WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Infinity Countdown: Champions #2 by Jim Zub, Emilio Laiso, Andy Troy and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.


Marvel Comics' latest teenaged super-team, the Champions, have gone through some changes in recent months. Miles Morales and Amadeus Cho's solo books have come to an end, with Miles' status as Spider-Man up in the air and Amadeus working to control his mischevious Hulk persona. Viv Vision also had to deal with an evil twin sister, just to add another bit of drama to the festivities.

Things look to have settled down, as the group welcomed Ironheart (Riri Williams), Wasp (Nadia Pym) and the new character Snowguard to the team. But peace and quiet doesn't last long in the Marvel Universe, with heroes and villains vying for the six Infinity Stones in the Infinity Countdown miniseries.

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The Champions find themselves caught up in the event, as Nova's arch-nemesis, Warbringer, tried to obtain the Power Stone so he can free his Chitauri brethren from being slaves of Thanos. Unable to even complete this task, Warbringer quickly turns to mass murder, deciding the Chitauri are better off dead than under the thumb of the Mad Titan. Now, the Champions find themselves stuck in the middle of a war that's technically none of their business -- they can either let Warbringer continue his vicious slaying of the Chitauri, or step in and stop him knowing the aliens are some of the most feared creatures in the cosmos.

Fighting On The Side Of A Mad Titan

Of course, the Champions choose to live up to their name by fighting for the Chitauri, ultimately defeating Warbringer before too many lives are lost. So a win for the Champions also means a win for Thanos, since the team helped get rid of a potential nuisance for him. When the evil villain tries to take credit for the Champions' good deed, Ironheart surprisingly steps up to object, showing Thanos no fear whatsoever.

Now, Ironheart may still be in the early stages of her superhero career, but she should know what happened to another armored hero that tried to stand up to Thanos.

Thanos One Punch Kills War Machine

War Machine (James "Rhodey" Rhodes) was with a group of heroes who faced off against Thanos in the opening moments of Civil War II. As you can see above, the confrontation didn't turn out particularly well for Rhodey, with his death causing a rift between Iron Man and Captain Marvel.

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As for Ironheart, though she doesn't end up killed by Thanos' hands, she is altered in a way that drastically changes her status quo -- and she's not the only Champion to be changed by the end of the issue.

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Bye-Bye Armor

Most heroes will tell you it's not the best idea to charge headfirst at Thanos, but Ironheart does exactly that. Instead of ending Riri's life, Thanos merely stops her in mid-air with a death-grip on her neck, and uses his cosmic energy to disintegrate Riri's armor.

The scene almost plays out similar to the one in Civil War II, with the only difference being Riri's life was spared when compared to Rhodey's fate. The Ironheart armor was state-of-the-art technology created by Riri, with an assist to an artificial intelligence Tony Stark. In hindsight, Riri is lucky all she lost was her armor. You can probably count on one hand the number of times Thanos showed mercy to an opponent, let alone one he obviously outmatched.

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We catch up with a visibly distraught Riri later, as the team makes their way to the nearest Nova outpost. Even though Viv is a synthezoid, she shows up to offer silent emotional support through general proximity. Aside from the fear of almost losing her life, Riri is now without a suit of armor, so how can she continue to be a member of the Champions when she's powerless?

The answer comes from Viv: "When machines break, they can be repaired." Riri's one of the smartest engineers in the Marvel Universe -- she built her first suit of armor in a dorm room using Iron Man spare parts. If Riri puts her mind to it, she can borrow armor designs from the Chitauri to make an even stronger suit.

Nova No More

The other character to end the issue in a different state than when they began is Nova. The entire reason the Champions got involved in the Infinity Countdown conflict is because of Sam Alexander's long-running feud with Warbringer. Once Sam learned of Warbringer's plan to steal the Power Stone, his only goal was to bring the warlord to justice.

With Warbringer defeated, the Champions delivered him to the Nova Corps, who were more than happy to have the villain behind bars. It's here where Nova Corpsman Adsit gets a reading on a black Nova helmet, which happens to be the model that was passed down to Sam from his father. Of course, since Sam was gifted the Nova helmet, he never received proper training, nor offered an official membership into the galactic police force. In a rather abrupt moment, Adsit kept Sam's Nova helmet and teleported the Champions back to Earth -- rendering Sam powerless as well.

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We saw Ironheart has plans to create herself a new suit, but how will Sam go about reclaiming his status as a Nova? Sam was the Champions' ride out to space, so for now, they don't have a way to go take the helmet even if they wanted to. Champions #22 is set to continue these story plots, as Riri debuts her Ironheart 3.0 design, and Amadeus Cho rejoins the team, complete with a new moniker. We'll have to wait to see if big changes are also in store for the hero formerly known as Nova.