Radiant Black: Image Comics previews new universe, Rogue Sun and beyond

In 2015, Kyle Higgins helped BOOM! The Power Rangers Comics line was a huge hit with Studios. The sprawling success of the Power Rangers comics was followed three years later. Shattered Grid event, his time with the Rangers came to an end, but he still had some ideas on super sentai and superhero comics — and ones beyond other creators’ worlds. Instead of playing in existing sandboxes he decided to make his own.

Eric Stephenson from Image Comics, a publisher of Image Comics, finally contacted Higgins to inquire if he was interested in creating a brand-new superhero book by Higgins. Higgins was skeptical, but Stephenson thought there was market. Radiant Black

A new super hero was created by Michael Busuttil (editor/designer), Marcelo Costa (artist), and Becca Carey (letterer). Higgins, his colleagues drew on their shared love of Spider-Man as a relatable hero, trying to modernize it for the 2020s and disillusioned generations. The aesthetics of the project would draw on their love of Tokusatsu heroes such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Super Sentai. It also builds upon work Higgins has done with BOOM! Marvel. It was a huge commercial hit.

The title’s debut was in the early 2021, and it will be published for the last time this February. The creatives behind Radiant Black are only just beginning. Radiant Black’s second year looks bigger and better than its predecessor, but more important, Higgins & Image plan to go beyond their keystone titles.

There’s a whole new superhero universe in town, and this is just the beginning. Here’s what you need to know before diving in, complete with insight from the “Massive-verse” creators and a preview of the brand new Rogue Sun #1.

The Radiant Heroes

Radiant Black

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

Our hero. A touch of the mysterious cosmic energy source ‘The Radiant’ grants him his powers, with a symbol and a power-set evoking a Black Hole. The heroic role is divided between two best friends — Nathan and Marshall. Nathan is an insecure writer. He moved back in with his family in Lockport, Chicago. Marshall was his childhood friend. Together, as Radiant Black, they’ll go to hell or heaven for one another, and continue to build the local heroic legend of the stylish hero. Radiant Black offers everything, from gravity manipulation to energy blasts to supermodes with capses.

Radiant Red

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

She is a diligent teacher in middle school, but she was also formerly a super criminal. As all Radiants she knows, her abilities are derived from the mysterious Radiant who bonds with her. Satomi is an Asian American woman who finds herself in a complicated, messy situation. Satomi felt she couldn’t choose and turned to her Radiant abilities of matter-absorption, manipulation and theft to rob banks. This put her in conflict with Radiant Black who was causing even more chaos.

Radiant Pink

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

A streamer living with her grandmother gets the gift of teleportation through her Radiant. She can now be completely free to go wherever she likes. Eva, a member of the super-crew, can transport the entire gang to any place, either by accident or on purpose. Whether it’s Tokyo or a celestial war on the other side of the universe, Radiant Pink can go there in a single instant.

Radiant Yellow

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

Wendell, an elderly superhero is truly a genius. However, like many a geniuses, he’s lonely, isolated from his family, without the recognition he deserved for his innovative ideas. He’s a true perfectionist, and he’s the cool, wiser mind and the experienced elder of the heroes. Which are his talents? That’s a long-tail mystery being withheld for the moment.

Inferno Girl Red

Image: Mat Groom, Erica D’Urso, Igor Monti, Becca Carey

If all the Radiants thus far are full-on adult-heroes, in their 30s or older, then this is very much the universe’s young teen-hero. Cássia Costa is a teenager whose home of Apex City was stolen by an ancient cult and their army of demons. A magical dragon bracelet sailed into Cassia’s life, attaching itself to her arm. Now, she’s the only one equipped to use it to save her home. The catch, however, is the bracelet is powered by belief, and our Inferno Girl Cássia is a pragmatic person who has none.

Rogue Sun

Image: Abel O’Halloran,Chris O’Halloran/Image Comics

Upon his estranged father’s death, Dylan Seigel learned that the man known as Marcus Bell was secretly New Orleans’ greatest superhero, the mysterious Rogue Sun. As a Knight-In-Flames, Dylan is now the guardian of all supernatural powers. His father had been tasked with this task. He’s trying to solve the mystery of his father’s murder while coming to terms with a man he’s hated all his life.

Radiant Rogues: Meet them

You need to have antagonists to help your heroes live in a world where there are many. The heroes seem to increase in numbers each day.

Accel

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

Accel is the universe’s seemingly speed-powered threat, and he’s got plans. He also speaks to artist Marcel Costa’s overall vision for the costuming in the universe.

“Colors are very important for this — I wanted readers to try to understand each character just by looking at them. Like, ‘look at this Radiant wearing red; they look really badass.’ I believe the shape of the eyes is the most important part of conveying this message,” Costa tells Polygon. “We wanted a costume with personality, something unique, like Spider-Man or Invincible. I wanted something that felt modern and high tech, but also classic.”

Doppler

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

A bit of a legacy villain, drawing on the title and gear of an old 60’s super-figure, Doppler is an ex-musician whose tech lets her transform all sound into various other kinds of potent energies. She’s got a big loan to clear, and is someone who’s been abandoned by monstrous insurance companies.

Mecha

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

The metal menace who’s been defeated by Radiant Black once already. But he won’t let that stop him.

Sheer

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

A weapons master without mercy, he’s set to make big trouble in Year Two for Radiant Black.

Shift

Image: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

Masked vigilante, mysteriously with a vendetta. Seen briefly so far and expected to become a bigger player in the second year of the series.

How to dive into Radiant Black’s comic Massive-verse

Radiant Black will expand from one series in 2022 to several, with Image Comics teasing many more surprises. Here’s what the established/announced universe looks like in one-handy graphic.

Image Credit: Image Comics

Now let’s dive into the books:

Radiant Black Volumes 1 and 2 (Now and March).

Images: Marcelo Costa/Image Comics

Radiant Black’s first two volumes are the foundation for the whole Massive-verse. The action starts when a spaceship crashes on Earth, and various mysterious powers dubbed “The Radiants” escape and bond with various hosts. Radiant Black is only the beginning. The universe grows exponentially from there. While the first volume has been released, the second will arrive in March.

Supermassive (February)

Live up to the title SupermassiveIt is 54 pages long. Poised as the universe’s first big “event,” the story is being kept under wraps and mired in mystery. We do know that Inferno Girl Red travels to Radiant Black’s world to seek out…something. The rest is cosmic mystery, murder, and secret action that unfolds, creating a universe full of characters and mysteries.

Rogue Sun (February)

Image by Declan Shalvey/Image Comics

The events of Supermassive is the new series by Ryan Parrott, Abel O’Halloran, and Chris O’Halloran. In it we’ll see young Dylan deal with the death of his father Marcus Bell, secretly the legendary New Orleans superhero known as Rogue Sun. This book is described as an expansive character-driven novel about fathers, sons and superhero mythology. Rogue Sun will find a young man trying to unravel the legacy and truth about his own father — in other words, a big superhero murder mystery saga.

“Ryan’s writing has the kind of drama I really like to work with, and the voice he gives to each character makes sure that each one of them plays freely in my mind when I’m working on a scene,” Abel O’Halloran tells Polygon. “This is really powerful and it shows.”

Exclusive preview Rogue Sun #1

Images: Ryan Parrott, Abel O’Halloran, Chris O’Halloran/Image Comics

“I was really excited to jump in on Rogue Sun and his world,” adds Chris O’Halloran. “I didn’t want to copy the look of another book or hero but try and do something that came naturally. With the colors, I tried to keep the story in mind and maybe add some depth. My main goal is to make Abel’s lines and Rogue Sun look cool as best I can.”

Like the openly-cosmic titles of the Massive-verse, this title leans more towards the supernatural, which is an important draw.

Radiant Red (March).

Image: David Lafuente/Image Comics

This super-spinoff miniseries features Radiant Black’s rogue competitor. Cherish Chen and David Lafuente are back together for another great creative collaboration. Radiant BlackOne-shot focusing on ex-supercriminal to investigate Satomi Sone even further.

Satomi can be many things to many people. She’s the rock in her family and a favorite middle-school teacher. But she’s also Radiant Red. Things are bound to become very messy when strangers knock to her door to take over her fragile life. It’s a book about tough, messy choices–starring someone who’s made a number of them, and has gotten in a whole lot of trouble.

Inferno Girl Red (2022)

Image: Erica D’Urso

Inferno Girl Red is the teen-superhero title of this shared universe, from the creative team of Mat Groom, Erica D’Urso, Igor Monti, and Becca Carey. It’s also the one project thus far that won’t just be standard single issues. The project will come out in a series of collected graphic novels that are powered by an established Kickstarter. Based on the pitch, the series is a big coming of age-story about a cynical young girl who learning to have faith, for if she doesn’t, her whole way of life is over.

Groom, D’Urso, Monti, and Carey say they hope Inferno Girl RedIt combines the excitement of Tokusatsu with British Boarding School fiction. It’s the closest to classic Power Rangers in that sense — teens with attitude having to come to terms with power and save what means most to them. The book doesn’t have a fixed date, due to the world’s current paper-shortages and supply chain issues, but it’s marked for later in 2022.