Champions #14-15

CHAMPIONS #14 (1977)
by Bill Mantlo & John Byrne
cover by Gil Kane

Out of all superhero teams, the Champions must still be one of the most random ones. Their first run failed to leave a mark, with one glaring exception: it introduced one of the greatest supervillains of all time.

After the Champions take care of a few subplots, a hooded figure is stalking a man who just arrived at the Los Angeles docks…

…until a couple of crates unleash GIANT BEES to attack!!!

Two members of the Champions are there to intervene: Ghost Rider (who I still can’t believe was ever part of a superhero team) and Soviet Russian Belarusian heroine Darkstar.

They are soon joined by Black Widow, who was the leader of the time. Was she the first woman to lead a superhero team that is not the Legion?

Disappointingly, the giant bees turn out to be mechanical.

Ghost Rider pulls his weight as a member of the team, thanks to his rarely mentioned super-strength.

Yeah no wonder the team had trouble accepting THE FLAMING SKULL WHO IS THE SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE INCARNATED as a hero.

But the REAL star is the one controlling the bees, who is not exactly human.

He unleashes a huge number of definitely not-mechanical and not-giant bees on his target, but he can’t put his hands on what he was really after: the briefcase he was carrying.

The hooded figure just leaves, and the Champions discover that he murdered his target because he was an Interpol agent.

The Champions return to their headquarters, joined by Angel who informs them of an incoming threat…

…which is basically ALL THE BEES IN THE WORLD.

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CHAMPIONS #15 (1977)
by Bill Mantlo & John Byrne
cover by Al Milgrom

And that was just the prologue!

Yep. The Champions are fighting bees now. I wonder why they’re not as famous as the Avengers or the X-Men.

Even if they do have one of the greatest heroes in the history of fiction: Hercules.

Little known fact: featuring Hercules automatically makes any comic 70% better.

This is when our villain formally introduces himself as Swarm.

When you consider what his whole deal is, it’s pretty amazing Swarm manages to be such a threat to a team the includes two X-Men, a superspy Avenger, the Spirit of Vengeance and a demigod!!!

I’m not afraid of bees, but anyone would be utterly TERRIFIED by Swarm, right?

Swarm has (somehow) kidnapped Iceman and Darkstar…

…presumably because he wants to tell anyone his AMAZING backstory. As a Nazi apiculturist.

Not only that: a Nazi apiculturist who discovered superintelligent bees mutated by a radioactive meteorite!

So he tried to control them and turn them into a weapon because… well because Nazi… but things didn’t quite work out.

Swarm is no longer human: he is literally a swarm of bees.
Yes.
This guy is A NAZI MADE OF BEES.
Don’t you just love comic books?

The reason why Swarm was after the Interpol agent was to recover the original queen bee of the superintelligent hive (another sentence I’d never thought I’d need to type), which had been trapped inside amber… and who Darkstar now frees.

Meanwhile, Hercules is just happy to have something to punch. It’s the simple things in life.

And really, aren’t ALL superheroes basically about solving problems by punching them?

Unfortunately it turns out that freeing the queen bee was a very bad idea, because she rapidly mutates into something HUGE.

One of the things I like about Hercules is how direct and uncomplicated he is. Trillions of bees are attacking? Just throw their queen into the ocean!

AND IT WORKS!

And without bees to form his body, Swarm is now just a pile of bones.

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Historical significance: 2/10
Sadly, Swarm is not as well-known as he deserves.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Our villain is A NAZI MADE OF BEES whose backstory is being a Nazi apiculturist who discovered superintelligent bees mutated by a radioactive meteorite!!!

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
The Champions don’t really work as a concept, AT ALL: they’re basically a bunch of heroes who formed a group because they just happened to live in Los Angeles at the time. Which COULD work, but the concept of “heroes who have nothing in common and just hang out” is already the theme of the Defenders, who have a much more glorious past.
That being said, this story is GREAT!!! Just superhero fun, an action-horror blockbuster for which you kind of have to switch off your brain, but a well-executed one.

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How close is this to the modern character? 9/10
The only thing preventing a 10/10 is the fact that he never uses giant mechanical bees again. But it’s not like there’s a lot of variety in how you can write a NAZI MADE OF BEES.
Weirdly enough he’s never worked with Red Skull. It can’t be because he freaks him out: it’s not like Arnim Zola is more normal than him.

Swarm returned a couple of years later on Spectacular Spider-Man, not surprising since it was being written by Mantlo.
The idea behind his return was great: a scientist was studying the skeleton left behind by Swarm in order to find a way to control bees the same way. Presumably NOT to turn into a supervillain as well.

I guess it was only natural to have Swarm transition into a Spider-Man villain.
After all “there’s a spiderness about him”, whatever that means. 

Still, as awesome being A NAZI MADE OF BEES is, it’s no wonder he never rose to one of the greats.

He didn’t show up until 1993 in the “Lethal foes of Spider-Man” miniseries, which incidentally is the same place where Stegron randomly showed up.

That story features Swarm being reduced to a skeleton for the last time.

 In his next appearance, in the deservedly little known Secret Defenders series, he ditches the skeleton and starts to define himself as literally the swarm, instead of the original Nazi.
While I do agree that getting rid of the skeleton was a good idea, you can’t throw away the goldmine that is the NAZI MADE OF BEES. And yes, I will never be tired of saying it.

He’s back to fighting Spider-Man (or rather his clone… long story) in 1996, when he refers to himself as both the swarm and the Nazi.
The Wieringo artwork REALLY took advantage of the idea that he’s made of bees.

 

Including giving him his own throne!

Despite that great return, he vanishes AGAIN until 2006 when he faces the Runaways.

In the same year he ALMOST has a re-match with Spider-Man when he’s inexplicably back to his skeleton, but he’s taken out by a random stuntman when he’s trying to kill Mary Jane.

Not that the skeleton lasts much: when he fights Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts in 2008, his skull gets eaten by Venom.
I’d feel bad for him but, you know. Nazi.

He almost gets a rematch of sorts with Hercules in 2007.

Aside from a very random fight with the X-Men in 2011…

…he finally gets a PROPER rematch with Spider-Man in 2015.

But he’s taken out by some mutant teenagers that Spider-Man is mentoring.

In the same year he gets a full issue of the incredibly well-written Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series.

 The only comic who could have the NAZI MADE OF BEES give an environmental message without sounding preachy.

While also reminding us that Swarm looks FREAKING TERRIFYING.
I used to wonder WTF his “eyes” were, and now I kind of regret seeing his “face” up close.

And if you thought that being a NAZI MADE OF BEES wasn’t amazing enough… in 2019 he uses his bees to control the skeleton of a dinosaur.
Yes.
He was A NAZI DINOSAUR MADE OF BEES.
I freaking love comics.

So as you can see, Swarm has fought Spider-Man more than any other superhero… but wouldn’t exactly call him as a Spider-Man villain.

Which makes it even more baffling that Swarm was in the infamous Spider-Man Broadway show!!!

Yep. That actually happened.

I had to look at a couple of minutes of recordings of that musical for this.
I admit it’s not my genre, but even if it was I’m pretty sure it would STILL be the dumbest f##king thing I have ever seen.