Following
Spider-Boy's success in headlining his comic series,
Marvel Comics tasked its artist with creating more "sidekicks" for a variant cover program. This lineup of covers was announced under "New Champions Variant Covers" on 12 July 2023. In October 2023, these covers were released for their respective titles and teased younger counterparts of superheroes, including the cast of
New Champions. In
Timeless, vol. 3 #1 (2023), many of these characters had debuted in
cameo appearance and were teased to join
Earth-616 continuity. In July 2024, Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief
C. B. Cebulski presented promotional art for the comic series during
San Diego Comic-Con.
New Champions series was officially announced on 17 September 2024, written by
Steve Foxe and illustrated by Ivan Fiorelli. Foxe said that the cast was reverse-engineered from the covers and for him it was "unlike any other creative process he have ever been involved in." In December 2024, Foxe revealed that the series will be full of guest and recurring cast but these "core four" characters will remain centrally: Cadet Marvel, Hellrune, Liberty and Moon Squire. Foxe had written these four characters in
Spider-Woman (vol. 8). He also stated that New Champions team will not be replacing
Champions and teased the latter's appearance in the issue #3. The publication of
New Champions began in January 2025. In the same month, Gold Tiger was introduced whose costume design was revealed to be homage to
Jack Kirby's unused
Black Panther design. In August 2025, writer Steve Foxe confirmed that New Champions had been cancelled and that the series' eighth issue would be the last. ==Plot==