Starting over can be rough – new town, new school, new problems. It can be even worse when your dorm gets attacked by bizarre monsters and the entire city block inexplicably gets transported to another dimension. I mean, those aren’t exactly covered in orientation, am I right? Luckily Apex City is about to welcome its newest superhero, and potential savior: Inferno Girl Red!

The latest in the ever-expanding Massive-Verse franchise, Inferno Girl Red introduces us to Cassia Costa, a smart, resourceful teen who just wants to apply herself and become successful so she can support her adoring mother. What Cassia doesn’t expect is to have her whole world LITERALLY thrown into upheaval and be saddled with the powers of the mysterious hero known as Inferno Girl Red.

Creators Erica D’Urso and Mat Groom have created a fascinating protagonist in Cassia. For one, she’s very pragmatic and rational, traits which conflict greatly with her newfound power that relies heavily on belief and spirituality. Secondly, as successor to the original IGR, she becomes a legacy character with seemingly no real ties to her predecessor, which begs the question: why her? While we may not get the answer til the next chapter, there’s still plenty of fun and drama in this deluxe first issue to justify the wait.

As entertaining as the story may be, the book’s biggest strength is the art by D’Urso and colorist Igor Monti. D’Urso imbues personality with every, single character, from Cassia’s roommate Hariette to the random onlookers during the big action scenes. The dynamic between Cassia and her mother is a joy to behold, both in how they’re written and drawn; the body language alone conveys so much about their relationship and just makes the book come alive. The character designs are just flawless, and while we see relatively little of the title character (both past and current incarnations), the tokusatsu-inspired designs add a whole other layer of excitement to an already excellent read.