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The story was basically a bet between the cosmic Grandmaster and an Unknown Being. All the heroes on Marvel’s Earth are abducted and taken to an arena on a massive spaceship. Both sides choose teams of 12 from the selection of Heroes. They then took the “Golden Globe of Life” and split it into 4 pieces. Whoever’s team could recover the most pieces, won. In the meantime the Earth is held in suspended animation as motivation for the heroes to participate in the game, if they don‘t the Earth will never be lifted from it. If Grandmaster’s team wins, he gets to resurrect his brother, The Collector; if the Unknown Being wins, then the Grandmaster will be stripped of all his cosmic powers and join his brother in death. The sides are chosen as so:
Grandmaster’s Team - Captain America, Talisman, Darkstar, Captain Britain, Wolverine, Defensor, Sasquatch, Peregrine, Thing, Blitzkrieg, She-Hulk, and Daredevil.
The Unknown Being’s Team - Iron Man, Sunfire, Collective Man, Invisible Woman, Black Panther, Angel, Iron Fist, Shamrock, Storm, Vanguard, Arabian Knight, and Sabra.
Being that it is the 80s, the in thing for political correctness is racial equality. As a result Marvel created many international characters that debuted in this series. Most of them didn’t make it any further. Characters include the French Peregrine, the German Blitzkrieg, the Russian Vanguard (an obvious Thor rip-off), the Middle-Eastern Arabian Knight, the Irish Shamrock, and others (see picture above).
By the end of the story the Grandmaster’s team wins 3-1. Then the big reveal of the story is that The Unknown Being’s identity is revealed to be none other than Death. But any long-time Marvel fan should have identified her in the 1st issue, so no big surprise there really. The cliché of “Never make a deal with the Devil” seems to describe the end perfectly. Death returns the heroes to Earth and returns Earth to normal, but then kills The Grandmaster to use his soul’s energy to resurrect Grandmaster’s brother, The Collector. The Collector then vows to Death to resurrect his brother The Grandmaster. The End.
I would say the best part about this series, for me at least, was seeing all the different heroes Marvel really had at the time that were virtually unknown to me up until that point. I didn’t even know characters like Peregrine, Blitzkrieg, Shamrock, and Arabian Knight even existed before this series. They certainly hadn’t had their own comic or special before, or since that I know of. It was that sense of discovery, while still being able to read about your favorite costumed adventurers like Captain America, Iron Man, and Daredevil; that really drew me into those early Crossover Events. I was truly exploring the Marvel Universe like I never had before. Seeing some early John Romita, Jr. art is a great bonus too. Not his best work, but good nonetheless. And between you and me, I think it looks even cleaner than most of his more current work.
I also liked the idea of my favorite heroes actually fighting each other, seeing who was truly better than who. Notice I say the idea of them fighting each other, though. The battles were ridiculously short, only a few panels long, and weren’t that action-packed. I think Contest of Champions’ battles inspired Ron Marz’ writing of Marvel vs. DC in 1996.
This small piece of comic history was only a prelude to that which was to come. A stepping stone to that which would become one of the biggest money-makers in the comic industry. Marvel took some time to step-back and observe the results from Contest of Champions. The comic book fan-base had spoken clearly, and they wanted to see more of their favorite heroes gather together to fight cosmic threats and each other. Marvel now knew they had started another comic revolution and began planning for the next big Crossover. Marvel Super-Hero Secret Wars was now being whispered about in the merry halls of Marvel.
BACK-ISSUE BIN’S FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10 - A good nostalgia read and moment in comic history, but nothing special.
Come back to Hero Realm for The Back-Issue Bin’s look at Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars next time. This will come just in time to refresh fan’s memories for Mark Millar’s current event Marvel: 1985. You don't want to miss this one, Secret Wars is when the Crossover Event really exploded onto the comic scene!
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Ultimate Spider-Man #122 |
