There have been two versions of The Champions in the main Marvel universe. The first was The Champions of Los Angeles, which was a team formed by X-Men founder Angel. However, the team now known as The Champions is very different. This is a team that replaced the Young Avengers as the premiere teenage superhero team in Marvel Comics.
The Champions have been in the center of several Marvel storylines, founded when three founding members quit the Avengers because they wanted to fight for the little people. They caused the Outlawed storyline when the government banned underaged heroes, and feature several members that are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ms. Marvel
The three founding members of The Champions were previous members of The Avengers. All three quit the team when the second Civil War had the superheroes fighting each other, not seeming to care about collateral damage. In Champions Vol. 2 #1 by Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos, Ms. Marvel created the new team in one of her best story arcs.
Ms. Marvel found Spider-Man and Nova and convinced them to join her to create something better than the Avengers. Kamala Khan remained the heart and soul of this team from the time they formed.
Spider-Man
The first person to accept Ms. Marvel’s suggestion of creating The Champions was Miles Morales, Spider-Man. It was Miles that took the entire second Civil War hardest because Captain Marvel set her sights on capturing and bringing him in for a murder he had yet to commit.
When it all ended, he watched Iron Man end up in a coma, and the superhero world shattered because of him. By joining The Champions, Miles could make up for things and help the people on the streets, which was more important to him than battling world threats.
Nova
The second person Ms. Marvel went to when she considered forming The Champions was Nova. This is Sam Alexander, the young teen Nova that has similar powers to the iconic Richard Ryder, who serves the Nova Corps in space.
Like Miles Morales and Kamala Khan, Sam is a young student with great powers, and he was also an Avenger. While the youngest member of the team, he has the most experience, heading into the far reaches of space to battle alongside Ryder, and is as powerful as anyone on The Champions.
Hulk
After the three founding members of The Champions signed on, they set out to find more members. The idea was to bring in younger members who they felt could stand by them to help people on the streets. Their first choice was an easy one.
They brought in one of the smartest men in Marvel Comics, Amadeus Cho. At this time, Cho was Hulk, with an equal level of gamma powers, but maintaining his high intellect. He helped form the team into a cohesive unit before leaving when he started suffering the same rage control as Bruce Banner before him.
Viv Vision
Once Hulk was on board, they went to Vision’s house. As comic fans know, Vision had a daughter named Viv Vision. Hulk asked her to join The Champions. Hulk’s idea was having a member always plugged into worldwide events so they could be where they could help people the best, and Spider-Man called her their own “search engine.”
Hulk knew her, but the other three hadn't met her yet. But with his recommendation, Viv joined The Champions. She immediately found their first mission, children from human traffickers, and it was this battle that proved these teenagers were genuine heroes.
Time-Displaced Cyclops
In Champions #2, the team was camping and talking about their powers when Cyclops showed up. However, this wasn’t the Cyclops from the mainstream Marvel Universe. This was the time-displaced Cyclops that Beast brought from the past, someone who didn’t want to work with his X-Men teammates anymore.
Things started out badly when he attacked Hulk, thinking he was helping the team. It was Viv who convinced them he should join. Cyclops ended up as a prized member of the team, and even when he went back to his own time, the reincarnated adult Cyclops remembered and remained an ally of The Champions.
Red Locust
The Champions fought the good fight but ended up in another world-altering battle when Secret Invasion turned the United States upside down. When that ended, the team decided they needed to add some new members, and that happened in Champions #16.
They went to find Falcon and Patriot, but when they made the offer, the hero Red Locust jumped at the chance and asked to join. She remained with the team until Kamala’s Law banned underaged heroes, and she ended up imprisoned by C.R.A.D.L.E. and chose not to return to the team after her release.
Patriot
This is not the same Patriot that was one of the first members of the Young Avengers. This was Shaun Lucas, a youngster who took part in riots after courts found the superhero Rage unjustly guilty of a crime he never committed.
However, he soon became a hero called Patriot and began helping Falcon save immigrants during the Secret Empire. In Champions #16, the team came to find the two, and both men agreed to join at the same time. Rage, who Falcon was mentoring at the time, had no powers but was a skilled fighter.
Falcon
Fans of the MCU know Falcon from his role in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This is Joaquin Torres, the soldier working with Sam Wilson in the Disney+ series. That show hinted he could become the new Falcon when he took his wings after Sam became the new Captain America.
In the comics, he gained his powers when Power Broker experimented on him, and his wings are part of his body. Falcon and Patriot were saving immigrants from killers when The Champions invited him to join.
Ironheart
It might surprise some people to learn that Ironheart was not a founding member of The Champions because she is one of their most notable members. However, much like Falcon and Patriot, the team sought her out to join them in Champions #16.
While Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man were enlisting the boys, Hulk went to talk to Ironheart. The two bonded because of their superior intellect, and she signed on. While Ms. Marvel is the moral conscience of the team, but Ironheart is just as important, making sure the team stays on the right path.