In Stores Today: The Champions Masterworks Collection

THIS IS IT!

Today sees the release of the Marvel Masterworks collection of 1975's team series The Champions, which of course included Ghost Rider as a prominent (sort of) member of the line-up.  If you've been reading the blog, you've seen reviews recently of the first four issues of the series by Jim and I, and let me tell you, brother: this series is rough.  Things do pick up considerably once Bill Mantlo and John Byrne take over as the creative team, but this series is still the poster-child for misguided Marvel titles of the Bronze Age. 

If you're a Ghost Rider fan who has never had the chance to read this series (the two trades collecting the series have been out of print for years), this might be worth a curiosity buy if you have a ton of disposable income.  The book has a hefty $99 price tag, which I think might make it the most expensive Masterwork to date?  Even though this has a totally thorough round-up of the series in-total, including all of the team's guest-appearances in other titles of the time (except the Godzilla issue, of course), it's still definitely not worth such a high price.  And though I definitely understand the exclusion, it would have been nice to see some of the latter-day Champions plug-in stories (such as Giant-Size Hulk # 1 and Gambit & the Champions # 1) and the reunion from X-Force/Champions Annual 1999. 

So, if you're not a fan of Bronze Age comics (and that era's Ghost Rider in particular), I'd recommend skipping this book.  If you DO decide to pick it up, there's some great unintentional comedy in those pages.  As a bonus for all Ghost Rider fans, here's the best page of the series for to you enjoy some sweet Byrne artwork.  Click the image to embiggen!

I just saved you $100.  You're welcome.