This year's Power Rangers movie reboot was a surprisingly potent dose of nostalgia for us ‘90s kids who grew up pretending to fight Putties in our back yards — but if you’re looking for a time machine to transport you back to the halcyon days when “Power Ranger” was your dream career, comic publisher BOOM! Studios has your DeLorean.

BOOM! debuted its first Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic in March 2016, and the ongoing monthly series from writer Kyle Higgins and artist Hendry Prasetya has quickly established itself as a must-read for original fans and franchise newbies, combining the emotional complexity of Higgins’ critically-acclaimed run on DC’s Nightwing comics with the blockbuster scope of his Batman books.

“I'm not writing Power Rangers as I remember them; I'm writing Power Rangers as I remember them making me feel,” Higgins explains. “This huge, larger than life scope, with a real focus on the friendship and the interpersonal dynamics of the team — that's what Power Rangers is to me. We're just incredibly fortunate to have a medium in comics where our imagination is our only limitation.”

And just as the Power Rangers TV franchise has continued to evolve over the years, the success of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic, both critically and commercially, has paved the way for a new ongoing sister series from BOOM! Studios.

Go Go Power Rangers, written by Ryan Parrott with art by Dan Mora, will debut in July 2017, and Mashable has an exclusive first look at the concept art for the new comic from Mora below:

Original Ranger designs for 'Go Go Power Rangers' by Dan Mora. Image: DAN MORA/boom! studios

"It’s very exciting to see how incredibly well received our comics have been by the fans and how much they have enjoyed us fully taking advantage of the medium to tell new stories with expanded scope and deeper character exploration," says Saban SVP of development and production Brian Casentini, who serves as a producer on the TV series and new film. "Our beloved fans have supported the franchise for over 24 years and we are excited for this new comic to tell even more great Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger stories for them to enjoy. "

While Higgins’ Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers takes place in the period after Tommy Oliver first joins the team as the Green Ranger, Go Go looks back at the timeframe immediately after Zordon gives Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Zack and Billy their powers – issue #1 is set the day after the events of the TV show’s pilot.

“One of the things about the pilot that I liked so much is that they just get dropped into the entire thing. They’re morphing; they have Zords; and then they’re fighting a giant monkey in an armored suit. It's like, ‘it's that fast?’” Parrott laughs. “The day after that, sitting in the local diner while everybody's wondering what happened is one of the scenes in the first issue. I think that's the fun. That's a lot of where the stories of Go Go will take place, in those in-between moments… where they actually respond like real people.”

BOOM! Studios’ Dafna Pleban, who edits both series, notes that part of the appeal of Go Go is that it “gives us the opportunity to see who these characters are as teens first, early on in their Ranger careers. It’s been awesome to see how Ryan and Dan have explored the inner life of these characters even amid the crazy, awe-inspiring action of being a Power Ranger. We get to tackle the real emotional impact of what it means to have such a big responsibility at such a young age, and Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini, and Billy are a great way in to explore that kind of story.”

As Higgins points out, MMPR “is the big, giant, monster-fighting, timeline-hopping, universe-threatening series. There's not much time to focus on Angel Grove High.”

Go Go, on the other hand, will center around those emotional arcs and the team’s real-life dilemmas, which are only exacerbated by their secret identities and new responsibilities.

“The motto I've been looking at is ‘saving the world is easy, but high school is hard,’” Parrott says, comparing the new series to the likes of Ultimate Spider-Man and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “What makes the concept so interesting to me was that you're talking about five high school kids.”

Parrott sees Go Go as an opportunity to fill in the backstories of the Rangers and their friends and foes in a way the TV show and Higgins’ comic don’t have the real estate for, between all the plot twists and boss battles.

“It's going to jump around a lot. Like, what was it like before they got powers? Were there more members of the group? Did getting these powers suddenly change their group dynamic?” Parrott teases. “We have expectations of who we think they were from the pilot, but they might not have been that.”

Pleban agrees, “What’s so great about MMPR is that we get to really play with a budget the original TV series never had access to; we can explore new battlefields and monsters with an eye for big, epic moments that we always pictured as kids, and now get to realize in comics. Go Go lets us tell another side of the story that the TV show didn’t necessarily have the time for—we get to tell the emotional, lasting impact of these grand adventures. Both Go Go and MMPR are complementary, in my mind, filling in a 360-degree approach to this world.”

While it’s not essential to read both books to follow the individual storylines, Higgins and Parrott are working closely together to ensure that readers get added value if they’re equally invested in Go Go and MMPR.

“One of things I enjoy so much about shared universe storytelling is that you can see events in one book, and completely appreciate them for what they are, but if the writers are really gelling and on the same page, you might get different context for the same event, or maybe a character, in the other book,” Higgins explains. "Ryan and I have known each other a long time. So it's very, very exciting for me that we actually get paid now to sit around and break awesome medium-subverting stories, really playing with the possibilities that the monthly storytelling format allows for.”

And the duo aren’t keeping their ideas to themselves. “Ryan pitched me an idea the other day that is so cool and it plays to the strengths of exactly what we are talking about — where a character might get introduced in Go Go, and have different context provided for them in Mighty Morphin’,” Higgins adds. “I don't want to say you need to read both books. It's not like that, but they do definitely play off each other in really fun and exciting way.”

Parrott compares their approach to Lost: “The island would give you these big epic movements in the story, but then every flashback would give you these small intimate character stories that completely change the way you would look at the big events. That was one of the things that was so cool about getting to do this with Kyle.”

Collaboration is woven into the DNA of the franchise; as Parrott notes, one of the strengths of the Power Rangers is the fact that they’re a team. “It's about these five friends relying on each other when they're just figuring it out as they go along. That's one thing that I've been trying to dig into, is to really look at these people as fully fleshed out individuals with hopes, and dreams, and expectations, and then see how this thing upended all of that.”

But that team has definitely evolved over time, even before Tommy arrived, Parrott adds, which is why readers will get a different — but complementary — experience when reading the two books.

“I like that our groups are going to have different power dynamics simply because they take place at different points [on the same timeline],” Parrott says. “One of the things we talked about early [was]… in the first issue of Go Go, before they got their powers, Zack was kind of the Alpha male of the group. It wasn't Jason. Once the power came in and Zordon looks at Jason and says ‘you're the leader,’ how did Zack feel about that? How would you feel if you were the one in charge, and then you're not? Does he accept his role in the group? My book's a lot of the ‘how?’ It's how did we get to this point? How do we shift them and spin them so that they give you more insight into who the characters are?”

“It’s all about context. To me, the opportunity to re-contextualize certain things that we have accepted or taken for granted is so much fun with two series like this,” Higgins agrees. “It's also a lot of fun interacting and working with Saban to make this all gel with the show timeline. Obviously, we're doing this in the print medium, and we've updated some things in 2017, but we want this to be as much a part of the show legacy and continuity as possible.”

He adds, “Right now [in MMPR], we're in an alternate timeline where, obviously, Tommy and Billy have met Lord Drakkon and they know about the White Light power. How the heck would that square with what we know happens in the show going forward? And that's part of the challenge, but also part of the fun in something that you spend a lot of time really developing.”

Not only does July bring us the first installment of Go Go Power Rangers, issue 17 of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers will start a new arc right along with it, marking an easy jumping on point for new readers (although it’s never too late to start from the beginning – MMPR is a deliciously bingeable read).

'Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' #17 begins a new arc - here's the cover from Jamal Campbell. Image: boom! studios / Jamal Campbell

“The first 16 issues really looked at the idea of a group dynamic through the lens of someone new joining that group,” Higgins notes. “So if Power Rangers are defined by the power of teamwork and friendship, what does that look like when that whole teamwork dynamic gets upended? How do they learn to work together again? And Tommy learning to embrace and find his role on that team. It just so happened that I went into alternate timelines that tell us cautionary tales of what would have happened if Tommy had not left Rita's side.”

But we’re back to our own reality and timeline in #17, and the Rangers will be dealing with the fallout of the previous 16 issues, Higgins says.

“Looking at what it means to be a Ranger in a time of peace is how the story starts ... Because there's a lot of aftermath and repercussions and ramifications for our characters as a result of everything that they've gone through … but also [for] the world, because the last time we really saw our timeline proper, the Black Dragon was controlling all the Rangers’ Zords, and turning these great protectors into big threats that were all amassed in these different cities, on the verge of destroying them all,” he says. “So what do things look like after that, both for the Rangers and the world?”

While avoiding spoilers, Higgins does share that one of Parrott’s suggestions had a major impact on the next arc of MMPR, highlighting the creative dynamic between them.

“I will say that there's something coming up in this next arc that actually really stems from an idea that Ryan threw out, and I just kind of took it and sprinted," he teases. "It's probably my favorite thing that we've done yet in this series. And when people see what it is ... you're going to know it when you see it, either when it's announced, or when it comes out. I just think it's so cool, and I can't wait to write it.”

BONUS SCOOP: Three big teases for Go Go Power Rangers.

If you want to go into the new series completely unspoiled, stop reading here, otherwise, scroll down for three key pieces of intel from Ryan Parrott that will inform Go Go Power Rangers and give you a new perspective on the canon of the Power Rangers franchise.

Cover image for 'Go Go Power Rangers' #1 by Dan Mora. Image: dan mora/boom! studios

Tommy wasn’t the first guy to be the sixth member of the group.

“We are going to show that the group was larger than five people before, but only five of them were chosen,” Parrott teases. “So what happens to the group member that wasn't chosen? When all five of his friends are currently running around as the Power Rangers and cannot tell him why, and what does that do to him? If all your friends one day just started showing up at the coffee shop without telling you, you're like, ‘Is it me?

Kimberly had a love life before Tommy, too.

“The other thing is we're going to introduce the fact that Kimberly had a boyfriend before they were Power Rangers,” Parrott reveals. “Who that person is and how they will fit into the story is going to be an interesting balancing act. That will be a major plot point for the entire series, if I get my way.”

Billy had an unlikely friendship.

“I really like the idea that when he was younger, Billy and Skull were actually really, really good friends. And how they grew apart, and why Skull became Bulk's second is going to be something we address,” Parrott says, noting that he was inspired by the way friendships and cliques change between elementary school and high school.

“You look at each other and you're like ‘we were the best of friends. We shared GI Joes and now you're throwing water balloons at my head.’ [We explore] how that happens, why that happens — especially with somebody like Billy, who is a target for bullies. He has a new power and he can't do anything with it. He's not allowed to. So he has to continue to pretend to be this nerd even though he has the ability to defend himself. That's going to be something we're going to play with. One of the things that we're going to play off of, is that Billy had aspirations of leaving Angel Grove. He had aspirations of getting and starting a whole new life, and pursuing more of an academic career. Now he's stuck there defending the world, and is that something that he is okay with?”

Go Go Power Rangers #1 and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #17 will be available July 2017, published by BOOM! Studios.