Review by Frank Plowright

Ana Leddin’s teenage daughter Cassia has won a scholarship to study at one of the country’s most prestigious universities. However, Ana’s lived in Apex City before, when she filed news stories about the superheroic endeavours of Inferno Girl Red, dismissed as fiction, which cost her reputation, something powerful people were keen on shredding. Mother and daughter arrive in Apex just before the city is abducted and removed to another dimension, thankfully surrounded by a protective dome, but not protective enough that monsters can’t manifest. The upside is Cassia now inheriting the power of Inferno Girl Red.

Mat Groom plots to the early Spider-Man template of mixing school and superheroics, but updates it to include greater mystery. These include the reason Apex was transported, who the original Inferno Girl Red was, and who’s producing demons. A nice touch is Groom ensuring Cassia’s inadequate at maintaining a secret identity.

Erica D’Urso draws the hell out of every costumed appearance, with the abstraction of the cover a hint as to the effect of power in action. The threats may look roughly the same, but she varies the views and the results, while colourist Igor Monti adds real sparkle via highlights and digital effects. D’Urso also excels at showing how people feel when Cassia’s out of costume.

While the people based mysteries won’t puzzle smarter young adult readers, the real downside of this opening volume is there being no variety to what Cassia faces. It’s the same sort of skull-faced demon again and again, which becomes repetitious, even when the Green Goblin equivalent is introduced, and it’s decidedly limiting. Good-natured people and mysteries only take Inferno Girl Red so far, and for the proposed Book Two, Groom needs to increase the variety.