The Grooviest Covers of All Time: The Champions

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! The Champions. Ol' Groove just dug that group so much. Yeah, it went through a lotta growing pains in its early issues. Yeah, it was an unlikely team (two X-Men, two Avengers, and the Ghost Rider). But doggone it, when writer Bill Mantlo was joined by penciler John Byrne it was magic. Too little, too late, I s'pose, but if the Champs had only been given a little more time... Ah, well. The Champions also sported some really far-out covers, too. Ol' Groove decided for this round I'd narrow it down to a half dozen. That was HARD, but here ya go! Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Ernie Chan (aided and abetted by inkers Dan Adkins, Bob Layton, and Al Milgrom) are definitely champions of cool cover art!

Byrne-ing to Read: "Death Drone!" by Mantlo, Byrne, and Esposito

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! We're back with the second and final part of our Bill Mantlo/John Byrne/Mike Esposito Champs vs. Swarm mini-epic! From Champions #15 (June 1977) here's the origin--and end (sort'a) of Swarm in "Death Drone!"

Cover art by Al Milgrom

Marvel-ous Mondays: "The Creature Called...Swarm!" by Mantlo, Byrne, and Esposito

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Back during the Groovy Age, the Cold War was still going strong, as was the movement to track down Nazi war criminals. Technology going awry was still a pertinent sci-fi trope, and Killer Bees were but one more "big thing" folks (especially readers of the National Enquirer) were really hung up on (or laughing about if they were fans of Saturday Night Live). Bill Mantlo, John Byrne, and Mike Esposito combined all those things, with a heavy dose of super-heroic action and horror movie menace to create "The Creature Called...Swarm!" for Champions #14 (April 1977). Yep, before the Michael Caine movie, Marvel had a villain named Swarm--and Swarm'd pop up many times (well into the 2000s) in a variety of comics (usually fighting Spidey or the X-Men) and other media. Seems that back then, a lot of fans though Swarm was kind of lame, but somehow Marvel has kept Swarm buzzing around in some form or fashion for 40 years! Here's part one of Swarm's two-part intro, baby!

Cover art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom

Making a Splash: One Order of Champions, Hold the Byrne!

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! The Champions were, indeed, at best a "B" level super-team in the Marvel Universe, but they could'a been contenders! The weird mish-mash of X-Men Angel and Iceman, Avengers Black Widow and Hercules, and the supernatural 'cycle-ridin' Ghost Rider was a puzzler for fans and writers alike t'would seem. It didn't help that the mag went through artists like Bruce Banner goes through shirts, either! Don Heck, George Tuska, Bob Hall, and John Byrne, along with an army of inkers, plied their trade in The Champions yellowing pages, but none long enough to help get a firm grip. Ah, well, besides Byrne's art, I dug Tuska and Hall's takes, too. I don't get fans who compare Heck to Tuska--to me there's a world of difference between 'em, and Tuska's beefy, action-oriented style was a-ok with moi! Since I already ran the Byrne Champs splashes here, today I'm gonna run the others--with a special surprise a the end! (Well, a surprise for the 11 of you who've never read the last ish of The Champions...)

See? I'd always wished Tuska could've been inked by Patterson or Layton, but in the end, at least they got Byrne to ink him! And just 'cause Ol' Groove loves ya, here's another full-pager by Tuska/Byrne...

No wonder they got cancelled! How rude is it to have your backs to the audience? Really!