PEREGRINE versus ANGEL
Chapter 4: Third Contest: Siege in the City of the Dead! (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #3 When: August 1982 Why: Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant & Bill Mantlo How: John Romita Jr
The Story So Far...
Across the universe there exist immortal entities whose very being determines cosmic reality. The Grandmaster is one such entity: an Elder of the Universe whose taste for games inspires a Contest of Champions!
Snatching the world's heroes from a temporarily frozen Earth; The Grandmaster drafts a team of twelve to represent him in a contest of life and death! His team must race to find segments of a golden artifact scattered to the four corners of the world. His ultimate prize will be the restoration of his immortal brother: The Collector!
Collector was killed by the mad man-god Michael Korvac, but his passing is beyond even the vast cosmic reach of a fellow Elder. Thus, The Grandmaster issues his challenge to the ultimate opponent - Death herself!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 2 (Average)
Intelligence: Angel 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Draw 3 (Strong Willed)
Agility: Draw 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Peregrine 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Draw 1 (None)
Total: Draw 19 (Street-level)
We're back to the Contest of Champions and another battle spawned from its clash of teams representing The Grandmaster and his mysterious competition rival: Death! This time the battlefield is the air above the Shaanxi province of China. The team goal is to retrieve an artifact - but the fight is man to man!
Le Peregrine competes for The Grandmaster with teammates The Thing and Wolverine. As his costumed moniker may suggest: Alain Racine is both foreign and falcon-like -- wearing a winged flight suit, and fighting out of France.
He takes on the high-flying Angel, whose partners on Team Death are: Black Panther and the Russian hero Vanguard. The trio is far more composed than their rivals, but as we've already seen during Wolverine vs Black Panther, that won't help them secure victory in The Contest, or in individual skirmishes.
This fight isn't too far removed from Avengers #214, where Angel had been pulled into the orbit of The Avengers, and played peacemaker in a conflict with Ghost Rider. He won't have the luxury of talking his way out of this one, though.
The knock on Angel has often been that, despite his impressive mutant gifts, he isn't much of a fighter. In X-Men #6 he was bamboozled by boulders hurled by Magneto, then snatched from the sky and pitched like a baseball by Namor!
That's a key distinguishing factor for Le Peregrine, who combines aerial derring-do with mastery of the French martial art savate! That's the same kickboxing style used by Batroc, but Peregrine's style involves much more than leaping!
Retro-infused stories in Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1 and X-Men: First Class #2 showed how Angel can turn the tables on far more powerful foes by taking the fight to the air. In this fight, he faces an aerial equal, and won't have the luxury of being able to fall back on dropping his opponent from a great height.
In fact, I think the combination of flight and fighting ability gives Peregrine a convincing advantage. If Angel's going to secure a win, I think his best shot is to try to outmanoeuvre his opponent, and destroy his artificial means of flying.
The Tape: Angel Ranking: Angel (#73)
What Went Down...
With The Grandmaster's team hitting the ground running -- Angel deploys for aerial reconnaissance while his teammates debate tactics. Its not long before he crosses flight paths with his counterpart -- Le Peregrine!
The Frenchman proves familiar with his opponent's exploits and announces his intention to test him. Peregrine wastes no time flying directly for Angel, whose attempts to pull up are thwarted by a dive bombing double-booted kick!
The blow catches Angel by surprise, but he vows not to be caught so easily again! The winged mutant puts distance between he and his attacker, drifting backwards, but he's soon to be disappointed!
Peregrine swoops to deliver another devastating savate kick at the optimal arc of a loop de loop!
The blow is sufficient to send Angel hurtling towards the ground! He pulls himself out of the plunge at the last second, and starts formulating a plan to outmaneouvre his opponent -- and arm himself!
Peregrine looms like a bird of doom as Angel swoops a village street to collect a large walking stick from a local peasant. When Peregrine begins to draw nearer, he turns on the speed and flies as if he's fleeing!
Angel allows Le Peregrine's arrogance to grow as he gets closer to catching up.
Then at the perfect moment Angel pounces -- suddenly flying up and over his pursuing challenger to turn the tables! He locks the staff under Peregrine's jaw and pulls it tight against his windpipe!
Where: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #3 When: August 1982 Why: Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant & Bill Mantlo How: John Romita Jr
The Story So Far...
Across the universe there exist immortal entities whose very being determines cosmic reality. The Grandmaster is one such entity: an Elder of the Universe whose taste for games inspires a Contest of Champions!
Snatching the world's heroes from a temporarily frozen Earth; The Grandmaster drafts a team of twelve to represent him in a contest of life and death! His team must race to find segments of a golden artifact scattered to the four corners of the world. His ultimate prize will be the restoration of his immortal brother: The Collector!
Collector was killed by the mad man-god Michael Korvac, but his passing is beyond even the vast cosmic reach of a fellow Elder. Thus, The Grandmaster issues his challenge to the ultimate opponent - Death herself!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 2 (Average)Intelligence: Angel 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Draw 3 (Strong Willed)
Agility: Draw 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Peregrine 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Draw 1 (None)
Total: Draw 19 (Street-level)
We're back to the Contest of Champions and another battle spawned from its clash of teams representing The Grandmaster and his mysterious competition rival: Death! This time the battlefield is the air above the Shaanxi province of China. The team goal is to retrieve an artifact - but the fight is man to man!
Le Peregrine competes for The Grandmaster with teammates The Thing and Wolverine. As his costumed moniker may suggest: Alain Racine is both foreign and falcon-like -- wearing a winged flight suit, and fighting out of France.
He takes on the high-flying Angel, whose partners on Team Death are: Black Panther and the Russian hero Vanguard. The trio is far more composed than their rivals, but as we've already seen during Wolverine vs Black Panther, that won't help them secure victory in The Contest, or in individual skirmishes.
This fight isn't too far removed from Avengers #214, where Angel had been pulled into the orbit of The Avengers, and played peacemaker in a conflict with Ghost Rider. He won't have the luxury of talking his way out of this one, though.
The knock on Angel has often been that, despite his impressive mutant gifts, he isn't much of a fighter. In X-Men #6 he was bamboozled by boulders hurled by Magneto, then snatched from the sky and pitched like a baseball by Namor!
That's a key distinguishing factor for Le Peregrine, who combines aerial derring-do with mastery of the French martial art savate! That's the same kickboxing style used by Batroc, but Peregrine's style involves much more than leaping!
Retro-infused stories in Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1 and X-Men: First Class #2 showed how Angel can turn the tables on far more powerful foes by taking the fight to the air. In this fight, he faces an aerial equal, and won't have the luxury of being able to fall back on dropping his opponent from a great height.
In fact, I think the combination of flight and fighting ability gives Peregrine a convincing advantage. If Angel's going to secure a win, I think his best shot is to try to outmanoeuvre his opponent, and destroy his artificial means of flying.
The Tape: Angel Ranking: Angel (#73)
What Went Down...
With The Grandmaster's team hitting the ground running -- Angel deploys for aerial reconnaissance while his teammates debate tactics. Its not long before he crosses flight paths with his counterpart -- Le Peregrine!
The Frenchman proves familiar with his opponent's exploits and announces his intention to test him. Peregrine wastes no time flying directly for Angel, whose attempts to pull up are thwarted by a dive bombing double-booted kick!
The blow catches Angel by surprise, but he vows not to be caught so easily again! The winged mutant puts distance between he and his attacker, drifting backwards, but he's soon to be disappointed!
Peregrine swoops to deliver another devastating savate kick at the optimal arc of a loop de loop!
The blow is sufficient to send Angel hurtling towards the ground! He pulls himself out of the plunge at the last second, and starts formulating a plan to outmaneouvre his opponent -- and arm himself!
Peregrine looms like a bird of doom as Angel swoops a village street to collect a large walking stick from a local peasant. When Peregrine begins to draw nearer, he turns on the speed and flies as if he's fleeing!
Angel allows Le Peregrine's arrogance to grow as he gets closer to catching up.
Then at the perfect moment Angel pounces -- suddenly flying up and over his pursuing challenger to turn the tables! He locks the staff under Peregrine's jaw and pulls it tight against his windpipe!
The assisted chokehold causes Peregrine to gag on his words, but it doesn't stop him fighting! The nimble martial artist simply throws his legs back, managing to dig his heels in and lock them around the Angel's mid-section!
Suddenly it's Peregrine who's in control, squeezing the air out of Angel with the tightening of his powerful legs!
As he lifts his chest and arches his back in an effort to fill his lungs, Angel also inadvertently releases the choke. Knowing time is running out, the X-Man resorts to a desperation move -- using the staff to club Peregrine on the back of the head!
The blunt force is enough to knock Peregrine out cold and send the pair plummeting earthbound. Angel comes to land in a field, standing over his defeated foe with the knowledge it could've easily been another result.
The Hammer...
Quite a dynamic fight that's nicely differentiated from the aerial action of Sunfire versus Darkstar. I like how raw and basic the battle is. It's part aero dog fight, part street fight. Not necessarily what you'd expect from Angel -- and one hell of a way to introduce Le Peregrine!There isn't actually a whole lot of it. It's only given one dedicated page, but the way the action is intercut with Wolverine versus Black Panther, and the other key battle, really helps keep the energy up. Some other matches throughout the series have overlap, but the flavor of this one is just a little bit different.
It's intriguing to me that Peregrine has a far more storied career after Contest of Champions than most of the international heroes created for the event. We've already talked about Blitzkrieg and Defensor: German and Argentine heroes killed in a 1995 Captain America story, with few appearances in between.
Le Peregrine doesn't seem particularly more marketable than either of those characters, yet he's managed a couple of dozen subsequent appearances! He was featured as recently as 2017's Secret Empire, as part of a rebel force opposing Hydra known as The Champions of Europe.
He's essentially been afforded the treatment I thought the other characters should've had as well. Not quite a feature player, but when the right story calls for it, he's out there flying around France ready to answer the call.
I wonder if some of Peregrine's staying power is attributable to the strength of his first appearance. He wasn't given a win over the more established X-Man, but he dominates his opponent in a way Blitzkrieg and Defensor did not.
I'm quite taken with the combination of flight and savate. There are several winged characters in comics, but a lot of them don't really use refined fighting techniques. Peregrine is a character who could conceivably shed his wings and keep on kicking. Combining flight with specific martial arts is pretty interesting, and savate's heavy emphasis on kicking without punching works perfectly!
I can't imagine Peregrine fronting a solo series, but I'm very intrigued by the prospect of how he could flesh out a team book, Marvel Comics Presents style anthology, or other relevant series as a more frequent recurring character.
Peregrine's still relatively unexplored, and low key enough that there's room to develop him in new ways. Yet there's also enough history and character to generate some pretty easy new plots that would be worth seeing.
You can't mention savate in Marvel Comics without conjuring Batroc The Leaper, and the fact they haven't established a strong rivalry already is almost hard to believe! A feud for mastery of the style seems obligatory and could be a lot of fun -- especially if it were to escalate into new incarnations of Batroc's Brigade. That would be particularly applicable if Peregrine were in a team scenario.
Peregrine worked briefly for Silver Sable, which creates some interesting ties, and further ingrains him into the mercenary world that Batroc occupies.
It could be very interesting to see the flying Frenchman meet other prominent mercs in the Marvel Univrse, like the recently resurrected Jason Macendale, Taskmaster, Sabretooth, Crossbones, Deadpool, Moon Knight, and so on.
As we saw in today's featured fight: it can also be satisfying just to see how he might interact with other winged allies and enemies. Revisiting Angel could be interesting, but I also like the idea of a run-in with Vulture, flying with Falcon, and perhaps developing a friendship with Wasp. We talked a little about how she might find her way to France while looking at Marvel Super-Heroes #3.
I rather like the emotionally connected portrayal of Peregrine in a James Robinson written issue of Scarlet Witch from 2016.
That was an out of leftfield story about love, loss, and suicidal depression. I think it would be interesting to keep that element of sensitivity, but marry it to the bravado seen in Contest, creating some version of a Luc Besson sensibility in the vein of Leon or Taken.
International intrigue seems like an easy way make the most of the character's European origins, while giving him some edge. That realm was exploited through a Black Widow team-up, and there are a lot of other characters in the Marvel Universe who could fit the bill. Good humored tension between the French and British has often been a source of amusement. I'm also personally intrigued by the unique cultural exchange between France and Japan.
I'm sure I could sit around fantasy booking ways to revisit Peregrine all day, but what I'd really like is for you to help decide an unofficial Contest of Champions sequel! Check out The Contest: Hawkman vs Peregrine for the full rundown of their match-up and ways you can comment & vote for the winner.
You can find more superhero smackdown from the original Contest of Champions, or its much later official sequel, by following links throughout this post. Or just jump into the Secret Archive for an index of every featured fight ordered by publisher, series, and issue number!
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 600 battles with more on the way! Get additional updates inspired by the topics of the day by subscribing to Twitter and Facebook. If you like what it's all about you can also unlock extra schedule info, custom article requests, and polling by signing up to Patreon.
Winner: Angel
#46 (+27) Angel (Warren Worthington III)
#920 (new) Le Peregrine
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