Marvel’s First Event Series, by Gruenwald, Romita, Jr., and Layton, Introduced Several New Characters
Marvel is bringing back its first-ever limited event series in an oversized hardcover format. Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions Gallery Edition, which will be released on June 22, 2022, collects the three-issue Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, first published in 1982, along with West Coast Avengers Annual #2 and Avengers Annual #16. Contest of Champions was written by Mark Gruenwald and penciled by John Romita, Jr., and Bob Layton; the collection also includes work by writers Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant, Steve Englehart, and Tom DeFalco and art by Al Milgrom and Bob Hall. The 168-page Gallery Edition will be a hardcover with a 9” x 13” trim size and will have an MSRP of $44.99.
The plot of Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions had the Grandmaster challenging Death to a game, using Marvel superheroes as pawns, with the life of the Collector hanging in the balance. The mini-series was originally designed to pick up on interest in the 1980 Olympics, but the U.S. boycotted the Olympics that year (protesting Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan), and the comic was postponed and substantially rewritten, eliminating the Olympics angle. A bit of the original DNA remained, though, in the form of nation-based superheroes, some of whom made their debuts in this series: Blitzkrieg (Germany), Collective Man (China), Defensor (Argentina), Peregrine (France), Shamrock (Ireland), and Talisman (Australia). Although the story is complete in three issues, the later Avengers Annual #16, also included in the gallery edition, added an extra twist, giving a new meaning to the entire competition.
Source: ICV2
