Marvel's teen team The Champions ends with a surprise finale

Champions #10 excerpt (Image credit: Luciano Vecchio (Marvel Comics))

Marvel's The Champions ongoing comic book series ends with October 6's Champions #10. This news, confirmed by Marvel Comics, means the conclusion of the fifth volume of Marvel's teen team which it dubbed "the next generation of superheroes."

According to a source familiar with the situation, Champions #10 was the planned ending of the series since the current creative team of writer Danny Lore and artist Luciano Vecchio were hired in 2020.

We'll avoid spoiling the surprise finale that is Champions #10 but will share excerpts from the 'goodbye's from the current creative team.

"Every meme, tweet, and photo that you all used to show your Champions love is the reason that this book will hold a place in my heart forever," Lore says in Champions #10's letters page. "Each one of you fueled a line, a panel, a sound effect in some way. Your enthusiasm was the flame that lit the very enthusiasm that Luciano and I brought to the page. So that you, from the bottom of my heart."

Vecchio echoes the sentiments of Lore, saying his work was a dream come true since he first became a fan of the team with the 2016 revamp.

"What a ride! I'm writing this right after finishing drawing my last page, and though it's always a bit sad to finish a project, the feeling of joy and satisfaction of an awesome and fun collaboration surpasses it by far," says Vecchio.

Created as a Los Angeles-based superhero team in the '70s, the Champions were revamped in 2016 as a teen superhero team that was intersectionally multicultural, even when it came to Marvel families - having mutants, Inhumans, a Spider-Man, and even a regular human or two. This current ongoing was the fifth volume of The Champions series.

This is the third teen team ongoing Marvel has ended in recent months, following the finales of Children of the Atom and Runaways.

The Champions #10 goes on sale on October 6. A collection of this arc titled The Champions: Killer App, is scheduled for December 28.

The Champions are among the growing number of teen superhero teams in comics.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)