Radiant Black is equal parts relatable and action packed in this first volume that introduces the characters and sets up an impending large-scale conflict in its future issues.

The book’s main character, Nathan, is an aspiring writer who is forced to move back to his parent’s home and while conversing with his friend Marshall, reveals that he is in severe debt due to unknown reasons. After an evening hitting the sauce, they come across what appears to be a miniature black hole near a train station. Nathan touches it and is enveloped in a slick black and blue suit which bestows upon him enhanced strength, the power to control gravity and flight. After an altercation with the local police results in Nathan using his powers for the first time, the cops discover his identity and encourage him to use his new gifts for the greater good i.e., stopping criminals. Elsewhere, a Red Radiant is using their powers to rob banks and after discovering this, Nathan wishes to meet with them to learn about his powers, thus setting up the conflicts between the protagonist and antagonist in this first arc. Later on, Nathan begins to communicate with a large robotic being that is linked to his powers, who warns him that an impending disaster is headed towards Earth and that Nathan must be prepared to do what is necessary for survival. The final issue focuses on the origin of the Red Radiant and what motivated them to rob banks in the first place.

Certain parts of this story can be relatable to readers in today’s time. Paying off debt and living with your parents is much more commonplace than decades prior and the fact that Nathan struggles with his writing career and has to work as a taxi driver can garner him some sympathy from readers going through the same thing as many people face a similar struggle in their own jobs and doing whatever it takes to keep the lights on.
Nathan is a character that doubts himself and struggles to write his own novel. We don’t get much of his story prior to the first issue, but we can gather that he has made many mistakes and squandered multiple opportunities, both in his professional and personal life, which adds to his relatability. He initially doesn’t want to drive people around as he assumes that he won’t make much money from doing so, but after discovering the existence of the Red Radiant, he takes some advice his father gave him to heart and does just that, which eventually leads him to his quarry and simultaneously earns him a good bit of cash for putting some effort into his job. He’s also got a good moral compass when tempted by the ill-gotten gains that the Red Radiant leaves behind, choosing to go with the morally right option after their first scuffle. Overall, Nathan is a good character with no outstanding downsides to him.

Marshall is, for the most part, helpful towards Nathan when it comes to dealing with superheroic matters, like coming up with the name Radiant Black or aiding the latter in discovering what kinds of powers he has. He genuinely cares for his friend and Marshall’s behavior after the second conflict between the two Radiants illustrates just how much Nathan means to him as a friend and shows what lengths he’d go in order to protect him. He also has the occasional moment of comic relief, either because of not using various words properly, making a joke or due to being drunk. Marshall also uses his head to come up with various ideas, like creating a Twitter account to help control Radiant Black’s story or angering Nathan to help him unleash powerful energy blasts and encourages him to do more with his powers. Marshall is useful for giving Nathan direction and his humor helps to make him likeable.

The Red Radiant is the villain of this first volume and initially comes off as cold, brutal and aggressive, though their backstory depicts them in a different light as we see how they received their powers and the big issue that they are forced to deal with in their civilian life. The character gains some sympathy just like the protagonist due to dealing with said problem, similar to Nathan. The Red Radiant shows off the above traits during the encounters they have with Radiant Black, immediately attacking him after the latter mentions the police potentially finding them and threatening Nathan during their second bout. They depict themselves as someone not to be trifled with and their actions prove that fact.

Other characters have small roles within this story. The policemen at the beginning encourage Nathan to catch crooks, his father advises him that working hard at any job will yield rewards and the giant robot that Nathan communicates with warns him of impending doom and helps another character in finding the location of Radiant Red. The roles they play all contribute to moving the story forward and giving Nathan a motive and an idea to use later on, while the robot foreshadows the next story arc.

Most of the book is your standard beginner hero plot as Nathan experiences his origin story, has his first encounters with a villain, learns what he can do with his powers and helps out however he can while dealing with his own problems. The book takes an unexpected turn at the end of the fourth issue, shakes thing up in a way I didn’t see coming by introducing new characters at the end, giving Marshall an important and emotional motivation and leaving things on a cliffhanger. The origin story part also applies to the last issue for Red Radiant. There are plenty of questions that are left unanswered by the time you flip past the final page and seeking the answers for those queries helps to convince you into buying the upcoming second volume.

The artwork is expressive and colorful. Characters easily convey what emotion that they feel on every panel, whether that be fear, anger, worry or happiness. Every page has colors that fit with the scene that is currently going on, with bright colors being heavily used over more dull colors resulting in the art popping off of the page and your eyes being treated to a visual feast. The best instances of the art is seen during the battles between the two Radiant characters as their powers are colored in red, blue, black and white, all of which combine with the slick character designs to create incredible visuals that showcase just how powerful they are as they unleash various energy blasts and punches on each other, with the standout instance of their fighting occurring as Radiant Black lands blow after blow on Red Radiant as they fly over a highway at nighttime. Another phenomenal page is when Nathan first meets the giant robot that is linked to his powers. The meeting occurs in Nathan’s mind, with destroyed planets in the background. The colors help to make this part seem as surreal as possible and the design of the robot conveys that it is a powerful and mysterious cosmic entity as it towers over Nathan. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and deserves any and all praise it gets.

Something to take note of is the language that Nathan’s new powers come with as this alien tongue is gradually embedded into his head and he begins to understand what each word means thanks to the aforementioned robot. This language sometimes pops up in regular speech balloons, when the robot communicates with Nathan and whenever Nathan transforms into Radiant Black. It’s sometimes used to censor swear words and most other instances use it to keep things mysterious. There’s a letter chart at the back of the book that allows you to decipher what characters are saying once you’ve finished reading. It’s interesting to see what characters were saying during certain scenes, but it isn’t used too often and many of the words repeat.

Radiant Black Volume One is a wonderful beginning of a new comic series. Its story is bolstered by the relatability of the main character and the sublime artwork. This is a complete joy to read and I can’t wait for Volume Two. more

My review exceeded the character limit here, so I've placed it on a Google Drive link that anyone can look at. It's in a Word document called "MY COMIC REVIEWS". Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15IDCyZo0JEjw6inxSaNFjf-sEJZpLQ3T?usp=sharing

The first volume of Nocterra is an excellent mix of fast paced action, incredible world building and a great story complemented by equally great art.

For ten years, darkness has enveloped the Earth and anyone caught within it for a prolonged period gradually turns into monsters known as shades. Protagonist Valentina Riggs works as a ferryman who escorts people to brightly lit safe zones for a price. Val is concerned about her brother Emory showing signs of shade transformation and after outside circumstances cut her off from a remedy for her ailing brother's condition, she is forced to accept an offer from Bailey, a young girl, and Augustus, her grandfather, who promise to take the Riggs siblings to a sanctuary with a light source that can potentially reverse Emory's transformation. Things get dicey when a mercenary named Blacktop Bill begins to pursue them, with his targets being the passengers that Val is escorting.

This story is well paced and fluctuates between action sequences and character interactions very well, with revelations and plot developments regarding some of the characters bringing up various questions that make me excited to read the answers for them. Each chapter begins with Val recounting what she was doing when the darkness came and that memory tying into whatever situation the present day version of her is currently in. It helps develop backstory for her and Emory while simultaneously showing how everything when wrong in their lives and building the world's history and lore through her dialogue.

Val is depicted as a hardened veteran of her trade, capable in the areas of driving, combat, hunting and setting traps. She's intelligent and uses whatever tools she has to get out of sticky situations and being the older sibling, looks out for her little brother and has a soft spot for him and eventually, for Bailey as well. She's usually a serious character due to having been only a child when the darkness came, forcing her to step up and protect Emory from various threats, leaving her with horrific memories as an adult that haunt her. She also has no use for concepts like faith, but over the course of the story, she becomes more accepting of said concept through her journey with Bailey and Emory at her side. Emory is the inventor who supplies Val with gadgets used to ward off shades. He's the more hopeful one of the two and wants to do more to solve the darkness crisis besides fixing up equipment used to protect his sister. He doesn't get much time to shine during the middle part of the story due to his sickness putting him out of commission, but he does make himself useful before and after he's forced to rest. Bailey is also hopeful, having initially been promised by her grandfather that they would bring back light back to the world. Even after that promise becomes impossible to fulfill, she still has hope that whatever plan her grandfather has will work and believes in light somehow returning. Having lost both her parents, she hates being alone and her positive attitude allows her to form a bond with Val, who lets her join their convoy.

Blacktop Bill comes off as a cruel and sadistic murderer who enjoys the thrill of hunting his targets and killing them in the ways he deems the most brutal. Seeing him burn someone alive by simply touching them, attempting to kill Hailey via impalement with a harpoon gun and tying a victim to his car to force them to become a shade cemented him as a man you would not want to come face-to-face with in a dark alley. The way he casually talked to Val as he recalled how he shot his prey in order to see them struggle to live as a form of perverse amusement, asking a severely wounded person where an object before killing them and making a joke about his victim's screaming as they transformed into a shade help to highlight the insanity that this character is afflicted with and that he doesn't care about anyone's life, only on achieving whatever objective he currently has in mind. It was enjoyable to see how twisted and malevolent Bill could be and with the final page teasing that he's getting a major upgrade for the next story arc, his next appearance will be beyond entertaining to see.

The artwork paints a very bleak and hellish world. Nearly everyone wears some equipment that emits light to both ward of shades and to prevent them from transforming. Multiple colors are used to varying degrees, with darker shades being more prominently featured over lighter ones to match the setting of the story. Bright colors are mostly used to depict areas or objects that are lit on order to ward off shades. Val's outfit looks practical and appropriate for surviving encounters with hostile shades out on the road, with gun holsters, equipment pouches and an LED mask all signaling that she's not going down easy when she's attacked. Her truck is also appropriately outfitted with powerful headlights at the front and smaller lights along its container that passengers sit in. Everything that characters use in this world is very utilitarian and crucial to surviving out in the dark. Various species of shade animals seen in this first arc all look like grotesque abominations ready to tear the flesh off of their prey at any given moment. Humanoid bats, mutated dogs and shadefish and headless human bodies with their faces pressing against their skin from the inside à la Freddy Kreuger comprise of the local wildlife out to kill people in this world and their designs all reflect that.

Blacktop Bill is a special case as he doesn't have much to speak of design wise. His body is completely covered in black, save for his mouth, which is usually seen in the form of a demonic grin similar to The Joker. It helps to add mystique to his character and not being able to see anything human about him except for that demented smile adds to Bill's inhumanity and it works well for him. He also drives what looks like a Batmobile with LED lights on the wheels and it has a harpoon gun used to impale and kill targets. Given that he looks a bit like The Batman Who Laughs, it's very fitting for him.

Nocterra Volume One is great start to this series as the first arc hits the ground running and doesn't let up on the gas. With a sadistic animal for a villain, compelling characters, superb art, amazing action sequences and many interesting questions that have yet to be answered, this book definitely deserves to be on your pull list. more

The Silver Coin is a wonderfully dark book that tells one-shots stories well while also enhancing the experience when noticing how each story is connected.

The plot for the series is a cursed silver coin that brings about terrible fates for any that are in possession of it routinely does so for every issue of this first volume. Each story is, for the most part, self contained, but gradually reveals a larger narrative as you read through each chapter, with connections being made to previous issues when you take notice of certain characters and locations. This serves to highlight that the titular medallion of misfortune has a long history and you gradually begin to understand how and why certain things related to the coin happen after reading the final issue.

The first issue sees Ryan, the leader of his rock band Running Red, finding the coin among his mother's possessions and using it to help his group try to hit the big time, only for his focus on succeeding through any means to cost him in the end. The second issues sees a young girl, Fiona, being repeatedly harassed by her bunkmates at camp, culminating in her finding the cursed coin and her tormentors paying a steep price for their harassment of her. The middle chapter sees Lisa and her two friends acquiring the coin in a robbery gone wrong, only for an unseen force to begin communicating with her and commanding her to return the coin to her. After a chase with local police ends poorly for the protagonist and friends and a bit of bloodshed later, the coin is returned and Lisa gets her due "compensation". The penultimate issue sees a street gang being hunted by a police officer and one of the gang members, Bragie, finding the coin and turning the tables against her pursuer. The final chapter serves as an origin story for the coin, where Rebekah, a witch who can cast demonic magic, is betrayed by her friend Martha to a religious witch hunter, Cotton Dudley, after the sorceress helps her friend's ailing goat. After seeing the betrayal her supposed "friend" has committed, Rebekah casts a hex on the coin Dudley gave Martha, which he said could absolve Martha of her sins. The end result is both Martha and Dudley getting their comeuppance for their respective crimes: Martha for her betrayal and Dudley for being a religious zealot and abusing his status to punish innocents.

Each individual story has three aspects that are related to the coin: a crow is never far behind the coin and acts as a sort of guardian/keeper over it, women can be taken control of and men cannot be controlled and bloodshed is inevitable whenever someone comes across the cursed item. These aspects initially don't seem to make much sense (with exception to the bloodshed bit since it makes sense that a curse would warrant it), but after reading through the book, you start to see how everything is connected through the hex cast upon the coin and the caster herself. The origin for all of this misfortune is a great blend of both horror and vengeance and realizing how everything ties together and how each story has some connection to other issues in this series feels great to gradually learn about through reading. Seeing the artifact travel from the possession of one person to next is also interesting to read through.

Each individual story also holds up on its own. Characters exclusive to their respective issues don't have much characterization, but that can be easily overlooked when focusing on how their singular story fits into the larger narrative that the artifact weaves throughout time and what the coin will bring them in their near futures.

The artwork also enhances the horror on display. Most of the colors consist of dark blues and purples being used for almost every part of the pages, with red being relegated to blood being shed and fires being spread. Black is also used heavily to convey the dark tone of the stories here, with it mainly being used to show the silhouettes of characters cloaked in the shadows, alongside hiding parts of their faces, which adds to the creepiness of the book. The book isn't afraid to show off the violence that the characters are subject to, with the mutilation being accompanied by appropriate amount of blood, with injuries on characters looking gory and painful to be on the receiving end of. The way characters are drawn works well and makes each issue memorable and stand out in their own way. The demented happiness that is displayed on Fiona's face, the wiring seen in the police officer's eyes after he suffers a fatal injury, the terror displayed by Ryan and how the goat changed after Rebekah curses Martha are all standout moments in the book. Overall, the artwork is appropriate for the series, is very well done and helps to make each issue distinguishable thanks to one standout panel or page that comes along whenever things go to hell thanks to the coin.

The Silver Coin may initially come off as a series of one-shots that feature the titular item and the trouble that follows in its wake, but underneath that notion is a smartly written story that has a much bigger picture which the single issues are only a small part of and that can only be revealed by reading more of it. Seeing just what terrible fate the coin brings down on any poor souls that come upon it will be fun to witness. Come for the horror and stay for it, the inevitable violence and how each new issue ties into the previous entries. more