Origin
The Champions were formed following the departure of Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and Nova (Sam Alexander) from the Avengers, when they became disillusioned by the behavior of their elders, especially in regards to the second superhuman Civil War. The young heroes desired to rectify the state of distrust by the people towards superheroes in general, and soon recruited other teenagers with similar ideals, Hulk (Amadeus Cho), and Viv Vision, daughter of the Vision.[19]
After their first joint mission rescuing a group of girls being trafficked by Pagliacci, the young heroes revealed themselves to the public and Ms. Marvel proclaimed the team's mission to foster a better tomorrow through hope and wisdom rather than unjust force. Her speech became viral on the Internet, and the team was dubbed the "Champions" in social media. One of the superheroes encouraged by Ms. Marvel's speech was the time-displaced Cyclops (Scott Summers), who was admitted into the Champions' ranks after requesting membership.[20]
Early missions
In their further early adventures, the Champions traveled to Sharzhad and helped a young girl named Amal stop militant fundamentalists from enforcing a gender apartheid.[21] They were confronted by an Atlantean colony while cruising over their waters.[22] Champions were joined by Gwenpool in fighting the xenophobic head of Daly County's police, Sheriff Studdard.[23]
During the "Monsters Unleashed" storyline, the Champions crossed paths with the Freelancers, a group of teenage mercenaries, who were at the time working for Roxxon to silence protesters. The Freelancers' employers would make efforts to discredit the Champions, framing the young heroes for attacking homeless people, and later trademarking the Champions' logo. The Champions managed to clean the name, and Nova started a countermovement to reject the Champions-branded merchandise.[24][25]
Secret Empire
When Hydra assumed control of the United States of America in the "Secret Empire" storyline, the Champions responded to Iron Man's distress call to protect Washington, D.C. alongside other American superheroes,[27] all of whom were soundly defeated when Captain America wielded Mjolnir. The Champions retreated, ultimately regrouping at Olympus Group Secret HQ ATX001 after becoming separated from Ms. Marvel, who worked with the Secret Warriors to fight off Inhuman internment camps;[28][29] and Scott was displaced to New Tian with America's mutants;[30] and Nova was trapped beyond the Planetary Defense Shield in Earth Orbit.[31]
Hulk, Viv, and Spider-Man eventually joined the Underground, where they associated with
Post-Secret Empire
A short time following Hydra's fall, the Champions saw themselves forced into an uneasy alliance with the Avengers[37][38] to stop the High Evolutionary from causing a collision between Earth and Counter-Earth. After being turned into an ordinary human by the High Evolutionary.[39][40] Viv became trapped in another plane of existence while operating a device to foil the villain's plans. The Vision built a Viv 2.0 to cope with Viv's apparent death before Viv found her way home.[41]
Taking into account Viv's feelings, the Champions refrained from welcoming Viv's twin into the team. Viv rejoined the Champions' rank after her twin sister went haywire and Viv was forced to kill Viv 2.0 in self-defense. The Vision and Wasp managed to repair Viv 2.0's body, and since they couldn't bring back her mind, Viv transferred her consciousness to the synthetic body as a way to both regain her powers and ensure her sister lived on through herself.
Infinity Countdown
During the "Infinity Countdown" storyline, Champions, gained knowledge of an assault on the Nova Corps. Discovering it was the Chitauri Empire, led by Warbringer, Nova's old foe, they took the Bunker into space, where they found that the Warbringer's goal was to attack Thanos, Nova eventually realized that Thanos' army never moved, not even to defend themselves, and the team knocked out Warbringer, leaving the Chitauri without a leader and subsequently stopping the massacre.
Thanos then annexed Warbringer's army into his own, and thanked the Champions for the show. Furious, Ironheart ignored the others, and charged at him, before being caught by the throat, and her armor was swiftly destroyed. Thanos let her be, and the team took Warbringer back to the Nova Corps; however, Commander Scott Adsit took Sam's helmet, as he was not officially recognized as a Nova, then teleported the team back to Earth, much to Sam's horror.[46]
During this period, Amadeus gained a new transformed state that is less powerful, but easier for him to control, and assumed the codename Brawn.[47] Riri, after her run in with Thanos, revealed her Mk 3 Armor, with a new design and color scheme; however, now depowered, Sam could not feel anything but rage at everything and is depressed.
While helping a Tanzanian village suffering of water poisoning, the Champions discovered the
Operating globally
Champions started operating globally after giving full membership to Falcon, Patriot, The Locust (Fernanda Rodriguez), Bombshell (Lana Baumgartner), Pinpoint (Qureshi Gupta) and Power Man (Victor Alvarez).[53]
When the Champions were fighting Zzzax, Ms. Marvel and Viv Vision were killed in the process. Mephisto arrived and offered to rewind back time in to save their teammates. Miles accepted Mephisto's offer and the demon reversed time resurrecting their dead teammates but unwittingly allowing a girl he saved previously die. This led to Spider-Man quitting the team.[54]
Sam also left the team to retrieve his helmet with his nemesis, Kaldera, who desired true fight with him as Nova.[55] While Brawn and the Wasp started working simultaneously with Agents of Atlas[56]
Outlawed
Champions picks up six months after the Coles Disaster and the passage of the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act, also known as "Kamala's Law".[14] CBR highlighted that "without disclosing her true identity, Ms. Marvel rejects Kamala's Law and publicly vows to continue her superhero activities alongside the Champions regardless of her age. [...] Kamala's message has quickly split the young superhero community. Several agree to continue their double lives as usual in open defiance of the controversial law, while others believe Kamala is in the wrong and they should leave superhero activity to the adults".[64] Over the course of the Outlawed event, the Champions take responsibility for their actions and expose that Roxxon is using their government contract to place young individuals with super abilities into brutal reeducation camps. This leads to Roxxon losing their contract and the government pauses enforcement of Kamala's Law.[16][65]
Killer App
While the Champions are now free to return to their crime-fighting careers, Kamala's Law is still intact while still at a minimum level, and Roxxon attempt to launch an app called "Roxx-On" to cover their dubious activities, under the direction of Miriam Blakemoore. Meanwhile, a Champion member Snowguard leads a group of protestors on Roxxon. Much to Riri's dismay, Roxxon hires her worst rival, André Sims, and Ms. Marvel learns that Roxxon uses their app to secretly gather data to ensure Kamala's Law is fully amended, revealing that André is creating Roxxon's Sentinel-like robots, Champerones to capture under-aged lawbreakers. Eventually, the Champions decide to send Miles and Sam to go undercover as interns, before they have no choice to put Kamala in this mission. During a rally speech by both Snowguard, Bombshell, and Falcon to their fellow protestors, the Champions arrive on time to save them from being ambushed by undercover Roxxon and C.R.A.D.L.E., at the same time they discover that Roxxon hired Fizzle's group, the super-powered criminal group who Champions fought yesterday night.[66][67]
During Kamala's first undercover mission with Miles and Sam, Viv infiltrates Roxxon's secret lab where Champerones are created and sends the data of Roxxon's next plots to Riri. Thankfully, Kamala pretends to have a word with Miriam in private for the upcoming Roxx-On festival to ensure Viv escapes undetected.[68] During the Roxx-On festival, the Champions secretly apprehend Fizzle group to ensure Kamala's public speech to expose Roxxon's true motive is a success.
