Hey everyone! Kyle here, coming to you from LA on my last day in LA until 2025. Actually, at the exact time this posts, my girlfriend and I will be trying to wrangle our cat into an Uber to head to the airport to fly back to Chicago for a nice, extended break. (I mean, realistically, I’ll still be working the whole time but at least I’ll be surrounded by family, Real Weather, Christmas lights and (bad) Bears football :)

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind as we work to finish up the year, but the highlights have included a wonderful trip to Columbus, Ohio for Galaxy Con, locking down a whole bunch of our exciting 2025 plans and an ultra quick stop in Chicago to throw my mom a surprise birthday party for her 70th.

But now, as we get close to closing out 2024, that means we’re even closer to February’s Radiant Black #31 hitting stands, which kicks off what we’re calling our Rebuild era. I’ve mentioned this “Rebuild” idea for Radiant Black in previous newsletters but it actually applies to The Massive-Verse as a whole— TLDR; next year, our books are returning to stores with new jumping on points, on time and monthly.

Today, we’re going to give you a first look at the big, bold new jumping on point for Rogue Sun, all of our March covers for Radiant Black #32 (including a stunner from some guy named Jock), a tease about what you can expect from us in January as we work to get the word out to retailers and readers, and we’re also going to debut some sick new Moon Man covers.

First up though, let’s talk about that big sale we’ve got going on!

Shop The Massive-Verse Holiday Sale

As The Massive-Verse gets ready for a new era in 2025, I wanted to take a second to highlight some of what we’ve done over the last four years by way of our Massive-Verse Holiday Sale, which features all of our volume one trade paperbacks at 25% off as well as our blacklight issues and our in-stock CGC editions.

Is there a series you’ve been thinking about trying out? Were you waiting to read NO/ONE in a format that included all of its multimedia? Have those Radiant Black(light) issues been calling to you? Do you have a friend who loves superheroes but is burnt out on the same old stuff and you want to get ‘em hooked on something new? We’ve got you covered!

We’ve been running this sale since the beginning of December and while we originally intended to wrap it up on December 14th, we’ve decided to keep it going through the end of the year. As our 2025 plans have firmed up, it was important to me that we give everyone an opportunity to jump into what’s become a robust back catalogue… before we push the storytelling boundaries even further in 2025 :)

Plus, this sale also features a very special version of Radiant Black volume 1, which you can usually only get from me in person— all copies of Radiant Black volume one purchased as a part of the sale come signed in the Secret Radiant Signature and also include a Radiant Blacklight so you can show off the UV epicness anytime you want :)

The sale runs through December 31— feel free to head over to the storefront to see if anything strikes a chord!

Shop The Massive-Verse Holiday Sale

The Rebuild Starts Here

I’ve touched on this in prior newsletters, but 2024 was a challenging year. We stretched ourselves razor thin on several (very) ambitious projects, I spent six weeks in a locked out brace after another big cartilage transplant and almost everyone on the team had at least one big, unexpected “life punch” completely lay them out.

We did our best, but unfortunately, our best meant that our books did not release on a consistent schedule. As much as the delays killed you guys, they killed us even more.

Which is why we’ve been working behind the scenes for the last several months to get ourselves in shape to come back with a bang.

There are a lot of really awesome comic books being produced right now, from a lot of awesome creators and more publishers than I can keep track of. It’s a crowded landscape and while we’ve always prided ourselves on accessibility—every book in the line is its own thing and you only need to read the titles you’re interested in—now, as we enter year five, that’s more important than ever.

This February’s Radiant Black #31 kicks off a new era for the title as well as The Massive-Verse. We’re referring to it as our “Rebuild” era because in addition to new jumping on points for both Radiant Black and Rogue Sun (as well as next year’s Inferno Girl Red: Book Two), we’ll also be rolling out a host of initiatives designed to help raise awareness amongst readers and retailers, new and old.

New trailers, creator interviews, livestreams, podcast appearances, super cool incentive variants (more on those in a sec), recap specials and house ads—like the ones above—are just a few of the things we have in the works.

We’ll be anchoring each month with something special— in February, it’s Radiant Black #31. Here’s what I said about it in last month’s newsletter:

Marshall enters a new era as the permanent RB, coming out of the Catalyst War and the fan vote. And, having seen a timeline where everything went wrong, he’s determined to make the most of his second chance and become a hero that people can be proud of.

He’s moved to the city, found an apartment and a roommate and is working to help Chicago recover from the robot invasion—but he’s not the only player coming out of the war with something to prove. As futuristic weapons and blame spread faster than recovery efforts, Marshall is faced with enemies old and new all looking to make a name for themselves in this divided Chicago.

Marshall may want to level up, but first he’ll need to keep the bottom from falling out.

The war is over. Radiant Black Rebuild starts here.

I’m excited to report that Radiant Black #31 is finished and just about ready to go out the door, to be followed up by Radiant Black #32 in March, issue #33 in April, #34 in May and so on.

Wanna see a little sneak peek?

God, I love this team.

MASSIVE-VERSE MARCH

Okay, so! February is Radiant Black and Marshall trying to figure out this new world and his place in it. Great! But I said we were looking to anchor each month with something special. What do we have planned for March? Well, funny you should ask. Because this March is all about reigniting the fire.

Rogue Sun #25 - March 12

ROGUE SUN #25
STORY: RYAN PARROTT
ART: ABEL
COVER A: STEFANO SIMEONE
COVER B (1:25): MARCELO COSTA

NEW STORY ARC - PERFECT JUMPING ON POINT!

A NEW ROGUE SUN RISES! For the past year, Dylan has defended New Orleans as the one and only Rogue Sun. Now, his half-sister Aurie has joined him - but how? And why? And what new enemy is so terrifying they'll need two Rogue Suns to defeat them?

A new chapter of Rogue Sun begins in this perfect jumping on point for new readers!

Ryan Parrott, Nick Cotton, Abel, Natalia Marques and Becca Carey are all back to usher in the next chapter of our favorite bully-turned-superhero’s adventures, just as everything in Dylan’s life is about to be turned upside down.

Radiant Black may have kicked off the line, but Rogue Sun is what made it a universe. Featuring some of the sharpest superhero writing centered on the complicated relationships between a teenager with trust issues and his divorced parents—both of whom have done quite the number on him thanks to their own fascinating places in the superhero and supervillain landscape—the previous two years of Rogue Sun have built a fantastic tapestry of characters, villains and mythology as 17-year-old Dylan Siegel has worked to carve a path for himself and prove everyone who has doubted him, wrong.

But what Dylan has faced over the course of the last twenty four issues pales in comparison to the physical and emotional challenges that await him, including what it means to have a hot-and-cold half sister who is about to become his equal and may not think Dylan should have ever been trusted with the Rogue Sun responsibility in the first place.

Family, am I right?

We’re also going to be celebrating our superhero roots with the return of our 1:25 variant covers. Every month, in addition to our open to order A cover, we’ll also be joined by Radiant Black’s own Marcelo Costa for a special 1:25 retro B cover designed after some of the greatest superhero covers of all time.

Radiant Black #32 - March 26

RADIANT BLACK #32
STORY: KYLE HIGGINS & JOE CLARK
ART/COVER A: EDUARDO FERIGATO
COVER B (connecting): RICCARDO ROBALDO
COVER C (1:25 foil): JOCK

A bold new era of Radiant Black continues! As Marshall struggles to balance being Radiant Black and having a personal life, a new threat rises from the wreckage of the Catalyst War! And if that wasn't bad enough... is something even more sinister lurking in the shadows?

I know, we’re being intentionally vague in that description. But honestly, we can’t tell you pretty much anything about what Marshall is dealing with beyond the above without completely spoiling the surprises in issue 31. I promise— I’m doing this for your own good! :)

Okay, the one thing I can say… is that the world is a whole lot more complicated after The Catalyst War and no one—including us—has forgotten what happened during it. As you can probably guess from that giant Colossal carcass that construction crews are still trying to dismantle, despite being a bold new era, the ripple effects of The Catalyst War will continue to be felt.

Oh, and we’re also continuing our variant cover initiative, with our open to order B cover featuring part 2 of Riccardo Robaldo’s connecting set:

And then of course, we have our 1:25 incentive foil. This month, one of my favorite people in comics was kind enough to lend his talents. That’s right, we have our first ever Radiant Black cover by the one and only Jock:

Pretty sick, right? This one is going to explode off the foil.

MOON MAN MARCH

Moon Man #8 - March 5

MOON MAN #8
STORY: SCOTT MESCUDI, KYLE HIGGINS & JOE CLARK
ART/COVER A: MARCO LOCATI
COVER B: EDUARDO FERIGATO
COVER C: TOM WHALEN

His identity revealed to the world, Ramon tries to chart a new path—but Janus have plans for the Moon Man, and they won’t let him go without a fight.

Moving out of The Massive-Verse but— as I like to think of it— traveling to the universe next door, March also sees the return of Marco Locati and the present day story in Moon Man #8 as Ramon deals with the fall out of going public against Janus.

Now, this issue was originally solicited for February, but it’s actually going to hit stands the first week of March. And today, we’re excited to showcase our stunning B cover by Radiant Black’s own Eduardo Ferigato.

NO/ONE Classified Edition Update

One last thing I want to touch on real quick before I head off to finish packing for our flight—we were hoping to be able to ship out the NO/ONE Classified Edition in time for Christmas, but unfortunately, it’s going to be a touch longer. Without boring everyone with technical stuff, we had a printing issue with the additional material and rather than send something out that we didn’t love, we’ve opted to make sure we get it finished right. I’ll have an update for everyone in our next newsletter, but we’re planning to start shipping these out to everyone just after Christmas.

I promise, it’ll be worth the wait!

Okay, that’s going to do it for me! I may try to get one more newsletter put together before the end of the year but in case I don’t, happy holidays from all of us at Black Market Narrative! Thank you all so much for your support and enthusiasm and we can’t wait to hit the ground running with you in 2025!

Stay Radiant!

Kyle
Los Angeles, CA