Forge – Comics Catalyst

What Catalyst Prime (and Lion Forge) Means To Me.

Hello, long time no post, but at last Seven Days is right around the corner, coming out this Wednesday, October 2nd! I can’t wait for Issue 1, which I’ll be reviewing once it comes out! But for this week, I’ll be posting a bunch, and I may even have a giveaway on Friday! Stay tuned!

Today I’m going to be talking about something personal, which Gail Simone suggested I share. I’m going to be talking about what Catalyst Prime and Lion Forge means to me. Now what does that mean?

I think it means different things to different people, but to me it means that the CPU and Lion Forge have played a big part in making one big part of my life easier.

In early 2018 I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which basically is a blood cancer. Without treatment I would have had around a year left to live. Before I was diagnosed I had begun reading the CPU comics, however, I admit I was not the huge fan I am today. I enjoyed them at random times and was trade waiting a lot of the series that they had. However, all that changed in mid-2018 when I begun treatment.

I had to get some intense Chemotherapy for most of 2018, which was hard. It even made going to San Diego Comic-Con 2018 almost impossible, but I’ve been every year since I was 9, so I went (even though that same week I had treatment, so I had to use a wheelchair). I had treatment’s every other Wednesday, which means my New Comic Book Day became hard, I could only pick stuff up on my off week.

However, I really needed something to read during those long two hours of treatment, something to distract from the pain and sickness. That’s when I decided to dive into the CPU. I started to buy digital copies of those series I was trade waiting on, series like Superb, Accell, and others (Summit was one series I wasn’t trade waiting, as it’s my favorite). Every week I would try to read a few of them during treatment, to make sure I had something to read. Sometimes that only meant one or two issues that week, but it led to something else.

It led me all of the amazing stuff at Lion Forge. I started reading a lot of comics they had put out, and I found myself loving the company and their message of “Comics for Everyone”. I found a ton of their stuff heartwarming or interesting, from Cellies to Andre The Giant: Closer To Heaven, a comic about Andre The Giant’s life.

But the main thing that took away the fear of treatment was knowing that I was going to be able to read something from Catalyst Prime. That new universe pulled me in, and kept me there. It made a lot of the treatments easier. I even went to the Lion Forge panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018, where they announced that Gail Simone was joining the team.

Since then, I’ve created a Fan Group on Facebook, forum posts, and countless of tweets, I’ve even started this blog, met staff and creators and got lucky enough to meet and befriend some amazing people from Lion Forge, staff like Devin Funches (the Sales and Marketing Manager at Lion Forge), and amazing talent like Amy Chu, Marika Cresta and I got to interview Gail Simone for this very blog (check it out if you haven’t yet)! Lion Forge and it’s talent and staff have shown me nothing but support and love, and that is another reason why I’ll never stop supporting them.

Gail Simone at SDCC 2019. Yes my beard and hair grew very fast!

As of right now, it’s almost been a year since I’ve stopped treatment, and luckily I’m still cancer free. I’ve been lucky to have some amazing support, not just from Lion Forge online, but from my amazing family, friends and my fantastic medical team of nurses, doctors, blood testers and everyone else who helped save me, and who will continue to help me stay cancer free.

My wonderful team of nurses! Love them all!

I know some of you may think of this as silly, I would normally understand, I would feel the same if I read this too. But Cataylst Prime and Lion Forge means a lot to me, and this is one of the biggest reasons why. They helped make the unbearable, a little more bearable.

Thank you for reading and please look below for some links to the Facebook Group and The Gail Simone Interview. Also, don’t forget to pick up Seven Days, October 2nd!

Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1963553493712620/about/

Interview: https://comiccatalyst.home.blog/2019/07/23/sdcc19-gail-simone-interview/

Flashback Review: Quincredible Vol. 1 #1 (Spoiler Free)

Today’s Flashback Review is a more recent one, but one with a lot of heart. Quincredible is an stunning (new-ish) series from Lion Forge, about a new young hero. I’m trying to do this one spoiler free, as the one complaint I kept getting about the last one was the spoilers. Hope you enjoy!

Quincredible #1 is about a young man, who has been hiding away his powers. While the whole world starts to meet new heroes everyday, Quin takes it upon himself to start saving the streets of New Orleans.

This issue covers so many thing that young people, and older people, can relate to. Bullying, young love, over protective parents, daydreaming you’re the next big hero….being a comic book nerd (my favorite one) and so much more.

Quin is clearly seen as a great kid who is smart, kind, passionate and with the power to never get harmed. That’s it. His only amazing power is that he can’t be hurt. Bully’s punches? No pain. Energy blasts? No pain. It’s such an interesting concept, what could a person, none the less a teen, do with just that power.

This series also introduces one of my favorite CPU heroes, Glow! Glow is a woman with the power to control and make light! Her costume and look is wonderful, and she is a supporting cast member to this series, which I love. I won’t say much else, but this issue (and this series) has some FANTASTIC guest stars, so if you like CPU’s other heroes, you won’t want to miss this series!

Quincredible is written by Rodney Barnes. Not only has Barnes written comics like Falcon and Star Wars: Lando for Marvel, which is reasons enough to for me to be a big fan, he’s also written for TV shows like Everybody Hate Chris, The Boondocks and Marvel’s Runaways. He’s also a co-producer of many great shows, like Runaways and American Gods.

Barnes is filled with so much talent. When it was announced that Barnes was joining Lion Forge for Quincredible, I was in for the the long run and he does not disappoint. He has such a incredible skill of writing characters of different ages, which is a hard thing to do. Quin is a young man, but this book as a ton of adult heroes as supporting casts, and he writes them well. Barnes was made for a book like this!

The artist for this issue (and the series) is Selina Espiritu, Selina is kind of new to comics, only having a few comics to her name, but I’m so glad Lion Forge picked her. I love seeing newer artists come into the scene and Selina comes in with a bang! Her specialty is drawing faces that are just full of emotion, and joy! I love this pick for Quin, she gives him a youthful energy that just fills the book with passion. I can’t wait to see more of her work, in this, and beyond!

The colorist is the superb Kelly Fitzpatrick. Kelly has colored books for DC, Archie, Dark Horse and so much more! She, in my opinion, is one of THE best colorist in comics today. I’ve read more books from her then I even knew, researching this I was surprised by a few titles. If Barnes is the brain, Selina the body, then Kelly is the blood of this series. She helps give it life, and you can tell she was the right person for this issue.

Overall, this series grew on me so fast. I love Quin and his adventures, and really can’t wait for more and to see him in Seven Days (The upcoming CPU event)! I highly recommend this book to readers young and old!

4.5/5

If you want to read this series, you’re in luck! Lion Forge has collected it into a trade, titled, Quest To Be The Best! And Quin is on his way! Order it where ever comics are sold!

Flashback Review: Summit Vol. 1 #1

Sorry for the delay, but here is my first Flashback Review. In these I will be looking back at old issues of Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime, reviewing them and reminiscing a bit. I hope to cover every issue they’ve had so far, but we will see how far these take us.

For this Flashback I’m going to talk about and review the first issue of my favorite CPU series, Summit!

Summit Issue #1 was written by the talented, Amy Chu (she is also still the current writer at the time of this post). I’ve read a lot of Amy’s work, she does a great job with character work and setting up their voices. Amy always makes sure to add unique characters to whatever she writes and Summit is no different. Amy has worked on a ton of characters, but I’ll name a few; Red Sonja, Green Hornet, Vampirella, Poison Ivy and so much more.

The artist for this issue, and the next few issues that follow, is Jan Duursema. Jan is an extremely talented person, she is one of those artist who’s work you can tell is theirs just by looking at it. I’ve read comics with her work in the past, Ghost, from Dark Horse, is one of my all time favorite heroes, and she did some issues of the latest series. Jan has also done a ton of Star Wars work.

As you can tell, a big reason I picked up this series is because of the talent behind it.

Spoiler Warning from here on out. I’ll be summarizing the basic overall plot and going into some of the key things that happened in this issue.

Summit is the story of the women who fell to earth. Valentina, or Val for short, is an astrophysicist and astronaut who went on a mission to save earth from an asteroid. When she was up there she ended up getting amazing powers and fell back down to earth. Val has the astonishing power of creating and releasing plasma blasts, she is basically a walking fusion reactor.

So, this issue does a great job of touching up on the events from the Free Comic Book Day issue, titled The Event (which you can read for free on Comixology). And during the event panels shows they us characters we haven’t met yet (including a cute cat!), which is another great thing Amy does. Looking back on this issue alone, Amy clearly sets up story plots that she deals with in later issues, which makes the story feel like one big story, and not just single issue. They’re all connected, while not leaving new readers out. And I mean just look at that art! Jan is so detailed and realistic, it adds so much to the book. They were very lucky to work with such amazing talent.

Like I said earlier, Amy does a GREAT job with characters. She really knows how to make them real, and give them a real voice that doesn’t feel the same as anyone else in the issue. Val has hobbies, like Rock Climbing. Most superhero books don’t dive into hobbies, jobs maybe, but heroes are more then the jobs they have. Amy brings a fullness to her characters like no one else in the business!

One of the reasons I love Val is that she is queer. As a queer man, myself, I find myself reading queer characters and a lot of the time they feel almost flat. Amy does an superb job writing a queer character. In issue one we learn right away that she had a partner and that she is openly gay. Establishing that right off the back, in issue one, is very important. It gets it out of the way so Amy can continue to grow the character beyond her sexual orientation.

This issue also shows a great deal of emotion. Val is dealing with the loss of her friends (who also went to space with her) and that is in the forefront. Dealing with loss and grief is a big point in this issue. Throughout issue one (and in the following issues) we see Val deal the heavy burden of being the only surviving astronaut, in this earth wide tragedy. Amy does a first-rate job showing this amount of emotion, and only in one issue.

Now, let me talk about the art. Jan’s realism only adds to the deep character writing Amy does. Her face work alone shows the emotion without the writing. Jan’s character work is just as excellent as Amy’s. Jan also does a great job being detailed with the environment. Rocks, planes, cities, you name it, all feel real. Like you could go to these places, or ride in those cars.

Even though this issue doesn’t have any fight scenes, Jan does an outstanding job with showing off the action it does have. The rock climbing scenes are a favorite of mine. Jan also knows how to draw superpowers scenes. Even though we only see a bit of it near the end, it’s such a powerful scene that it makes you want to read more.

Overall, these two working together, and with this character, really makes issue one stand out! They both make you want to read more, and to see this character grow.

I give this issue a 5/5.

It’s hard to do a first issue well, but Summit is one of the rare exceptions.

If you’re interesting in reading the whole first arc, lucky for you Lion Forge has collected them in a volume (titled The Long Way Home), so you don’t have to wait like I had to. Order it today!

Thank you for checking out my first full review, look for more blog posts soon!