Champions (2016 team)

The Champions were formed following the departure of Ms. Marvel, Spider Man (Miles Morales) and Nova (Sam Alexander) from the Avengers, when they became disillusioned by the behaviour of their elders, specially in regards to the second superhuman Civil War II. 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, the new Hulk, and Viv Vision, daughter of the Vision.[11]

Their first joint mission consisted of saving a group of girls being trafficked by Pagliacci in nearby Maryland. Having succeeded and caught the attention of the bystanders, the young heroes revealed themselves to the public, with Ms. Marvel proclaiming their team's objective of fostering a better tomorrow through hope and wisdom rather than unjust force. Her speech from Baltimore became popular on the internet, and the team were soon dubbed the "Champions" in social media. One of the people encouraged by Ms. Marvel's words was the time-displaced Cyclops, who was admitted into the Champions' ranks after requesting to join them. [12]

During a camping trip, the team learns about each other's powers and is visited by the time-displaced version of Cyclops, who at first appears as an enemy but manages to win the team over and joins them. Courtesy of Amadeus' new vehicle, they next traveled to Lasibad, Sharzhad where they secretly helped a group of young women, led by Amal, rout a faction of militant fundamentalists seeking to oppress them; however, they were shot out of the sky when they attempted to leave.[13] They survived the crash and Hulk and Cyclops used their powers to propel themselves forward because Viv saw land. Unfortunately, the "land" turned out to be an Atlantean ship and they were kidnapped. They manage to break free, escape and fly away. But somewhere else, the Champions also inspired another well-known, but troublesome hero: the Unbelievable Gwenpool.[14]

When the Champions learn of an incident involving Roxxon Oil and the Angeles National Forest, they gathered in California to investigate, but instead ran into a team of other super-powered people, the Freelancers, a group of mercenaries whose mission was to burn down the forest in order to frame the protesters and secure the site for construction of a pipeline. The two teams tried to reason with each other but were almost immediately confronted by a massive Leviathons. The two teams joined forces to defeat monsters. Another monster was then detected heading for Los Angeles,[15] and the Champions left to handle with it.[16]

Champions have gone global with people using their logo for good things like beach-cleaning and recycling, self-defense classes, and helping build houses.

Meanwhile, the Gemini Bank Corporation had hired the Freelancers, who tricked a couple of homeless men to say that it was the Champions who attacked them in Brentwood.[17]

The Champions encountered them again as they were forcibly evicting people from their homes in Minneapolis, and a confrontation ensued, which only lasted until Panic used her fear-inducing powers against Ms. Marvel to confront her with her worst fear; this only earned Panic a well-deserved beatdown, as the thing Ms. Marvel feared the most was losing everything the Champions had worked to build. Seeing themselves now on the losing side, the Freelancers called off the fight and agreed to come clean about their attack on the homeless people, but soon after Might revealed that the Champions logo had been trademarked as a brand name, as another move by the Freelancers' employers to discredit the team.[18] Disheartened with the team now being viewed at large as sellouts, Ms. Marvel thought of quitting, and the team members were left adrift, but Nova recorded a video of himself burning Champions-branded merchandise and urging the people who truly believed in the Champions to do the same, recovering their spirit.[19]

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,[20] 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. They then raided an Inhumans internment camp known as Camp Echo-1 in New Mexico in an attempt to find their missing teammate, but to no avail. [21]

Hulk, Viv, and Spider-Man eventually joined the Underground where they associated with Ironheart, Wasp, Falcon, and Patriot[22], as Ms. Marvel had gone into hiding,[23] Cyclops was with the X-Men in New Tian,[24] and Nova was trapped beyond the Planetary Defense Shield in Earth Orbit.[25]

After Hydra leveled Las Vegas, Black Widow set out to assassinate Captain America. Spider-Man joined her, having decided to stop running away from his supposed destiny to kill Captain America, as prophesied by the Inhuman precog Ulysses Cain. The remaining Champions, alongside Falcon, Wasp and Ironheart followed him to offer their support, thus joining Black Widow's Red Room[26] and got training from Black Widow. The teenagers were eventually captured by Hydra after Widow's assassination attempt failed and resulted in her death. Spider-Man almost killed Captain America, but Wasp convinced him not to, since they had learned Black Widow tried to kill Rogers herself to prevent Miles from becoming a killer. The teenagers were subsequently arrested.[27]

When a contingent of America's remaining superheroes launched a desperate attack on Hydra, Hydra allies Taskmaster (comics) and Black Ant decided to switch sides in light of Hydra's eventual defeat, and freed the teenagers from their cell to be in the heroes' good graces. The Champions were reunited during the final battle,[28] which saw the return of the real Captain America and fall of Hydra.[29]

A short time following Hydra's fall, the Champions saw themselves forced into an uneasy alliance with the Avengers[30][31] when the High Evolutionary attempted to cause the collision between the Earth and his Counter-Earth. During the adventure, Viv was captured by the High Evolutionary's forces, and transformed into a real human with no powers.[32][33] Viv seemingly sacrificed herself to operate the device that controlled the Counter-Earth's rotational-frequency, causing the planet to harmlessly phase through the Earth instead.[34] While Viv was actually trapped on another plane of existence, she was believed dead. In an attempt to cope with her death, Vision built a second Viv; however, Viv eventually found her way home, leading to the co-existence between Viv and her synthetic counterpart.[35]

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 she was forced to kill her in self-defense. The Vision and Wasp managed to repair the body, and since they couldn't bring back her mind, Viv transferred his consciousness to the synthetic body as a way to both regain her powers and ensure her sister lived on through herself.

Soon after, due to a call to arms from his original team, the X-Men, Cyclops was forced to take Ms. Marvel aside and tell her he must leave the Champions. She reluctantly let him go, as he left telling her that her ideals, the ideals of the Champions, were good.[36]

Champion recruits Ironheart and the Wasp, and now working from C.M.B.: the Champions Mobile Bunker. Each of the current Champions had a private room in the bunker, with the exception of Spider-Man and Nova.

In the interim, Ironheart felt out of place being on a team and this led her to have a sort of heart to heart with Viv, who explained her lack of feelings in general; however, Viv managed to convince Ironheart that the entire team was weird, and there was nothing wrong with that.

The team traveled to Nunavut in Northern Canada, where they found something unbelievable: machines were repairing the ice. They tried to go closer, but were soon approached by machines. Despite the Champion's desire to settle the matter peacefully, the machines scanned Ironheart's armo and mistook her for Iron Man, so they declared her a high threat target, and prepared to attack.

The Champions struggled with the machines immensely, but Nova managed to eradicate many of them with a massive blast. Nova, however, was exhausted after the blast and failed to dodge as one of the survivors blasted him through his chest.[37]

The Champions, furious and out of sync, destroyed more of the bots, before they were found by the owner and creator of the attacking machines: Master of the World. The Master demanded to know what happened, before noticing Nova's injuries, and volunteering his services in fixing him.

The Champions, who knew they had no choice, agreed when the Master allowed them to watch as the machines fixed their friend. He then invited the Champions inside to see his work. After seeing the facility, and gaining The Master's assurance that this wasn't a world takeover plot, the Champions agreed to leave the issue alone for the time being; however, they found that the locals were not happy as a teenage girl had gone missing.

Not long afterward, while the Champions were on their way to check on Nova, Alpha Flight arrived. The Master took advantage of the situation- dubbing the Champions his new "friends."[38]

The Master suggested that everyone calm down as the teams argued, but he was ignored. Alpha Flight was set on arresting the Master, while the Champions refused to arrest him until they could clear up the situation. A massive brawl broke out between the two teams, much to the Master's delight.

The fight was paused as everyone felt tremors of magic energies, before a massive beast burst from the ground, with Spider-Man on its back. The teams agreed to a truce and attempted to subdue the creature, which Miles confirmed was female. Miles also noted that she was freaking out, but was not a bad person. The teams worked together and Talisman dissipated the mystic energy to help, reverting the creature into a teenage girl. When questioned about what happened to her, the girl, Amka, revealed that The Master had stripped Sila, the spirit of the land. The heroes put aside their differences and prepared to fight the evil man. The Master escaped, destroying the support scaffolding.

The Champions and Alpha Flight made amends and debated over whose team Amka would join, before deciding to let her choose. Amka, coming to grips with her new abilities, chose to be a hero, and joined the Champions as "Snowguard" with the love and support of her mother.[39]

Later, 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 his Chitauri without a leader, 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.[40]

Amadeus, after a undisclosed period revealed that he had a new form after his recent antics,[41] and had now renamed himself "Brawn." Riri, after her run in with Thanos, revealed her Mk 3 Armor, with a new design and color scheme; however, now depowered, Sam Alexander couldn't feel anything but rage at everything, especially the new changes to his friends, and stormed off to his room in the bunker.

The Champions soon arrived in Tanzania, and quickly befriended the locals. They checked on the sick villagers, but before they can begin, the people offered them food to repaid the Champions for their time. To show respect, the team accepted.

Snowguard detected magic, and morphed into a wolf to check it out. The Champions found a massive plant, who revealed itself as the Man-Thing. The Man-Thing attacked the Champions; and Nadia, Sam, and the Man-Thing were sucked into the portal (created by The Master of the World), which disappeared after a huge blast.

The team collectively agreed to go after Sam and Nadia, even after hearing the risks, and Snowguard opened a portal.

Upon landing in the new dimension, Riri, Miles, Amadeus, Amka, Kamala, Viv found themselves as Lady Ironheart, Shadow-Spider, Brawnhammer, Snowgore, Mystic Marvel, Vivid Vessel respectively. Except Lady Ironheart, everyone seemed to forget their past lives. Riri realized that she remembered her life because of her traumatic experience fighting Thanos.

They learned that Sam Alexander, who had been taken in as the Master of Weirdworld's son as Nova Knight. While Nadia had forged alliance with them as Wicked Wasp. [42]

The Champions escaped, thanks to an intervention of Lady Ironheart and the Shadow-Spider. Lady Ironheart brought the team together with a heartfelt speech and they managed to remember Nova Knight and Wicked Wasp of their previous lives. Champions again defeated Master of the World and returned to their home. [43]

All of these members helped to form the team in Champions Vol. 2 #1 after becoming disillusioned with their predecessors and split off from the Avengers following the events of Civil War II

These are reserve members of the team.