Radiant Black vol. 3: Rogues’ Gallery
Marshall went on an odyssey through time and space to save his best friend in the previous volume. Something like that should have earned him a little positive karma, right? The universe thinks otherwise and we find out that he’s still trying to put his life back together after the unintentional six-week disappearance he had to undergo in order to save Nathan. Worse still is that Nathan hasn’t had time for his friend since coming out of his coma and there’s a rift starting to form between them. Maybe the sudden appearance of new villainous Radiant-powered individuals will get them to patch things up? Or how about some Youtubers who are looking to make a sweet fan film pitting Radiant Black up against one of Marshall’s favorite superheroes? Or will it be the mysterious Radiant Yellow who seems to know how the future’s going to turn out (until he doesn’t)?
Three volumes in and this series still has its charms, what with seeing Marshall and Nathan struggle to put their lives back together and bicker like real friends along the way. If only their antagonists were as interesting. They range from crypto bros, to shady opportunists, to Youtubers, to at least one person stuck in a bad situation. All the conflict between both sides does lead to another interesting twist in the final issue of this arc, but it’s not a real surprising one. In fact, that’s my biggest complaint with the series so far in that it hasn’t really shown me anything genuinely unexpected since its first volume.
It does end on a strong note, however, with the origin of Radiant Yellow. While his actual origin isn’t all that surprising, it’s the way in which it’s told that’s interesting. Co-written by regular writer Kyle Higgins with Joe Clark, and illustrated by Stefano Simeone, it shows you four different periods in Wendell’s life at the same time. It’s a clever visual representation of how choices we make at one time can influence things down the line. If anything, I’d like to see more visual ambition like this in the main story, but I’ll settle for a genuine surprise within it next time around.