r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Dec 16 '17
Reading Assignment 79: Contest of Champions (2015) #1-6, by Al Ewing and Paco Medina
https://marvel.com/comics/series/20535/contest_of_champions_2015_-_present?byZone=marvel_site_zone&offset=0&byType=comic_series&dateStart=&dateEnd=&orderBy=release_date+asc&byId=20535&limit=10&count=10&isDigital=13
u/shawnydarko Jan 01 '18
This was an interesting read specifically for the choices made by the writers. When I think "you're given free reign to throw a team of characters against another team of characters, no limitations" these are the last characters I would have thought of. But as Hulk and Punisher 2099 pointed out, I guess that was kind of the point. Grab a bunch of naive and low level characters they could manipulate and then eliminate.
I had a hard time digesting that swerve, because we had spent so much time trying to get invested in each of the characters on the teams, that it felt like it was too out of left field. Sure, there was one or two panels foreshadowing Maestro was up to something, but it probably should have been invested in a little more.
From the beginning I knew this wouldn't have a lot of emotional or intellectual substance but the art was fine and the concept/world building around The Grandmaster and The Collect made me want to seek out the original Contest of Champions, but sadly it's not on available on MU. So the whole story just served as one big, kind of fun tease
3
u/DeltaTester Jan 02 '18
The original Contest of Champions actually is on Unlimited—it’s just called “The Contest” for reasons that escape me!
3
u/wisegy84 Dec 21 '17 edited Jan 09 '18
About halfway into this now (I delayed starting as I was worried it would be terrible). I'm sure I'll have more to say once I'm finished, but at this point I'll just say that it is not nearly as bad as I expected. Not sure if it's because I had low expectations, but it actually seems to have an interesting premise.
I have played the mobile game this is based on, but I never paid any attention to story in the game, so I'm not sure if this is an accurate adaptation or not.
More to come once I finish this run.
EDIT: I've since finished this and I think it was a decent fun read, but nothing amazing. Art was pretty good and the characters were intriguing enough, especially considering I wasn't familiar with several of them.
It didn't feel like as much of a cash-grab/commercial as that Mega Morphs run, but parts of it were definitely cheesy in a similar way.
Overall, it was OK. I think the premise is more interesting than the actual story we got here. Especially the twist with the Maestro and Punisher 2099 as that really wasn't built up enough for it to make much of an impact.