A new set of young heroes is reclaiming their lives while hitting the streets and oddly enough, a Norwegian swamp. Your Major Spoilers review of New Champions #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!
NEW CHAMPIONS #1
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artists: Ivan Fiorelli and Ig Guara
Colorist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Editor: Alanna Smith
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: January 8th, 2025
Previously in New Champions: This team of heroes was originally put together by Hydra, who had taken them from their families to create a pro-Hydra teen superhero team called The Assembly. With help from Spider-Woman they were able to break free from the evil organization and are now trying their best at being real heroes.
AWW YEAH
New Champions #1 kicks off with the duo known as The Brothers Grimm making off with a bank vault. They are intercepted and thwarted by the combined efforts of Moon Squire, Cadet Marvel, Hellrune, and Liberty. Afterward, the team is teleported to their respective homes by Hellrune, where they go about their normal lives. Hellrune slips past her foster parents and goes to her room, where it’s revealed that she has been sending out spectral crows to find traces of her missing family. That night, one reports back that her aunt has been sighted in Norway, and she immediately teleports there. Back home, the rest of the team is gathered by Liberty, who reveals that she put trackers on all the team members and that something was wrong with Hellrune. Suddenly, the team is whisked away to Norway by a magical voice calling for The New Champions. Once they arrive, they’re immediately greeted by a horde of undead Vikings and a few unexpected arrivals.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
In many ways, the creators of New Champions #1 had an uphill climb compared to the last interaction of a Champions team. While the last group was made up of relatively well-known characters that had their own series or prominent spots in popular series, these characters have had only a couple of appearances as side characters. That being said, they still manage to give the readers a story that is competent and unexpected. I won’t say that this will blow you away, but if you’re looking for a fun little romp featuring younger heroes, then this is just fine. The sudden switch to Norway and the fight with zombie Vikings was unexpected, and the way that new characters are introduced is fun and silly. Also, this manages to introduce these characters that have somewhat convoluted backgrounds effectively. Things get a little shaky after this. Of course, there’s time for this to get fleshed out later, but in this first issue, there’s not much work done to really distinguish the characters in any meaningful ways. They all come off as the same brand of enthusiastic teenagers with odd sets of priorities. All attempts to establish different personalities come in the form of that kind of dialogue where people who aren’t in their teens try to mimic teenage vocabulary and speech patterns, which leads to some awkward exchanges.
REMIXES
New character costumes that are based on established characters’ costumes can go very wrong or can be enjoyable variations. New Champions #1 has a whole team of these types of costumes, and somehow, they all work fairly well. In particular, Moon Squire has a great take on both the classic Moon Knight costume as well as the “Mr. Knight” white suit look. We also get a nice call back to Carol Danvers’ old black and yellow costume with Cadet Marvel. All around, the design work here is on point and avoids being cheesy kid versions of older suits.
BOTTOM LINE: MIDDLE OF THE ROAD FUN
New Champions #1 is a quintessential low-stakes introduction to a new team of superheroes. It’s a fine little adventure that sets up more low-stakes situations. It isn’t trying to shake up the universe or change any sort of paradigm. Also, the art and design work is enjoyable. Some clunky writing and odd dialogue bring it down a notch, though. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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New Champions #1
New Champions #1 doesn’t seem to be too concerned with making a big splash and benefits from that, but loses some points for not doing enough to give these relatively new characters strong individual voices.
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Writing6
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Art8
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Coloring7
At a young age, Jonathan was dragged to a small town in Wisconsin. A small town in Wisconsin that just so happened to have a comic book shop. Faced with a decision to either spend the humid summers and bitter winters traipsing through the pine trees or in climate controlled comfort with tales of adventure, horror, and romance, he chose the latter. Jonathan can often be found playing video games, board games, reading comics and wincing as his “to watch” list grows wildly out of control.