Titles
The Dead Lucky | Inferno Girl Red | NO/ONE | Radiant Black | Rogue Sun
Character index for characters appearing in works set in the Massive-Verse.
Shift's Syndicate
open/close all folders
As a whole
"This isn't a team and we don't need a name. You're all contractors working for me. I'd be asking for your W-9s if this wasn't a goddamn criminal conspiracy."
— Shift
A loose collective of criminals whose alien equipment is powered by exposure to the Radiants. Shift is the leader, and loans out the tech to other criminals in exchange for a fee and a cut of their take. They also act as mercenaries, working for the highest bidder, meaning they've encountered several heroes.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Unlike the Radiants, their powers are not imbued. Once they're separated from their gear, they're just normal people.
- Hired Gun: Most will work for anyone as long as the pay's good, though all of them take an interest in taking out Radiant Black specifically because he injured a lot of them, and they want a Radiant to keep, and he's the easiest to track down due to his showboating.
- It's Personal: Most of them have a personal beef with Radiant Black, since he either injured them badly (Accel and Sheer), let them down (Doppler) or pisses them off (Mecha). The only one exempt from this is Shift, who is a consummate professional most of the time.
- No Name Given: While Accel, Mecha and Sheer want to come up with a five-themed name when they all work together to take down Radiant Black, each one is shot down and Shift reiterates that they're not a team.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: They're hired by the Salvation Gang to help Bibi fight the oppressive Morrow corporation, and they do... right up until the plan goes awry. Then they bail.
Shift (Guy)
Guy
Alias: Shift
First Appearance: Radiant Black #9 (November 2021)
"Let's go make something for ourselves."
A corporate saboteur who was given the Shift technology to help procure energy for other equipment from the Radiants. After a successful first mission, he takes over as head of his gang. He begins meddling in Satomi's life after learning she is Radiant Red, puts together a supervillain team to kill Radiant Black and works with Bibi in San Francisco.- A Day in the Limelight: The "Shift" story in Image! features the origin of Shift and his criminal empire, while also hinting towards a personal beef he has with Dynamech. This is a bit after he'd already been appearing for a while.
- Casanova Wannabe: Most of his interactions with Radiant Red are him unsubtly hitting on her. She's not into it.
- Cyber Green: He's got green accents and is the ringleader of a tech ring, and looks like a cyberpunk ninja.
- The Dragon: To Margo, the head of a crime organisation in Illinois, when she was trying to strongarm Satomi into a crime.
- Green and Mean: Green is his main colour, and he's defined by his greed and ruthlessness.
- Hate Sink: In contrast to Radiant Red and Doppler, Shift is not introduced with a sympathetic backstory. He's introduced in a play on Nathan's introduction, except his financial issues are... wanting to be paid faster for corporate espionage, and he threatens to kill the person he's talking to unless he is. This is after we've already seen him threaten Satomi's family in Radiant Red. He also immediately abandons Bibi once he realises that the job against Morrow is more effort than it's worth.
- Intangibility: The main power the Shift suit gives him, but it only affects him and the suit, nothing and nobody else.
- Mysterious Past: He's got history with Dynamech, which he's willing to kill for. However, his target is killed by his colleague before Guy and the colleague can get into it.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Guy learns Satomi Sone is Radiant Red because she was careless and caught the eye of a crimelord, Margot, who had Guy strongarm Satomi into helping her organisation. When Satomi betrays them, Guy doesn't get the chance to use it against her, since she confesses to her crimes afterwards.
- He learns about Nathan and Marshall being Radiant Black when they tag-team him and are unmasked as they share the powers. He doesn't do anything with this knowledge before they defeat him a second time and take his gear from him.
- Guy is also briefly acquainted with Bibi Lopez-Yang and learns that she's the masked vigilante running around San Francisco when she enlists the aid of the Salvation Gang against Morrow Tech and they bring him and his team in on the job. However, he's not able to do anything with it after bailing on her, because she ends up publicly operating as the superhero Dead Lucky right after.
- The Starscream: He was a regular associate of his criminal gang. After he realises he can make it big by loaning out technology to criminals, he usurps ownership.
- Teleportation: Another ability granted to him by the suit. His main ability is teleportation. Like the phasing, it's limited to just him and the suit.
- Would Hurt a Child: The first time we see him proper, unmasked, he threatens to hurt Satomi's family, with emphasis on her niece and nephew.
Accel (João dos Santos)
João dos Santos
Alias: Accel
First Appearance: Radiant Black #13 (March 2022)
A former Brazilian soldier turned criminal working with Shift.- Card-Carrying Villain: He's incredibly upfront about how evil he is, getting off on the power he gets from his gear and threatening Radiant Black constantly even when he loses his gear.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His first appearance sees him face an especially pissed off Marshall who casually critically injures him.
Doppler (Anja Wronja)
Anja Wronja
Alias: Doppler
First Appearance: Radiant Black #11 (December 2021)
A former musician who requires ultrasound therapy due to an injury to her hand. The suit she was hired to wear — and use for crime — provides some relief, with the surgery she pays for with her payment from her criminal colleagues doing the rest.Anja fought Radiants Black and Pink. However, Marshall decides to give her a second chance after she is abandoned by her employers, rather than call the police on her.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Doppler is abandoned by the criminals she works for after she is defeated by Radiant Black and Radiant Pink. She sobs and begs for mercy from the heroes, earning her some pity from Radiant Black who lets her go.
- Anti-Villain: Anja isn't really a bad person deep down and is only working for Epicfront because they provide her with technology to help with her tremors.
- The Atoner: The next time Marshall encounters Doppler is when she is discovered on the set of a Radiant Black fan film. She admits that she knew Black would be present and was seeking him out to power her suit, but her reasons weren't malicious at all: she had recently began working with young prisoners and needed the suit's power to help with her tremors.
- Career-Ending Injury: Her cello career ended due to a hand injury she suffered.
- Legacy Character: Anja is not the first Doppler, with a handful having been beaten by Marshall without real incident, with the first one having used the name. It's not clear how many there were in total before her, but the gang that recruited her implies there were quite a few. However, she's the first proper threat because she knows how the powers work.
- Make Some Noise: She can convert sound into other types of energy.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When various villains team up to ambush Radiant Black, Doppler is part of it. However, after seeing them about to kill Marshall, she sabotages the plan to help him. However, she's later seen working with them again when they show up in San Francisco.
- Shout-Out: Her supervillain name comes from C.O.W.L..
- What the Hell, Hero?: After their first encounter, Anja will frequently call Marshall out for his showboating and not very heroic behaviour.
Jace
Jace
First Appearance: Radiant Black #8 (September 2021)
Riley's partner in the tech work. He went out to charge their batteries, only to not only run into Radiant Black, but also Rogue Sun and Inferno Girl Red.- Gone Horribly Wrong: His batteries absorb the energy of a monster from Inferno Girl Red's universe, which mutates him.
- Killed Off for Real: He's outright killed by Radiant Black, Rogue Sun and Inferno Girl Red once they get their powers back.
- Mutants: Jace's encounter with a creature from another world and absorbing the powers of the three heroes mutates him into some type of lizard monster.
- Power Parasite: His batteries do more than expected when they manage to steal all three heroes' powers outright, rather than just charge off of Radiant Black's.
Mecha (Riley)
Riley
Alias: Mecha
First Appearance: Radiant Black #8 (September 2021), Radiant Black #17 (as Mecha) (August 2022)
An engineer who modifiers most of the technology Guy's gang uses. He eventually suited up in a suit designed to counter the Radiants.- Anti-Magic: The suit counters the powers of the Radiants.
- The Brute: The largest and most physically powerful of the unnamed five-man team.
- Evil Genius: He's the one actually responsible for maintaining and modifying the technology.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: He went from a Morrow engineer to a criminal after he was fired because of a mistake he made.
Pyre
Pyre
Alias: Pyre
First Appearance: The Dead Lucky #5 (January 2023)
A mercenary working with Shift who was part of the group's operation with the Salvation Gang against Morrow.- Hidden Depths: When their teammates bail on the job with the Salvation Gang when shit hits the fan, Pyre hesitates before Shift repeats the order.
- Kill It with Fire: As the name suggests, they have fire powers.
Sheer
Sheer
Alias: Sheer
First Appearance: Radiant Black #14 (May 2022)
A mercenary who works with Shift. He uses bladed weapons.- Did Not Think This Through: Sheer was stupid enough to post an NFT promoting his plan to kill Radiant Black on his social media, allerting the hero of his presence and allowing him to track him down.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody in Shift's gang seems to like him, and they even call him a douchebag when he's presumed beaten by Radiant Black.
- Ninja: Stealthy, black suit, martial arts-based and uses bladed weapons.
- Selfie Fiend: He's an aspiring influencer, who just happens to be a criminal. He streams his crimes, pushes crypto and talks like a macho internet guru.
- Take That!: Sheer is basically a jab at cryptocurrency users, depicted as stupid and obnoxious.
