Quantum and Woody are back in a new series from Valiant Entertainment -- except this time around, "The World's Worst Superhero Team" aren't on speaking terms.

The new Quantum and Woody! -- note the exclamation point -- debuts in December from writer Daniel Kibblesmith and artist Kano, the first ongoing starring the duo since the 2013-2014 series launched by James Asmus and Tom Fowler. This time around, the oft-bickering siblings are estranged, due to Woody discovering that Quantum knew the whereabouts of Woody's biological father, but decided not to tell him. Of course, thy can only be so estranged -- true to Q&W tradition, they need to clang their metal wristbands together every 24 hours or they'll both disintegrate.

RELATED: Valiant Unites All Gimmicks with Quantum & Woody’s ‘Most Variant Cover’

CBR talked with Kibblesmith -- who you may know as the writer of Valiant High or for being very funny on Twitter -- earlier this month at New York Comic Con discuss how the new series builds on what Christopher Priest and Mark Bright created 20 years ago, the marketing push behind the series (which includes "The Most Variant Cover of All Time"), the creative compositions by Kano and how involved the rest of the Valiant Universe will be in Quantum and Woody!. CBR also has the the first look at two new pages of interior art from issue #1 by Kano, plus a variant cover to January's Quantum and Woody! #2 by Mike Allred.

CBR: Daniel, Quantum and Woody have occupied a very unique space in the Valiant Universe since they were first introduced in 1997. What do you like about these characters and the concept?

Daniel Kibblesmith: Really, it’s the limitless possibilities. I like that they had these fully formed personalities right out of the gates, whether it’s the Priest/Bright stuff, that set the mold -- which hasn’t really changed that drastically since -- and I was also a huge fan of the 2013 Asmus[-written run].

I love their personalities, and I love the high-concept — the fact that their adult sibling relationship is just literalized by these two bands that they have to clang together every 24 hours. Everybody has family members that they feel like they can’t get rid of, and this just takes it to its logical comic book conclusion. On top of that, they live in a world of mad scientists and talking goats, and it really feels like the possibilities are limitless.

How closely does this pick up after the last series?

It’s the same continuity, it’s the same characters. It’s a new #1 and a new jumping-on point. We’ll be very friendly to new readers or people who have heard good things about Quantum and Woody, and know it’s one of the funnier, less continuity-heavy titles. But it’s the same guys. There’s going to be dangling cliffhangers, and we’re going to jump ahead a little bit in the future to show a new status quo for Quantum and Woody. They’re as estranged as they’ve been since they got connected by the laboratory explosion. They’re not on speaking terms. Woody shows up once a day to clang their bracelets together to buy them another 24 hours of existence. Other than that, Eric has no idea where he goes all day. This first arc is about filling in the blanks of what happened in the meantime, and the fight that actually broke up the two brothers, who seemingly could put up with each other doing anything.

Tone-wise, how does that affect the series? The dynamic between the two, the bantering, is a big part of what people think of with Quantum and Woody.

If people know the character of Woody, [they know] he can only keep up the silent treatment for so long. It’s a balance. We follow them both in their new lives, and we see them bounce off of other people. All of a sudden, they’re thrust back into each other’s lives in a very confrontational way, without giving away too much. Then all of a sudden, like any fight that’s been brewing for a really long time, it all comes exploding out. And when you’re dealing with families, there are no boundaries. Siblings really know how to hurt each other -- they know exactly the right thing to say to just destroy each other’s confidence.

Based on what's been revealed about the series so far, it's somewhat surprising that the schism between the two it’s Eric’s fault -- he at least seems to be in the wrong here. What can you say about that and how he handles that, and how that propels the drama?

If you had to place money on who destroyed the Quantum and Woody relationship, you’re probably assume Woody. But it turns out that Eric has been concealing the fact that Woody’s birth father is still alive. Our first arc is a lot about exploring why he did that -- whether it was really to protect Woody from this deadbeat dad that he doesn’t owe anything to; or whether it’s a more selfish motivation, trying to keep together the only family that Eric really has in his adult life. That’s why the fight endures, because it’s the unstoppable force and the immovable object. Eric is just trying to protect Woody, and Woody never really asked him to. That’s been their dynamic this entire time. Finally they just pushed each other too far.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Variant Covers with a Healthy Dose of Self-Awareness']

How much does Woody's biological father play into the story as an active presence?

We’re definitely going to see him. It’s a great way to play with the nature versus nurture argument. Woody is such a great and complex personality -- this con artist with a heart of gold. He’s genuinely good at what he does, but he’s overconfident to the point of living on the edge of his life ending at any moment. Just always overplays his hand.

We’re going to meet a guy who did abandon his family, and hopefully in getting to know him and seeing their reunion, learn how much of Woody the hero is the influence of Derek Henderson, his adopted father -- this good man that Eric wants to keep as the shining example in their life of what it means to be a man.

How has it been working with Kano on the series?

It’s mind-melting. I’ve been a fan of his for a really long time, I think I probably first saw his work on The Delinquents. He does pages that are just these next-level compositions, which really reward a lot of investment on the part of the reader. He takes you on these incredibly compositional journeys, where it’s like, "This page is like a board game," "This pages has emojis on it that signals how people are feeling." "This page is conveying the passage of time." I’m just trying to give him enough to work with and stay out of his way, so I can just keep being surprised.

On the marketing side, it's clear that Valiant is having a lot of fun with some of the stunts around this -- we covered the "Most Variant Cover of All Time" here.

Oh yeah. Buckle up.

There's a lot going with this book! I know it's not your department, but as the writer of the series, how much fun has that aspect been -- reveling in inherently silly ‘90s-ness with this book?

I have a very minor input into it, so I get to be blown away just like everybody else. The way I’ve been describing it is, I think we spent a long time recovering from the ‘90s. Part of that was falling out of love of the things that genuinely had a lot of spark and energy to them, when those kinds of comics were being made to begin with. I don’t think you can deny the very real excitement that I certainly felt about that stuff at the time. I think by coming back to it with a genuine appreciation for it, and a healthy dose of self-awareness, you can come to this perfect "everything old is new again" -- let yourself be excited, let comics be over the top, since this is a very over-the-top comic.

Outside of events, at Valiant the ongoing series tend to stand pretty much on their own -- Quantum and Woody traditionally even more so. How do you approach the shared universe aspect of the series? How much connective tissue is there?

I want this to be just as accessible as Quantum and Woody in 2013 was to me, as my first Valiant book, so they can get a feel for this new superhero universe and start getting curious about the other characters. But that being said, I love books like The Valiant, where you see Quantum and Woody -- they show up for the big crises. They’re there. They know about it. They’re a part of it. I don’t know how helpful they are, but when you need Quantum and Woody, they turn up.

I would love it if there were opportunities in the near future to start bringing in the other Valiant U characters. When I did the alternate universe story, Valiant High, I got to write a version of everybody. Even though they were all in this high school alternate universe, it was important to me that their personalities ring really true. If Valiant High was your inroads to the Valiant Universe, you could pick up one of the other books, and you would feel like you were getting a version of the same person. Not a wildly different character. That experience has made me very itchy to get some of my favorites back into the title that I’m doing ongoing.

You’ve got a good handful of comics under your belt at this point.

It’s getting there.

Yet this is something different for you in that it’s an ongoing series, imcontinuity, all of that. Gow have you enjoyed that type of challenge? It's got to be a little different in terms of long-term planning, and being more open-ended.

It’s really, really great. When I’m doing a couple pages in an anthology, or a four-issue mini or something, you’ll have an idea that’s like, “That’s a Season 2 idea. That’s a third arc idea.” You put it in a shelf, and you don’t know what’s going to happen to it. It’s something that you have to earn or build to, or have the characters be really familiar at that point to get away with a subversion that you might be excited about, but you could never do in issue #1 or issue #2. That’s been really energizing, because it means that I’m throwing less away. I get to renew my excitement about the project every time I get an idea.

Quantum and Woody! #1 is scheduled for release on Dec. 20 from Valiant Entertainment.