INVISIBLE WOMAN versus TALISMAN
Chapter 2: First Contest: Frenzy in the Frozen North! (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #2 When: July 1982 Why: Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant 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: Invisible Woman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Invisible Woman 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Invisible Woman 4 (Trained)
Energy: Invisible Woman 2 (Projectiles)
Total: Invisible Woman 21 (Champion)
We're back in the arctic to revisit the first round of the Contest of Champions!
Two teams of three representing The Grandmaster and Death are locked in a race to claim a hidden portion of a golden artifact. We've already seen Darkstar versus Sunfire and now we return to look at one of the other early skirmishes.
Invisible Girl was chosen to represent Death, competing alongside teammates Iron Fist and Sunfire. That might seem like a winning combination if the warmth of Sunfire's flame can be trapped in an invisible bubble, but team cohesion doesn't appear to be a priority for the hot-headed mutant.
On Grandmaster's team is Talisman, who's joined by Daredevil and Darkstar.
Little is known about the mysterious mystic known as Talisman, but the source of his powers comes from convening with Alcheringa, or the Dreamtime.
This meditative state grants him a projected astral presence, enhanced perception of his surroundings, and commune with the timeless spirits of his ancestors.
Talisman also wields a sacred tjurunga, which he can use to project disorienting effects of Dreamtime upon others who are inexperienced with, or unwelcome in that plane. He uses a bullroarer to direct this: two small pieces of wood swung by a string tether. He can also use this method to teleport himself and others.
Although Susan Storm is still going by the Invisible Girl moniker at this time -- she's absolutely no rookie!
Early adventures were a trial by fire against the likes of Hulk [Fantastic Four #12], building up the steely determination she showed while traversing the depths of Ego The Living Planet in Fantastic Four #235, and defending her family from the eerie Iconoclast in Fantastic Four (Vol.3) #2.
Invisibility might not help her evade the senses of Talisman, but her ability to cast structural force-fields could insulate her from his sense-altering attack, and help her subdue his vulnerable physical form. She also holds another unusual advantage brought about by circumstances: her costume!
Made of unstable molecules, the Fantastic Four's uniforms were created by Mister Fantastic to accommodate their powers and their unusual journeys.
The costumes are highly resistant to temperature changes, giving Invisible Girl extra insulation against the freezing cold of their wintery battlefield, as well as the air and warmth she can trap within a personal force-bubble. That could be a difference maker against the scantily clad Australian! Let's check it out...
The Tape: Invisible Girl Ranking: Invisible Girl (#15)
What Went Down...
With her team going their separate ways, Invisible Girl cloaks herself in a veil of transparency and presses on through the blizzard. She sets her sights on one of the opposing team -- a curiously seated man, who appears motionless.
The invisible woman anticipates easy ambush, but notices her feet leaving deep depressions in the snow. She crafts two large forcefield discs beneath her feet to tread above the ground, not knowing her opponent roams beyond this realm!
Drifting across the open tundra as an astral projection -- Talisman suddenly senses the approach of someone at his mortal body. In an instant, he snaps back to reality, rejoining spirit and body to confront his would-be attacker!
The sudden rising of a lively Talisman startles the Invisible Girl. Although he cannot see her with his mortal eyes, her shocked exclamation confirms the presence of an unseen opponent. He responds with a sound of his own!
Talisman swings a bull-roarer above his head, unleashing the whirling coo of its handcrafted wooden ends. It is no ordinary sound-maker, but rather a sacred tjurunga through which he channels a gateway into another way of being!
The sudden onrush of Dreamtime catches Invisible Girl by surprise. Despite her many travels across uncharted realms and dimensions -- nothing has prepared her for the timeless expanse of this ancient way of perceiving.
The world appears to bend and distort around her as Invisible Girl struggles to get her bearings. Even as it does, the snow-covered ice beneath them both begins to rend with a massive crack. It provides the focus Susan Storm needs to reorient and create a protective forcefield around herself.
Talisman notes the Invisible Girl's instinctive efforts to navigate the disorienting void as he flees across the cracking ice.
The shaman is so very far from his home in the Australian outback. He knows a plunge into the watery depths with so little clothing could spell certain death. He does not have the luxury of a "force-sphere", which protects Invisible Girl, bobbing gently on the surface without getting her wet.
The pair becomes separated as the ice begins to rapidly melt as a result of the battle overhead between Sunfire and Darkstar. It inadvertently exposes the golden artifact that brings both teams into competition.
Standing on a forcefield raft, Invisible Girl prevents Darkstar from reaching the object with her darkforce projections with another forcefield. While she does, Talisman once again plunges the battlefield into a disorienting blur of dreaming.
Daredevil and Iron Fist stagger through the swirling energies, but this time Invisible Girl is ready. She strides confidently through the confusion toward her goal, while Talisman takes it upon himself to teleport closer as well.
In the end, neither will claim the prize -- nor victory in battle over the other.
It is instead the blind determination of another that reaches through the dreaming to claim the artifact and end their game.
The Hammer...
You could argue the battle between Invisible Girl and Talisman technically ended when they both separated, but they did inadvertently continue to clash. The Contest of Champions may decree Daredevil winner by retrieving the golden prize, but by our rules of combat, even accounting for Talisman's second dreamtime projection, this battle ended with an inconclusive draw.
If Talisman seems at all familiar, it might be because you're thinking of another indigenous Australian character: Gateway. Both can use a bullroarer to open portals through time and space, but otherwise have little to do with each other.
Gateway always struck me as the slightly more authentic character, perhaps benefitting from the proliferation of Australiana in pop culture in the six years following Contest of Champions. He first appeared in 1988, during the X-Men's Mad Max tinged outback era. Talisman is clearly researched, but strikes me as a little less uniquely Australian in his design and presentation.
Not that we ever got to know a great deal about Talisman.
Like some of the other characters created for Contest of Champions, Talisman didn't make many more appearances. His entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe only summarized what was seen during today's battle, and he largely existed as a one panel cameo in series like Quasar and New Avengers.
Quasar #23 seemed to get it right, briefly noting Talisman's awareness when the rotation of the Earth was stopped. That issue was written by Mark Gruenwald, who seemed to be one of the only Marvel writers concerned with keeping check of his global creations, despite Contest of Champions' relative endurance as an early Marvel "event" milestone.
On the plus side: Talisman at least continues to exist. He escaped the gratuitous executions suffered by Blitzkrieg and Defensor in issues of Captain America, and seems ripe for further consideration when the opportunity presents itself.
I like to think Talisman is obviously still out there watching out for Australia, but he'd also be a good character for writers and editors to be aware of in stories that concern the well-being of the Earth, and matters of distant past.
The Dreaming gives Talisman unique governance over affairs of past, future, and existence. "Dreamtime" is an English translation for an Aboriginal Australian cultural tradition of creation, and ancestral knowledge existing beyond time.
Within a Marvel context Talisman becomes a specialist mystic who might be consulted when events concern other times, or when time and reality itself are under threat. He strikes me as an interesting foil to a character like Kang, and a potential ally known to heroes like Doctor Strange and Black Panther.
While thinking about this, it actually struck me how many Australian characters Marvel has. I don't know that there'd be a large market for it, but I could see how a very interesting series might unfold if these characters were brought together.
I can't help but think of Australia's initial good fortune in responding to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, and how something like an in-fiction resurgence of a mutated strain of Legacy virus might be an interesting premise to send the various Aussies on an exodus back to their homeland.
A rural quarantine facility would keep them all held together, and place them in proximity to well known characters like The Reavers, and Talisman himself, as intrigue unfolds among the captive characters, and various forces working outside the facility. Ideas come to mind, but I digress...
If you want some more fantasy fiction you can check out The Contest: Killer Croc vs Talisman where the Australian shaman is in competition with an unlikely DC adversary. Our unofficial Contest of Champions sequel is an inter-company crossover where the battles are decided by you!
You can find more battles from the real Contest of Champions, or its official 1999 sequel, by following links throughout this post. Or go on a deeper dive by checking out the Secret Archive for a complete index of every featured fight in order of publisher, series, and issue number.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 650 battles and ranked in excess of 950 characters! You can find it all right here for free, but if you like what we're about and want to see it succeed, you can now support the site on Patreon. In addition to my sincerest gratitude you'll get access to extra updates, additional poll options, and custom articles. A thank you for your generosity!
You can also follow Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to superhero smackdown inspired by the topics of the day. That's also where you'll find the latest polls and results from The Contest. Make sure you share and like updates while you're there, and feel free to say hi!
Winner: Inconclusive (Draw)
#15 (--) Invisible Woman
#457 (new) Talisman
Where: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #2 When: July 1982 Why: Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant 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: Invisible Woman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Invisible Woman 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Invisible Woman 4 (Trained)
Energy: Invisible Woman 2 (Projectiles)
Total: Invisible Woman 21 (Champion)
We're back in the arctic to revisit the first round of the Contest of Champions!
Two teams of three representing The Grandmaster and Death are locked in a race to claim a hidden portion of a golden artifact. We've already seen Darkstar versus Sunfire and now we return to look at one of the other early skirmishes.
Invisible Girl was chosen to represent Death, competing alongside teammates Iron Fist and Sunfire. That might seem like a winning combination if the warmth of Sunfire's flame can be trapped in an invisible bubble, but team cohesion doesn't appear to be a priority for the hot-headed mutant.
On Grandmaster's team is Talisman, who's joined by Daredevil and Darkstar.
Little is known about the mysterious mystic known as Talisman, but the source of his powers comes from convening with Alcheringa, or the Dreamtime.This meditative state grants him a projected astral presence, enhanced perception of his surroundings, and commune with the timeless spirits of his ancestors.
Talisman also wields a sacred tjurunga, which he can use to project disorienting effects of Dreamtime upon others who are inexperienced with, or unwelcome in that plane. He uses a bullroarer to direct this: two small pieces of wood swung by a string tether. He can also use this method to teleport himself and others.
Although Susan Storm is still going by the Invisible Girl moniker at this time -- she's absolutely no rookie!
Early adventures were a trial by fire against the likes of Hulk [Fantastic Four #12], building up the steely determination she showed while traversing the depths of Ego The Living Planet in Fantastic Four #235, and defending her family from the eerie Iconoclast in Fantastic Four (Vol.3) #2.
Invisibility might not help her evade the senses of Talisman, but her ability to cast structural force-fields could insulate her from his sense-altering attack, and help her subdue his vulnerable physical form. She also holds another unusual advantage brought about by circumstances: her costume!
Made of unstable molecules, the Fantastic Four's uniforms were created by Mister Fantastic to accommodate their powers and their unusual journeys.
The costumes are highly resistant to temperature changes, giving Invisible Girl extra insulation against the freezing cold of their wintery battlefield, as well as the air and warmth she can trap within a personal force-bubble. That could be a difference maker against the scantily clad Australian! Let's check it out...
The Tape: Invisible Girl Ranking: Invisible Girl (#15)
What Went Down...
With her team going their separate ways, Invisible Girl cloaks herself in a veil of transparency and presses on through the blizzard. She sets her sights on one of the opposing team -- a curiously seated man, who appears motionless.
The invisible woman anticipates easy ambush, but notices her feet leaving deep depressions in the snow. She crafts two large forcefield discs beneath her feet to tread above the ground, not knowing her opponent roams beyond this realm!
Drifting across the open tundra as an astral projection -- Talisman suddenly senses the approach of someone at his mortal body. In an instant, he snaps back to reality, rejoining spirit and body to confront his would-be attacker!
The sudden rising of a lively Talisman startles the Invisible Girl. Although he cannot see her with his mortal eyes, her shocked exclamation confirms the presence of an unseen opponent. He responds with a sound of his own!
Talisman swings a bull-roarer above his head, unleashing the whirling coo of its handcrafted wooden ends. It is no ordinary sound-maker, but rather a sacred tjurunga through which he channels a gateway into another way of being!
The sudden onrush of Dreamtime catches Invisible Girl by surprise. Despite her many travels across uncharted realms and dimensions -- nothing has prepared her for the timeless expanse of this ancient way of perceiving.
The world appears to bend and distort around her as Invisible Girl struggles to get her bearings. Even as it does, the snow-covered ice beneath them both begins to rend with a massive crack. It provides the focus Susan Storm needs to reorient and create a protective forcefield around herself.
Talisman notes the Invisible Girl's instinctive efforts to navigate the disorienting void as he flees across the cracking ice.
The shaman is so very far from his home in the Australian outback. He knows a plunge into the watery depths with so little clothing could spell certain death. He does not have the luxury of a "force-sphere", which protects Invisible Girl, bobbing gently on the surface without getting her wet.
The pair becomes separated as the ice begins to rapidly melt as a result of the battle overhead between Sunfire and Darkstar. It inadvertently exposes the golden artifact that brings both teams into competition.
Standing on a forcefield raft, Invisible Girl prevents Darkstar from reaching the object with her darkforce projections with another forcefield. While she does, Talisman once again plunges the battlefield into a disorienting blur of dreaming.
Daredevil and Iron Fist stagger through the swirling energies, but this time Invisible Girl is ready. She strides confidently through the confusion toward her goal, while Talisman takes it upon himself to teleport closer as well.
In the end, neither will claim the prize -- nor victory in battle over the other.
It is instead the blind determination of another that reaches through the dreaming to claim the artifact and end their game.
The Hammer...
You could argue the battle between Invisible Girl and Talisman technically ended when they both separated, but they did inadvertently continue to clash. The Contest of Champions may decree Daredevil winner by retrieving the golden prize, but by our rules of combat, even accounting for Talisman's second dreamtime projection, this battle ended with an inconclusive draw.
If Talisman seems at all familiar, it might be because you're thinking of another indigenous Australian character: Gateway. Both can use a bullroarer to open portals through time and space, but otherwise have little to do with each other.
Gateway always struck me as the slightly more authentic character, perhaps benefitting from the proliferation of Australiana in pop culture in the six years following Contest of Champions. He first appeared in 1988, during the X-Men's Mad Max tinged outback era. Talisman is clearly researched, but strikes me as a little less uniquely Australian in his design and presentation.
Not that we ever got to know a great deal about Talisman.
Like some of the other characters created for Contest of Champions, Talisman didn't make many more appearances. His entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe only summarized what was seen during today's battle, and he largely existed as a one panel cameo in series like Quasar and New Avengers.
Quasar #23 seemed to get it right, briefly noting Talisman's awareness when the rotation of the Earth was stopped. That issue was written by Mark Gruenwald, who seemed to be one of the only Marvel writers concerned with keeping check of his global creations, despite Contest of Champions' relative endurance as an early Marvel "event" milestone.
On the plus side: Talisman at least continues to exist. He escaped the gratuitous executions suffered by Blitzkrieg and Defensor in issues of Captain America, and seems ripe for further consideration when the opportunity presents itself.
I like to think Talisman is obviously still out there watching out for Australia, but he'd also be a good character for writers and editors to be aware of in stories that concern the well-being of the Earth, and matters of distant past.
The Dreaming gives Talisman unique governance over affairs of past, future, and existence. "Dreamtime" is an English translation for an Aboriginal Australian cultural tradition of creation, and ancestral knowledge existing beyond time.
Within a Marvel context Talisman becomes a specialist mystic who might be consulted when events concern other times, or when time and reality itself are under threat. He strikes me as an interesting foil to a character like Kang, and a potential ally known to heroes like Doctor Strange and Black Panther.
While thinking about this, it actually struck me how many Australian characters Marvel has. I don't know that there'd be a large market for it, but I could see how a very interesting series might unfold if these characters were brought together.
I can't help but think of Australia's initial good fortune in responding to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, and how something like an in-fiction resurgence of a mutated strain of Legacy virus might be an interesting premise to send the various Aussies on an exodus back to their homeland.
A rural quarantine facility would keep them all held together, and place them in proximity to well known characters like The Reavers, and Talisman himself, as intrigue unfolds among the captive characters, and various forces working outside the facility. Ideas come to mind, but I digress...
If you want some more fantasy fiction you can check out The Contest: Killer Croc vs Talisman where the Australian shaman is in competition with an unlikely DC adversary. Our unofficial Contest of Champions sequel is an inter-company crossover where the battles are decided by you!
You can find more battles from the real Contest of Champions, or its official 1999 sequel, by following links throughout this post. Or go on a deeper dive by checking out the Secret Archive for a complete index of every featured fight in order of publisher, series, and issue number.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 650 battles and ranked in excess of 950 characters! You can find it all right here for free, but if you like what we're about and want to see it succeed, you can now support the site on Patreon. In addition to my sincerest gratitude you'll get access to extra updates, additional poll options, and custom articles. A thank you for your generosity!
You can also follow Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to superhero smackdown inspired by the topics of the day. That's also where you'll find the latest polls and results from The Contest. Make sure you share and like updates while you're there, and feel free to say hi!
Winner: Inconclusive (Draw)
#15 (--) Invisible Woman
#457 (new) Talisman
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