one of the changes to spill out of marvel's civil war ii event was the formation of the teenage superhero team, the champions. the set-up was pretty straightforward: spider-man (miles morales), nova and ms. marvel became disenfranchised with their adult teammates in the avengers. thus, the trio decided to band together with heroes closer to their age in hopes of making the world a better place.
the avengers and champions have managed to maintain a distance from one another (for the most part), but marvel legacy brings the two teams together in a six-issue crossover to battle the high evolutionary. though we're only two issues into the story, the solicits for the sixth part of "worlds collide" in december's champions #15, along with the fallout in january 2018's champions #16, foreshadow a death for one of the teenage heroes. after examining the information we have so far, everything points to the casualty being none other than the teenage synthezoid viv vision.
related: avengers, champions to crossover for marvel legacy's worlds collide
the first red flag that points to viv is the cover for champions #16, which shows the champions alongside a host of potential young recruits including ironheart, moon girl & devil dinosaur, red locust (who made her debut in champions #9), the new patriot from secret empire, spider-gwen, nadia pym wasp and joaquin torres falcon. all eight characters are able to pack themselves onto the cover with the champions, but there’s one individual missing from the gathering – that’s right, viv is nowhere to be found.
it’s not uncommon for publishers to release covers that don’t accurately represent what’s actually found inside a comic. but for viv to be the only champion not displayed is, well, a little concerning -- especially when you take into account the cryptic wording of upcoming solicits.
the “worlds collide” crossover concludes in champions #15, for which the solicitation reads, “the champions/avengers team faces its first real casualty in their ongoing struggle to prevent two planets from colliding – and that fatality changes the game!” you don’t want to hear words like “casualty” and “fatality” if you’re a superhero. we can almost use the same cover logic above for champions #15, but the members shown are the three former avengers, so it’s probably a symbolic choice more than a clue as to who will die.
our last clues can be found during some tense father/daughter moments between vision and viv in “worlds collide” parts one and two. avengers #672 opens with vision, falcon and viv rescuing civilians from a burning building. the two butt heads when viv refuses to listen to her dad's instructions while rescuing a fireman. since it happens so early in the issue, the scene can be brushed off as a typical spat between father and daughter; teen angst and whatnot. however, a few pages later, vision refuses to pair up with viv when the avengers and champions split up to take on an incoming threat, a decision he ascribes to the two being stronger apart than together.
related: here's how vision's final issue sets up viv to join the champions
then, in champions #13, vision gets “boxer’s brain” – as spider-man calls it – when he crashes into the ground. his first reaction when composing himself is to ask where his daughter is. when he finally gets a few seconds alone with viv, vision admits there’s a reason he’s been tense around her. apparently, he’s in danger of “facing the most tragic pain a parent can feel.” only one thing comes to mind when you consider something like that happening to a parent, and it’s the death of one of their children.
how does vision know that viv is going to die? perhaps he gained this insight when he met his future self in an earlier arc of avengers that featured the time-traveling villain kang. viv’s death would be a brutal blow not only for the champions, but the marvel universe at-large. she is the vision’s last remaining family member from tom king and gabriel walta’s critically-acclaimed vision series, and is beginning to carve out her own path in the marvel universe. though we hope we’re wrong, the odds aren’t looking good for viv to make it out of the avengers/champions crossover alive.