Massive-Verse Reading Order (Image Comics)

It all started with Radiant Black. Written by Kyle Higgins and drawn by Marcelo Costa, Radiant Black is a comic book series published by Image Comics since 2021. Its success would launch a whole universe, known as the Massive-Verse! Today, we are here to write about this Superhero universe inspired by the Power Rangers!

What is the Massive-Verse?

The Massive-Verse is a shared universe of superhero stories that started with Radiant Black. The story introduced us to Nathan Burnett, a struggling writer who, after drinking with a friend, discovers a miniature black hole that gives him powers and a black-and-white costume! Now, Nathan must learn to use his new powers as the superhero Radiant Black while also learning about the mysteries surrounding the object that gave him his powers.

Black Radiant is the main series of the Massive-Verse that has expanded with several spin-off titles: Rogue Sun by Ryan Parrott, The Dead Lucky by Melissa Flores, Inferno Girl Red by Matt Groom, NO/ONE by Kyle Higgins and Brian Buccellato, Radiant Red by Cherish Chen, Radiant Pink by Meghan Camarena and Melissa Flores.

What to read before Radiant Black?

Before Radiant Black, Kyle Higgins & Alec Sigel wrote C.OW.L., about the world’s first Super-Hero Labor Union named the “Chicago Organized Workers League” or C.O.W.L. , set in Chicago during the 1960s. The series has been retroactively added to the Massive-Verse. This is an optional read but of interest to everyone invested in this superhero universe. You also don’t have to start here, you can begin to read Radiant Black and check out C.O.W.L. a little bit later.

• C.O.W.L. Vol. 1: Principles of Power
  Collects C.O.W.L. #1-5.
• C.O.W.L. Vol. 2: The Greater Good
  Collects C.O.W.L. #7-11.

Not concluded (and not collected yet) is C.O.W.L. 1964 (#1-4), a follow-up series to C.O.W.L. set a few years later – and published 10 years later!

Massive-Verse Comics Reading Order

As stated on the Massive-Verse official website, “Every book in the Massive-Verse is completely self-contained, telling its own story with its own cast of characters.” So each series can be read separately and you can read as many or as few as you want.

This reading order is inspired by editor Michael Busuttil’s comment on Reddit and Kyle Higgins’s visual on BlueSky.

Year One.

• Radiant Black Vol. 1: (Not So) Secret Origin
  Collects Radiant Black #1–6
• Radiant Black Vol. 2: Team-Up
  Collects Radiant Black #7–12
• Inferno Girl Red Book One
  Collects Inferno Girl Red #1–3

Year Two.

• Supermassive 2022
  One-Shot. Collected in Supermassive Vol. 1: 2022-24
• Shift #1
  One shot focused on the villain of the same name originally published in the Image! Anthology Comic. Read Chapters 1-4. The Fifth Chapter is set later.
• Radiant Black Vol. 3: Rogues’ Gallery
  Collects Radiant Black #13–18
  • Radiant Red Vol. 1: Crime and Punishment
    Collects Radiant Black #6, Radiant Red #1–5. Recommended to read it alongside Radiant Black #13–18.
• Radiant Black Vol. 4: Two-In-One
  Collects Radiant Black #19–24
  • Radiant Pink Vol. 1: Across the Universe
    Collects Radiant Black #12, Radiant Pink #1-5. Recommended to read it alongside Radiant Black #19–24.
• Rogue Sun Vol. 1: Cataclysm
  Collects Rogue Sun #1–6
• Rogue Sun Vol. 2: Hellbent
  Collects Rogue Sun #7-12
• The Dead Lucky Vol. 1: The Good Die Young
  Collects The Dead Lucky #1–6

✦ Not part of the Massive-Verse but for every completionist out there, Radiant Black made a brief appearance in Free Agents (#2-4), by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, and Stephen Mooney.

Year Three

• Supermassive 2023
  One-Shot. Collected in Supermassive Vol. 1: 2022-24
• Rogue Sun Vol. 3: Knight Sun
  Collects Rogue Sun #13-18.
• The Dead Lucky Vol. 2
  Collects The Dead Lucky #7-12.
• No/One
  Collects No/One #1-10, Who is No/One Episodes 1-10 and all ancillary storytelling material. Check out the companion podcast.
• Radiant Black Vol. 5: Crisis: Catalyst War, Part One
  Collects Radiant Black #25 A and B, #26 A and B, and #27 A and B, and Shift Chapter 5.
• Radiant Black Vol. 6: The Catalyst War – Infinite Earths
  Collects Radiant Black #28-30.5 and Supermassive 2024. The latter is also collected in Supermassive Vol. 1: 2022-24
• Rogue Sun Vol. 4: Divinity
  Collects Rogue Sun #19-24

In the aftermath of the Catalyst War came the rebuild era and a new entry point to the Radiant Black Universe.

• Radiant Black Vol. 7: All-New All-Different [2025]
  Collects Radiant Black #31-36.
  • Radiant Black #33 is a stand-alone crossover with Rogue Sun (meaning you don’t have to catch up with Rogue Sun to read it).
• Rogue Sun Vol. 5: Noxious [2025]
  Collects Rogue Sun #25-29.
  • Rogue Sun #26 s a stand-alone crossover with Radiant Black.
• Rogue Sun Vol. 6: Mr. Poe [2026]
  Collects Rogue Sun #30-35.
  • Rogue Sun #30 features a crossover event with Todd McFarlane’s Medieval Spawn.

Year Four.

• Radiant Black Vol. 8: New Number One [2026]
  Collects Radiant Black #37-43.
• Inferno Girl Red Book 2 [2026]
  Collects Inferno Girl Red Book Two #1-3.

To be Continued. . .