended up in the other dimensional realm of Kamo Tharnn (the Possessor....an old foe of Hercules and Thor).  The team was able to stop all the problems and come back together in Champions #13 (May, 1977)...but there were problems developing on the team (having a headquarters and other equipment that didn't work, as well as the differing personalities of the team causing problems...and the team let Ghost Rider take a little time in his own title in Ghost Rider #23, and Black Widow helped Spider-Man fight the Silver Samurai in Marvel Team-Up #57).

Swarming Super-Heroes

The team came back together in Champions #14 and #15 (July and September, 1977), where they fought Swarm, lord of the killer bees!  (This wasn't John Belushi on a cross-continental bender, but instead a man (Fritz Von Meyer) who had been mutated into a form where he was held together by bees!).  The Champions managed to pull apart this threat as they were falling apart....

Vacation From Trouble

The team tried to get away from trouble (and each other), but only ended up facing Godzilla (at least Hercules, Black Widow, Angel and Iceman did) in Godzilla #3 (October, 1977 by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe); the whole original team gathering to help Iron Man fight MODOK and A.I.M. in Iron Man Annual #4 (August, 1977, by Bill Mantlo and George Tuska); Hercules working with Black Widow and Iceman and Avengers Iron Man and the Beast to fight Typhon (an old foe of Hercules) in Avengers #163 (September, 1977, by Jim Shooter and George Tuska), and the team being the destination of Magneto and the Beast in a world taken over by Dr. Doom in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall), which led directly into...

Back to Business

...Champions #16 (November, 1977 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall).  In this issue, the team was a pawn of Dr. Doom and his mind-controlling gas as well, except for the non-breathing, very demonic Ghost Rider, proving the Beast knew what he was doing when he led the team out west!

The rest of the team was controlled and did fight against Magneto, the Beast and even the Hulk, but eventually Dr. Doom was beaten (but not without more fracturing of the team dynamic....which already was falling apart).

The team showed how fractured it was here...


....and things didn't get better.

The Last Issue

Champions #17 (January, 1978, by Bill Mantlo, with art by George Tuska and John Byrne) had the Champions facing off against a group of evil mutants (Unus, Lorelei, Blob and the Vanisher) who had come to the team looking for help...from the Sentinels (evil robots who planned on eradicating mutants, and it seems demi-gods, ex-Russian spies and demonic motorcycle riders as well)!

This was the end of the Champions run, but not quite the final end of the team....that was promised for an upcoming Avengers issue, but instead ended up in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man....

...and for more on that, check back!

We Are The Marvel Champions Part 1

Take one son of an Olympian god, a millionaire mutant, an ex-Russian femme fatale, a walking ice box and a demon from hell...and what do you have? Certainly not a team....well, actually, there was one.

In a tribute to committee thinking, two ex-Avengers (Hercules and Black Widow) joined solo star (Ghost Rider) and two ex-X-Men (Angel and Iceman) to form...The Champions! (And it really was quite a committee...David Anthony Kraft came up with the name for the team, Len Wein and John Romita contributing to the design of Angel's new costume - taking away a blue colored costume in a blue dominated team, and Len insisting a team have five members).

Cover dated October 1975, the saga of Marvel's Champions began. Originally intended to be an Angel/Iceman series, the Marvel offices convinced writer Tony Isabella to add Hercules (a strongman), Black Widow (a woman) and a solo star (Ghost Rider...though, had he not gotten his own title, it could have been Black Goliath! Or even Son of Satan, Captain Marvel or Power Man) to make it a full-fledged team. Art on the first two issues was by Don Heck (himself no stranger to the Avengers or the X-Men), and Champions #1-3 (also originally suppose to be Giant-Sized Champions #1, another in a long line of pre-production tinkering for the team) told the tale of how these unlikely teammates would gather.

The hell it was to put this series together was reflected in the story...it was Pluto (Olympian god of the netherworld), who, in an agreement with other more demonic underlords to restrict the actions of Zeus, god-father of the Olympians (and Hercules in particular). Pluto's plan was to wed Hercules to Hippolyta (queen of the amazons), and Venus (the goddess of love) to Ares (the god of war), which would end their interference with his plans for Earth and Olympus. If the human friendly Olympians don't play along, the alliances he made with the netherworlder demons like Mephisto, Satan and the Demon of the Mask, would destroy Olympus. Hercules and Venus oppose this, along with the rest of the future Champions, but Pluto has Zeus' (father to the Olympian gods, and Hercules) aid in bringing them back to Olympus. The Earth heroes eventually figure out a way to Olympus and defeat Pluto's armies, but are not enough to stop the demonically backed Pluto himself. The Ghost Rider has to convince Zeus to stop Pluto (as Johnny Blaze knows a little about demons, and gets Zeus to realize that the only reason the underlords united was to topple Olympus). Venus stays behind to spread the message of love amongst the gods, and Hercules and the rest of the humans return to Earth.

Group Dynamics

The Champions next gather in Champions #4 (May 1976, by X-Men writer Chris Claremont and art by George Tuska, who also drew #3).

In this issue, the team faces Dr. Edward Lansing, who has a solution to the homeless problem – turning them into his mind controlled mutated slaves. Black Widow and Hercules are the first to stumble onto his plot, but the Mutates overpower the two. Dr. Lansing then uses his mind control box on the two ex-Avengers, and sends them to attack the two ex-X-Men (Iceman and Angel, seems the Avengers and X-Men always fight!) as well as Black Widow’s mentor, Ivan Petrovich, who were all at Angel’s beach house. In facing Ivan, Black Widow breaks her control, then turns to break Dr. Lansing’s control box…which frees Hercules and the Mutates, but the Mutates kill the Doctor. Angel decides at this point that the team should form on a regular basis, to be champions to protect the innocent. The Champions bid fair well to Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider #17 (April 1976, by Tony Isabella and Frank Robbins) but that’s just to allow Johnny Blaze time for his own series, and doesn’t stop their adventures.

On A Rampage

In Champions #5-6, (April and June of 1976, written by Tony Isabella and art by Don Heck in #5, and George Tuska in #6), the team faces an inventor, Stuart Clarke, who succumbed to the recession and uses his exo-skeleton to try to rob a bank. At the same time, Angel was securing his right to the Worthington fortune his mother left him, and the team battles Clarke (who gets the name, Rampage) and asks him to surrender, but Rampage instead tries to kill himself by exploding his suit’s jet back. Iceman manages to save everyone, even Clarke, who is injured by the blast. During all this, Black Widow is elected leader of the team.

Motorcycle Detour

The team briefly appears in Avengers #151 (September 1976), to comment on the hype around the announcement of the Avengers new roster (which will include ex-X-Man the Beast…he comes in more later). Ghost Rider is present as well, having returned from his team-ups with the Son of Satan, the Werewolf by Night, the Man-Thing, Morbius and Daredevil in Ghost Rider’s #17-20, Daredevil #138 and Marvel Premiere #28 (all from 1976, and explains why the motorcyclist from hell was not available for the two issues with Rampage).

Back To Full Strength

In Champions #7-10 (August-January 1976/1977), the team experiences a few explosive changes both inside and outside the book (as shown by this stunning cover by artists Gil Kane and Al Milgrom for issue #8! And, it wasn’t even a fully symbolic cover – as the damage done from this explosion gets Angel to switch from his costume to a red version of the blue costume he had worn in the X-Men, but more on that later,…so keep reading, true believer!).


Tony Isabella and George Tuska still write and draw issue #7, to set the stage, but Bill Mantlo becomes the new writer for the rest of the Champions series, with Bob Hall in some of his earliest work as an artist for issues #8-10.

The team changes at this time as well, starting with a temporary headquarters! And, the team just starts to settle in as they get to face a menace that's like a marriage...something old (armored Russian Iron Man foe, the Titanium Man), something new (the Russian mutant Darkstar, wielder of the darkforce), something borrowed (a new Russian named Yuri in the second Crimson Dynamo armor) and...well, something that fought something blue (that being the Griffin, who faced the blue-furred Beast and Angel back in Beast's solo stories in Amazing Adventures, as well as Spider-Man and the Beast; now returned to face the Angel and his friends in an attempt to get back to being human).

Griffin and Darkstar go to free Rampage from the hospital, while the returning Ghost Rider is headed there as well to meet the Champions' first costume foe of their own and use his "demon from hell" act to get some information from the bankrupt villain.

Meanwhile, the Titanium Man captures the Black Widow and her mentor, Alexi Bruskin. Rampage delivers the news of the Widow's capture to the rest of the Champions, but unbeknownst to him, his exoskeleton was booby-trapped by his supposed allies, exploding in an attempt to kill the Champions.

Thanks to Iceman, they survive, and Ghost Rider even saves Rampage. The explosion does cost Angel his costume, and he gets a red-colored variation of an old costume of his. The Russian villains then try to add Ivan Petrovich to the group they want to take home - and it is revealed why - Yuri is Ivan's estranged son. After a pitched battle in Los Angeles and in the Pacific Ocean, Bruskin dies, Darkstar switches sides, the Champions capture the Titanium Man and the Griffin and Yuri escapes. All the while, conflict grows amongst the Champions.

The conflict subsides for a while during the Christmas season, as the Champions celebrate together in Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (1975, by writer Roger Stern and artist George Tuska), where the team thinks Iceman delivered some snow...but instead it was a little Christmas magic in California!

And, the rest of the Marvel Champions' story will come soon, so stay tuned!

Building A Black Goliath

Dr. William Barrett Foster was just the right guy in the right place at the right time...working for Tony Stark when Goliath (Hank Pym) was stuck at a larger size...and the Avengers were being attacked by the Sons of the Serpent in Avengers #32-35 (September to December, 1966, in stories by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, with art by Don Heck).  This led to Foster being Pym's regular assistant (in Avengers #41, #54 (first appearance of Ultron), and #75 (first appearance of Arkon), and even being called in by the Avengers to help find the missing Ant-Man (Hank Pym, going back an identity) and Wasp in Marvel Feature #9 (May, 1973) during Ant-Man time being stuck at a smaller size and facing Dr. Nemesis.

Sidelined No Longer

Bill Foster finally took on a starting role, as he turned into Black Goliath for two issues of Power Man (#24 and #25, by Tony Isabella and George Tuska, and then Tony and Bill Mantlo with Ron Wilson in April and June of 1975).  In these two issues, Power Man (Luke Cage, who had taken the Power Man name from an Avengers villain), was looking for his friend Claire Temple, and she had been looking for Bill, her ex-husband, whom she married and left before his working with the Avengers.  Bill had duplicated the Pym growth formula, and taken it while working at Stark Industries in Los Angeles, convincing her he was stuck at giant size and working at a circus to help fund research to allow him back to normal size.  

Sadly, that circus was Ringmaster's Circus of Crime, which Power Man and Black Goliath ended up fighting; and Luke won Claire's heart.  Foster returned to LA...and his own series!

Big Man in Los Angeles

Black Goliath #1 (February, 1976 by Tony Isabella and George Tuska), details Bill Foster's return to the west coast and Los Angeles and Stark Industries facility there, and with encouragement from Hank Pym (the original Ant-Man, Giant-Man and Goliath, who was being Yellowjacket at the time with the Avengers, ignoring his size-increasing powers), decides to keep his Black Goliath identity and be a super-hero! 

During his first battle with the radioactive villain Atom-Smasher (Ronald English), and was dosed in radiation (which gave Bill Foster some problems with his size changing....but more on that later..).

The battle continued into Black Goliath #2 (April, 1976, by Chris Claremont and George Tuska), where Black Goliath wins (but with a cost...).  Also lurking behind the scenes was Warhawk (a super-powered assassin who had previously fought Iron Fist, though that wasn't revealed until later).

With Black Goliath #3 (June, 1976, also by Claremont and Tuska), Warhawk killed the Atom-Smasher at the behest of his employer....and Black Goliath faced off against the new villain of Vulcan...a super-strong, angry man, who broke into the Stark Industries facility to get an experimental device.

In Black Goliath #4 (August, 1976 written by Chris Claremont and art by Rich Buckler and Don Heck), Foster tries to find out what experiment was stolen from Tony Stark, but Stark wouldn't reveal the facts about it...and, while dealing with that, Black Goliath also had to face off against the old Daredevil foe of Stilt-Man, who used his Z-Ray to make Bill, and his friends Celia Jackson and her nephew Keith vanish...

...to reappear in Black Goliath #5 (November, 1976 by Chris Claremont and Keith Pollard), wherein Black Goliath, Celia and Keith are found teleported to the alien planet of Kirgar, and face off with Mortag to get home!  All this, and sadly, it was the end of Black Goliath's regular series....but not the end of Black Goliath!

Hanging With Teams

After a brief team-up with the Fantastic Four's favorite pilot, the blue-eyed bashful Thing, to face off against the old Ant-Man villain, the Hijacker (in Marvel Two-In-One #24 of February, 1977 by writers Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter, and art by Sal Buscema and Pablo Marcus), where the aptly-named villain tried to steal items from the Stark West facility while the Thing was there helping Dr. Bill Foster test a new type of space suit...

....(and a friendship between Bill and Benjamin J. Grimm started, which helped Bill out more than once later in his life!).

Still, what of the Stilt-Man and that missing item?

Well, check out Champions #11 and #12 (February and March of 1977), where Black Goliath works with odd west coast team of super-heroes (which include ex-Avengers Hercules and Black Widow, and ex-X-Men Angel and Iceman, as well as the demonic Ghost Rider), and things got Stranger (a cosmic villain that once faced the X-Men and Silver Surfer...). 

This led to a consulting job for Bill Foster with the Champions (which, sadly, didn't last long, as the team soon disbanded...sadder still as likely, Black Goliath would have also found a home there!).  Instead, he was looking for Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) in Spider-Woman #4 (July, 1978), and ended up being a "Defender for a Day" (along with heroes like Captain Marvel, Captain Ultra, Falcon, Havok, Hercules, Iron Fist, Jack of Hearts, Marvel Man, Ms. Marvel, Nova, Paladin, Polaris, Prowler, Son of Satan, Stingray, Tagak, Torpedo and the White Tiger; heroes who hadn't really made it or were regular team members of any team at the time, all to the frustration of real Defender, Nighthawk), all called together when a documentary maker named Dollar Bill made a call for more Defenders members in Defenders #62-#65 in 1978.  This was also the last appearance of Black Goliath....

New Job, New Name

...as Bill Foster took on the name of Giant-Man as he joined Project:P.E.G.A,S.U.S. (Bill Foster brought the body of Atom-Smasher to the facility in Marvel Two-In-One #54 of August, 1979 where he was greeted by the Thing and Quasar (formerly Marvel Man, now the head of security at this research facility; and Bill had to reveal his identity of Black Goliath to Ben in Marvel Two-In-One #55 in September, 1979).  Quite a bit more happened at Project:P.E.G.A,S.U.S., and it involved the amazonian Thundra, cybernetic Deathlok and alien Wundarr and even the Cosmic Cube as well, as the saga rolled on until Marvel Two-In-One #58 (December, 1979).

Eventually, Bill Foster revealed that he got a fatal dose of radiation from Atom-Smasher, and with the help of his friends, including the Thing, Iceman, Captain America and Spider-Woman, got treated for the problem....

...and continued to appear here and there across the Marvel Universe (more as Bill Foster), but eventually returning as Giant-Man (where he faced off against Ant-Man foe, Dr. Nemesis in Marvel Comics Presents #113-118 in 1992).

Back to Basics

But, Bill Foster had a chance encounter with the Thing (in Thing #1, January, 2006), and had become Goliath again, even making the cover of the last issue (Thing #8 of September, 2006).

Sadly, Bill Foster should have stayed in retirement, as his return coincided with the Marvel series, Civil War, which put heroes against heroes, with some of them, like Goliath (who had sided with Captain America against Iron Man), not making it out of the series alive.

(The poor guy couldn't even make a cover of the main series!).

Still, we can only hope that some day, Bill Foster will return (he did, as shown in this cover with popular Avengers like Tigra, Moon Knight, Mockingbird, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Mantis and Black Panther, from West Coast Avengers Annual #3 of 1988!) and that maybe Marvel would collect the original Black Goliath #1-5 (maybe along with the Ant-Man feature of Marvel Feature #4-10 of 1972?

Marvel At Godzilla

True, Godzilla began with the 1954 Ishiro Honda film as a kaiju (that is, giant Japanese monster), but it was in the 1970s where Godzilla would “go, go, go” and become a big hit in America.

Godzilla Attacks Marvel Comics

One of the biggest signs of success for the mutated dinosaur, was that he became a Marvel comic!

From August, 1977 until July, 1979, the King of the Monsters menaced the mighty Marvel heroes month after month…

With stories by Doug Moench (#1-24), and art by Herb Trimpe (#1-3, #6-24) and Tom Sutton (#4-5), the terror of Tokyo fought against the various teams and locations of the Marvel Universe, facing the Champions (which included Hercules, Black Widow and ex-X-Men Angel and Iceman), the Fantastic Four and the Avengers (including Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Captain America), as well as Dum Dum Dugan and Jimmy Woo as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! 

Godzilla Travels All Over

Godzilla even faced off against Shogun Warrior Red Ronin (as Marvel was also licensing the Shogun Warriors at this time) and Jack Kirby‘s Devil Dinosaur during this run, as well as spending some time shrunken down due to Hank Pym's shrinking formula (the same formula which allowed Hank to be Ant-Man and Yellowjacket!).

Godzilla even traveled across the United States, met other monsters  and even headed into space, truly a final frontier for this usually Earthbound behemoth!


Seems Godzilla only missed Spider-Man while at working at Marvel Comics...




....a shame, as they both got their powers from radiation, you'd think they might have bonded!

Godzilla Says Goodbye to Marvel

Even though the licensing ended, Godzilla still returned (mutated slightly further, and not referenced by name) to face Iron Man and the West Coast Avengers as well.  And, of course, Godzilla found success at Dark Horse Comics in the 1990s, and with IDW Publishing in the 2000s. (and his Marvel issues were reprinted in an Essential Godzilla as well…).

As Blue Oyster Cult said…”Go go Godzilla”!