Synopsis
Infinity Countdown: Champions #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Young Sam Alexander is woken in the middle of the night by his Nova helmet with a distress call from some Nova Corpsmen under attack by Warbringer and the Chitauri. Nova had a previous run-ins with the guy in #29-31 of his 2013 series and All-New, All-Different Avengers #1-3, and knows how ruthlessly destructive he is. Sam immediately suits up. His mother understands his 'job' but can't help being worried. She advises him to call his fellow-Champions to help him.
Sam doesn't want to take his friends into this danger but pauses mid-flight to leave a voicemail message with Viv Vision to explain his absence. But synthezoid Viv doesn't sleep so she answers the phone and he has to tell her in person. She mentions that their new recruit (Champions #21) Amka Aliyak is staying with her (at Vision's house) and she'll patch in the other Champs. Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) is awake playing World of Battlecraft. Riri Williams (Ironheart) is doing some engineering stuff. Nadia Pym (Wasp) wasn't awake but is now. Viv explains that Miles Morales (Spider-Man) is still in hospital (in his #240 after injuries fighting (with the Champs) against the Sinister Six in his #239), and she can't get hold of Amadeus Cho (Hulk) (possibly caught up in his Return To Planet Hulk/World War Hulk II story). The others all insist on accompanying him.
He rendezvous with them by their Mobile Bunker. (Amka has gained a codename Snowguard.) They discuss how to get into space. Kamala suggests Sam could surround the Bunker with a force field and use his own Nova propulsion to fly them there. So that's what they do. And by the magic of something or other it takes him 16 minutes to get them to their destination Nova Outpost Woodrow-Alpha.
But the Nova base is completely destroyed. Little do they know they are being observed by a small device reporting back to Ultron, which is told to follow them. Sam picks up a communication to the site from Nova Commander Scott Adsit at the Rock HQ. Nova has to admit he's not actually a member of Adsit's rebuilt Nova Corps, and disobeys his order to report to base.
Ironheart detects an energy signature they can use to trail Warbringer, and they're off again. Soon they meet Warbringer's Leviathan spaceship above Chitauri Prime. Nova stops propelling the Mobile Bunker and rockets off for a solo attack. Warbringer recognises him and comes out to meet him, and after a brief fights hurls him down to the planet.
Warbringer ignores the Champions' 'spaceship' in favour of attacking his homeworld. The Champs take the Bunker down (under its own power) to find their teammate. What they *do* find is hordes of supposedly-warlike Chitauri kneeling silently. An aged Chitauri tells them that the warriors now serve Thanos and can do nothing without his command. As Amka finds Sam the old Chitauri goes to tell Thanos about them. But the arrival of Warbringer and his Leviathan is a bigger concern.
Warbringer is angry that Thanos has captured the Chitauri homeworld. But he's even more angry that Thanos isn't using the great Chitauri army to *attack* anybody. Thanos asks if he's here to kill him and free his people. But Warbringer says attacking Thanos would be futile - Thanos would destroy him in an instant. So instead he's going to kill all the enslaved Chitauri to restore honour to the race. Thanos doesn't care about that.
Warbringer begins his slaughter. The Champs are horrified because the Chiauri won't fight back. Ironheart and Snowguard favour getting out while they can. Ms Marvel and Nova can't let Warbringer do it. And the team unite to save the bad guys.