Kinda glad Waid is going, because he seems to love screwing with Viv.   But also sad to see him go because he gives me all the feels. 

 

I've read on at least one issue, so I am cool with the new author, though.   Hope he treats Viv better, though!

And yet, it's bittersweet.  I didn't realize Marvel was rebooting until recently, but they are losing a LOT of money for me.   No Inhumans, and no Vision, no Viv, no Vivian.   So I am cutting out all Avengers titles, not picking up anything to make up for the loss of Inhumans - because I was in it for Black Bolt and the rest of the royal family - and unless they announce titles for DD, Wolvie, and maybe Jessica Jones - depending on the author - I will be dropping a ton of titles.  

 

Not happy, not happy at all, which ties into this series: I will be incredibly sad to see this go.   It was fun, it was thoughtful, and it had Vision.   I'm also scared about how it's ending soon - and given what's happening with Vivian's computer virus, how they plan on ending this so soon. 

 

 

I'm loving this series, I'm loving what Marvel is doing with Vision and Viv, and Vivian, but... ugh... they're killing all the things I love.   Yeah, that's right, I saw the IDBM for the Avengers movie after Infinity War.  

 

Yeah, I see that Inhumans, and Vision are being phased out of Fresh Start.  I see it all, Marvel. 

 

This is heartbreaking, and heartwarming, and I forget what else happened: I was all about Vision, Viv, and Vivian bonding as a family.   

Champions Vol. 1: Change The World - Mar... I am absolutely in love with the Champions! I had a feeling I would enjoy it given how much I adore Kamala Khan but this went far beyond my expectations. After the events of Civil War II, several of the younger Avengers are fed up and quit. They joined the Avengers in the first place because they were more than people with powers punching each other. So, when you're qualified to be an Avenger but want to do more for people? Want to change the world?

The Champions aren't out taking care of super villains, they're concerned with people and it shows. Their first few missions are all rescuing normal people from some of the worst problems that we have in real life. They also aren't just punching their way through things. This volume has four "missions" and none of them end with the more powerful person punching until their considered right. I love that.

There's also something pretty awesome to the missions they choose and the fact that Ms. Marvel makes a reference to Malala Yousafzai and her story while making a case for one of the missions that they do justice too. I love the focus on justice and rescue. They don't want to punch their way through. Justice isn't on the side of the most powerful and they're willing to take a beat from the people they are attempting to rescue. They'll take direction and get it done the way the people they're saving want the outcome to be and not assume they know what's best for the people who have to live with the consequences of their actions.

The team is a great ensemble of young heroes, most of which I am unfamiliar with. I only know Ms. Marvel, though I have seen stuff about the Miles Morales Spider-Man before. There's a young Hulk named Amadeus Cho and Visions daughter, Viv. There's a young Nova named Sam Alexander and then there's a young displaced Scott Summers from an alternate universe. More about the team can be found on the Wikipedia page here. Some of them know each other, others only know of each other, but they all want to do things differently and they don't want to be taking orders and sidelined by their former heroes who don't appear to be the people they expected. There's a great issue where they break down their powers for each other and some time spent figuring out who the leader should be.

I loved every moment of it, even when they got unexpected additions with expectations that didn't quite line up with theirs. It's not just about what you do, but how you do it. That's a sentiment that the movies have been attempting to drive home as well. I can't wait to read the next volume and see what else is in store for the Champions.

Volume 2 of the Champions series is a bit of a mess story-wise and an excellent example of how company-wide events can really mess with individual series at Marvel and DC.

 

It starts off well enough with the Champions having to deal with a teen mercenary group that oppose everything the Champions are trying to stand for. It's not the greatest plot since the villains are too one-dimensional for my liking, but the first couple issues of this book at least form a cohesive story. Since this volume's title references the mercenary group's name, I thought the Champions would be dealing with them for the majority of the book, but they just disappear from the story after a few issues.

 

Things get jarring once the Freelancers arc ends. At the very end of that arc, one of the members of the Champions is literally locked in their home with security measures that neutralize their powers because they are grounded. The very next issue has that character on a solo mission some time later on the opposite side of the country. When did the grounding end? Did their parent just release them? Or did they have to escape? No clue on any of that. No reference is made to them being locked up at any point afterward. On their solo mission, they meet a new teen hero that they team up with for this issue. At the end, they offer the new hero a chance to join the Champions. This hero is then never mentioned again.

 

The next issue takes place during the Secret Empire event where Hydra is in charge. One of the Champions is in an internment camp, and the others are trying to locate and rescue their team member. How did this member get captured in the first place? What was everyone else doing when they were captured? No answers on any of that. The character isn't rescued or even found by the end of the issue either. They are back with everyone by the next issue though with no explanation how that went down. And the Champions have joined with several other teen heroes to try to rescue any survivors from a Hydra attack that killed over half a million citizens. The issues just keep jumping forward in time with no details on how we got to this point. The abrupt transitions were jarring.

 

This was especially true for the final issue. The previous one ended with the Champions vowing to keep fighting against Hydra after they killed over half a million people. The very next issue opens with the Champions singing karaoke. Between the two issues, Hydra was defeated apparently.

 

This volume of Champions left me constantly feeling like I was skipping a ton of issues because I was missing huge chunks of the story. After the first mini arc, the rest of the book was a mess that had jarring transitions and failed to form a cohesive story by constantly skipping ahead. It's hard to enjoy a story when I'm only given random portions of it.