John Byrne leaves, wisely, for this cross-over with the truly terrible Super-Villain Team-Up.
Dr. Doom and Magneto are the villains in #16, and then in #17, some of his evil mutants get help from The Champions in defeating the Sentinels.
The final issue is a hodge-podge of characters and should have been way more fun than it was. The same could be said for this entire series, which never really got much past average.
The series ends with #18, and it’s pretty gruesome for Vanisher.
So, it looks like something is about to happen in The Avengers, right? Well, the blurb on the letters page isn’t very exciting or promising.
“The Champions” was a good series that was conceived in 1975 for all the right reasons: To give a bunch of very interesting Marvel “B”-listers a regular home. The whole problem, though, is that it was never a GREAT series, even though it had the potential to be so. Hercules and the Ghost Rider’s supernatural natures clashing with each other was good story-grist, although Hercules made it very clear to the Brimstone Biker that his Hell-spawned powers were no match for the Lion of Olympus. Interesting. I could write an entire thesis on the physical improbability of a half-mortal strongman being able to dominate an actual scion of Hell anytime he feels like it, but that is a thesis for another time. As with most good-to-great comics series and TV shows, ‘The Champions’ started out of the gate very strong with the first ‘Olympian’ trilogy from issues 1-3, but simply could not maintain the momentum. This first trilogy was originally intended to be presented to Marveldom Assembled as ‘Giant-Size Champions’#1, but that got scuttled with the sudden and apparently unexpected demise of Marvel’s ‘giant-size’ line. ‘The Champions’ had it’s high moments, especially with the mid-series focus on the Black Widow, the arrival on the Marvel scene of John Byrne, ( whose obvious affection for the Angel and the Iceman was on full display in the final issues ) and the final issue’s “Old X-Men/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants/Sentinels” blowout. On the one hand, I would have loved to have seen the Champions go on indefinitely- it certainly wasn’t any worse than any of Jack Kirby’s late-Seventies Marvel stuff, and a hell of a lot BETTER than the David Anthony Kraft/Keith Giffen ‘Defenders’ stuff of the same period! On the other hand, I have to agree with the prevalent logic of “Why are these people together-??? It makes no sense!!” Two displaced X-Men, two displaced Avengers, and a runaway demon from Hell!!! Nope, just not a lot of logical cohesion, here. If Marvel had told me in early 1978 that the Champions is wrapping up, and the Angel and the Iceman were going back into the X-Men, and Hercules and the Black Widow were heading back into the Avengers, all where they all truly belonged, I would have been on Cloud Nine!! ( and the Ghost Rider is riding back into Hell-?? ) But this wasn’t the case. As we would learn much later, the Black Widow’s fascination with Hercules was purely libidinous, and THAT would come to a literal screaming halt on the streets of New York City in Avengers#173, when the Prince of Power accidentally informs the lovely spy that her lifespan will be over in relation to his own immortal lifespan, in the blink of eye!! So true!! Great Zeus!! I would have to say that the ol’boy totally cock-blocked himself that time!! Hercules is brave, strong, courageous, and even noble, at times, but he is no Einstein!!! So- ‘The Champions’ goes on the shelf. Too bad. I couldn’t give a poot about Darkstar or Black Goliath, but I had kinda been hoping since issue#3 that the writership would somehow do something with the character of Venus, ( Hercules’ cousin ) whom I found, and still do, to be very easy on the eyes! They could have-and should have- done something with her. After all, she was in the first issue undercover as a visiting associate professor of humanities at UCLA. Nice day gig/cover job! Universities do tend to draw a lot of “action”, ( of all sorts ) and I think that Dr. Venus and Dr. Natasha could have had a lot of good girl-time together while working at the school! Alas, we’ll never know! Nevertheless, the Champ’s final issue was issue#17, not issue#18, as was reported above. However, the saga of the Champions DID conclude in ‘Spectacular Spider-Man’ #18, ( of all places ) which is probably what Mr. Ekko was thinking about. Just got a little turned around in his notes. How interesting would a ‘Champions Reunion 2024’ be, today! By now, everybody knows that Herk and Tasha were Doing the Nasty at the time!! Awwwwwwwwwk-ward!!!!!