Hello, my fellow teens(uperheroes)! beware spoilers!
Written by Eve EwingCover by Toni Infante
Illustrated by Simone Di Meo and Bob Quinn
Colored by Federico Bee
Lettered by VC’s Clayton CowlesWhen clashing protests over the teen vigilante ban break out across Chicago, the Champions risk their freedom to protect the young protestors from overzealous C.R.A.D.L.E. agents — but Chicago’s own hometown hero, Ironheart, is nowhere to be seen. Where is Riri Williams? Why has she abandoned the Champions? And could it have anything to do with the mole in their ranks – ?
If there’s one thing we can all learn from Marvel in 2020 that if “Ewing” is on the cover, you are probably in for a thoughtful and engaging comic, regardless of if the two Ewings are completely different people! Eve Ewing, Simone Di Meo, Bob Quinn, Federico Bee and Clayton Cowles, deliver an excellent chapter in the “Outlawed” semi-event in “Champions #2”. The “Outlawed” event has drawn comparisons to the two “Civil War” events (in Marvel Comics…of course) however perhaps due to scale, focus, or an actual well thought out political analysis, “Outlawed” feels much more meaningful than these events and that undeniably on display in “Champions” #2.
Part of the more thoughtful analysis comes with how Ewing’s script handles the political conflict. There’s definitely the sense of protagonists and antagonists, between the Champions and C.R.A.D.L.E, but the ideological differences are far from black and white, and Ewing really allows the characters to grapple with it from various viewpoints and motivations that make a lot of sense. This isn’t even limited to the costumed heroes at the center, the protest at the center of the book feels like by far the most thoughtful application of a protest/ counterprotest in superhero comics. In lesser writers hands, they all would be either wordless shorthands for “unrest” direct analogs of current protests happening around the country, but Ewing uses this protest to voice the conflict in the language of today’s political activism in a way that is not fighting to be relevant but just is. A particular stand-out line in Jose’s speech highlights that these Teen Vigilante laws unfairly hurt youth of color and LGBTQ youth which–of course it would! A constant in the United States is as soon as something is criminalized, marginalized people are going to unfairly get the brunt of it. From marijuana and even more recent mask mandates, if someone is going to jail for a crime it is not going to be a cishet white man. There’s even an excellent metatextual weight to that line because OF COURSE a law targeting this generation of teen vigilantes would unfairly hurt marginalized groups is because there has been such a focus to make this new generation as diverse as possible which I think is such an interesting element of this story. I could go on but ultimately a really great element of the political conflict of this book is Ewing is not creating direct parallels to the movements today because a Teen Superhero law is very fictional but she fully thinks through the motivations and the consequences that would come from it in a realistic way that makes this conflict full of depth.
Ewing’s character work also cannot be discounted in “Champions” #2 because she really paints such a solid voice and motive for each character regardless of familiarity or page time. Ewing is also a natural at writing young people, specifically Black young people and that’s been evident since “Ironheart” and particularly shines here considering Riri’s central role in this issue. There’s never an overreliance of slang or any shoehorned pop-culture references for humor. The characters talk like people who sometimes tell jokes and each has a particular rhythm. Particular kudos to the scene with Nova and Riri. Sam Alexander is a character I know next to nothing about, but Ewing giving him a relatively quiet moment after his hot-headedness all issue, and then for him to be completely wrong in his prognosis was really great character work that gave me a good look at what I needed to know about him. Really solid writing.
Artistically Simone Di Meo remains one of the most unique and energetic artists right now and it’s a little unfortunate that there wasn’t more room for play here. Maybe it’s that we are spoiled by his other book with Ewing named collaborator, with illustrating grand cosmic scenes, but here, Di Meo captures youthful energy even when characters are just standing still. Di Meo’s momentum even carries over in page layouts that seemingly always have a slant or are never uniform. All of this makes Di Meo’s work so unique which is why Bob Quinn’s approach in the back chunk of the book isn’t necessarily jarring but slows the momentum a bit. Character expressions aren’t as strong and page layouts feel a bit more cluttered than inventive. Quinn’s style feels more like a straddle between Di Meo’s and Marvel’s current house style. Federico Bee does a lot in terms of making the styles feel consistent in the book, however. It’s likely you could read through and not even recognize the shift in artists. Clayton Cowles’ lettering also is very strong here and really blends stylistically into the artwork.
Ultimately, Ewing delivers another thoughtful and well-characterized chapter of this “Outlawed” saga in “Champions” #2. The art team differs but manages to maintain a stylistic consistency even when it may dip in terms of energy. Overall Ewing has really captured my attention not just in terms of this event but her work in crafting relevant superhero comics in general.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – “Champions” #2 continues a dynamic and relevant take on the “superhero legislation trope”.
