I absolutely love this variant cover. Blank page, with a computer prompt asking the user “Do you really think you can do this?”
Maybe I am reading way too much into this, but Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa are blowing me away with this existential glimpse into reality. Maybe it’s not existential, but I’m digging it. The book is not really a superhero story. It’s a story, about a guy, who wants to be a writer. Through awkward right-place-right-time moments, he acquires what we learn to be “The Radiant” and is grants powers through a suit.
But the story… THE STORY. He’s a guy who wants to write. He’s struggling with having failed and resorting to driving a fiction version of Uber. He’s failed and moved home. He’s failed and has to face his father.
Although his father seems a lot kinder than I imagine most would be in this situation. It’s intriguing. Nathan’s father comes off as old school gruff, “get a job and be a man” type deal, but the conversations they have about falling, failing, and finding a way back on your feet, reads modern day. There is an understanding that failure is real, but when it happens, there is no sudden glory jump back into some amazing success, but instead the awareness of starting over and making ends meet to get you back to a manageable position.
While Nathan spends the majority of the issue trying valiantly to focus on writing his novel, he ultimately caves and meets his buddy Marshall at the video store where he works. Marshall has been preoccupied coming up with a hero name and goes as far as creating a social media account to start Nathan’s road to fame. Nathan, is less than amused.
Nathan winds up using the social media platform, responding to a message where someone laments the lack of help due to a flat tire. Nathan dons the suit and answers. It’s small. Did he have to? No. Did he doubt? Yes. But he went, and learned about the usefulness of small wishes. It’s a different perspective. Nathan isn’t from Krypton, where he’s come to Earth brandishing powers and has to mingle with the common folk. Nathan IS the common folk, but there’s more out there than he knows.
This discovery leads Nathan to finally write his first paragraph. However, he has a moment seeing himself taken captive by… himself.
I have a strong feeling something is going to happen, and soon.
