Champions #1

Mar 2019 · Marvel · 3.99 USD

📊 ~328,165 copies sold its debut month

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“Beat the Devil, Part I”

★ 1st appearance — Pinpoint

About this Issue

Champions #1 (vol. 3, January 2019) marks the most ambitious expansion in the team's brief history, formally assembling one of Marvel's largest and most internationally diverse young-hero rosters under a single banner. The issue delivered the debut of Pinpoint (Qureshi Gupta), one of very few South Asian teenage superheroes in the Marvel Universe at the time, and the first full appearance of Fernanda Rodriguez in her identity as the Locust — a legacy hero with deep roots in Latinx border-crossing mythology. By opening the 'Beat the Devil' arc — in which Miles Morales's secret deal with Mephisto quietly poisons the team's optimism from page one — the issue also introduced a distinctly darker moral register to what had been a comparatively wholesome series, drawing explicit parallels to Peter Parker's infamous One More Day bargain while grounding the consequences in themes of guilt, unintended harm, and the cost of playing hero in an imperfect world.

"Beat the Devil, Part I" kicks off a bold new chapter for the Champions, as the team’s growing roster brings both excitement and new challenges. With the original members assessing their expanded team, Spider-Man stands apart—his usual energy replaced by quiet unease, hinting at a shadowy deal with Mephisto that could change everything. Written by Jim Zub and illustrated by Steven Cummings, with colors by Marcio Menyz and Erick Arciniega, and letters by Clayton Cowles and Virtual Calligraphy, the issue’s dynamic art and grounded tension are perfectly framed by Kim Jacinto’s striking cover.

writer Jim Zub · artist, inker Steven Cummings · colorist Marcio Menyz · colorist Erick Arciniega · letterer Clayton Cowles · letterer Virtual Calligraphy · cover Kim Jacinto

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History

Jim Zub announced the relaunch at Marvel's Next Big Thing Panel at New York Comic Con in October 2018, pairing with artist Steven Cummings — his collaborator on the Image Comics series Wayward — to kick off a fresh #1 under Marvel's Fresh Start publishing initiative. The series picked up directly from the continuity Zub had been writing at the end of Champions vol. 2, meaning the creative team transition was seamless rather than a hard reboot; editors Tom Brevoort and Alanna Smith shepherded the book, with Kim Jacinto providing the main cover art. Zub described the opening arc as 'one of the riskiest stories I've ever pitched,' deliberately introducing a Mephisto-driven moral crisis to push the characters into unexpected dramatic territory and position the Champions as a team capable of carrying A-list threats.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published January 2, 2019 (cover-dated March 2019); written by Jim Zub with interior art by Steven Cummings, colors by Marcio Menyz and Erick Arciniega, and letters by Clayton Cowles.
First appearance of Pinpoint (Qureshi Gupta), an East Indian teenager with the power to create teleportation discs capable of transporting people anywhere in the world.
First appearance of Fernanda Rodriguez in her costumed identity as the Locust — she inherits a centuries-old suit of powered armor from the Locust Brotherhood, a lineage dedicated to protecting nomadic travelers and runaways.
The issue opens the 'Beat the Devil' arc, in which a catastrophic mission in Dubai against Zzzax results in the apparent deaths of Ms. Marvel and Viv Vision; Miles Morales and Amadeus Cho secretly accept Mephisto's offer to reset the timeline, setting up Miles's guilt-driven arc across the first four issues.
The expanded roster assembled here — including Bombshell, Patriot, Falcon (Joaquin Torres), Power Man, Snowguard, Ironheart, Wasp, and Brawn alongside the core trio of Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, and Nova — represents the largest single-issue lineup expansion in the Champions' history, with teams deployed on simultaneous global missions.
A deliberate narrative Easter egg is embedded in the issue: when Viv begins listing the full Champions reinforcement roster, Spider-Man cuts her off before she can name a hero whose name begins with 'S' — writer Zub confirmed he had no specific character in mind and planted the detail intentionally to generate reader speculation.
The series ran for ten issues (January–October 2019) before cancellation; issues #1–6 were collected in the trade paperback Champions by Jim Zub Vol. 1: Beat the Devil, and issues #5–6 were additionally reprinted in The War of the Realms Omnibus.
The 2019 relaunch was part of Marvel's Fresh Start publishing initiative, and the series was announced at New York Comic Con 2018, with Zub and Cummings reuniting after their prior collaboration on the Image Comics title Wayward.