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This is a story I’ve heard about but never actually read. This collects the Contest of the Champions, Marvel’s first ever mini-series. It was released monthly from June to August in 1982. There were a lot of hands on board for this one. Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo and Steven Grant wrote it with John Romita Jr. adding the pencils. This also collects Avengers West Coast Annual #2 and Avengers Annual #16 from 1987. There’re even more hands on board for this one. Steve Englehart with help from Mark Gruenwald and Tom DeFalco wrote the West Coast annual while Al Milgrom penciled it. Tom DeFalco wrote the Avengers Annual all by his lonesome with Bob Hall providing breakdowns and Tom Palmer working the finishes on the main part of the story. Now each chapter was broken down and finished by artists and those that helped are: John Romita Jr, Bill Sienkiewicz, Keith Pollard, Al Williamson, Marshall Rogers, Bob Layton, Jackson Guice, Kevin Nowlan, Ron Frenz and Bob Wiacek.
Spoiler Warning
The Contest started out as an Olympics tie-in but when the US pulled out of the 1980 games it was shelved for a bit. So it was finally released in 1982 (with updated costumes) and it is a rather simple story. The Gamemaster and the Unknown are playing a game with great stakes. The Gamemaster is playing for his brother, The Collector’s return while if Unknown wins the Gamemaster joins his brother in oblivion. Their game involves EVERY hero on Earth, including many we’ve never seen before. A lot of the heroes were created just for this mini-series to give it a more global feel (Shamrock from Ireland, Collective Man from China, Talisman from Australia, Arabian Knight from Saudi Arabia, Defensor from South America, etc). Out of the all heroes both the Gamemaster and the Unknown pick 12 heroes and send them out to the four corners of the globe in order to find a prize. The heroes are separated into four groups of three to battle for the prizes and after three rounds the Gamemaster’s teams have found two pieces and the Unknowns had found only one. The final teams go out and although one of the Unknowns pawns picks up the prize (making it two-two); the Gamemaster says he’s up 3-1 and no one complains. That’s a huge gaffe on Marvel’s part back in 1982. So The Gamemaster is called the winner and the Unknown (who to no one’s surprise was Death) brings back the Collector but only at the expense of Gamemaster’s life. The story was left alone for 5 years until showing up in Avengers and Avengers West Coast Annuals. It’s a similar story featuring the same players. The Avengers and the WCA are playing a game of baseball when the Avengers just drop dead. The WCA investigate and it seems like the Collector is behind it. The WCA kill themselves to head to the undead world to save them. The Avengers had met the Gamemaster there and he told them they needed to stop the WCA and since the WCA think they need to stop the Avengers we have a big fight between the two with the WCA having a slight edge in victories. Once they all fight the Gamemaster reveals that he has Death prisoner and the Avengers and WCA must have another contest in order to save the World. The Avengers battle dead Marvel characters (including Bucky! Which is funny because he was never dead but was the Winter Soldier). Again the Avengers and the WCA come out on top but only Hawkeye and Cap remain alive. So Hawkeye tricks the Gamemaster to gambling one last time and using some old carny tricks he turns things in the Avengers favor. They are all restored to life and both Collector and Gamemaster are defeated.
-The Bottom Line- I have to start off with the giant mistake on Marvel’s part. It as a massive oversight that ruined the story for me. I wasn’t digging it to begin with and I’ll tell you why. The first issue with the set-up was well done. It told perfectly about the heroes getting snatched up as they go through their everyday routines and seeing the ones who orchestrated this at the end of issue one told you something big would happen. Unfortunately the way the story developed seemed way too rushed over the final two issues. It’s hard to show all these separate characters duking it out and having 12 characters fight in one issue, 12 fights in half of the other and then the conclusion seemed rushed. Another issue should’ve been pushed and I think the pacing would’ve been fixed. The big mistake was tough to overcome, though. I thought we’d get an explanation for this in the Avengers/WCA Annual tie-in but none was offered. Instead it was just a rehashed idea done twice over – first in pairing off the two Avengers teams and then in pairing off the Avengers with the dead characters. The pacing was better because the two annuals were big enough to contain them and the Annuals were the star of the show. This stands as a historical curiosity for fans (the first mini-series!) but beyond that it doesn’t do much. In terms of value this collection does get good marks. The cover price is $24.99. The three Contest books alone are valued at $24 (and this also includes the roll call of characters that were in the back-ups) and the two annuals are $7 combined so the value for your money is there. I just can’t recommend this on the strength of the story.
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