In the aftermath of Civil War II, six adolescent heroes; Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan), Viv Vision, the Totally Awesome Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Nova (Sam Alexander), Spider-Man (Miles Morales), and the time-traveling teen incarnation of Cyclops sought to change the face of superheroics in the Marvel Universe. They did so by forming the Champions, a team dedicated to not just fighting super criminals, but making the world a better place. Of course, part of changing how things work is adapting to the developments that come your way, and this spring the Champions will be dealing with several big shifts to their status quo

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The first big change is the new creative team of writer Jim Zub and artist Sean Izaakse, who take over Champions with April's issue #19. They'll usher in a new era that will see the team welcome new members The Unstoppable Wasp (Nadia Pym) and Ironheart (Riri Williams), as well as taking on new challenges and dealing with the interpersonal drama and classic soap opera style elements that are a hallmark of a number of Marvel super team comics.

CBR spoke with Zub about his take on the team's original members, new recruits the Wasp and Ironheart, and what readers can expect from his initial stories.

CBR: The Champions are an interesting team. They're adolescents, many of them are characters continuing heroic legacies, and a number of them have been part of larger teams like the Avengers and the X-Men. There's a lot of great aspects to explore there. Which elements of the team as a whole are most intriguing to you?

Jim Zub: I love the youthful energy and sense of possibility inherent in the Champions. They're go-getters, they're explorers, and they're still trying to find their way in the world. This is a cast of characters who don't have dozens and dozens of issues under their belt, so we can really stake our claim and affect them in unexpected ways that will last.

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Izaakse's cover for Champions #19

This is my fourth team book at Marvel (wow, seeing that staring me in the face feels strange), and with each one I've tried to find core ideas that drive the book. The Thunderbolts were all about failed redemption and regret-tinged nostalgia. The Uncanny Avengers were an eclectic crossroad of the Marvel Universe who stuck together out of friendship and a desire to better themselves. The huge team we see in “Avengers: No Surrender” is a celebration of past and present, "Marvel Legacy" in a very literal sense as we try to take that old school Marvel magic and sync it up with the here and now.

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It's early on in the process with Champions but, so far, the core for me has been bridging the gap between youth and adulthood - Who we are in that awkward time full of potential when adult responsibilities start to enter our lives and we realize things aren't as easy as they once were when we were young. There's still a lot of fun and adventure to be had, but it's tinged with more complex problems looming on the horizon.

The original tagline for the series was, "The world still needs heroes," and that holds true. The Champions represent a hopeful generation gripped by big problems they had no part in creating - political strife, climate change, the overreach of technology invading our lives. These teens want to change the world, but figuring out how to do that while juggling their personal lives and emotions; well, that's the trick.

Of course, the other fun aspect of the Champions is the individual characters. Which of the original cast are you especially enjoying writing?

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Izaakse's character study for Miles Morales

Sam Alexander's youthful energy is a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying playing him off Miles. They're pals but also competitive. Honestly, the whole team is competitive in that way teenagers constantly jockey for social status within their peer group. They're like a group of gifted students who realize they're not the only genius in their new class. There's mutual respect and friendship there, but also boundary-testing and competition.

Kamala is such a wonderful character full of potential and I enjoy the way she doesn’t want to be the leader of the team but gets pulled into that de facto role because of her experience leading raids in MMOs and because she’s just the most organized in general. She’s a very responsible person, but also becoming acutely aware of what taking on that responsibility means.

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I also understand you'll be adding two new members to the team in the form of Nadia Pym, the Wasp and Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart. Nadia is part of the current Avengers crossover you're involved in writing, “No Surrender,” but what's it like writing her here among team members her own age? And what's your sense of Riri Williams? What do you think drives her?

Nadia is a brilliant and playful hero, but she's also someone who was trained in the Red Room and carries a lot of secrets, so there's an interesting dichotomy there I want to explore.

Riri is an outsider. Her brash confidence is a way to shield herself from past traumas and fears about what she's capable of and how quickly she's been thrust into the spotlight. How does that mesh with a team of other young heroes? We're going to find out...

Speaking of "No Surrender," the Champions are their own team, but they maintain pretty close ties to the Avengers. Will the developments and aftermath of “No Surrender impact the story you're telling in Champions? What can you tell us about the state of the team when you pick up with them in April?

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Izaakse's character studies for Ms. Marvel and the Hulk

The Champions are among the characters “frozen” right now in Avengers and I can't reveal how that wraps up, but suffice to say that “No Surrender” doesn't change the main thrust of our young team of heroes. Champions #19 is built as a perfect jumping on point for new readers, setting the team up for their new goals and thrusting them into danger right from the get-go. It's classic teen superhero adventure with a contemporary flare.

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The first story is called "Northern Lights," and it takes the Champions to the Arctic. Someone or something is repairing a cluster of glaciers that calved from the mainland and the team goes to investigate. What they find there is going to immediately put them on the defensive and give them some hard decisions to make.

Mark [Original series writer, Mark Waid] had a lot of shorter 1 and 2-part stories and we'll have some of those too, but I'm also adding in classic superhero-y subplots bubbling under the surface that will pay off later on. My goal is to channel the kinds of things I loved about teen books like New Mutants, Generation-X, or the New Warriors and bring it into our modern world with lots of surprises.

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Izaakse's character studies for Nova and Viv Vision

I understand Champions reunites you with your frequent Marvel collaborator, artist Sean Izaakse.

Yes. Working with Sean on Uncanny Avengers and Thunderbolts has been such a blast and we enthusiastically decided to keep the band together for Champions. Sean's work has that perfect balance of youthful energy and classic comic storytelling chops I want to see on this series. He's a rock-solid collaborator, always bringing his A-game to the page. Humberto Ramos did a wonderful job setting the look of Champions up until this point, but we're going to try and visually hit a different mark with issue #19 and make it our own.

If you're a current Champions reader, stay on board because we have a ton of exciting stories coming up. If you haven't tried out the series and are itching for big action and adventure, please jump in with Champions #19 and let us know what you think!