Catalyst One #1 is a comic written by Brad Jones and Eric Alan Nelson with art by JC Fabul and colors by Bryan Magnaye. When people sent on a mission go missing a team of super powered beings are called upon. This is a superhero science fiction supernatural comic with violence, drama, and a sizable, primarily female cast. The main man here is Marshal Justice, he is a stern and renowned soldier who serves as the leader of the Catalyst team. The other members of the team include: the singer Soundcharger who presumably has audio-based powers, Liberty Flame with pyrokinesis and a hot temper, the fey/fairy Pixie who likes to joke around, and the axe-wielding, hard-to-find Wargod. The story begins with Marshal receiving an urgent phone call from a Nebraskan senator who needs assistance as people have gone missing while dealing with aggressive wildlife. Marshal tells him that he’ll take care of it and he tries to contact Soundcharger who is currently performing with her band. The violence in this story is destructive but there isn’t any blood or gore. The pacing is slow in the beginning and at the end but it moves at a reasonable speed otherwise. This has a tone like the opening of a special forces movie with the leader trying to get the team together. There are few intense moments due to violence and anger. The dialogue here is mainly conversational with good back-and-forth and light thought narration. There are some thick text bubbles/blocks and there at least a couple word-heavy pages. This is a debut issue that does a good job setting the scene and introducing the characters we’ll be following on this potentially dangerous mission.

            The art here is drawn in a modern style with a light rough sketch-like quality. The color palette is realistic with a decent range as there are a lot of blacks, blues, and military greens. Outside of a quick glimpse of a forest and the occasional rock there isn’t much scenery here. The main locations here are of a top secret military flavor with them being dark, hidden, and very metallic. The backgrounds tend to show these cold and serious surroundings with a gradient color being somewhat rare. The expression level here is on the lower as stern, stoic looks are the default for most of these characters. Some of the emotions shown here are anger, annoyance, irritation, and rare happiness. The faces have a decent to good amount of detail and show the different expressions pretty well. The power effects tend to shine bright and glow. The violence is primarily delivered via blasts that sometimes lead to explosions. There isn’t any blood or gore. The action scenes come in bursts and they flow smoothly. A couple of the women here wear very revealing and/or no clothing on the regular and have large breasts.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero science fiction supernatural stories starring a cast of mainly women with violence and drama then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, lewdness, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“That sounds boring, why do they need all of us?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maelstromwardance/catalyst-one/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 23

Violent Pages: 5, for 22% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 9% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 1

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”