Kyle Higgins and company are building comics future with the Massive-Verse

Not many readers look outside their windows and see the golden towers of Metropolis, or the gritty gutters of Gotham City.  With decades of canon and lore, the universes of superhero comics can often feel starkly different from the the real world. However, if you’re from Lockport, Illinois, you’ll see some familiar streets in the pages of Radiant Black.

Set in the hometown of series writer/creator Kyle Higgins, the story sees protagonists Marshall and Nathan walking down the street and visiting real-world locations in the pages of the comic. Black Market Narrative, the creative collective behind the Massive-Verse, even held a party in a building that played a significant role in issue #4.

“It’s like being at Disneyland,” said Massive-Verse co-editor Michael Busuttil on the first time he saw the town in person. “I didn’t quite understand how much we were actually doing the real Lockport.”

Transmedia storytelling, or multiplatform storytelling, tells a single story across multiple platforms or formats. For Higgins, it can be used to create new experiences for a reader. In his 2014 series, C.O.W.L. (itself based on a 2008 short film he co-wrote and directed), Higgins incorporated transmedia elements like ads for a real-life album set in the comic universe. Or, an entire issue styled like an in-universe comic book to help engage with readers

Courtesy of Image Comics.

Issues of Radiant Black are often accompanied by tweets in real-time from accounts like @radiantblk and @CircleGuyNews to highlight events and even ads seen in the books. There has been an animated short film based on a film production from issue #15, and real-life bath bombs designed by Radiant Black himself. That’s not to mention the score created or the alphabet developed for the series.

“It’s the idea of creating experiences, especially in kind of day and age, when I feel like there’s certainly a lack of magic in the world,” said Higgins. “It’s just very creatively fun and fulfilling.”

The entire Massive-Verse has this transmedia and reality blending techniques at its core. Higgins said a cornerstone with all the books, including Radiant Black, Radiant Red and Radiant Pink, Inferno Girl Red, Rogue Sun, and The Dead Lucky, is finding a way to make the stories, no matter how fantastical, still feel grounded in a world reflective of our own.

“I do think everybody has a sort of similar approach. These books should feel like they exist in the world,” he said. “And that world can be our world or it can be slightly removed from our world, but the places should feel real.”

Higgins and Busuttil said the transmedia elements across the Massive-Verse help reaffirm that belief. It’s not just about setting a book in a real place like New York but making the stories feel like they exist in a world outside your window.

Courtesy of Image Comics.

“I think like where a lot of the relatability comes from with our books,” said Higgins. “The way that we are touching on things that are happening and existing in the world that is fairly similar to the one we’re currently living in.”

The latest Massive-Verse book, No/One, takes what Higgins has been doing with his books since his early days and infuses it into the series’s DNA.

No/One (written by himself and Brian Buccellato with art by Geraldo Borges) has multiplatform storytelling at its core. The comic features an in-universe podcast, newspaper articles, websites, and data drops scattered across the web, all aimed at telling a story that expands outside the gutters of the comic book page. Higgins describes the series as an “experience.”

“I wanted to do something in the Massive-Verse that was more of a kind of contemporary urban vigilante story,” said Higgins. “And at the same time, I felt very passionate that there had to be a different angle on it.”

Alongside issue #1, episode one of Who is No/One with Julia Paige was also released. Hosted by Julia Page (voiced by Rachael Leigh Cook), a reporter for the Pittsburgh Ledger who appears in the comic, the podcast acts like an in-universe Serial, going in depth into the mystery behind No/One. The podcast isn’t so much a companion piece as it is a continuation of the story.

Courtesy of Image Comics.

“The podcast is not just this like an audiobook of the comic, it’s a second chunk of story that comes in between each issue that expands, says different themes, does different things in a totally different way,” said Busuttil “It’s almost like the book is shipping twice a month.”

The story centers on the social and political unrest following the murders of a few Pittsburgh’s elites, all related to the vigilante No/One. It’s a superhero story, but it’s also a story of civil unrest, the importance of journalistic integrity, and the public hunger for solving true crime murders, all grounded in a world reflecting our own. The first issue garnered a positive reception.

So, what’s it all for? The extra work coordinating in-universe dates for No/One, the short film directing, the data drops — what does it create for readers?

A community.

“We all love comics as a medium, but it’s also 2023, and comics, while still being comics, I think can also be a lot more fun with regards to how they interface with the rest of the media landscape, as well as our own collective fandoms,” said Higgins.

Radiant Black has spawned an engaged fanbase, often sending issues back for second printings. There is also an active Discord server discussing the series and lore.

“I love letters, columns. And so that was something that was important to me to try to build,” said Higgins. “From very early on in building this I was pretty clear that I really wanted to try to build a community. That is something that I think is incredibly special.”

Courtesy of Black Market Narrative.

Higgins said it’s incredibly special as someone who grew up in the early days of internet message boards to watch vocal and passionate fans discuss something he helped create. He also notes the incredible amount of work required to keep have so many books out every month.

However, Higgins and Busuttil don’t see the work they’re doing as something extra. They see the gatefold foldout transformation pages (Supermassive #1), the short films, and all the additional work they’re putting in to create something new as a responsibility. 

“I think it is almost an obligation that we do as much cool stuff as possible,” said Busuttil. 

While it’s certainly cool, it’s also changing the way readers interact with the comic book universes. 

Readers are often coming into stories featuring characters who have been around for close to a century. It can be a challenge for some of these universe to feel truly modern. While the characters and their arcs can speak to readers about the issues of their times, the cities and worlds they inhabit can feel disconnected from the reality outside a readers window. 

The Massive-Verses approach gives readers an opportunity to engage with stories that feel more real, more tactile. Higgins and Black Market Narrative are making a comic book world more reflective of the world readers live in. 

“The thing that I think really fuels us more than anything else is we all like telling stories that are outside the box or telling stories in new and different ways.”

With No/One #1 sold out, and a second printing on the way, plus Radiant Black‘s Catalyst War looming on the horizon, Higgins and Busuttil are excited about the future of the Massive-Verse. Namely, giving readers new and exciting ways for readers to experience the worlds and stories they are creating.