Review – Radiant Black #5
Review – Radiant Black #5
Writer: Kyle Higgins
Artist: Marcelo Costa
Colourist: Rod Fernandes
Letterer: Becca Carey
Editor: Michael Busuttil
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: June 16, 2021
Variant Covers: Diego Greco, Serg Acuña and Doaly
Synopsis
On the last Radiant Black…
The first arc of RADIANT BLACK ends here! Radiant Red is still out there. He needs to be stopped before anyone else gets hurt. But after the events of the last issue left Lockport—and the world—reeling, is Radiant Black up to the task? And will he be in this fight alone?
Writer: Kyle Higgins (contains spoilers)
Poor Marshall, the issue starts with him watching a paramedic attempting to bring Nathan back to life, he’s now Radiant Black, and the world is blaming him for the disaster. Thankfully, with a little adrenaline, they get Nathan breathing again, but with no oxygen for six minutes what brain damage has he sustained?
Marshall feels all the guilt possible for Nathan’s heroic actions and sets out to track down and deal with Radiant Red as soon as possible. He finds them back in the scrapyard in Chicago from a few issues again and goes to town on them. He quickly gets the upper hand and throws Red into the frozen lake. Thinking the battle is over he relaxes until a stronger “Hulkbuster” version of Red busts out the ice after bulking up absorbing the matter of the water. Marshall’s had enough though and lets all of his emotions spill over and tears the armour apart with energy beams. Underneath the armour, a frightened girl pleads that she was only going to frighten Nathan and it got out of hand.
An explosive teleport brings us Radiant Yellow and Pink through fleeing from …?
Higgins closes the first arc off with a stellar issue, allowing Marshall the goofy clown to become marshall the Hero (resplendent with energy cape) and as he’s now fully bonded with Existence he has more access to tap into the powers quicker allowing quick defeat of Red.
ART: MARCELLO COSTA/BECCA CAREY/ROD FERNANDES
I’m not sure what I can add to the previous reviews of this creative team. This issue allows them to play with the costumes, powers and abilities of both Red and Black as well as the new Yellow and Pink. It does look a little MMPR at the moment and I’m hoping we will get a clone of them out of this. the new threat is just similar and different enough to link to the alien genealogy.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Finding a new arc to the superhero genre in 2021 is hard, but Higgins has really tapped into something here. Focussing more on the underdog Nathan’s tale allowed readers to bond quickly creating a strong link similar to the black hole armour he wears. To then almost kill and wipe the board clean with one issue to go in the first arc is gutsy and he’s pulled it off.
[yasr_multiset setid=1]
[yasr_visitor_multiset setid=1]
Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS
Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE
If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE
