Comic Review: Radiant Black #1

Radiant Black #1

Image Comics

Writer: Kyle Higgens

Artist: Marcelo Costa

Radiant Black is the all-new ongoing series from Image Comics, pitched as a mix of INVINCIBLE and The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Writer Kyle Higgens is best known for his work on various Batman adjacent titles at DC and for his work on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers over at BOOM Studios. Marcelo Costa has also worked on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the past, working on the same book as Higgens on a couple of occasions.

I’m not very familiar with The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers so I can’t speak to its parallels with Radiant Black, I can speak to the similarities to INVINCIBLE. If you were concerned that Image slapped on that comparison mostly just to sell books, you might want to head to Vagus. While there is only one issue to draw from, it seems the connection is very surface level. Both are young characters with newly found powers in an Image book and the art isn’t completely dissimilar. After that, I struggle to see the resemblance but I’m sure the connection to The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is less vague.

This issue serves as the origin story for Radiant Black, that’s about all you need to know. Without spoiling anything, there is not much imagination put into how he got his start. I have the feeling more will be revealed as the story goes on but at the moment it’s pretty bland. There also isn’t much in the way of subtlety or nuance. Instead of showing you that the main character is worried about his financial struggles, you are given a close-up of his bank account to make sure you see he’s in debt. I did, however, enjoy some of the stereotypes that were broken. The almost overly supportive parents were a nice change from the typical “critical but caring” parents we usually see. Although, the mom being supportive was her only character trait.

Marcelo Costa stands out quite a bit in this issue. His art style is expressive and just a bit cartoony. Exaggerated shadows and highlights add a lot to the expressiveness of the characters. The highlights, at times, made everything feel a little too glossy for my taste. It does fit the style he was going for, however, so I can still appropriate it. I especially loved how he coats the background with a narrow color palette depending on the context of the scene. The Radiant Black suit reveal stood out as one of the best pages in the issue.

This issue does not offer too much. The story is unexceptional, the writing is bland, and the characters feel flat. But if you’re sold on the cover alone then I don’t think there’s anything stopping you from enjoying it. If you’re not so sold, maybe just read the solicitation. In fact, that solicit fills in more detail than the issue and doesn’t leave out much.