I always loved The Champions because of their cool roster. Two X-Men, a super spy, a Greek God, and the Spirit of Vengeance... I would never have thought to put them together, but they made for one of may favorite teams ever. Their series didn't last long, and perhaps part of that was due to the offbeat line-up. I loved how they interacted with one another and would love to see them work together as a team on a regular basis again. Marvel seems not to give up on The Defenders, giving them another relaunch every couple of years - I think it's time they gave The Champions the same chance!
My understanding is that Marvel lost the rights to the name "Champions" sometime in the 80's. I beleive they have brought the group back once or twice but not under the Chamoions name(which they can use in book, but not on a cover). It was explained on one of those "Comic Book Legends revealed!" columns on cbr a few months back.
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ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Pete M is right, due to HERO Games' Champions role-playing game that first appeared in the early 80s.
ReplyDeleteI even thought that this was going to be the Champions from the game. Hopefully that will be forthcoming sooner or later.
ReplyDeletePete M and Justin are right. I read that HERO, who also had a book out called the Champions in the 80's, heard that Marvel was going to bring back the Champions. Fearing trouble with Marvel and knowing that the name was not copyrighted HERO copyrighted the name. From that point on Marvel could not use the name The Champions. So it killed any chance of a revival at that time.
ReplyDeleteWell evidently they fixed it and now are reusing name for young team tired of inter team fighting.
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