The comic book world is no stranger to parody and pastiche. Both DC and Marvel have been known to reference one another's characters liberally. Just look at the sheer number of Superman analogs Marvel has created over the years. One of the most famous inter-company parodies is the Squadron Supreme, Marvel's homage to the Justice League that eventually became an established superhero team in their universe. But what few people know is that when Marvel created the Squadron, DC returned the favor by making their own version of Marvel's Avengers. Meet the Champions of Angor, outer space's mightiest heroes.
The Champions of Angor first appeared in the pages of Justice League of America #87, published in February 1971-the exact same month that Marvel introduced the Squadron Supreme in Avengers #85. A fascinating coincidence, probably helped by the fact that Justice League writer Mike Fredrick and Avengers writer Roy Thomas knew one another. The plot of the comic centered around the Justice League chasing a killer robot into space where they land on the planet Angor and are mistaken for an invading army. Like most good superhero crossovers, the champions and the Justice League begin to fight.
The Champions of Angor consisted of a group of alien superheroes from the planet Angor and was made up of Wandjina (an Aboriginal thunder spirit, obviously meant to be Thor), Jack B Quick and Silver Sorceress (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch), and Blue Jay (Hank Pym). Not the most exciting roster imaginable, but that's likely because it was based on the Avengers lineup at the time. Through a convenient flashback, it's revealed to the audience that Angor was once a prosperous world until greedy businessmen destroyed their civilization through nuclear warfare. This would be important later during the few times the Champions reappeared in comics. Once the Justice League proved they were good guys by saving Blue Jay's life they left Angor to return home.
Unlike Marvel's Squadron Supreme, a team that would keep getting used in later comic books and eventually star in one of the 1980s most underrated comics, the Champions of Angor were a criminally underused concept at DC. Their second major appearance wouldn't come until after Crisis on Infinite Earths when the team was featured in Justice League #2. This time the Champions are the ones coming to earth to destroy our planet's nuclear weapons in order to prevent another world from killing itself with WMDs. After that, they would appear again with a slightly updated roster in Justice League Europe and Justice League Quarterly but each of these appearances only lasted one issue.
Looking at the Champions of Angor one question immediately comes to mind-why did this superhero parody team fail to make waves while Squadron Supreme succeeded? One obvious answer is that the Champions had a very weak roster of characters. A DC version of Captain America or The Hulk could have fleshed out the Champions visual design and given them more to do in future stories. But another reason might have been because of their backstory. The Champions of Angor had their homeworld destroyed by nuclear weapons, and so every story they were featured in was about atomic warfare in some capacity. While Gozilla proves those themes solid, they're highly limiting. By making the Champions of Angor all about the evils of nuclear war it becomes difficult to use them in stories that aren't about nuclear war.
The Champions of Angor disappeared from the DC universe with a whimper, not a bang. If the group had been more popular or more fleshed out it's possible that DC could have had their own Squadron Supreme to poke fun at their eternal rival. Of course, there's nothing stopping DC from reviving the Champions of Angor in the future-hopefully with a happier backstory this time.