Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Government Subcommittee On Superhumans And Public Safety is discussing the proposed Underage Superhuman Welfare Act, and various superheroes including some of the young Champions are testifying. They're allowed to mask their identities where necessary. There appears to have been an incident that has aroused public opinion (like the Stamford incident for the Superhuman Registration Act).
Spider-Man (Miles Morales) says it was an accident. The interrogator, Senator Geoffrey Patrick, sympathises with how traumatic it must have been, but suggests the Champions have had several such 'accidents' before.
Riri Williams (Ironheart) is publicly known so she appears sans armour. But she says this seems more like a trial than a senate hearing.
Carol Danvers is also openly Captain Marvel, but appears in costume. She is reminded of the team of youngsters she led (actually she gave them to Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan) to lead and MsM called them the Carol Corps in MsM(2016)#8-11). Patrick adds that 2 of them later joined Hydra as villains Discord and Lockdown. (Carol doesn't object that Discord was never in the Carol Corps.)
The young Falcon (Joaquin Torres) says that the Champions stand on their own feet but the Senator reminds him that *he* was mentored by the older Falcon Sam Wilson.
The interrogator then tells the room that the adolescent brain is more impulsive and risk-taking.
He then commiserates with Nadia Van Dyne (the young Wasp) as someone who was raised as a child soldier by the Russian Red Room, and says that's the kind of thing they don't want in the US.
Steve Rogers angrily points out that he was about the Champs age when he was picked and trained to be Captain America.
Then Senator Patrick asks Vision about what happened to his daughter Viv Vision in the incident. We don't hear the sad synthezoid reply.
He asks Nova (Sam Alexander) about the helmet which gives him his powers. But Nova angrily asks why they aren't more concerned about all the ways kids are dying in the world, rather than kids like the Champs who try to do something good in the world. If Ms Marvel were here she wouldn't be fooled by his fake concern.
The interrogator wonders *why* MsM hasn't stepped forward. And we learn that the disaster was at the Coles Academic High School which Kamala Khan attends.
So now it's time for a flashback to several days ago there.
Kamala is there, but so is Miles Morales from the Brooklyn Visions Academy. They are gathering for a meeting of the Concerned Future Scientists Of America where they will be addressed by young climate activist Ailana Kabua. But there have been death threats against her and the Champions are also here to guard her. They are radio-linked. Ironheart and Nova are patrolling the sky. Bombshell, Pinpoint and young Power Man (Victor Alvarez) are watching from the rooftop. Wasp is hiding in Miles' hair and Viv Vision is hanging around cloaked. The suspected source of the threats is Roxxon Energy Corporation (currently led by Dario Agger/Minotaur and causing trouble in Thor's comics).
The school is attacked by a dragon. Kamala reminds them that Roxxon were (allegedly) involved on the bad side in the recent War Of The Realms (which Riri complains no-one invited her to), so the dragon is probably Asgardian. She sends Viv to help Ironheart and Nova against the flying dragon, and Wasp to organise an evacuation. Then the rooftop 3 are shot at by troops presumably working for Roxxon, and KK diverts Wasp and Spidey to help *them* while she herself gets Ailana to safety. She leads her through the basement and smashes a way through a wall when Ailana isn't looking.
Meanwhile the battle outside rages with Bombshell and Wasp blasting troopers, Power Man hitting them, Spider-Man webbing them up and Pinpoint teleporting them away. Then they turn to help Ironheart and Nova against the dragon. Power Man wants Pinpoint to open a portal in front of the dragon. IH has another suggestion and leader Kamala can't decide because she can't see the situation and she's busy avoiding some more troops who are after Ailana.
Viv has arrived and can't wait for a decision so she zooms towards the dragon intending to phase through it. Pinpoint and Power Man don't know what's happening so they implement their plan at the same time. PM sends his chi-force through the portal and it hits Viv just as she merges with the dragon. They start drawing electricity out of the atmosphere and ejecting it all around. It hits a building and causes it to collapse onto the school. In the basement Ms Marvel expands her body to shield Ailana.
Pinpoint ports the ground-based Champs into the rubble to look for survivors. IH, Nova and Wasp are left to deal with the still dangerous Viv/dragon. Nova creates a force-shield to get them close. Riri gives Nadia an EMP blaster and tells her to go small to get inside Viv. Then IH fires rockets at Viv who goes insubstantial to avoid them. Wasp slips in and fires the EMP. There's a terrific explosion and Nova has to use his forcefield to stop the now solid but unconscious dragon from falling on people. And there's no sign of Viv.
In the aftermath medics care for the injured, including some of the Champions. Reporters wonder how much of the destruction is the Champs fault, and Spidey can't help but agree with them. Ailana is basically OK but she's worried about Kamala Khan.
In the present Senator Patrick gives a TV announcement, with Justice behind him, that his Underage Superhuman Welfare Act has been passed, so no-one under 21 is allowed to 'engage in superhero activity'. An organisation CRADLE (Child Hero Reconnaissance And Disruption Law Enforcement) has been set up including former-teen New Warriors Justice, Speedball and Timeslip alongside ex-SHIELD Agents Dum Dum Dugan, Jake Oh and Carolina Washington.
We see someone banging on the door of the home of Luna Lafayette (Moon Girl). Her father tells her mother to hide her. We see Dugan, Oh and Washington at the West Coast Avengers HQ in LA, between angry protesters on both sides of the argument. Speedball is with troops escorting Snowguard and Red Locust from the Champions Mobile Bunker. (I don't think we actually see Timeslip anywhere.) Other troops invade Riri Williams' lab, as she tells the kids she's 'adopted' to sneak out the back (see Ironheart's own terminated series). In Jersey City CRADLE is putting up wanted posters for Ms Marvel, over the objections of her friend Bruno Carrelli. And we discover that heroic Kamala Khan is severely injured in a hospital bed, and in her honour the Act is being called Kamala's Law!