Champions #1 (comics) Preview

Marvel’s youngest heroes are fed up with the in-fighting between super-heroic factions in Champions #1.

Junior Champs

Rookie heroes teaming up are really nothing new. What is though, is the resulting team book being a flagship for a well-known brand. Strange as it might sound, that’s exactly what’s happening with Champions.

“To their mind – the reputation of super heroes has taken a very public beating and they’re very intent on proving to the world that super heroes still have value and still have relevance,” says writer Mark Waid in an interview with Marvel.com.

There’s a lengthy lead-in for this one of course, that being Civil War II. The currently raging event series is causing no shortage of schisms in the Marvel U, and Champions is a direct result. The team comes from all corners of the heroic universe, bringing these disparate heroes all together for a common purpose.

Rookie dream team

Inhumans, mutants, synthetics, other-dimensional humans, powered-up heroes, and cosmic characters all have a slot. The lineup looks a little something like this:

• Ms. Marvel
• Miles Morales
• Nova
• Viv Vision
• Cyclops
• Totally Awesome Hulk

Not a bad squad right there, and one that should have appeal to almost every kind of Marvel fan. But a flagship book? While it might not seem it, that’s exactly what Marvel is calling Champions, “a brand-new ongoing series launching this October as the flagship title of Marvel NOW!” Seems like a pretty definitive stance.

So with that statement, does Champions become the most important book in the Marvel catalog? Well, probably not. I’m sure that books like Invincible Iron Man (with its new star), the Captain Americas, Spider-Man, and Avengers are still going to be cornerstones of the Marvel U. And if you’re a fan of those comics or others, there’ll be plenty of important stuff happening in them.

Still, with this new book taking a place amongst those, and being that it has an all-rookie cast, it instantly becomes one to watch. Champions launches with its first issue from Waid and artist Humberto Ramos on October 5th.