Contest of Champions II

Contest of Champions II

Cover of trade paperback for Contest of Champions II (1999).
Art by Michael Ryan.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
Schedule monthly
Format Limited series
Genre
    Publication date Sept. 1999 – Nov. 1999
    Number of issues 5
    Main character(s) Various Marvel super-heroes
    Creative team
    Writer(s) Chris Claremont
    Penciller(s) Oscar Jimenez
    Michael Ryan

    Publication history

    Contest of Champions II is a five-issue comic book limited series published from September to November 1999 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Chris Claremont and pencilled by Oscar Jimenez and Michael Ryan. The series is unrelated to the original limited series of the same name - Contest of Champions - published in 1982.

    Plot summary

    A group of Earth's heroes are invited by an apparently benevolent race to participate in a series of contests against one another in exchange for advanced technology. This, however, is a ruse staged by the alien race the Brood. The Brood Queen plans to absorb the powers of the strongest heroes and channel them into the captive mutant heroine Rogue, to whom the Brood Queen has transferred her conciusness using Rogue's mutant power, subsequently using the winning heroes as hosts for Brood embryoes for the new invasion of Earth..

    Courtesy of microscopic nanites, all the heroes (with the exception of Iron Man, whose armor's automatic life support systems protected him from infection) are drugged, and become indifferent to everything except the contest. After Iron Man loses his second match against X-Force, however, he is able to use his resources to reprogram the nanobots and use them to cure the other losing heroes, him and Psylocke forming a strike force to determine their location and gather the other heroes together to oppose the Brood's scheme. The Brood Queen's plan is eventually disrupted by the hero Hawkeye, who was overlooked in the early stages of the contest, and Iron Man, who leads several defeated heroes against the Brood. The Brood are defeated and Rogue is cured by heroine Ms. Marvel, who convinces the Brood Queen to withdraw from Rogue's body by convincing the Queen that she will kill Rogue if she does not.[1]

    List of Conflicts

    Winner Loser Notes
    Iron Man Psylocke Psylocke attempted to use her powers to create the illusion that she was still 'Lady Mandarin', but Iron Man used his armour's close-range defences to knock her out when she tried to attack him physically.
    Wolverine Hercules
    X-Force Iron Man After easily gaining the upper hand against most of X-Force, Iron Man was distracted by the discovery that Siryn had recently sustained damage to her larynx preventing her from using her powers, his concern for Siryn distracting Iron Man long enough for Bedlam to get the drop on him.
    Human Torch Spider-Woman The Torch trapped Spider-Woman in a fire vortex and drained oxygen out of the resulting dome to suffocate her.
    Hulk Mister Fantastic Hulk inhaled Mister Fantastic into his mouth as Richards tried to contain the Hulk by wrapping his body around him, keeping Richards contained and trapped until he ran out of oxygen and fainted.
    Human Torch She-Hulk The Torch heated the air around them until She-Hulk passed out from heatstroke.
    Storm Human Torch After a prolonged chase, Storm forced the Torch into unconsciousness with a continuous wind assault, leaving him with no way to win other than using a nova flame assault that could have killed her, which he opted not to do.
    Scarlet Witch Cable The Witch's hex-spheres combined with Cable's time-travelling nature caused minor temporal rifts that drew in other-worldly heroes Lockdown and Rosetta Stone into the ship, where they helped Iron Man and Psylocke tackle the threat.
    New Warriors Slingers Objecting to the idea of a straightforward fist-fight on the grounds that it would be boring, the two teams competed in a basketball game that the New Warriors won.
    Spider-Man Beast
    Domino Power Man
    Daredevil Firestar
    Phoenix Justice
    Hawkeye Wasp
    Iron Fist Colossus
    Gambit Quicksilver
    Black Panther New Warriors
    Black Widow Wonder Man
    Deadpool Generation X
    Invisible Woman Iron Fist
    Thor Storm Thor literally took Storm's breath away by kissing her and inhaling her oxygen.
    Deadpool Daredevil Deadpool's unusual physiology due to his healing factor, combined with his constant talking and a fake baby, distracted Daredevil's heightened senses long enough for Deadpool to get the drop on his foe.
    Black Widow X-Force
    Thor Black Widow A simple strike with Mjolnir ended the fight quickly.
    Phoenix Thing Fighting on the Blue Area of the Moon, Phoenix forced the Thing out of the perimeter of the combat zone and held him there until he ran out of breath.
    Hulk Deadpool Hulk literally landed on Deadpool after dropping him through a hole in the ground.
    Spider-Man Domino Spider-Man outstripped Domino physically despite their similar ability to predict the other's moves.
    Captain America Black Panther Black Panther's internal resistance to the current conflict gave Captain America the edge he needed.
    Gambit Wolverine Wolverine was distracted by the appearance of the Brood Queen - now in Rogue's body - long enough for Gambit to land a finishing blow.

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Contest of Champions #1 - 2 (Sept. 1999); #3 (Oct. 1999); #4 - 5 (Nov. 1999)