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Champions #8

Jul 2021
Danny Lore, Luciano Vecchio

Champions #8 cover

Story Name:

Killer app part 3


Synopsis

Champions #8 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Ms. Marvel in her civilian Kamala Khan identity was rendered comatose during a Champions operation. When she awoke days later in hospital she found that a law had been passed in her name to ban teen superheroes. The Champs revealed that Roxxon Corp were behind it and the law is now suspended under review. Roxxon switched tactics by launching a Roxx On app aimed at teens. The suspicious Champs went undercover at Roxxon to find out what they were doing. Kamala couldn't face it so Miles Morales (Spider-Man) and Sam Alexander (Nova) applied to be interns. Miles got in but Sam was deemed too boring. To get himself a place Sam said he could get Kamala Khan to join.

The team are having a meeting at Viv Vision's home. Her dad Vision keeps interrupting with pizza. Sparky the synthezoid dog is there too. Kamala is angry at Sam for volunteering her after she specifically said no, and (correctly) thinks Sam did it to avoid the boring charge. Sam tries to counter by pointing out that *she* volunteered him and Miles, and they *all* need to do what's best for the team. Viv acts as arbiter:- Kamala *asked* Miles and Sam to become interns but Sam volunteered her without asking, even though he knew working with the Corp that used her name for that hateful Law would be painful for her, so Sam should apologise. But on the other hand he's right that they need to do whatever they can to bring Roxxon down. Miles agrees and asks Kamala to come up with a plan. Riri Williams (Ironheart) has been keeping quiet and eating pizza.

On Monday Kamala enters Roxxon HQ with Sam, pretending not to know Miles. PR head Miriam Blakemoore is delighted to see her (after calling her parents to assure them it's all above board).

On Tuesday Blakemoore gives the interns a spiel about using the Roxx On app and an upcoming Roxx concert to sell teens on the Roxx On lifestyle, buy their products and use their mental health services. They see her meeting a General and taking him to R&D.

On Wednesday Miles pretends to spill iced coffee on Blakemoore's Roxxon ID card, and while cleaning it allows Riri to remotely clone it. (Later Kamala asks Miriam why they all drink expensive iced coffee. She replies that it's all part of the Roxx On image - they can afford it and they need it because their lives are so busy.)

On Thursday Blakemoore tells them their main job is to be vloggers, showing how much fun being a Roxx On intern is. She kicks it off with a selfie hugging Kamala with the other 2 in front. Kamala hides her face behind Sam's head and then runs out crying. Another intern André Sims sees her and is totally unsympathetic. He says *his* job in R&D is way more important than theirs.

At the weekend Kamala is ignoring all Sam's calls, but also not replying to the others' messages of support. At dinner with her parents she blurts out an apology for messing up the apprenticeship. *They* apologise for encouraging her into it because it showed she could forgive Roxxon and give them a chance to prove they'd changed. But if her gut feeling is that they *haven't* changed then she shouldn't go back to them on Monday. Kamala says she thinks they haven't changed but maybe *she* can change *them*. Her father says that's too big a job for just 1 person.

The other 4 are continuing their plan without Ms Marvel. But Sam has also taken it into his head to try to contact teen hero Speedball who had been working with CRADLE who enforced Kamala's Law. He figures Robbie Baldwin is bound to know stuff about Roxxon, but Robbie won't answer his calls. The others think it was a weak idea anyway, but he was desperate now that Kamala seems to have backed out because that means he'll be kicked out of Roxx On and Miles will be their only inside man. The others see this as him blaming Kamala and they insist that she has the right to make her own choices and they'll have to work around it.

So while Sam has been off on his wild Robbie chase the other 3 have come up with a new idea using the copy of Blakemoore' ID. They'd originally intended to ask Kamala to shape-shift into Miriam but she probably wouldn't have wanted to do that. So now Viv will sneak in and use the ID but the others have to keep Miriam and her aide Paige Graeme busy.

Miles corners Paige to discuss the concert and plans for giveaways. Sam butters Miriam up and asks her for advice on ways to convince Kamala to come back. Riri monitors Viv's progress and looks out for trouble. Viv uses the fake ID to get in the building and then stops the security cameras seeing her. But the synthezoid can't phase through walls because there are sensors embedded in them so she just has to follow corridors like a human being. Eventually her pass gets her into the room we saw in #6 with André's giant robot in it. She starts downloading all the info from the computer system in the room.

Meanwhile she views the last file Blakemoore accessed which is a video of the meeting with the General. It seems that Roxx On usage has a strong effect of making people disinterested in Kamala's Law so they won't care when it doesn't get repealed. Then the Chaperone Models (ie copies of the big robot) will be released with an AI that can track/predict teen superhero activity.

Miles and Sam report that they've delayed their targets as long as they can, and Blakemoore is heading to R&D. Riri urges Viv to leave, but her download isn't complete. And the issue ends with Miriam entering the room Viv is in.


 

Review / Commentaries


Champions #8 Review by (July 17, 2021)
I can't tell from their conversation in this issue whether Kamala's father knows she's Ms Marvel. The end of her 2014 series (and the end of the universe) let us know that her mother (but not her father) had worked out her double life. And this fact survived into the the start of her 2015 series (and the new universe). But I don't kmow if they ever let her father in on the secret.

There's a strange bit during Sam's attempt to contact Speedball. He says that Robbie Baldwin won't even answer calls from his (Sam's) mom even though "she made him sign that stupid contract". This sounds like Sam's mom convinced Speedball to work for CRADLE. I don't know when that happened, or even why it *would* happen. It's not like she's a lawyer or anything like that, or even knows Robbie.



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Luciano Vecchio
Luciano Vecchio
Federico Blee
Toni Infante (Cover Penciler)
Toni Infante (Cover Inker)
Toni Infante (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.
Editor: Alanna Smith. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Ironheart
Ironheart

(Riri Williams)
Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel

(Kamala Khan)
Nova
Nova

(Richard Rider)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Miles Morales)
Plus: André Sims, Miriam Blakemoore, Muneeba Khan, Yusuf Khan.

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