 Dr. Cecelia Cobbina: African American doctor who is driven by a need to heal and save those in need. She is an impatient overachiever. When she volunteers with Doctors without Borders in Central African Republic, during a dangerous and highly stressful situation she “ignites” giving her superintelligence seen in the form of nine avatars (based on Gardner’s Intelligence types). Driven to find out why these Ignitions are happening, along the way she helps others who have ignited like her and discovers the ways her abilities can help confront many societal crises including police violence, contaminated water, immigration, indigenous rights, religious intolerance, and White Supremacy – she faces the challenges head on and armed with her best weapon – her intelligence and ability to outthink and outmaneuver anyone. Her tunnel vision with her goal to seek out, diagnose, and help as many ignited people as she can often prevents her from making strong connections with others. Her own sister struggles to understand Cecelia’s weird OCD-like attention to detail and desire for perfection, but Cecelia never wavers on her goals. Internally she struggles with the complexities of how Black women are often seen as needing to save the day, keep the faith and shoulder the burden; and the audience gets to see the vulnerability and fear that comes with that.

 Mae Richards: White, full figured, affable nurse who worked with Cecelia in Africa. Cecelia’s best friend and sidekick, she sees Cecelia as a superhero and writes a comic book about her adventures. Acts as a reality check for Cecelia and is protective of her. Can be a bit reckless.

 Gary Herrick: Blasian, head of a CIA special ops division that is tracking and studying the Ignited including Cecelia. He tracks Cecelia down after she finds Chumani and the water keepers in the desert. He has a secret of his own: he was born with abilities nearly identical to Cecelia’s. Possibly one of the first humans to Ignite, he gained his powers while in his mother’s womb.

 Antony: Black, one of the first Ignited that Cecelia finds and is able to help. He is able to phase matter which allows objects to pass right through him. He ignited when he was shot by a police officer, but the bullet passed through him, leaving him unharmed. However the bullet ended up hitting the officer behind him which labeled him as a cop killer. Cecelia is able to clear his name.

 Livi Cobbina: Cecelia’s younger sister, resident neurologist at Emory University Hospital. Cecelia shares her new abilities with her. Livi is a little annoyed when Cecelia uses her powers to provide a different diagnosis for one of her patients which she sees as second guessing her work.

 Kafui Cobbina: Cecelia’s younger brother, attends MIT. Cecelia is concerned when she hears he’s bought a gun to protect himself at school. He gets kicked out of school after an accidental shooting – he shot someone he thought was a gang member trying to break into his room, but it was a student who had lost his key card.

 Chumani: leader of the water keepers. The water keepers all have the ability to draw and control water. They were left for dead in a jail that was flooding when they ignited giving them the ability to control water. Now they can do everything from procuring water for thirsty travelers to drawing the water out of human beings which kills them.

 Rabbi Cohen: his synagogue is bombed and burns to the ground killing one of his fellow rabbis. In the process he ignites which gives him the ability to deflect fire. He believes that Muslims are responsible for the attack but with Cecelia’s help they discover a white supremacist group was behind it.   

Dr. Cecelia Cobbina is working with Doctors Without Borders in the Central African Republic. As Cecelia is performing surgery to try to save a child, revolutionary soldiers break into the clinic and insist that Cecelia tend to their wounded. The threat of violence and urgency of the dying young patient all create such a high level of pressure and stress that it causes Cecelia to “ignite.” Time freezes and Cecelia’s awareness fractures into nine different types of intelligence, her avatars, that appear in different colors for each type (based on Gardner’s Intelligence types). Thinking at an incredible speed, she takes immediate control of the situation, gives commands to the soldiers in their language, guides her assistants, uses unconventional techniques to save her patient as well as several wounded soldiers, stunning everyone, including herself. The holistic insight seems to last only a few minutes to Cecelia but in actuality it happens in a flash of a second. Cecelia is both elated and terrified by her new ability.

Cecelia starts to track down other “ignited” people and helps them along the way. The first person she finds is Antony who has the ability to allow matter to pass through him. Antony was shot by a cop, ignited and the bullet passed through him, hitting the cop behind him. Cecelia helps clear his name. She then helps a group of kids who are detained at the border and have taken over the detention center with their ignited abilities.

She is recruited to run Omni, an organization that wants to find the Ignited, but she doesn’t know what their motives are. We’ll later come to find that a mysterious wealthy group installed Cecelia to head up the facility. She has topline medical equipment, a helicopter, cars and a ship at her disposal. Unbeknownst to Cecelia, OMNI wants to “bottle” Ignition for profit.

Another group which is interested in Cecelia is the CIA. They want to understand and control Ignition for security purposes. They send Gary Herrick to track and potentially recruit Cecelia. What complicates matters is the mutual attraction between Cecelia and Herrick that they both resist.

As Cecelia continues to help people including a veteran in financial trouble and a group of women who are able to control water, she begins to believe the Earth itself has ignited but the question is why? Worldwide disasters are increasing, many exacerbated by mankind. She believes people igniting may be a form of evolution for people to be able to survive on Earth.

A synagogue is bombed and with the help of Rabbi Cohen, they discover a white supremacist group behind the attacks. Cecelia’s sidekick Mae decides to use her “superpower” of being a white woman to infiltrate the group, but her cover is blown.

They are able to successfully rescue Mae but Cecelia finds that she’s becoming angrier and is having trouble controlling her temper. She wonders if this is happening to the other ignited. Scared that she may be losing control, she goes home to Atlanta. Herrick sees footage of the Ignited being killed off. Tornados touch down in Atlanta and Herrick arrives just in time to get Cecelia and her family to safety.

Whoever has been killing off the ignited in a well-coordinated attack also poisons employees at Omni HQ and later blows up the building. Thankfully Cecelia had a plan B and was able to get the ignited to safety on a cruise ship and away from their enemies. They are going to rebuild, figure out how to help their fellow humans and the planet, and find a home in this world.  

 A topical, socio-politically relevant medical drama

 Storylines touch upon immigration, corrupt politics, polluted water, white supremacy, poverty, healthcare, gun control, and additional current issues

 From an all-female creative team

 Tackles unsettling yet topical content that speaks to readers in a visceral way

 Superhero story, medical drama & political thriller all wrapped into one

 Doctor/healer as our superhero

 Featured in The New York Times Summer 2019 list of top 8 comics to read

 Diversity in characters

 Creators have large following on social / influencers