Suvudu Universe

Catalyst Comix... By Joe Casey and a cast artists....

Once upon a time Dark Horse Comics started a series of superhero comics refered to as Comics Greatest World; the world was populated by such characters as X,Ghost, Motörhead to name just the few that occur to me the fastest but there were many more. This was a setting hat survived a while and was cool in many ways but in the morass of the superhero glut it got lost and buried in the mass of the mediocre. Writers are returning to these concepts and characters today and I for one hope that with the new reality of comics they can gain an audience.

There are some great current writers and some writing stars of years past that are writing in this setting that traders should be looking farther afield from Marvel these days for good superhero stories. There are reasons I exclude DC and it has to do with my taste and my dissatisfaction with the new 52stable. I will say I loved Frankenstein and the agents of Shadow, Demon Knights, Dial H, Justice League Dark and the Simon Baz Green Lantern but on the whole the new DCU falls totally flat for me especially the big three they are worth nought these days and the new standard is the greatness is the old house of ideas.... Marvel.

Marvel currently has the writing of people who have ideas and artists nat are given the free reign to draw to their strength. Captain Marvel is about the best of the stable these days followed closely by Hawkeye and Daredevil. To me an OLD comics fan its like the early eighties when DC has a couple good books considered c level titles and Marvel and the Indys had the lead in storytelling. This is where I will talk about the cool that is Catalyst Comics #1

This issue introduces us to the heroes and stories of a world which has survived a cosmic apocalypse of Lovecraftian proportions. Among the three tales we get a superman like tale of the single superhero against the cosmic horror but with consequences and emotional baggage, we get the story of the possible cause and solution to the crisis in the first back up story and in the last we set a bringing the band back together story in a superhero vein. This book makes me wish I had picked up the Deconnick Ghost series because I love her writing on Captain Marvel and Hopeless's title for Dark Horse too. These are titles that may hall beneath the usual superhero collectors radar but these tales are just as good as the big two.... I was a long time fan of the Elementals and this stable have the feel of the old First comics.... Take a look they are not the big guys but they are no less for it.

Along the same line I have to point out the Zenith comics project from kickstarter that needs support. Its a comics fan that wants to bring the light back to the grim dark that has swallowed the comics world. Here is the link to the project. I read the script for the first issue and it looks to be as good as the feat of things on the shelf and worthy of sharing the space with them. It has a great pedigree and I hope to see it as a reality.. Take a look let me know what you think....

Take a look to at Catalyst, Ghost, X Captain Midnight from Dark Horse... If there are more super hero comics the ones put there will get better .... I dug the first issue of Catalyst and will be adding the second to my pull list....