Teen Titans Are Next Level
Radiant Black, Teen Titans and More!
Hey everyone!
Kyle here, recently returned to Los Angeles after I spent the last two weeks at my parents’ house in the Chicago suburbs. My good friend Alec Siegel, who co-created C.O.W.L., just got married! In addition to a killer ceremony and reception (there was neon bowling), it was a blast to see a host of old friends again—some of whom I literally haven’t spoken to since we graduated high school.
With a lowkey bachelor party the week before, I decided to make it a nice little summer pause back in the midwest.
Since I was on the road, I wasn’t able to get a newsletter out or hit a Massive-Verse Live, which means we haven’t been able to talk about that ending in Radiant Black #42! So today, we’re going to dive into that. How did we get here? What does it means for the book?
Plus, last week brought some other big news— we’ve got a release date and covers for Teen Titans!
Let’s get into it!
🚨That Radiant Black Ending — SPOILERS 🚨
Radiant Black #42 hit stands earlier this month and it’s been a lot of fun to watch the reaction to the big ending, including quite a bit of discourse in the Black Market discord. The book also immediately sold out at Lunar, which prompted a second printing. Now, good news— we still have copies available in our shop, plus we’re taking pre-orders for the second printing. So, if you’re looking to grab this one, we’ve got you covered. And, all copies come signed by me (unless you request otherwise).
When I started planning Radiant Black, there was a night early on where I sat down at the bar in a local pizza place that I liked to write at, ordered a beer and started breaking the shape of what would become years one, two and three. Based on that shape, I knew that one of the characters— either Nathan or Marshall— would end up with a fundamentally changed role in the book after fans voted on who the permanent Radiant Black would be.
I didn’t know the shape of what year four would look like that night, but I did write in my notebook that whichever character ended their time as Radiant Black… there could be an interesting opportunity down the line if we wanted to bring them back as a <001>-assisted character.
I grew up reading comics in the 90s. For some reason, the secondary characters were always my favorites— Nightwing, Robin, the Scarlet Spider. I remember how cool I thought it was when the Scarlet Spider started appearing in New Warriors. And then, in 2005, Ed Bruabker and Steve Epting wrote what I consider to be a seminal story for 2000s comics, introducing the Winter Soldier. His presence changed the book and in some cases, it really became more of a split lead title (especially after Steve died).
Now, we’re not going full split-lead with Radiant Black, but this book has always been about Nathan and Marshall, two millennial best friends navigating everything from generational disillusionment to crippling credit card debt and life after your dreams don’t work out. Plus, the effect that power has on people and the world.
We’ve really been focused on the latter since we’ve returned with our Rebuild arc, as “the responsibility of power” has been at the forefront of what Marshall’s story. Now, Marshall will be joined by Nathan as the fallout of the Catalyst War continues to escalate and reshape society.
How Nathan became <001>, what it means for his long term status in LA, and most importantly what’s bringing him back to Chicago, will all be the focus of our very special next issue of Radiant Black.
Radiant Black #43
At the end of the Catalyst War, Nathan Burnett moved to Los Angeles to take another swing at his writing career. So... how's that going? Rising star artist GIONA ZEFIRO (The Terminator: Metal) joins the team for an unmissable check-in with the original protagonist of RADIANT BLACK!
When we initially solicited issue 43, we did so with just the above covers. But secretly, we also asked Daniel Bayliss to make two other versions for us. Now that Nathan’s return has been revealed, we’ve finally been able to reveal our last two covers:
Preview:
Teen Titans Next Level
Last week, DC released their September 2026 solicits, which includes our debut issue of Teen Titans.
When one of their own vanishes after attending a rally for Ascend—a fast-growing youth movement training kids to survive in a world shaped by superhuman conflict—Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy, and Wildcard will do whatever it takes to find their friend, including teaming up with Red Hood!
Jason thinks they’re soft and reckless. They don’t understand how he can still kill people. Now they have to work together—whether they like it or not!
Created by Kyle Higgins and Daniele Di Nicuolo, the acclaimed team behind Power Rangers: Shattered Grid and Image Comics’ Massive-Verse, this series channels the same mix of heart, scope, and style that has defined their work together—blending cinematic storytelling and Di Nicuolo’s dynamic, expressive art to bring the next generation of heroes to life.
It was a bit of a deja vu experience last week when the solicitation dropped. As I stood in my parents’ kitchen, typing up a social post about the book, the whole thing felt eerily familiar. I realized, it was almost exactly fifteen years to the day that I was also staying at my parents house when the news of my time with another prominent former Robin was announced (New 52 Nightwing), and featured a similar post.
Coming back to DC has been a really positive experience. As a lifelong and diehard Nightwing fan, the Teen Titans have always been special to me. I also feel that they’re one of those superhero staples that every generation should have their own version of. A book that looks at what it’s like to be young in the DCU in the face of legacy expectations.
For our Teen Titans, that includes the challenges of making connections and relationships in today’s world.
We’ve got a vehicle for a host of characters—new and familiar faces—to join the book as we explore what it means to find and take your place in the world.
Of course, there’s one other big important element to the book.
In the face of legacy expectations, our kids will find an unexpected “mentor” in Red Hood. Jason’s in an interesting place at the start of our series. His relationship with the bat family is such that he’s out on his own, finding work and people to help on something of a word of mouth basis.
But when a case focused on a missing teen brings him in contact with a group of kids who have a unique connection to the Teen Titans name, Jason decides to let them help him find their friend.
And that will go about as smooth as you’d expect.
As you can probably sense from the solicit text, the push and pull between Jason and the kids is at the heart of the book. Jason’s got a certain perspective on things. The kids won’t always agree. They’re going to challenge him. And probably drive him a little crazy. But at the end of the day, he’d probably die before he’d let anything happen to them.
I think we’ve got something really special here and I can’t wait for DC to start revealing more.
For right now, I can tell you that a big part of what’s making this book so special is the art from Daniele Di Nicuolo and Marcelo Costa.
When I was first starting in comics, one of the things I dreamed about was finding collaborators who I could grow with, who it would be fun to move from world to world with.
All these years later, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to have that in people like these guys/
I mean, just look at these panels:
We’ve got a big roller coaster planned for this book with twists and turns and a ton of surprises. I can’t wait for you all to see more.
See you in September!
MASSIVE-VERSE LIVE
Since I was on the road the last two weeks, Michael took point on this week’s episode of Massive-Verse Live, hosting another Office Hours.
Office Hours: June 2026
It's the return of Massive-Verse Live: Office Hours! Join line editor and designer Michael Busuttil for about an hour of your questions and his answers!
Next stream is tonight!
→ [Monday, June 22. 6PM PST on YouTube]
The Black Market Shop
One final thing I wanted to mention. For the last few months, we’ve been working behind the scenes to integrate our Threadless store—filled with Massive-Verse t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc— directly into the the Black Market shop.
For those who don’t know, over the course of the first year or two of Radiant Black, we used to feature exclusive shirt designs for certain issues, available only until the next issue’s release. We shifted away from that for a few reasons (bandwidth being one of them) but with better integration to our storefront, we’re looking to start doing a bit more.
In the meantime, we’ve managed to get (almost) all of our prior designs listed in the Black Market shop. Feel free to head over and take a look.
Okay, that’s going to do it for me today!
See you in a few hours on Massive-Verse Live!
Kyle
Los Angeles, CA
It’s been a blast seeing everyone react to 42’s ending after having keeping it secret for over a month. Can’t wait to see how Nathan became the new <001> in 43 and what this means for RB going forward. Also, Teen Titans looks incredible. I get the feeling you, Daniele and Marcelo are going to give us something special.
I’m not gonna lie, I love you Kyle and buy every issue of Radiant Black but I am so scared about how Jason Todd will be depicted since DC loves to massacre Jason and reduce him to the angry Robin when that’s not who he ever was or is at all. They make him ugly or older, forgetting this poor kid jumped from being 15 to like 19 considering he was catatonic and dead for part of that. Jason is my favorite character so I’m hoping you will read his origin story and the background about how he was killed off by writers who hated sidekicks and purposely tried to make him less likeable