Classic Review: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions

Quick Summary

Pros: The event has importance from a historical standpoint. The conflicts are exciting at times. The artwork is great and is one of the biggest positives of the volume.

Cons: The main storyline isn’t that interesting and is given pretty poor justification. Small writing errors further weaken the reading experience.

Overall: This comic does a few things right but not enough to really justify going back to read it. The big positives here come from the way the event does something unique, for the time, and does it with some great visuals. Unfortunately, the story itself isn’t that entertaining and never feels overly compelling. Readers with an interest in Marvel history may enjoy this read but those looking for the best comics of the past might want to look elsewhere.

Story

Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, by Bill Mantlo with Mark Gruenwald and Steven Grant, is an interesting event from a historical standpoint but a pretty mediocre one from an entertainment standpoint. This comic takes many of Marvel’s premiere heroes and sends them into battle against one another. Though these battles have flashes of fun and excitement, they end up being a bit dull. The characters never feel like they have a reason to be fighting and, thus, the reader never has someone to really cheer for. Plus, a few errors damage the read even further. In the end, this ends up being one of the more lackluster events in Marvel Comics history.

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Contest of Champions‘ big claim to fame is the fact that it is essentially Marvel’s first big event. The comic takes a large roster of heroes and brings them together for one specific purpose. Seeing this happen and knowing it is a piece of Marvel history adds a bit to the read.

However, when it comes to the actual story, Contest of Champions is a bit lacking. The entire event simply pits a bunch of heroes against one another in a series of quick battles. Though, at times, these battles are a bit exciting, they ultimately feel wanting. Part of this comes from the fact that it is unclear who the reader should root for. Part of it comes from the fact that the characters seem to have very little reason to even be taking this seriously at all, since there appears to be no punishment if they do not. Overall, the conflicts just fail to stand out as something worthwhile and, thus, the central point of the event also fails to stand out.

In addition, there are simple errors in Contest of Champions that make the reading experience stranger. Some are small, like the fact that the volume opens with Iron Man (in full armor) and Vision going for a run, which would serve no purpose for either hero. However, others are bigger, like when the final score of the titular contest is wrong. The fourth matchup has Death’s team win but gives the point to the Grandmaster, causing me to have to reread the chapter to make sure I had read things correctly.

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Art

The artwork in Contest of Champions is easily one of the event’s most significant positives. The premise of the event involves nearly all of Marvel’s heroes coming together in one place and, therefore, requires a visual depiction of nearly every Marvel hero. John Romita Jr. rises to this task and is able to bring this universe and its characters to life. The splash pages of the heroes just being in the same room together or the establishing shots as they face off against one another are some of the best pages in this book. Plus, Romita Jr.’s approach to the action allows the fighting to have the level of energy one would hope for. All of this helps make the book better and may even make it worthwhile for some readers.

Continuity

Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions is a mostly independent event that does not heavily rely on prior stories. It can be read with little knowledge of the Marvel Universe at this time.

The story here continues on in West Coast Avengers Annual #2 and Avengers Annual #16, collected in Avengers Epic Collection: Judgment Day (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The Collector was killed in Avengers #174, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 17 (Review).
• Beast left the Avengers in Avengers #211, collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Vol. 20.