5 Marvel Superhero Teams Everyone Has Forgotten About

Marvel Comics is a company with a massive number of superhero teams. The first-ever Marvel superhero comic, when the company started under that name, was The Fantastic Four. Soon, Marvel took some of its biggest heroes from both solo series and themed comics and formed the Avengers. The X-Men quickly followed, and it was clear that fans loved these team-up comic books as much as, if not more than, the solo comics. Titles like the Defenders followed, and today, there are more teams than ever before, including countless spin-offs from both the X-Men and Avengers, as well as teams consisting of nothing but teenagers.

However, not every Marvel superhero team made a lasting impression, and some great teams have become forgotten over the years.

5) The Champions of Los Angeles

Most Marvel Comics fans know about the Champions. However, the team that most people know about is the teenage superhero team with Mrs. Marvel, Miles Morales, Nova, Ironheart, and other young heroes. However, this isn’t the original team that used this name, and the original team was nothing like a group of teenagers. It was as different as anyone could get.

Officially titled The Champions of Los Angeles, this original Champions team consisted of a God in Hercules, a demon from Hell in Ghost Rider, a former Avenger in Black Widow, and a founding member of the X-Men in Angel. This was no teenage team. They formed in their own comic book series in 1975, but the series only had a total of 17 issues, and the Champions of Los Angeles went their own ways. What could have been a new take on a team like the Defenders was never popular enough to warrant its own book.

4) Agents of Atlas

Agents of Atlas was a team formed by the Atlas Foundation, which was a secret society that originally wanted work domination, but then had a change in leadership and wanted to influence humanity’s greater good. This new leader was Jimmy Woo, who many MCU fans know from his part in WandaVision and the Ant-Man movies. However, in the comics, Woo was a top FBI agent in the 1950s and then a SHIELD agent before learning of his fate as the leader of the Agents of Atlas.

This team had members such as Namora, Gorilla-Man, and more. However, years later, Woo was severely injured and almost died as an older man before he was saved and had his youth restored in modern-day Marvel Comics. He reformed the Agents of Atlas with members like Brawn, Aero, Shanfg-Chi, Silk, and many other mostly Asian heroes.

3) A-Force

A-Force was a chance for Marvel Comics to create a team of only female superheroes and send them on big adventures. However, it didn’t last. The team was formed by SIngularity, which was a member of a team called A-Force in Earth-16191. Singularity headed for Earth after first encountering Captain Marvel and connected first with She-Hulk, and they formed the team on Earth-616.

The team then added members like Queen Medusa of the Inhumans, Nico Minoru, Dazzler, Captain Marvel, and Jane Foster’s Thor. However, they only had 10 issues of their comic book, and the team was gone after just six months.

2) Power Pack

Power Pack has been around for a long time, but almost no one talks about them, and few people even remember they exist until Marvel pulls them out for something special, like a recent series from 2021 where they worked with Wolverine. Their most recent series was in 2024, but these are almost always just miniseries that never really play into anything else going on in Marvel.

Power Pack first appeared in 1984 in their own series, when Marvel created a new team to try to offer something to younger readers. That series did run for 62 issues, ending in 1991, which means it at least lasted longer than teams like The Champions of Los Angeles. However, they have mostly just been Fantastic Four side characters and worked with Franklin Richards for a time. Despite being around for 41 years, the team has only appeared in a total of 109 comic books in that time, and 62 were their first series.

1) X-Statix

X-Statix is one of the most polarizing and comical mutant teams to spin off from the X-Men. They are also very controversial since their entire existence was not to be heroes, but to make money from their sponsors. They first appeared after it looked like X-Force had all died to save the world. However, a businessman named Spike Freeman formed them and gave them a leader named Coach to watch over them.

Coach and Freeman were not heroes either, and they were as bad as any villain. In fact, they sacrificed the first lineup of the team to make the replacements more sympathetic, hopefully making more money from the team’s existence. X-Statix debuted in X-Force #116 in 2001, and their only comic series ended after 26 issues.

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