The Contest of Champions paved the way for the event miniseries that Marvel and DC have become dependant on. The star-studded scavenger hunt wasn’t the greatest story in the world, but it was still memorable and classic for being the first step. Naturally, there would one day be a sequel.

If you can call it that.

When I think of Contest of Champions II, I think of the Infinity Gauntlet. Bear with me on this. Infinity Gauntlet was a popular Marvel miniseries starring a bunch of heroes that was eventually used as the basis for Marvel Superheroes, a very good arcade fighting game. While the game did include characters like Psylocke, Magneto, Juggernaut, Blackheart and Shuma Gorath (that still boggles my mind), the gist of the story was that it was supposed to be a retelling of Infinity Gauntlet, only the heroes aren’t useless.

What does this have to do with Contest of Champions II? Marvel Superheroes was a fighting game based on a Marvel miniseries. Contest of Champions II is the opposite. It’s a Marvel miniseries based on fighting games.

Funny thing about fighting games is that there aren’t many variations of the story out there. For the most part, every fighting game’s story is based on one of two concepts. Sometimes it’s just about a quest where different characters run around with a goal, meet each other and fight. Marvel Superheroes was basically this. The other, more popular one, is the tournament. It’s the easiest reason to have different warriors from different walks of life battle each other, especially when there’s no animosity between some.

The tournament stories are occasionally straight-laced and legit. That’s boring. Many others would have the tournament just be a front. In actuality, the host of the tournament is trying to use this as a way to kill off all threats to his or her plans for world domination. Maybe the host plans on using the beaten warriors as zombie cyborg soldiers. A lot of the time, all the fighting is just a way to unleash some long-imprisoned monster god thing to wreak terror on the lands.

This is pretty much what Contest of Champions II is.

The talent bringing the story forth this time is Chris Claremont and artists Oscar Jimenez and Michael Ryan. The look is decidedly 90’s, with the inker going nuts on the shading, lens flares all over the place and an overuse of text gimmicks from that era that didn’t really last that long. Stuff like changing font color instead of bolding names or an overuse of eye-straining dialogue bubbles unique for each character (ie. yellow gradient, flame-shaped word bubble for Human Torch).

This being Claremont, we also get more thought bubbles than we can handle.

It starts off somewhere near Westchester. The military is training to fight superhuman threats, as helped by their opponents for the exercise, Iron Man and the Human Torch. Before they can get the sparring session going, Rogue flies in for the hell of it. There’s a brief mention of how she’s not trusting of testing the military to essentially counter mutants, but she’s really just there because it’s her neck of the woods and she wants to have a little fun with the other two heroes.

Human Torch gives chase as Iron Man sits back and does lots and lots of internal monologue. He brings up how the Avengers and X-Men are on good terms, but he doesn’t really trust Rogue due to her once being an Avengers villain. Claremont has the gall to put an asterisk to remind us which then-18-year-old issue that took place in. Come on! Iron Man then thinks about how Scarlet Witch is a mutant that used to be an Avengers villain and now he trusts her with his life (haw!). He watches with annoyance as the two cause collateral damage with their little fight, even though Torch shows some semblance of responsibility. As Iron Man gets ready to help subdue Rogue, he realizes too late that they’re all in the crosshairs of teleportation lasers.

Heroes all over the Earth are transported to a mysterious spaceship. We see different characters like Captain America and She-Thing reacting before being taken away. One headshot gets me excited, then scared.

On one hand, I love me some Deadpool. Especially late-90’s Joe Kelly-era Deadpool. On the other hand, he’s being written by Chris Claremont. Snap, this is going to result in entire pages of yellow bubbles.

The three heroes find themselves in different rooms, greeted by a host. These beings are shown as being humanoids with few facial features and nothing much when it comes to having a nose. Human Torch smiles at everything his host says, as he seems to think that she’s the most beautiful girl in the galaxy. Likewise, Rogue’s host comes across as an incredibly handsome man. They explain themselves and give a speech about their employers, known as the Coterie.

“The Coterie are game-masters who celebrate excellence and supremacy in all fields of endeavor, but most of all in games of direct physical competition. The prowess of Earth’s heroes is known across the cosmos. We would like to stage such a contest here, to determine the best of the best among you.

“As an incentive, we offer access to the knowledge accumulated during our travels. In return for supplying us with a brief entertainment, your species gains the potential to reap untold benefits, to reach the very stars.

“No race who has accepted our invitation has suffered from the encounter. Indeed, the contestants and their worlds have found the experience quite literally transcendent. We offer a glory unlike any you have ever known. We hope you do not refuse.”

Human Torch and Rogue hang on every word. Iron Man, on the other hand, isn’t really listening. He’s only recording what his hot hostess is saying while mentally dealing with other things. He sees that his host is really just a hologram anyway. What really has his attention is his suit’s claim that there is something wrong with the atmosphere. Looking at the air, there are hundreds of thousands of little nanites in the air that link to the human body on a cellular level. If it wasn’t for Iron Man’s armor and personal air supply, he’d have inhaled a whole lot of them already.

Things are already looking less than honest. Behind the scenes, one of the aliens notices Iron Man’s protection from the nanites and informs his two bosses. One of which is revealed as Brother Royal, head of the Badoon. The Badoon being evil alien race #493.

Human Torch, Rogue and Iron Man are similar in their desires, so nothing seemed too odd about their experiences. Human Torch and Iron Man are womanizers and Rogue likes the studs, so it’s no surprise that they’d be coerced by seemingly attractive members of the opposite gender. We see that the others experience odder situations. Most are hypnotized into thinking that these alien hosts are their friends or lovers. Captain America thinks his is Sharon Carter while Thing thinks he’s with Alicia.

“HULK WANT OSCAR!”

Since Iron Man is such a threat to whatever evil plans are afoot, he is put in the first fight. It’s him against Psylocke. Considering this is Claremont’s writing, and he loves Psylocke more than Adam West loves taffy, this doesn’t look good for ol’ Shellhead.

The two do battle in a packed arena and Psylocke is quick to take over the fight. Iron Man at first thinks that her powers won’t do all that much against his armor, but she lets loose with some attacks he recognizes from the Mandarin. Iron Man suddenly sees Psylocke in the form of one of her alter-egos, Lady Mandarin, brandishing the ten rings. The different rings bounce Iron Man like a tennis ball and screw with his armor. He begins to wonder if Psylocke is in fact evil, or if the Mandarin is behind all of this. His thought process leads him to remember one of the more obvious traits of Psylocke.

She’s a telepath.

Psylocke isn’t doing a damn thing. She’s just making Iron Man think he’s getting the beating of a lifetime. Knowing this, Iron Man plays possum and electrocutes Psylocke into unconsciousness. His hand is raised and he’s declared the winner. The announcer promises that Psylocke – like all losers in the tournament – is sent back to Earth unharmed. Iron Man notices the energy signature from Psylocke being teleported away. The beam was less powerful than the one that took Iron Man to the spaceship. No way is she on Earth.

I have to say, I really liked that fight. Very cool way to start things off. Promise rising.

Iron Man gets a little time to himself to think himself out of this, only to be called back to the arena shortly after. The villains really want him out of the way. So who would be the best in terms of stacking the odds against Iron Man? Thor? The Hulk? The Phoenix?

While those would all be villainous options, those would also make sense. No, the story goes in a really stupid direction by putting Iron Man up against X-Force.

All of X-Force.

I really don’t get this part. All of the lesser hero teams are put together as one entry. Not just X-Force, but Generation X, the New Warriors and the Slingers. Why? It defeats the purpose of the tournament and, more importantly, it eliminates what the readers were looking forward to in the first place. This comic just fails.

So Iron Man scans each enemy in the fight. The roster here is Cannonball, Moonstar, Sunspot, Meltdown, Proudstar, Siryn, Jesse Bedlam and Domino. He counters a couple, evades a couple more, but then he finds out that Siryn is experiencing some kind of tracheal problem and figures that this would be a great time to try and console her. I really shit you not.

Domino kicks Iron Man in the head and knocks him out. The issue ends with Iron Man teleported to who-knows-where and X-Force saying that they’re going to win this whole tournament.

Four more issues of this garbage? Damn it…

The next cover shows what at first looks like Spider-Man vs. Human Torch. Upon second glance, it’s not Spider-Man but Spider-Woman. It’s the crappy third one with the ponytail, Mattie Franklin. The fight opens up the story, where Spider-Woman is trying to wall-crawl away from her enemy. She ends up tricking Human Torch and puts him through a wall, but it isn’t enough. Human Torch traps her and flies circles around her, creating a vortex that removes her oxygen.

After winning, Human Torch feels a bit guilty, since he could tell Spider-Woman was legitimately scared at the end. He decides that it was better that he took her off the board early, before she gets hurt by someone more fearsome.

Elsewhere, Iron Man wanders around an alien jungle environment. His armor doesn’t even know what’s going on, other than that he’s on hostile ground. Two alien monsters appear to kill him. He takes care of one, but the other punches him back. Psylocke appears with a large bone carved into a spear and kills off the creature. Rather than buddy up, Psylocke says that their earlier fight is to the death. She wants more fightin’!

Now for something a bit more interesting. Marvel decided to have several fights from Contest of Champions II be done based on fan vote. Stuff like this makes me think that this is comic is really more of a sequel to Marvel vs. DC, but with them dealing with the fact that they can’t use the DC roster and making up for it by slapping on the “Contest of Champions” brand name. Either way, I’m a man who loves his vote-based fighting.

Reader’s Choice Battle #1: Mr. Fantastic vs. the Incredible Hulk!

Well, never mind. They only did three of these matches and it would have been nice if they all could have been somewhat even. Who is going to vote against the Hulk in this? It’s the guy who embodies the idea of punching things until they explode vs. the least popular member of the Fantastic Four.

Human Torch doesn’t see it that way. He thinks Reed has it in the bag.

At first, Hulk has trouble hurting Reed. How do you smash a rubber man? Hulk’s second attempt to win comes from trying to pull Reed apart. Reed takes the offensive by wrapping himself around the Hulk’s body, especially his mouth, to keep him from breathing. Not as smart a move as Reed thought, since Hulk merely just inhales him.

Good thing he spat that out. You have any idea how long it takes to digest bubblegum?

Human Torch gets a little chance at revenge by taking on She-Hulk. The fight leads to She-Hulk spilling a water tower’s contents onto Johnny, but Torch gets back up from it. He’s trained for years to shrug off water’s affects on him, so this is nothing. He creates a mudslide underneath She-Hulk, which causes her to be buried up to her neck. He heats the ground, keeping her stuck, while continually dehydrating her. She breaks out of the ground and tries to get her hands on Human Torch, but the heatstroke is too much and she passes out.

On the ship, Brother Royal finds that Kitty Pryde is in no condition to compete due to an intense pain she’s going through. The nanites try to join onto her body, but her body painfully tries to reject them with intangibility. Around this time, we discover that the other evil mastermind is the Emperiatrix, also known as the Brood Queen.

Iron Man sits in front of a campfire, dissecting and inspecting the nanites. Nearby is Psylocke, whose powers no longer word due to the nanites and was no match for Iron Man in their rematch. Her hands are tied together, but she silently removes the ropes. Iron Man finds a way to reprogram the nanites to become good. Not only will they infect the other nanites into becoming more like themselves, but they’ll make the hosts immune to the bad nanites. He tries it on Psylocke, which works a little too well. Her powers return and her first instinct is to lash out and pierce Iron Man’s brain with a psy-blade. It knocks him out, but he just falls onto Psylocke, nearly crushing her.

The final match of the issue shows Human Torch fighting Storm. There’s a lot of back and forth action, with Human Torch countering Storm’s different weather powers and trying to trick her into an enclosed space. Towards the end, Storm gets Human Torch locked into a tornado. Torch could definitely win this, but in order to do that, he’d most likely have to kill Storm. He submits to her power, deciding that it just isn’t worth it.

Issue #3 begins with Cable vs. Scarlet Witch. Time travel is confusing and Wanda’s hex powers are confusing, so the end of this fight is naturally very odd. It starts with Scarlet Witch using her hex bolts to blow up Cable’s oversized gun. Some hand-to-hand combat and a bomb explosion later, Cable stalks Wanda, ready to kill her. She starts zapping him with hex bolts, but like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, it merely makes another Cable (of different age) appear with him. She keeps on him with the hex bolts until Cable falls over and tries to warn her that this contest is a trick.

She doesn’t really hear any of that because she’s an attention whore.

Wanda’s actions have screwed with the ship quite a bit, which pisses off Brother Royal. He’s wondering if this plan is even worth it, considering the kind of powers they’re messing with.

Not just that, but the Scarlet Witch’s fight with Cable has accidentally introduced another couple characters into the story. Lockdown and Rosetta Stone, a superhero duo from the Negative Zone that showed up in only two issues of Fantastic Four previously, are teleported by the chaos magic into the jungle where all the contest losers end up. Using their Night Cruiser car, they run over a Brood creature and save the life of the powerless Spider-Woman.

Back at the tournament, we get the Slingers vs. the New Warriors. Rather than have the expected fight, the two sides go against each other in a game of basketball. It’s supposed to be funny, but it isn’t. Nova gets the game-winning shot, sending the Slingers to the alien jungle.

At that jungle, Lockdown and Rosetta Stone run into more creatures. Iron Man and Psylocke come by to save them and form and alliance. Psylocke is now wearing a badass suit exoskeleton armor that she stole from one of the creatures.

Comparing notes, they realize that the Brood is behind this. This jungle is in fact the belly of a ginourmous space whale called the Acanti, that the Brood use for space travel. The evil plot seems to be a way to get rid of all of Earth’s heroes while getting the pick of the litter and deciding which ones they are going to use as hosts for their eggs.

On the spaceship, Kitty Pryde is kept in a stasis tube. She finds that instead of entering Ms. Marvel (just Warbird at the time) into the tournament, the Badoon and Brood have instead just kidnapped her to experiment on her some more. Warbird, like Kitty, is kept in a tube. The Brood Queen makes mention that Wolverine knows where he is and that the Brood are involved based on his healing and senses, but the Badoon nanites are keeping him in a constant state of berserker rage, so he can’t do anything about it. On a monitor, we see him defeat Hercules.

For several pages, we get some one-panel looks at various fights in the tournament. For some reason, not only is Domino in the tournament as a member of X-Force, but they were nice enough to let her enter solo. Oh, sloppy writing, you get me through the day. Here are the fights we barely see:

Spider-Man defeats Beast
Domino defeats Luke Cage
Hawkeye defeats Wasp
Iron Fist defeats Colossus
Daredevil defeats Firestar
Phoenix defeats Justice
Gambit defeats Quicksilver
Black Panther defeats the New Warriors
Black Widow defeats Wonder Man (via headlock, if you’re wondering)
Deadpool defeats Generation X
Invisible Woman defeats Iron Fist

In that Deadpool vs. Generation X fight, either the artist did a bad job drawing Skin, or he accidentally got X-Force and Generation X confused. So that would be three entries into the tournament for Domino. It’s like that time Mick Foley was in the Royal Rumble three times in one night.

The last fight of this issue shows Thor vs. Storm. Thor boastfully shrugs off everything Storm can throw at him, not even twitching a muscle to flinch. When Storm brings the fight closer, Thor grabs her and begins making out with her. She falls limp in his arms, as he’s sucked the oxygen out of her mouth.

The fourth issue begins with another vote-based fight.

Reader’s Choice Battle #2: Daredevil vs. Deadpool!

This looks like another easy winner. Deadpool is a C-lister with a cult following while Daredevil is a Marvel staple.

The fight takes place on a rooftop with Deadpool chatting up more than usual. Yes, that’s apparently possible. Daredevil is frustrated, as the constant banter screws with his senses and makes his strikes more unfocused. Daredevil wins a fight exchange for the second time and notices that Deadpool has taken a baby hostage. He gives chase and trips Deadpool with his Billy club, causing the baby to fly out of Deadpool’s hands. Daredevil hops over a railing, grabs the baby, bounces from wall to wall and lands in a dumpster.

Whoa. I guess the winner wasn’t as obvious as I thought.

I’ll skip over the latest contest losers vs. Brood scene to get to the other fights. Black Widow has just defeated X-Force and turns around to see her next opponent, Thor. Widow strikes fast with her widow bite blasters at the top setting, but Thor just calmly zaps her down with his hammer, catches her and gleefully insists the Coterie give him a real challenge.

Thing fights Phoenix on the Blue Area of the Moon. Phoenix bulks up and tries brawling with the Thing. It turns out to be a ruse, where she uses her telepathy to trick Thing into leaving the Blue Area and losing the air and protection that it brings. Thing tries to get back, but Phoenix uses her telekinesis to hold him in place until he passes out from lack of air.

The Brood Queen taunts Kitty some more and reveals more of the plan. Rogue is brought into the room by the handsome alien host from the first issue. She’s too lost from the nanites to even hear Kitty warning her. Rogue kisses the alien, but she’s really making out with the Brood Queen (my God, that is so hot). The two fall down and when Rogue gets up, she shows off her evil purple word bubbles. Rogue’s not at the wheel anymore.

A couple scenes back, Deadpool beat Daredevil in a match based on fan vote. A couple issues back, Hulk beat Mr. Fantastic the same way. So naturally…

Heh. Well, I’m amused.

Domino fights Spider-Man one-on-one. The two have their own little sixth sense deals that give them the edge in normal fights. Spider-Man’s is more dominant here, not to mention his other powers. Domino ends up immobilized on a web, very pissed at losing.

Captain America vs. Black Panther distracts me with the ugly 90’s stuff they had going on at the time. Panther’s eyes are glowing yellow in every shot, while Cap has his idiotic holo-shield thing. For those of you who don’t remember, instead of having his metal shield at all times, he had a photonic device that made a transparent shield appear over his arm. It was meant to be a cool visual effect, but it obviously didn’t last.

The fight should be epic, but both heroes aren’t totally into it. This affects Black Panther more, allowing Cap to take the advantage and win the fight. Panther doesn’t care, since he didn’t deem it a fair fight.

Wolverine vs. Gambit is a rematch that’s a long time coming. Much like Cap, Wolverine is in the middle of his own bad 90’s trend where he has bone claws. Similarly, Gambit’s in the middle of the bad 90’s trend of being Gambit (that’s right, I went there). Gambit’s staff doesn’t do enough damage against the healing factor, he can’t get a good charged card shot in there and trying to choke Wolverine with the staff doesn’t take. Wolverine, berserk as ever, is ready to gut him, but is distracted.

Rogue appears to watch over the fight. Gambit thinks it’s really her, but Wolverine is able to figure out that it’s the Brood Queen in Rogue’s body. A slash from his bone claws shatters across Rogue’s body and leaves him wide open for this.

This leaves us with eight finalists (Rogue, Gambit, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Phoenix and Captain America). Rather than have them fight to prove one true winner, the tournament is merely over and they’re all declared the winners. Rogue makes a big speech congratulating herself and the other seven on their victories. She doesn’t know that there’s someone in the rafters, aiming an arrow in her direction.

“Nice speech, Rogue. Though I gotta ask, how is it you’re talkin’ like this is your party? Not that it matters, because the contest isn’t over. Somewhere along the way, one of your bean counters must have made a goof. And left one unaccounted for. Hawkeye is the name, marksmanship is the game. There’s nothing in the world I can’t hit with a bow and arrow. And right now, I’ve got a shaft aimed right at your heart!”

Cliffhanger!

Wait, the final issue already retcons that badass monologue.

“Nice speech, Rogue, and totally out of character. What happened to your southern accent? Not that I really care. What matters is that your bean counters made a boo-boo. The fat lady hasn’t sung. The contest isn’t over. Hawkeye’s the name. Marksmanship is the game. I never miss, lady. An’ my target is YOU!”

The first one was better.

The scene also includes a little box advertising Marvel.com, which means…

Reader’s Choice Battle #3: Hawkeye vs. Gambit!

Hawkeye lets the arrow loose and Gambit immediately intercepts it with an exploding card. Turns out to be a trick, as Hawkeye used a stasis arrow. I’m not totally sure what that is, but the explosion appears to keep Rogue from moving. Hawkeye declares himself the winner of the Contest of Champions while Gambit chases him into the rafters. They chase each other around for a bit and Hawkeye momentarily blinds Gambit with a flash arrow. Gambit plays possum to get Hawkeye close and the two let loose for one last shot. It’s a charged card vs. an exploding arrow and…!

Back to the jungle, where the once-defeated heroes get their powers back and beat up on the Brood. Iron Man and Rosetta Stone drive around the Night Cruiser with a plan to stop the Brood and Badoon.

Rogue gets over the effects of the stasis arrow and kisses Captain America. She then kisses Thor on the cheek and touches the other finalists. She inherits their powers (still unable to lift Thor’s hammer), while making all of them crumble to the floor. Gambit lowers down on a rope with a defeated Hawkeye over his shoulder. When Rogue asks for a kiss, Hawkeye springs to life and fires an exploding arrow into her chest. She blasts at the two of them, screaming that they’ve hurt her.

Due to something Iron Man and the others did involving the antibody nanites, Deadpool shows up and empties a clip into Rogue. It does no real damage, but we see some of the other semi-finalists appear to back him up.

The team of Iron Man, Psylocke, Lockdown and Rosetta Stone beat on some Badoon guards. The two split up into the duos of Iron Man/Rosetta Stone and Psylocke/Lockdown. Iron Man and Lockdown share this exchange:

“It’s been a privilege fighting by your side, Lockdown.”

“Consider this the first of many such opportunities. Now, go!”

Haha! Wishful thinking, Mr. Claremont. Wishful thinking.

Iron Man and Rosetta Stone stumble upon Kitty and Warbird. After the rescue, Kitty and Rosetta phase into the Badoon’s control room, which causes their machines to go haywire. If you thought the Iron Man/Lockdown conversation was great, get a load of this:

“You pass through solid matter!”

“That’s why I’m called Shadowcat.”

WHAT?! “Shadowcat” doesn’t even mean anything! Who in their right mind hears that name and thinks, “Oh, she must phase through walls. Shadowcat. Of course.”

Warbird and Iron Man break a door down and go to town on all the Badoon soldiers. Brother Royal tells them to fall back and the Badoon run off with their tail between their legs. Since they are evil aliens, they also start up a self-destruct sequence. Iron Man goes to the arena to fight Rogue as the others try to send the other heroes back to Earth. After Iron Man’s gone, the Brood Queen’s mental form appears between the three superheroines, reminding them that she has Jean Grey’s mental powers and can erase their very minds.

A couple scenes later, we find that all three women are fine from the mental attack, due to their individual powers. They send all the heroes in the jungle home to Earth.

The heroes fighting Rogue figure that they should keep on her until her stolen powers wear off, but that’s easier said than done. Iron Man busts through the floor, but he too is quick to be overpowered. Thing is the only one left standing, so he starts brawling. He’s not much of a match for a woman with the strength of the Hulk and the fighting prowess of Captain America.

Iron Man makes one last stand as the Night Cruiser barges through the wall. He tells Psylocke to hit Rogue with a psy-knife. Rogue blasts her down before she has a chance. Lockdown goes for Rogue, who lets him attack just to show how futile his efforts are.

Punk’d! It was Psylocke cross-dressing!

The mental attack sends all the heroes’ minds and powers back to the rightful owners. The Brood Queen still has a hold on Rogue and angrily flies away. Iron Man and Thor try to apprehend her, but they are teleported back to Earth. Rogue breaks into the control room and swears to kill Kitty for that. Warbird appears and punches the hell out of her face.

This is going to be therapeutic.

Rogue tries to kiss Warbird, but she’s constantly punched back. Even with her equal power, she doesn’t have the experience that Warbird has. At first she says that she won’t leave Rogue’s body and that death is the only way to stop her. Warbird calls that bluff by reminding her that she’s a soldier and that killing someone like Rogue is nothing if it means ridding the universe of someone like the Brood Queen. The Brood Queen panics and leaves Rogue’s body. With seconds left, Kitty, Rosetta Stone, Warbird and Rogue teleport back to Earth before the whole place goes up.

They appear above where Iron Man, Human Torch and Rogue started off in the first issue. I notice that Rosetta Stone accidentally says one of Kitty’s lines. Oops.

Shut up, Johnny. You didn’t do shit. Hell, you haven’t even appeared once since the second issue.

Rogue asks Warbird why she saved her. Warbird decides that although she’ll always hate Rogue for what happened in the past, she recognizes that she is a hero. Maybe she won’t be able to forget what happened, but she can at least forgive it. The two shake hands and form a truce.

Lockdown appears in the Night Cruiser to pick up Rosetta Stone. Before leaving, Rosetta Stone discusses the potential of future team-ups that will never happen. Kitty tells her to be safe, and adds that in the Contest of Champions, it was the good guys who came out the winners.

Then in space, the angry Brood Queen finds Brother Royal and begins to punish him for his failure. I love happy endings!

Did this comic suck? Hoo-boy, did it ever. Should there be a third Contest of Champions? Of course not.

That’s not to say that the whole fighting game style of comics is lost forever. In fact, both Marvel and DC have something of that nature coming up in the next couple months. The next Iron Fist arc’s description gives it a very Mortal Kombat-y flavor. DC has their miniseries coming up called Countdown: Arena, which is like Contest of Champions II meets Exiles, starring Captain Atom Monarch and a bunch of Elseworlds regulars.

Hm. I think I’m going to put my money on Marvel in this fight.

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Posted in comic books, Game-Based Comics, reviews, Who Would Win In a Fight? by Gavok |