Monday, November 30, 2020

Champions (2020-) #1

Tying into the Outlawed storyline, a Civil War-like event mostly focusing on younger Marvel heroes like Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel and Miles Morales's Spider-Man, Champions (2020-) #1 is interesting jet flawed. After an explosion caused by Viv Vision leads to some destruction and a few people getting injured, including Kamala while she's not wearing her costume, the government instigates a law to keep anyone under 21 from performing heroics without a mentor. Naming the law after Kamala as a way to honor her, it leads to the forming of a new agency known as C.R.A.D.L.E. to enforce it. The story of this issue sees how the young heroes have to deal with this new law during both their civilian and hero life. At school, they're taught about the basics of the new law, while trying to hide from C.R.A.D.L.E. and the police when performing heroic acts. Whether in class or during a secret Champions meeting, some of them argue about how right or wrong the law is. During one of these meetings, C.R.A.D.L.E. agents break in and capture a few of the heroes while others like Miles and Nova are able to escape. Promising to free their friends and continue fighting Kamala's Law, the young heroes are unaware that Viv is alive and the one aiding C.R.A.D.L.E.. Sure a lot of the concept and story to this issue and the following ones are just a copy and paste of the original Civil War, but manages to do it in a much more interesting way. The pacing, even in this one issue, works a whole lot better than the entirety of the main Civil War storyline. Eve L. Ewing is a great writer that manages to bring out really good drama and manages to have better done characters than what Mark Millar attempted to do. The focus on younger heroes who are tired of the mistakes older heroes' actions cause them, while they too deal with their mistakes is a strong aspect to this story. Though some of their reactions to what's going on and how others feel about it could have been toned down just a bit. And while I did say that this was a better told take of heroes needing to register, most of it still relies on what Civil War had done. But the biggest strength is Simone Di Meo's artwork alongside the coloring of Federico Blee that is fresh, detailed, and at times beautiful. Every character in each page they're in are all given the right emotions you expect from them at that moment. Champions (2020-) #1 starts out slow, but does so in a way that really gets you invested in what happens next. Over all: 100%
Top list so far for 3rd set of comics:
1. Free Comic Book Day 2017 I Hate Image
2. Champions (2020-) #1
3. Green Lantern Vol. 2 #76
4. DC Retroactive: Green Lantern - The 70s #1
5. Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2020-) #1
6. Showcase (1956-1978) #17
7. Free Comic Book Day: Bongo Comics Free For All 2018
8. Free Comic Book Day 2017: Riverdale
9. Marvel Comics (1939) #1