Review – Radiant Black #3
Review – Radiant Black #3
Writer: Kyle Higgins
Artist: Marcello Costa
Letters By: Becca Carey
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: April 2021, TPB due in August
SYNOPSIS
Check out our review to issue 2 here.
Okay, that’s it. Nathan’s getting down to business today: he’s finally working on his novel. All he needs is some solitary writing time-no “helpful” parents, no superhero social media, and definitely, no alien voices beaming an unintelligible language into his brain. That’s not too much to ask for, right?
WRITER: KYLE HIGGINS
Higgins is using this issue for a little bit of catharsis here, with the classic writer’s block on full display for all to see. Nathan started writing a story 4 years ago about a bank teller turned robber and has been stuck on the same goddam sentence for years.
Throwing two full pages of text at readers who expect images is a bold and confident way to set your issue apart.
Nice little distractions like his mum, social media and even his alarm to remind him to write all show the passage of time without the sentence or story moving forward. After aliens been the word radiant into his mind he sets off to see his friend Marshall who works in a VHS/DVD rental place.
The arc of the issue finished quite nicely with nothing and everything changing with Nathan and his story. He finally realises he is the character in his story and he needs to change his motivation to move forward after helping people rather than himself.
ARTIST: MARCELLO COSTA
Costa has both a lot to do and in the same breath not that much in this issue. With lots of space given over to the novel and the novel development, he needs to dig deep in his artist’s bag to pull out the amazing subtle changes he draws from panel to panel which add all the needed pathos and irony this story needs. Nathan’s internal debate with himself is split up by panels creating a mirror effect of call and answer.
I can only imagine the conversation between Higgins and Costa for this issue, so about a third of the book is text only so I need you to squeeze every inch of the page to make it work.
Overall Thoughts
It’s incredible how they use an issue where nothing really happens but you feel fulfilled at the end of the issue. This will frustrate some of the action junkies that comics attract but this works well, slowly drawing the story arc forward with real-life stupid situations and banal conversations all of which make up a large chunk of all of our lives.
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