Comic Books

‘Champions Vol. 3: Champion for a Day’ review: A strong case for more Vision family fun

Come for the Vision story that Waid nails beautifully.

August 8, 2018

[amazon_link asins=’1302906208′ template=’AiPTProductAd’ store=’aiptcomics-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9d1efd79-9a8d-11e8-9a65-514fad75ea31′]

Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos left a lasting impression on Champions not only by proving the series should exist but by developing the characters in a variety of ways. In the last trade paperback (out this week) of their run, they explore Vision’s daughter Viv and her human twin’s relationship. Like any two sisters, they don’t get along so easily.

Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!

So what’s it about?

The official summary reads:

Following their staggering loss in their adventure with the Avengers, the Champions decide to double down on their mission to make the world a better place – but they know now they can’t do it alone! That’s right – it’s time for a membership drive!

Why does this matter?

If you were a fan of Tom King’s run on Vision or interested in the upcoming series that picks up with these characters you best read this collection. Vision and his daughter Viv go through a lot and Waid explores that very well here.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

An excellent story about Vision and his daughters.

What Waid and Ramos do with Vision and his family unit is quite great in this collection. There’s a lot going on, something to be expected when a robot daughter is turned into a human and a clone of her is remade into a robot, but that’s family I guess. There are some fascinating captions in this book that reveal what it might be like for a robot connected to the internet to be turned human, which is the kind of science fiction writing that made King’s work so fascinating. Waid also has some interesting implications explored involving Vision making a daughter at all with some emotional circumstances taking its toll.

As a team book, this series has been very good at capturing the teamwork required and the powers of all the heroes. The threats are mostly cursory, this story is really about Viv after all, but they get to do their thing here and there. Cyclops might get the most attention as he gets his own flashback. Cyclops fans will love it. He also gets a sentimental interaction with Ms. Marvel that shouldn’t be missed.

Ramos continues to do excellent work on this book. His style is detailed and fluid which matches the youthful characters and their personalities. There’s some twisted imagery in this issue when robot Viv goes off the rails and Ramos captures these moments very well. Other moments, like a comical scene with Devil Dinosaur, work wonderfully in a visual sort of way.

Breaking: New Vision series “picking up where Tom King left off” out in November. From @ChelseaCain @marc_mohan @audkoch @Marvel #comics #news #TheVision #Vision pic.twitter.com/gR4BU1nBnK

— AiPT! Comics (@AiPTcomics) July 21, 2018

It can’t be perfect can it?

[amazon_link asins=’1302906208′ template=’BottomAdAIPT’ store=’aiptcomics-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a2d1ba05-9a8d-11e8-ac45-557db0e4078f’]

This is a thin collection containing three issues of Waid and Ramos’ work and the “Monsters Unleashed” tie-in. That’s not a lot of content and it begs the question of why it wasn’t contained in the last trade, or even why Waid and Ramos didn’t keep going. This book certainly makes a strong statement about Viv, but it also quickly jettisons Cyclops from the team and rushes to finish in the final pages.

Is it good?

I liked this collection though it was very short. If anything this trade paperback is a solid argument to create more stories about Vision and his family. Luckily soon we will.