Previous Posts: Introduction | Chapter 1: Lee/Kirby Part 1 | Chapter 2: Lee/Kirby Part 2 | Chapter 3: The Roy Thomas Era (1966-1968) | Chapter 4: The End of the Silver Age (1968-1970) | Chapter 5: Origins and Flashbacks Part 1 | Chapter 6: Silver Age Flashbacks Part 2 | Chapter 7: X-Men: First Class Vol 1 | Chapter 8: X-Men: First Class Vol 2 Part 1 | Chapter 10: The Hidden Years | Chapter 11: X-Men on Hiatus (1970-75)

In 1975, Marvel decided to revive the X-Men, but with a mostly brand-new cast. Iceman is ushered out of the book and moves to Los Angeles with Angel. In fact, while Champions is short-lived, Iceman barely makes any appearances in Chris Claremont’s entire run on X-Men.

So Bobby Drake largely misses out on the X-Men’s bold new relaunch and instead appears in The Champions, a book that was originally conceived as a road-trip team-up series for an odd-couple pairing of Angel and Iceman and ended up becoming a dumping group for characters who weren’t starring in other books but also had no compelling reason to work together. The non-concept of the book is hammered home by the fact its first four issues feature three different writers. Still, some important development of both Angel and Iceman occurs over this short series.

But before we get to it, Iceman has a few final appearances with his original team.

 

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)
Writer: Len Wien
Artist: Dave Cockrum

When the original X-Men are kidnapped by Krakoa, a new team is recruited to rescue them.

Iceman’s main contribution to this story is yet another pissing match with Havok over Lorna, who is unconscious and can’t properly object.

This story has classic status because it introduces the new team and not because it’s some great work of literature. Over the years, it’s bee retold and expanded upon in numerous ways, none of which particularly affect Iceman, whose role is minor. But the expansion set for this issue includes: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6, which reveals that Moira’s students were sent to rescue the X-Men but were all believed killed and that Xavier wiped Cyclops’ memory of that; Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special, which has a brief flashback to the new X-Men’s first night at the mansion; X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins #28, Alpha Flight #52, and Wolverine: First Class #5, which all expand on Wolverine’s recruitment scene; Giant-Size X-Men #3, X-Men: Gold #1 (2013), X-Men Origins: Colossus, and X-Men: Liberators #2, which all expand on the first hours the new X-Men are together in the mansion before the mission. The other X-Men’s recruitment scenes have all also gotten a bunch of flashbacks over the years too. Naturally, Iceman isn’t in any of those. There are also various hints over the years that Xavier already had the new team in mind, particularly in Uncanny X-Men #300 and X-Men: The Hidden Years #8.

 

Classic X-Men #1 – backup story (September 1986)
Writer: Dave Cockrum
Artist: John Bolton

Classic X-Men #1 repackaged Giant-Size X-Men #1 with new story pages and a new backup feature telling the story of the new X-Men’s first night in the mansion.

This is the first time we got to see how the two X-Men teams interacted on that first night and, well, they weren’t all fast friends. Iceman is particularly bratty to all the new characters, with a very strong racist undertone to everything he says (“This is America,” he tells the Russian Colossus; “Assuming you can read” he says to Native American Thunderbird). It’s no wonder Claremont hardly used Iceman if this is what he thinks of him. I suppose Claremont figured someone had to be resentful of the new team, and Iceman was the only character who didn’t have any history with them to contradict at this point. Thank god MAGA Bobby never took hold as a direction for the character.

Iceman’s resentment at being replaced by the incoming team is somewhat undercut by X-Men: First Class – Finals, which suggested he was planning to leave the X-Men and go to a real college anyway.

Minor continuity note: Due to sliding Marvel Time, Iceman claims he is not old enough to drink, even though he was old enough to drink in the 1960s. New York raised the drinking age to 21 in 1985, a year before this issue was published. He’s probably 19 or 20 here.

 

Marvel #2 (November 2020)
Writer/Artist: Dan Brereton

The original X-Men, including Beast, have a Danger Room session with the new X-Men. It’s not entirely clear if the stories in this series are meant to be canon or dreams cast by Nightmare and Dr. Strange. It doesn’t fit neatly, since if Beast meets the new X-Men here, he shouldn’t be surprised to see them in X-Men #94 (and this story would have to come first since Sunfire is in it).

 

 

 

X-Men #94 (August 1975)
Writer: Len Wien and Chris Claremont
Artist: Dave Cockrum

The original X-Men, minus Cyclops, leave the book, as does Sunfire, and the new X-Men head off to stop Count Nefaria from taking over NORAD.

Iceman gets into an argument with Wolverine when Wolverine tells Jean to stop being so dramatic and just leave. Classic X-Men #1 gives some context to this scene by showing that Wolverine and Jean had made something of a connection the night before, so he’s really just lashing out to cover his hurt feelings. The fight is broken up before it begins and Iceman doesn’t get to do much other than leave.

And so begins the Claremont era! But we won’t be covering that because Iceman is heading west!

 

X-Men Forever Vol 1 #3 (March 2001)
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Kevin Maguire

A quick flashback to Bobby and Warren’s first day at UCLA. Bobby looks annoyed that Warren is chatting up a girl (but technically the reactions are of the time-travelling Bobby from 2001).

 

 

 

 

 

X-Men Forever Vol 1 #5 (May 2001)
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Kevin Maguire

A flashback has Bobby as a freshman in college get into a car accident with his friend Ty while both were “drunk off their butts.”

The reference to being a freshman aside (Bobby completed undergrad at Xavier’s and must have started a second degree or professional program at UCLA), this makes the most sense as coming before the Champions gets formed.

Why is Bobby thinking about Ty (who’s never been seen before or since) in the moments before his death? What were Bobby and Ty doing out drinking and driving together alone?

 

Champions #1 (October 1975)
Writer: Tony Isabella
Artist: Don Heck

When Pluto attacks the UCLA campus, an ad hoc group of heroes who happen to be on hand join forces to stop him.

Since X-Men #94, Bobby and Warren have enrolled in UCLA, and Xavier’s secured a scholarship for Bobby. They had both discussed taking business courses in X-Men: First Class – Finals, but Warren is taking some form of Humanities course.

The opening page feels very coded. The narration refers to them as “two confused young men,” as they discuss how “it’s not working for” them (college). When Bobby proposes asking to join the Avengers with Hank, Warren says he doesn’t think they’d fit in on any other super team. “Face it– the flyboy-popsicle combination just isn’t cut out to do somebody else’s thing,” Warren says. It seems they’ve rekindled a friendship that hadn’t gotten much attention since the earliest part of the silver age.

I can’t talk about Angel’s new costume without mentioning that it includes a v-neck that plunges right to the waist, essentially forming a flesh arrow that points to his dick. It is the most queer costume ever worn by an X-person.

When the Harpies attack campus and Iceman instinctively fights back, Warren worries about Bobby’s secret identity: “What if somebody sees you? What about your parents?” Later, Warren debuts his new maskless costume, saying now that his mother is dead, he’s decided to come out and be publicly known as the Angel. Interesting that Angel’s chief concern was their parents’ reaction. (This was the first published mention of Angel’s mom’s death; we eventually got the story 25 years later in X-Men: The Hidden Years #15.) Iceman’s worries about his parents finding out about him would be a simmering subplot for the next several years.

And this is the first time Iceman meets Hercules, who I believe is the first openly queer character he meets in print (leaving aside the time-travel stories) – though Marvel wouldn’t acknowledge Hercules as bisexual for another forty years.

Pluto’s plan is to trick Zeus in forcing Hercules and Venus to marry Hippolyta and Ares so they wouldn’t be able to interfere in Pluto’s plan to overthrow Zeus. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

Champions #2-3 (January-February 1976)
Writer: Tony Isabella and Bill Mantlo
Artist: Don Heck and George Tuska

The Champions run through hoops trying to stop Pluto and win when Ghost Rider convinces Zeus that it was all a trick to overthrow him.

There’s not a lot to say about this story. George Tuska does his best to liven it up in issue #3, where we get to see Angel strut around in a speedo while Iceman, uh, figure skates in the background.

Iceman has a little poor me soliloquy where he lists how everyone’s doing fine without him, and he includes the fact that “the girl I loved, Lorna Dane, has forgotten all about me!” He really needs to get over this subplot, but honestly, pining over a girl who’s not interested in you is a pretty good strategy for covering up your lack of interest in other girls. (By this point, Lorna and Bobby were last a couple in 1969 – six years previous. They don’t even live in the same state anymore!)

 

 

 

Champions #4 (March 1976)
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: George Tuska

We already have a fill-in writer on issue four! And this is the third writer on the series so far.

The Champions stop an evil psychiatrist who’s experimenting on his charges against their will. It’s not a classic.

The art has Bobby sitting cross-legged reading an X-Men comic. Later, he delivers some, uh, interesting criticism of his own performance in the fight: “That little number just left you wide open for Herc’s hairy playmates,” as he is bent over in front of them.

 

Ghost Rider Vol 2 #17 (April 1976)
Writer: Tony Isabella
Artist: Frank Robbins

Just a cameo where Ghost Rider reminisces on what he was up to in Champions #3-4. Note the way Iceman’s resting the back of his hand on his hip in this panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Champions #5-6 (April-June 1976)
Writer: Tony Isabella
Penciler: Don Heck and George Tuska

The Champions stop Rampage, a guy who’s robbing banks in an exo-suit because he’s angry at the government over the economy.

Warren’s lawyer informs him for apparently the first time exactly how rich he is. Warren and Bobby are both shocked, and Warren immediately decides to use the money to bankroll the Champions. There’s a token subplot raised about other family members trying to take the fortune claiming Warren is an unsuitable heir because he’s a mutant, but that doesn’t go anywhere (and we don’t know of any family members other than uncle Dazzler, who’d be ineligible as the murderer, and aunt Mimi, who’s known about Angel since X-Men: First Class).

Bobby casually mentions working in his parents’ corner store as a teenager. That’s never been mentioned again, and generally Iceman’s father is said to be an accountant.

Richard Fenster joins the cast as team publicist. When next we see him, he’s had a bit of an overhaul, and is presented as a much younger man, going by “Dick.”

A subplot begins about Bobby being uncomfortable with the public direction of the team, because he’s afraid of being outed to his parents (as a mutant). He resolves to quit the team as soon as it’s running smoothly.

Don Heck sure draws this battle homoerotically. And the language. “He’s creaming Herc!” “By the shattering shafts of Apollo!”

 

Avengers #151 (September 1976)
Writers: Jim Shooter, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart
Artist: George Perez

The Champions make a cameo as the Avengers announce their new lineup, which officially includes Beast.

Angel and Iceman reminisce about the X-Men and Iceman seems a tad jealous that the Avengers got his old pal Beast.

 

 

 

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #3
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Tom Raney, Scott Hanna, Matt Milla

Just a generic flashback to the early days of the Champions. Iceman doesn’t even have a line.

(Chronology Project has this around the break-up, but it doesn’t make sense, because Ivan is still there and Angel’s in the old costume).

 

 

 

Champions #7-10 (August 1976-January 1977)
Writer: Tony Isabella and Bill Mantlo
Artist: George Tuska and Bob Hall

I can only imagine the backroom causes of why this book keeps alternating creative teams.

A group of Russian super agents (including Darkstar, who makes her debut here), together with the Griffin, spring Rampage from jail and plot to destroy the Champions. They have a variety of personal and nationalistic reasons to be upset with Black Widow and her partner Ivan.

Oddly, #7 has a subplot where a Black child asks Hercules for help and it’s never followed up on after Bill Mantlo takes over the rest of the story.

When Angel’s costume is ripped in a fight, Dick gives him a modified version of the one Magneto gave him in X-Men #63 – red instead of blue. It becomes his standard look for the next ten years.

The Champions make their public debut in a big press conference attended by Governor Jerry Brown (who, yes, was Governor of California from 1975-1983 and again from 2011-2019).

In the end, the villains are caught, except for the new Crimson Dynamo, who is allowed to escape. Darkstar defects and will soon join the Champions.

Rampage tells his version of the story in Punisher: War Journal Vol 2 #17 (March 2008) but it doesn’t add much Iceman.

We also see part of the battle with Rampage in Gambit: From the Marvel Vault (August 2011), a fill-in book drawn by George Tuska and later scripted by Scott Lobdell after it was found in Marvel’s archives without the original script. Iceman barely appears in the story – Black Widow says he has homework. Angel is also marginalized early so that neither of them meet Gambit before they’re supposed to meet during “Days of Future Present.” Anyway, in the story, Gambit is hired by Spat (a fellow thief who appeared in Uncanny X-Men #347-350) to steal an ancient scroll from the Worthington Foundation, but in the end he decides to help the Champions stop MODOK from stealing it – by destroying it. I don’t think that’s much better, given that Warren was planning on returning the artifact to the Middle Eastern country it came from. Somewhat interestingly, Gambit appears to be shy about admitting he’s a mutant, prompting Spat to derisively call him “a closet case.” This isn’t a common characterization for Gambit, but it’s nice that Lobdell was bringing up one of the running themes of The Champions.

 

Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (December 1976)
Writer: Roger Stern (?? It’s not clear from the issue who wrote the framing device pages)
Artist: George Tuska

The Champions make a brief appearance in the framing device for a reprint of Daredevil #86.

It’s not on Marvel Unlimited right now.

 

 

Where to find these issues: The entire Champions series was collected in The Champions Classic: The Complete Collection in 2018, although that series does not include any of the guest appearances included here. Everything is on Marvel Unlimited unless otherwise noted.

Next Week: The Champions come to an end as they tackle some classic X-Men villains. Speaking of the X-Men, what have they been up to?