Champions #10

A pack of Soviet villains, plus a very-goofy-looking bad guy called The Griffin, have captured the Black Widow and buried the rest of the Champions in a windowless vault deep inside the San Andreas fault. The bad guys sneer that trying to break out of the vault will trigger an earthquake that will destroy Los Angeles, which doesn’t seem to bother Hercules at all, who promptly goes berserk (go Herc!)

While Ghost Rider and the rest of the Champions try to roll Hercules in a wet mattress, the Soviet bad guys go on a big exposition dump about the truth of the Crimson Dynamo’s origins. He’s got some father issues … and because the flashbacks are all set in the Soviet Union, there’s a lot of swearing by Lenin’s beard and railing against Capitalism. Bill Mantlo is as reliable a writer as Marvel ever had, but this script … yeesh. The Champions escape — through no effort of their own — then they punch it out with the bad guys and its over. Ladies and gentlemen — The Champions!

• Script: Bill Mantlo
• Pencils: Bob Hall
• Inks: Frank Giacoia

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