Tony Isabella

I didn't read this particular edition but did read all the issues. The Champions is an interesting concept especially since it might well be the first ever super-team with a female leader.

Its basically an Avengers-lite squad, with Hercules for Thor, Angel for Iron Man, Iceman as the young one, Ghost Rider as the bad boy you can't trust (kinda Hulk or Quicksilver maybe) and filing in for Captain America as leader we have Black Widow.
Black Widow as the Captain America type leader is really interesting given that she wasn't even involved with SHIELD yet in those days.

Anyway these comics are terrible. The female leader angle completely folds after the two issue formation arc. During these setup issue Black Widow starts giving orders and people follow them because it seems like she knows what shes doing and so when they decided to formalize the team they elect her leader.
In the very next issue she starts giving orders again but now all the guys react weirdly as if they have a problem following a womans orders and thats it she never really makes any decisions again. Not that anyone else takes over leadership the rest of the plots are all reactive and nobody in the team ever really gets to make any plans again.

The main conceit of the team though is that they're really bad at their job. Thats the whole point, they're written as losers but unfortunately following the exploits of people who are worthless isn't compelling.

I should also mention that Black Widow apart from having her leadership role (probably the only interesting thing about the team) completely thrown aside, also has to spend most of the run worrying about her looks and they introduce a younger hotter russian spy character to compare her to.

Finally the only good Champions comic issue apart from the two-part setup is Godzilla #3, and for some bizarre reason that doesn't appear to be included in this volume, yay :| .

Edit: Some of the other crossover issues included here are ok, mostly involving Angel and Iceman.… (mer)