Read This If You Like Invincible

I recently had a work trip to New York City so I decided to kill some time on my train ride by reading a trade that's been collecting dust in my collection:
 

I remember being really excited for this comic when it was announced - and equally curious and hyped as it spun off into the horribly titled Massive-verse. I was a big fan of Higgins' tenure on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and was excited to see him both launch his own toku inspired book and guide a line of similar comics
 

With my reading of Radiant Black volume 1, I've seen enough to know that the Massive-verse is not for me.
 

Now let me be clear, despite mostly being a wait for the trade guy, I cannot resist the siren song of a new #1. I've read the first (and second in some cases) issues of pretty much every book in the Massive-verse line except No/One. Not a single one of those comics is good to me. The only reason I bothered cracking open this radiant black trade is because A) I already own it & B) the book is incredibly popular! If enough nerds like a comic I'll absolutely check it out. FOMO comes for us all 

Finally sitting down and reading the RB trade confirmed that this line really isn't for me. Sure the hook is my bag - normal guy caught up in cosmic stuff - but the execution is just all over the place. I ended up finishing the trade with a big feeling of "that's what people have been salivating over?" 

And I know someone right now is saying "Well it gets really good in volume 3..." and I just want that person to know I hope they step on a lego and have nightmares tonight. If your first volume doesn't hook me, I don't care if the third one is the best comic ever written. I've got plenty of other stuff to read.
 

Honestly, I should've known better. Like, look at blurb on the front cover:

 

Well I did love Higgins MMPR, as I've already said (and I'd even say the book has suffered tremendously since his departure) I am most assuredly not a fan of Invincible. I don't think I really need to get into it - nothing about how Kirkman has treated his co-creators makes me want to even glance at his output and I always found Invincible to be a cynical play to launder recycled stories through a shiny new palette.
If I had to make a spectrum that includes comics that are bad at one end, and comics that are good at the other, I would probably put Invincible right in the middle.

 

Can't really say you're bad because I liked this story the first time Marvel or DC sold it to me

I would probably say the same about Radiant Black and maybe even Rogue Sun based on the little I've read, with the rest of the Massive-verse output falling much closer to the Bad Comics end.
 

Radiant Black isn't bad per-se: the characters are  believable and the art is crisp, but what could be an interesting story is immediately bogged down with a heavy escalation of genre tropes. Before I even got the chance to care about the protagonist, there's four or five other more interesting motherfuckers running around doing everything he does but better - and some with more interesting motivations.
 

Normally that's enough to say "well maybe I'd keep reading to see more of X character" but one compelling B story - in comparison to the A story - does not an interesting comic make.
But I bet if you liked Invincible you would eat this shit up.
 

Part of that books enduring popularity is that is that it gave people a way to imagine an auteur driven version of their favorite superheroes. "What if spider-man was like this? What if Nightwing was like this?" The thing itself isn't really as important as what it represents. = And I think there's a similar appeal happening with Radiant Black. It's "what if power rangers, but grownups" for the people who inexplicably believe giving the blue ranger student loans makes him more interesting.
 

Maybe I'm completely off-base. Maybe there's a lot to dig in this universe and the creative teams have a lot to say. I guess I'm just not compelled to go look for it.

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Post-Script

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I don't really like ending on a negative note. I've always hated writing negative reviews so here is some stuff I have enjoyed lately:

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 1: We called Donald Glover a madman but this show slaps. It's funny, its sexy, its mean and its violent. I hope it gets a second season but if it doesn't, this is still a perfect season of television.

Pathfinder 2e: I'm sorry Paizo, I truly was not familiar with your game. I can't believe I've been living with a single action/theoretical bonus action economy in D&D 5e.

Cocoa Press: I got to spend a day at the Cocoa Press lab. Very cool project with very cool people behind it. 

Dragonball Vol 1 (Vizbig Edition): I've been slowly reading this newly reformatted collection of the first 3 volumes of Dragonball. Akira Toriyama really is one of the best to ever do it.