Precisely why the Champs failed so badly has been a source of speculation for years. Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics author Les Daniels dismisses the group as "unfocused" and "oddball", which is pretty much true--two former Avengers, two former X-Men and a spook-show biker are an incongruous mix. Some said they couldn't see the point of the team, and thats understandable; their origin ran long and the team didn't really form until issues 4-5, probably losing a lot of impatient readers in the process. It took the book a year to really find its feet, though the concept of media-conscious "storefront super-heroes", as Angel proposed it, had merit. The latter half of the series, featuring a new member (Darkstar), some solid Mantlo stories and a promising new penciler named John Byrne, teased us with the book's dazzling potential--but by then, it was too late. The series ended after 17 issues, and the group disbanded in a Spectacular Spider-Man two-parter shortly thereafter (irreconcilable personal differences amongst the teammates was cited as the cause). They never reunited. Johnny Blaze abandoned his Ghost Rider identity, Darkstar joined the Soviet Super-Soldiers, and the rest eventually returned to their old spots in the Avengers and the X-Men.
All told, the Champs appeared in Champions 1-17, an issue of Avengers (the one where they battle Iron Man -- [163--VP], Iron Man Annual (4 I think), Godzilla # 3, a Marvel Holiday special and the final Spectacular Spider-Man two-parter [issues #17 and 18--JW], plus a few cameos in Ghost Rider and elsewhere.
Marvel also produced an even more obscure Champions team in the 70s: this group, based on the planet Xandar but composed largely of Earthly adventurers, was made up mostly of characters from the canceled Nova comic book: Nova, Comet, Crimebuster, Powerhouse, Protector and Diamondhead. These new Champs formed in the pages of Fantastic Four (though their story began in the final issues of Nova) to protect Xandar from the Skrulls and other nastiness. They sank into obscurity after the FF story until a Rom story years later in which Diamondhead deserted the team and betrayed them to the Skrulls, resulting in Crimebuster's death. The Champs prevailed, though, and defeated the Skrulls decisively with the aid of Rom. [See Rom #24--JW]
Nova decided to return to Earth and retire from super-heroics after the Skrulls' defeat, but later regained his power (which he'd forfeited by leaving the Xandarians service) and helped found the New Warriors. Diamondhead was one of many anomalous beings captured by the alien Stranger as lab specimens, but he escaped to Earth as seen in Quasar's comic book. Presumably, he resumed his criminal career. The remaining Champions--Powerhouse, Comet, Protector and Nova-Prime--were presumed dead in the subsequent decimation of Xandar by the space-pirate Nebula, as depicted in Avengers--a rather capricious waste of the characters. In the end, the new Champions all died off-panel except for survivors Nova and Diamondhead. Nasty.
Thus ends the tale of the Champions.
-Sean McQuaid