Origin

The Champions debuted with great fanfare as the first major super-hero team in Los Angeles, but for all its money, power and promise, the eclectically mismatched group lacked unity and direction, and its history was short. The team began with an attack on the UCLA campus by the rogue Olympian god Pluto, who sought to force his fellow gods Hercules and Venus (both UCLA lecturers at the time) into marrying Hippolyta and Ares as part of a plot to overthrow Olympian monarch Zeus. Hercules and Venus resisted with the aid of super-spy Black Widow, demon cyclist Ghost Rider, and mutant heroes Angel, and Iceman. Pluto's plot was foiled, and while Venus chose to return to Olympus, the other five heroes decided to remain together as a new super-team, the Champions.

Creation

The Champions where created by Tony Isabella and Don Heck, while David Kraft named the team in 1975. They first appeared in The Champions Vol.1 issue 1 (1975).

In 2016, an all-new team of Champions was created, which consisted of young teenage heroes. They first appeared in Champions Vol.2 issue 1 (2016).

Major Story Arcs

Forming a Team

The driving force behind the group was the wealthy Angel, who created a "Champions, Inc." corporation to finance and administer the team with the aid of business manager Richard Fenster and lawyer Emerson Bale. The idealistic Angel envisioned the group as "heroes for the common man" who would be more accessible to the general public, though in practice they fought the same sorts of exotic menaces other super-teams did, such as mad scientist Dr. Edward Lansing's Super-Soldiers and the armored maniac Rampage (embittered engineer Stuart Clarke). Angel nominated Black Widow as team leader, a choice readily endorsed by her fellow Champions, and her old friend Ivan Petrovich often assisted the group. Ivan's estranged son Yuri would attack the Champions as the Crimson Dynamo alongside Griffin, Rampage, and fellow Russian super-agents Darkstar and Titanium Man (Boris Bullski); but the heroes triumphed with the aid of Darkstar, who switched sides and defected to join the Champions.

The size-changing Black Goliath became an unofficial part-time Champion, serving as the team's technical adviser as scientist Bill Foster; he and other Stark Industries technicians helped design the team's high-tech skyscraper headquarters (the Champions Building) and a custom aircraft (the Champscraft), both of which proved defective due to faulty materials used by corrupt contractors. Despite their technical difficulties, the Champions battled menaces such as Shadow Realm's Warlord Kaa, Stilt-Man, the null-life bomb, the Possessor (Kamo Tharnn), Swarm, Godzilla, MODOK, A.I.M., Typhon, Magneto, Doctor Doom, the Sentinels, Vanisher, Blob, Lorelei (Savage Land), and Unus, sometimes alongside allies such as Hawkeye, Two-Gun Kid, the Stranger, S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man, Beast, and the Avengers.

Turmoil and Breaking Up

In the end, though, the Champions were their own worst enemy: Ghost Rider was never fully accepted by the others, Darkstar didn't seem to fit in, Iceman was a reluctant super-hero and Hercules could be a bit of a loose cannon. These and other matters fueled internal tensions which lead to near-constant bickering until the Black Widow and the Angel couldn't maintain the teams cohesiveness and the Champions finally disbanded. Everyone quit and left except the Angel, who closed up shop, liquidating the group's assets; he and Black Widow later donated a repaired Champscraft to the Thunderbolts super-team.

Angel and Iceman would remain friends and frequent partners, serving together in several other super-groups such as the Defenders and X-Factor, some of which Angel financed. The Black Widow and Hercules, who had become lovers, adventured together for a time, even aiding the Avengers against the near-omnipotent man-god Korvac, before eventually parting (though they have since served together with the Avengers and met on other ocassions). Darkstar returned to Russia before her apparent death in action with the X-Corporation. The five founding Champions recently reunited to help X-Force thwart a new scheme by Pluto, but parted amicably after Pluto's defeat.

A Reunion

Hercules and the Angel later joined with Amadeus Cho and a couple of others to form a team of "Renegades" to stand-up for and aid the Hulk, whom had returned from his exile on the planet Sakaar, whom they felt had been unjustly exiled from Earth by a secret cabal consisting of the leaders of Earth's greatest super-hero families, teams and communities. Whether the Champions will ever make a lasting comeback remains to be seen.

New Team

Disappointed in the behavior of the older Avengers during Civil War II, the youngest members (Miles Morales, Nova, and Ms. Marvel) quit and form their own team with Amadeus Cho, Viv (daughter of Vision), and a younger, time-lost Cyclops. They made a name for themselves fighting Pagliacci, which ended with a passionate speech from Kamala that went viral on social media. This is where they earned their new moniker, The Champions.

When Hydra took over America thanks to a brain-washed version of Captain America, the team was separated. Nova was trapped outside the planetary defense shield along with the space-faring superheroes, Kamala fell in with the Secret Warriors to investigate Inhuman internment, and Cyclops ended up in New Tian with other mutants. Viv, Cho, and Miles managed to stay together by joining the superhero resistance and falling in with peer members, Ironheart, the new Patriot, the new Falcon, and the new Wasp.

When Vegas was destroyed, Black Widow decided to finally kill Captain America. Miles volunteered to join her, embracing his destiny to kill Cap as told by Profiler, the Inhuman precog. His teammates and new friends refused to let Miles go with Widow alone. After tracking down Cap, Miles was about to kill him, when Wasp talked him out of it. They were subsequently arrested and weren’t freed until Taskmaster and Black Ant broke them out, betraying Hydra when the resistance appeared to be winning.

Worlds Collide

While The Champions were monitoring a satellite that was scanning the area directly on the other side of the sun, they observed a meteor that was hurtling toward Kentucky. They rushed to the state, where they ran into The Avengers. They had observed the same meteor. Reluctantly working together, they are able to give the meteor a soft landing but are now picking up a strange vibrational pattern.

They split up and travel to various cities to stabilize tall buildings that were transformed into tuning forks by the vibrations, but two members (Falcon and Viv) are transported to Counter-Earth. By interrogating the Ani-Men who rode the meteor, the remaining Avengers and Champions learn that High Evolutionary has sped up the orbit of Counter-Earth so that it collides with Earth, destroying both and giving him a blank slate to start new species.

The two teams travel to Counter-Earth first to save their teammates and then head for the center of Counter-Earth to stop the machine causing it to move fast. While the teams fight off the guards, Viv takes it upon herself to turn off the controls, thus stopping the collision. Viv, who had been turned into an organic being by the High Evolutionary, appeared to sacrifice herself. Back on Earth, Vision rebuilt Viv’s synthetic body, only for the human Viv to reveal she survived.

Champion for a Day

Between the Hydra takeover and their adventure on Counter-Earth, the Champions believed they could use a membership expansion. They invited their friends they met in the resistance, as well as Red Locust. Together, they intervened on a runaway train in Georgetown. While saving the day, they received a distress call from Viv, who was taking a break since the events on Counter Earth. Kamala, Miles, and Nova left the mission to check in on her, only to find that the synthetic Viv was killed by human Viv in self defense. Synthetic Viv suffered a system corruption and saw no reason for there to be two versions of Viv.

Scared, human Viv ran away. Most of the team went looking for her, while their bigger brains helped Vision repair synthetic Viv. Vision ended up finding her in a storm drain which she had hidden in before. He explained that he didn’t blame her for fighting back against the synthetic version, however, he was only able to fix her body, not her mind. So, human Viv made another sacrifice, allowing her brain to be scanned and uploaded into the synthetic body, becoming one again.

She would rejoin the team, as would most of their invited recruits. Although, Cyclops was called back to the original time-lost X-Men.

Warriors of the Weird

When Nova and Wasp are sucked into a portal to Weirdworld by Man-Thing, the remaining Champions give chase using an artifact called The Siege Parallel from Snowguard. It reads your heart and soul and shows you what you could be in alternate reality. On Weirdworld, The Champions are transformed into various fantasy archetypes, but they currently have no memories of his former life. Neither do any of his Champions teammates, except for Ironheart.

Most of them had fallen in with the revolution against The Master who had taken Nova and Wasp in as his knights. Ironheart convinced lone wolf Miles to join her in seeking the revolution so she could save their friends. In the battle, Ironheart was almost overwhelmed by Nova until Viv merged with her. Using their new combined power, they were able to return all their friends to normalcy, defeating the Master. With their deed done, Man-Thing opened a portal and returned them to their home world.

Beat the Devil

The Champions increased their roster and had multiple strike teams spread out across the world. Miles Morales was assigned to a team to defend Dubai from Zzzax. The mission goes horribly astray when Viv and Ms. Marvel are killed in battle. Mephisto shows up and gives Miles a “free and clear” chance to reverse time and save his teammates. Miles takes it against a protest from Amadeus.

Guilt-ridden and unsure of his decision, Miles pushed his teammates away, especially after finding out that a Dubai teen he saved before time was reset was not rescued after. It was then that Ms. Marvel demanded Miles talk about what he was going through. He confessed what he did to Kamala, and in his shame of trading the girl’s life for Kamala’s, he quit the team.

Mephisto’s offer was given freely because he knew how it would gnaw at Miles’ conscience. To continue terrorizing the Champions, he sicced his son, Blackheart on them, corrupting the Champions and turning them against one another, including Nova who went after Miles. This brought Miles back into the fold to save his team. Having learned the lesson that the mistakes he makes as Spider-Man are something he’ll have to live with for the rest of his life, he is able to inspire that same acceptance in his friends and rally them against Blackheart’s manipulations, which required them to doubt themselves.

Outlawed

Geoffrey Patrick, a senator from Indiana, had been voicing his concerns of child superheroes. He got his opportunity to make it a federal case when The Champions fought a dragon, terrorizing a teen summit at Cole Academic High School. Kamala Khan happened to be in attendance in her civilian identity and left the heavy lifting to her teammates. The dragon got the best of Viv, who became unstable and caused damage to the school. Sadly, Kamala was injured and hospitalized while trying to evacuate people. This led to the passing of Underage Superhuman Welfare Act, which prohibited superheroes under the age of 21, dubbed “Kamala’s Law,” to honor the injured teen from the inciting incident. This law also created C.R.A.D.L.E. (Child-Hero Reconnaissance And Disruption Law Enforcement) to keep tabs on underage superhumans, made up of former members of SHIELD and the New Warriors.

The Champions, with their biggest roster yet, were forced to go underground, feeling the pressure from the new law. Kamala video called them from her hospital room to try to keep their morale up, but that meeting was interrupted by Justice and a CRADLE strike team. Viv, who has been missing since the dragon attack, had informed CRADLE of the meeting, convinced they were a danger to themselves. Many of them got away, but a few ended up in a juvenile detention center. A few others took advantage of the loophole that allowed them to stay active if they had an approved adult mentor, like Falcon and Sam Wilson.

While talking to a former Civil Rights activist, Viv was able to work through her guilt and wanted to make up for the part she played in the disaster. She retrieved verifiable proof that Roxxon was behind everything. They had sent the dragon after the teen summit to stop a speech from a popular environmental activist. They also funded the reeducation centers that the arrested child heroes were being sent to. After Viv broke the arrested heroes out of the detention centers and reunited them with the underground Champions, she live-streamed her evidence over the internet, turning public perception against Senator Patrick. In lieu of this new information, he immediately shut down the education centers and agreed to pause enforcement of Kamala’s Law, eventually repealing it.

New Champions

After former members of The Assembly were saved from Hydra by Spider-Woman, they banded together under a new moniker, "New Champions." One day, Hellrune got in over her head looking for her long lost family. Hellrune had cast a spell to move her team to her location, but the spell grabbed a few additional teen heroes, who were also styled as if they were sidekicks even though they weren't.

While everyone else was fighting, she was drawn away by a voice belonging to her sorceress aunt. She was freed form her prison by Hellrune and then helped Runie tap into her magic potential ending the viking zombie horde. In the aftermath, Liberty extends membership to all the teens that were teleported there, but only a few accepted communicators for future meet ups, including Hellrune who thought she needed to stay with her newfound relative.

Magnetrix, a fellow former Hydra cadet who did not get the invite, decides to mess with the team. They set up a meeting with Ms. Marvel and her Champions roster, jailbreaking Psycho-Man to give them an angsty push. Liberty and Ms. Marvel accidentally find Magnetrix while they fought. Magnetrix's panicked and used her powers on the two before escaping, causing their heads to clear from Psycho-Man's powers. They were now able to take on Psycho-Man freeing everyone else from their rage-filled mind-control. The two teams parted ways with the old Champions giving the new team their blessing.