Radiant Red vol. 1: Crime and Punishment

Satomi Sone made her debut as Radiant Red in the pages of “Radiant Black’s” first arc using her powers to rob banks.  She put the title’s protagonist into a coma during one of these robberies and while it would’ve been easy to see her as a villain due to this, the spotlight issue at the end of that volume (reprinted here) revealed her to be a more complicated character than that.  So while I can’t say that the rapid and ongoing expansion of the Massive-Verse has struck me as a good thing, I was more than up for seeing more of Satomi’s story from the creators, writer Cherish Chen and artist David Lafuente, who brought us that spotlight issue.

The results… are less than what I was hoping for.  “Crime and Punishment” sees Satomi being dragged further into a life of crime by the head of a local crime syndicate and her henchman Shift, the lead scumbag from vol. 3 of “Radiant Black.”  Making matters worse for her is the fact that things still aren’t going well with her boyfriend Owen as he continues to struggle with his gambling addiction and being a decent person in general.  These two factors drive the plot of this volume, turning it into one long downward spiral for the title character.  This wouldn’t be so much of an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that Chen can’t find a unique spin on this familiar plot.  If you’ve read a story like this before, then it won’t be hard to guess where Satomi’s will go or where it will end up.

Though the story may be familiar, at least it isn’t terrible.  Chen does her level best in getting you to sympathize with Satomi’s situation and even cheer whenever she unloads on Owen for trying to put the blame for everything all on her.  Lafuente’s art is also pretty slick when it comes to depicting any action in this miniseries, be it superheroic or domestic.  The heist in issue four and house-destroying throw-down in issue five are particularly well-handled.  This is all enough to raise my estimation of “Radiant Red” to “Okay” overall and make me amenable to seeing more of Satomi if she ever shows up in the pages of “Radiant Black” again.  It’s not quite enough, however, to make me interested in reading more of her solo adventures, or of the Massive-verse in general, unless things get significantly better from here.