YMMV / Champions (2016)

• Base-Breaking Character: Gwenpool's appearance in the comic has divided the fanbase. Some dislike her for going against the comic's tone and being a reckless brat. Others like her for adding some levity and humor to the story. This is especially hard since the whole point of Gwenpool is that she doesn't take An Aesop in this comic book seriously because she doesn't believe it, no matter how deep. Fans who agree or disagree tend to like or dislike the character in turn. The main reason for the disagreement is that Gwenpool lampshades the Broken Base written just below.
• Broken Base: The general premise of the book and its focus on social issues. Some fans think it's an important topic to tackle. Many think that it drags the book down or takes away from the fun of the characters. Others wouldn't mind it so much but think Mark Waid's writing does poor justice to said issues.
• Complete Monster:
  • Issue #3: The militant commander is the leader of a group of Islamic radicals attempting to instill gender apartheid on the city of Lasibad. The militant commander leads the oppression of the young girls and women of the city, and has no issue killing them if they don't comply with his warped ideas in order to prevent them from getting healthcare and education. When a young girl named Amal stands up to him, the commander orders the massacre of the entire crowd gathered to help her and later tries to personally kill Amal himself.
  • Issue #5: Sheriff Studdard is the racist chief of Daly County's police. He uses his influence to spread hatred and inspire violence against marginalized people. Studdard bombs a mosque and, when confronted by the Champions, threatens to make examples of them as well.
  • Issue #9: Mr. Gloom is a San Diego drug producer who lures kids into his service. Working for a mysterious crime lord, Gloom has kids implanted with chips he can use to blow them up in case of disobedience. When Viv and Red Locust break in to save the kids, Gloom threatens to blow them all up before being stopped by the heroes.
• Crack Pairing: Nova and Kaldera, even though the latter is an insane Blood Knight who has made it clear that, if given the chance, she would literally eat Sam. The absurdity of the pairing is potentially referenced in Champions #7, which has Kaldera snap, "I have no desire for physical relations with you!"
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The two-parter in which Freelancers trademark Champions' name because Champions themselves wanted it to belong to everyone and didn't do the proper paperwork to own the trademark. Why? Because Champions and Mark Waid were frequently bashed by controversial Comicsgate movement, that is attacking all creators and comics they feel are "pushing an political agenda". Maybe if Comicsgate took the lesson this book was telling, rather than complain that it is there, they would not have the very name of their movement taken over and trademarked by Vox Day.
• Memetic Mutation: With Viv kissing Riri and coming out as a lesbian, coupled with her "half-brothers" Wiccan and Speed being gay and bi respectively, jokes that Vision is incapable of producing a heterosexual (living) child were bound to happen.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Vivheart for Viv/Riri, Samala for Sam/Kamala, Kamiles for Kamala/Miles
• Ship Mates: Outside the same series but within The 'Verse, Vivheart shippers have a lot of support from Deanoru fans.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Many felt that the book was a successor to Marvel's The New Warriors, which shared the theme of young heroes' heroism against in both mundane and surreal.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • In the incident that causes Kamala to quit, Cap points out that none of them are engineers and can't repair the train, so they have to leave it for someone else. He's got a point, with the Avengers largely being first-responders to attacks by super-villains.
  • Depending on whether or not readers agree with her, Gwenpool has a point when she states that while she understands concepts of bigotry or racism, she just doesn't care about any of it in a comic.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: On top of an already Broken Base over Gwenpool issue, a small number of people pointed out the message would be stronger if there actually were supervillains in the town like Sons of Serpent or Hate-Monger or Hydra, but it would turn out that instead of being a cause of rampant bigotry, like Gwen believed, they heard what is happening and showed up in hope of getting fresh recruits.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The comic's concept actually tries to prevent this happening in real life, hoping that readers get enlightened about social issues as they are tackled in the comic.

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