When it comes to protecting the Land of Liberty, the United States of America needs a team of heroes that can protect the great nation from all of the dangers this world has to offer.

Introducing: American Intelligence Mechanics. A.I.M. will dare any danger—no matter how awesome—to save their country from the wildest, weirdest threats of all! Beginning January 4, the most patriotic-group ever arrives to save the day—and they’ll do it all looking tried and true in red, white, and blue! Join Iron Patriot, Squirrel Girl, Enigma, Captain America 20XX and more in U.S. AVENGERS!

We caught up with series writer Al Ewing to get the down low on what to expect from some of the old and new faces on the updated team roster. See who made the cut, ahead.

Roberto Da Costa
“From Sunspot to the new Citizen V. I’ve been having a lot of fun with him as a leader and spymaster, always 10 steps ahead—though things are a little more serious for him now, because he’s part of a larger institution and has people watching his moves closely who maybe don’t think he should be where he is, and will be doing whatever they can to oust him. It’s going to be a rough year.”

Iron Patriot
“Dr. Toni Ho, graduated from her status as behind-the-scenes boffin of NEW AVENGERS to full-on super hero. I’m really excited to be building this character up further; it’s a rare example of someone I didn’t have an end goal for, I just allowed the character to do whatever felt right for her in the moment. That led to her being a central emotional core of the new team, and the new Iron Patriot, so I’m looking forward to where she goes next.”

Squirrel Girl
“Who doesn’t like Squirrel Girl? Doreen’s great, because she’s the furthest thing from a “random,” “zany” character there is; at the core of her, there’s this incredible, intense well of compassion and empathy that you don’t really see in a lot of other super-people. It took me a little while to completely get that, but I’m very glad I did—someone with that sensibility is vital on any team.”

Red Hulk
“Since Thunderbolt Ross has things to do elsewhere and it was getting very complicated to have him in our book, we have an all-new Red Hulk— which lets us have Red Hulk action in issue #1 and lets us play with the concept a little. I’m having fun deciding how this new Hulk works, how he thinks, and what he’s going to get up to. We’re going to get to give him a big spotlight in issue #4.”

Enigma
“Aikku Jokinen is wearing the Pod undersuit—the under-armor that the original suit grew as an interface—and it’s developing some strange and interesting powers. This was an opportunity to make Pod less of a big blaster character and more of a stealth fighter. She’s got a fun new powerset—lots of useful spy stuff like phasing, hologram generation, and so on—and we put it to use in interesting ways. Does this mean Pod is dead for good? Well, we’ll see…”

Cannonball
“Sam Guthrie is, in some ways, the heart of the team—although he shares that position with Doreen. Along with Roberto, he’s the guardian of Professor X’s dream; a dream not just of human-mutant peace, but of tolerance, inclusion, and the recognition of shared humanity among all people. He’ll never stop fighting for that, to his last breath—and maybe beyond. Not that I’m hinting at anything there.”

Captain America 20XX
“Danielle Cage, the fan-favorite future Cap from ULTRON FOREVER and NEW AVENGERS, and our guest star for the first three-issue arc—although she’ll probably be back after that. She’s come here from the future—but, is it our future, or has the timeline already diverged? And is it too late to stop the Golden Skull from razing and looting our world?”

Salute U.S. AVENGERS #1 from Al Ewing and Paco Medina on January 4!