Radiant Black vol. 6: The Catalyst War — Infinite Earths

The “Infinite” in the title is a misnomer because we’re still following the same two parallel Earths from the previous volume.  One where Nathan is Radiant Black, and another where Marshall is Radiant Black.  Both are still fielding challenges from the Catalyst army and its advent, Premier, and are dealing with their own unique issues.  Nathan’s being that he’s already failed two challenges, and Marshall’s being that Nathan died on his watch.  Now they’ve got to save Chicago from the emergence of multiple energy singularities; but, even if they do, what’s to say the next challenge from Premier won’t be the one that takes them all out?

This volume wraps up the epic “Catalyst War” storyline while also setting up a major change in the status quo of “Radiant Black” itself.  Is it enough to rejuvenate my interest in this series?  Well, what’s here is good enough to keep me reading even if it doesn’t have me chomping at the bit for vol. 7.  That’s mainly because, for all the differences between the worlds, things wind up playing out more or less how you’d expect them to.  Radiants rise.  Radiants fall.  Radiants die, and the world itself lives to see another day.  Along with a big chunk of “Supermassive 2024” in the middle that felt more like a distraction to the main story than anything else.

That being said, co-writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark still manage to invest enough personal stakes and cleverness into the main story to hold your interest throughout.  Even as the story ping-pongs between realities it still manages to build up a decent amount of momentum (“Supermassive 2024” speedbump notwithstanding) that leads to an all-hands-on deck climax that satisfies.  Artists Eduardo Ferigato and Marcelo Costa also do a good job realizing the human drama, and the superhero action is generally solid even if there are parts where style trumps clarity.

So yeah, it’s a decent enough conclusion to “Radiant Black’s” first major event storyline.  In addition to pushing the story of the main characters forward and leaves things in a different place than when it started.  Which is something that you can’t say about a lot of other events from the Big Two.  I do wish that the actual storytelling had more twists and surprises to it, but what’s here is still enough to keep me on board with this title to see where it goes now that Earth has been saved.  For now.