Radiant Black is Taking Its Tokusatsu Action to Audiobooks

Since it debuted back in 2021, Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa’s Radiant Black has become one of Image Comics’ biggest books. Now that it’s got an entire universe of its own full of equally colorful characters headling their own books, it’s just a question of what’s next for the series that started it all. The answer to that is to bring in new fans by taking it to a new format.

During the C2E2 panel for the Massive-Verse, Higgins revealed the series’ first six issues are getting brought over to audiobook format. He’ll be writing and directing the first volume in what’s expected to be a series of adaptations from Image and Higgins’ Black Market Collective imprint. And here’s something fun for 90s heads: the two leads, Nathan Burnett and Marshall Ward, are being respectively voiced by Boy Meets World alums Rider Strong and Will Friedle.

Friedle previously voiced Marshall in a Radiant Black short film in 2022, and he was excited to come back to reprise the role another time. As for Strong, he said joining the audiobook was easy once he learned how focused on Nathan and Marshall’s journey it’d be. In the video, they’re both a tad competitive about which one of them is the real Radiant Black, which is just as well, since that conflict is still playing out across two timelines in the comics.

“We love finding new ways to connect with readers and audiences,” added Higgins, “especially in mediums that can help us bring a new level of immersion to Radiant Black and the Massive-Verse. As a director, a former sound editor, and an all-around huge audio nerd, the idea of building Radiant Black with a full voice cast and taking advantage of all the possibilities that an audio book affords has made this one of the most exciting projects that I’ve ever been a part of. And just wait until you see the rest of this cast!”

Black Market said to expect the Radiant Black: Volume One audiobook later this year. The rest of its reveals at C2E2, including a collection for the first dozen Radiant Black issues, can be seen here.

[via ComicBook]

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