Image Comics’ Radiant Black is expanding into a fully-realized universe. Last year, writer Kyle Higgins and artist Marcelo Costa teamed up to bring comic book readers the initial series, and it is now spawning spinoffs.
Radiant Black introduced readers to Nathan Burnett who gains superpowers after coming across the “Radiant.” The series has drawn comparisons to Spider-Man, partly for Nathan’s mundane problems relating to work and credit card debt. Image Comics has seen success with the series, prompting the first issue to be made available online for free. The one-shot Supermassive proved that fans were hungry to see Radiant Black in a crossover with other heroes. The issue incorporated new superheroes including Rogue Sun. It wasn’t long until he received his own title in March, written by Ryan Parrott with art by Abel. A new miniseries Radiant Red kicked off in the same month, written by Cherish Chen with art by Miquel Muerto and David LaFuente.
Radiant Black is expanding with several other new heroes set in the Massive-Verse, each with their distinct mythologies. The saga which started with Higgins and Costa’s impressive world-building has spawned new plot lines from other creators to continue growing the universe from Image Comics. When the graphic novel Inferno Girl Red found support on Kickstarter, writer Mat Groom and artist Erica D’Urso had a good impression of what the Massive-Verse could expect going forward. The graphic novel which is set to release later this year will be the fifth entry into Radiant Black’s continuity. As key characters are receiving spinoffs alongside new heroes and villains, the Massive-Verse is becoming one of Image Comics’ most ambitious story initiatives.
In an interview with SYFY WIRE, writer and creator Kyle Higgins expressed his gratitude on the success of Radiant Black. He said, "It’s been a wild year, for sure. I was talking about this with some friends last week — it’s one thing to plan and build and think you might have something that could work… and it’s another for it to actually work. We spent a lot of time building out the foundation of Radiant Black, from the aesthetics to the book design to our covers, marketing, big animated launch trailer, our orchestral scores and blacklight issue…” The cinematic saga has been comparable to the universe of a full-on comic book publisher, which makes sense since the Radiant Black creative team of Higgins and Costa have come from DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
For a medium inundated with endless iterations of mainstream superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, Higgins’ initial world is a refreshing divergence. As the creative teams attached to the titles aren’t confined to tying into a larger canon, they have been given the freedom to tell stories and create original characters. Collectively, the titles which have comprised the Massive-Verse include Radiant Black, Supermassive, Rogue Sun, Radiant Red, Inferno Girl Red, and The Dead Lucky. For comic book fans who want to enter a new world outside of DC and Marvel, now is the time to become invested in Image Comics' growing Massive-Verse.