Radiant Black
Radiant Black is an American comic book series created by Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa. The ongoing series began publication by Image Comics on February 10, 2021. It is a part of Image's Massive-Verse, A collection of comic titles—Rogue Sun, Dead Lucky, Inferno Girl Red, and others—take place within the same shared universe with stories and plot points often intersecting and crossing over between titles.
The series follows two best friends, Nathan and Marshall, who encounter a small black hole looking object that grants its wielder superpowers. As they slowly discover the object's extraterrestrial origins, they realize that its creators have come searching and will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Radiant Black is the flagship title of the Massive-Verse and has spun-off several other titles like Radiant Red and Radiant Pink.
Synopsis
The series follows Nathan Burnett, a failing 30-year-old writer with a massive incurred credit-card debt, forced to move back to his hometown of Lockport, Illinois, to live with his parents, and Marshall Ward, Nathan’s deadbeat lifelong best friend who works at a DVD rental store. One night, they both discover the cosmic Black Radiant, a small floating black-hole-like entity which bonds with Nathan and grants him a sleek high tech black and white full body suit, and Gravity based Superpowers. Nathan becomes the superhero Radiant Black, starts using his abilities to help people and fight crime, and later encounters another radiant powered individual with different abilities who uses them to commit crime. After Nathan is injured in a confrontation with the other Radiant user that leaves him hospitalized and in a coma, Marshall takes over as Radiant Black for his best friend.Marshall confronts the other Radiant powered individual responsible for his friends condition, but they are interrupted by a ruthless alien foe who plans to forcefully remove their Radiants at the cost of their lives. Their confrontation with the alien leads them to meeting up with the other two Radiant powered heroes revealing them to be four in number. They all later realize that the Radiants belong to powerful cosmic beings on their way to earth, beings who would stop at nothing to reclaim the Radiants.
Characters
Main characters
Nathan Burnett: is a failing writer living in Los Angeles, California. He works as a ride-share driver as a second job—struggling to secure a loan due to his massive credit card debt. This financial strain ultimately leads him to return to Lockport to live with his parents, and reunite with his lifelong best friend, Marshall. There, he and Marshall discover a small floating black hole that grants Nathan enhanced strength, speed and gravity based superpowers, which prompts him to become the superhero Radiant Black.Marshall Ward: Nathan's superhero movie-loving best friend, and employee at The Reel World, a DVD rental shop. Marshall and Nathan attended the same High-School, Marshall has been shown to have a history of anger-prone outbursts and violence, but has always been caring and sardonic to his friends and would do anything to protect those he loves. After an incident with a fellow Radiant user puts Nathan out of commission, Marshall gains his best friends abilities and becomes the second Radiant Black while also struggling with facing his violent tendencies and proving to others that he’s changed and developed self control. Following a fan vote at the end of issue 24 and the events of theVillains
Guy/Shift: A recurring foe and leader of his own syndicate who has the ability to "shift" between places. He hunts down the Radiant heroes with alien technology from 001’s ship which grant him his abilities. He intend to use the Radiants from the heroes to power and recharge he and his syndicate’s technology.Development and Publication History
Radiant Black is a creator-owned superhero series by writer Kyle Higgins and artist Marcelo Costa, launched by Image Comics in February 2021. Higgins conceived the book as a personal, “millennial” take on superheroes. He describes it as a “love letter to the superhero stories I love” designed for a “whole new generation”. Costa notes the series mixes “superheroes and Sentai” – essentially blending Western heroics with Power Rangers–style action. Indeed, press compared Radiant Black to Power Rangers and Invincible, and even Spider-Man-style storytelling. Higgins has said the story filters real-world “generational issues” – debt, career struggles and second chances – through a superhero lens. The main creative team remained largely intact for the series; one exception was Issue #6, which was co-written by Cherish Chen to tell a guest character’s origin.Radiant Black debuted on February 10, 2021, as Image Comics’ flagship of the new “Massive-Verse”—a shared superhero universe created by writer Kyle Higgins and artist Marcelo Costa. Over the next four years, it released 32 main issues on a roughly monthly schedule, punctuated by five “.5” or special one-shots that provided recaps, character spotlights, and bridges into crossover events. Its issues have been gathered into six trade paperbacks between August 2021 and January 2025, plus two deluxe hardcover “Massive Edition” omnibuses. In late 2024 the series tied into the Massive-Verse “Catalyst War” crossover: issues #30–30.5 formed a combined event, and Image even reprinted them as a double-sized special. A free recap issue—Radiant Black: The Story So Far, released in January, 2025, summarized the Catalyst War and set up the next “Rebuild” era of the franchise. As of mid-2025 the main series is ongoing.
The series spun off three mini-series in 2022—Radiant Red, Radiant Pink, and the Supermassive crossover series, while participating in the Massive-Verse “Catalyst War” event across multiple titles like Rogue Sun, Dead Lucky, and Inferno Girl Red. Digital singles remain available on ComiXology and Image’s app, and translated editions have appeared in Italian with French and more on the way. In April 2025 issue #35 closed out Catalyst War and set the stage for the “Rebuild” era, with a #0 one-shot scheduled for July 2025 and further crossovers planned.
Sales and Reception
Daniel Gehen from Comics Bulletin wrote "Radiant Black #1 lays the foundation for what may be the best new superhero since Robert Kirkman's Invincible". Matthew Aguilar of ComicBook.com liked the main character.The 32 released chapters of Radiant Black—including the 6 released volumes have gotten positive reviews from critics and users alike, holding a collective average critic rating of 8.7 out of 10 for 179 reviews, and an equal user rating of 8.7 out of 10 for 483 reviews on the review aggregator website—Comic Book Roundup.
At launch Radiant Black sold extremely well by independent-comics standards. Early orders for issue #1 broke the 70,000 mark at Diamond’s Final Order Cutoff. Comichron’s estimate is about 73,000 copies shipped by Diamond. Image’s publicity noted that #1 quickly went to a second printing, and #2 “sold out in a snap” and was also reprinted. Subsequent issues saw the common post-launch drop: Diamond figures show #2 at 38,800 and #3 at 32,900 copies sold in 2021. Sales then gradually tapered into the 20–30K range. By late 2021 the monthly issues stabilized around the high teens with issue #9 at 18,120 copies, issue #10 at 17,090 copies, and issue #11 at 18,026 copies sold. Notably, by October 2024 the publisher again reported rush printings—an all-star #30/#30.5 special sold strongly.
Trade paperback sales have been modest. According to Diamond/Comichron tallies, Radiant Black Vol.1 sold about 5,900 copies via comics shops in its first year, while Vol.2 shipped roughly 3,000 copies in its debut month. Later volumes have similar performance for a creator-owned indie. Digital editions of each issue and collection have been made widely available, though specific digital sales figures are not publicly released. Overall, Radiant Black became a standout hit for Image: it sold out multiple printings of its early issues and sustained respectable retailer orders throughout its run, fueled by both the creators’ fanbase and buzz from events like the “Catalyst War.”
Spin-Offs
On February 23, 2022, the first issue of the Massive-Verse superhero crossover event series titled Supermassive, written by Kyle Higgins & Ryan Parrott, and illustrated by Mat Groom & Francesco Manna aired. Starring Radiant Black along with the Image Comics debut of INFERNO GIRL RED and the first appearance of Rogue Sun and Dead Lucky. The title has since then seen a total of 3 releases—Supermassive,, and.A 5-issue miniseries spinoff titled Radiant Red, written by Cherish Chen and Illustrated by David Lafuente & Miquelon Muerto, set in the same Massive-Verse as Radiant Black—following another radiant-powered hero named Satomi Shen—a middle school teacher who gains the ability to absorb matter from the red Radiant and initially uses it to commit crime, was announced and has completely aired, with the first issue released on May 9, 2022.
Another 5-issue miniseries spinoff titled Radiant Pink, written by Meghan Camarena & Melissa Flores, and illustrated by Emma Kubert set in the Massive-Verse has fully aired, with the first issue releasing on December 7, 2022. It follows Eva—a video game streamer who gains the ability to teleport from the pink Radiant and is secretly the Superhero Radiant Pink—using her alter ego to increase her stream views, which invites a squad of mercenaries hunting for the radiant that powers her.
In other media
A one minute long animated trailer for the comic series featuring the original song "RADIANT" by Crisis Couture was released on January 8, 2021. An animated short film called "VERSUS" about a fight between the characters Radiant Black and Blaze of C.O.W.L. was released on YouTube on June 22, 2022 and a QR code to the video was hidden as an easter egg in Radiant Black #15. The film was written by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel, animated by Tiger Animation and featured the voices of Will Friedle as Radiant Black, Reginald James, Rick Cramer and David Sobolov.In April 2024, it was announced an audiobook adaptation of Radiant Black would release later that year. Rider Strong is set to play the voice of Nathan with Friedle reprising his role as Marshall from the animated short. Higgins will serve as writer, director, and narrator for the adaptation. Further casting was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, including Kim Rhodes as Mrs. Burnett, Loren Lester as Mr. Burnett, Todd Stashwick as <001>, Melissa Navia as Eva Reyes / Radiant Pink, Anne Yatco as Satomi Sone / Radiant Red, Troy Baker as Guy / Shift, Damion Poitier as the Radiant Black Colossal and Officer Peters, Kevin Porter as Officer Mills, Kaiji Tang as Owen Fujimoto, and Phil Morris as Wendell George / Radiant Yellow. Cherish Chen, who co-wrote issue 6 of Radiant Black and the Radiant Red miniseries, will also narrate alongside Higgins.