Champions of Los Angeles
PURPOSE: To Protect Los Angeles and be a force for good, for the Common Man
AFFILIATIONS: X-Men, Avengers, SHIELD, Iron Man, etc
ENEMIES: Pluto, Dr. Edward Lansing, Rampage, Crimson Dynamo, Darkness, Titanium Man, etc
CURRENT MEMBERS: None
FORMER MEMBERS : Angel (Warren Worthington III), Black Widow (Natasha Romanova),
Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Hercules,
Iceman (Bobby Drake)
OTHER MEMBERS : Black Goliath (Bill Foster)
UNIVERSE : Marvel Universe, Earth 616
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Champions Building, Los Angeles; formerly an office building suite (Los Angeles),
Angel's beach house (Malibu), UCLA campus
FIRST APPEARENCE : Champions #1 (1975)
HISTORY :
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.
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.
In the end, though, the Champions were their own worst enemy: Ghost Rider and Darkstar were never fully accepted
by the others, Iceman was a reluctant super-hero, Hercules was a loose cannon, and internal tensions fueled
near-constant bickering until the Champions finally disbanded. Everyone quit 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, some of which Angel financed. Black Widow and Hercules became lovers but soon
drifted apart, though they have served together with the Avengers. 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. Whether the Champions
will ever make a lasting comeback remains to be seen.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES : Introduction : Champions #1 (1975)
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