Catalyst Comix

Dark Horse Heroes

by Joe Casey, Dan McDaid (Illustrator), Paul Maybury (Illustrator)

Superstar writer Joe Casey—along with the widest array of artistic talent this side of the Renaissance—gives superhero comics a back-alley face-lift, as these very different champions confront cosmic threats, personal demons, superheroes' role as global activists, an alien love invasion, and the strangest virtual reality you've ever experienced—but not before they face the end of the world as we know it! Collects Catalyst Comix #1–#9!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

284 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2014

About the author

Librarian note: there is more than one author with this name

Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite among others. As part of the comics creator group Man of Action Studios, Casey is one of the creators of the animated series Ben 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Casey

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeah, I couldn't do it. This was terrible. I had to put it down after reading a third of it. Casey's writing is obtuse and just plain awful. I picked it up because this was part of the Project Black Sky initiative put out a few years ago, another attempt at a shared universe. However, other than using the same characters from the Golden City area of Comics Greatest World there's no tie in to the rest of the universe at all. This is just 9 issues of Joe Casey in love with his own words. He really needed an editor to slap some sense into him.

[Tamahome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three different stories by three different artists weave together in the same world by the same writer. It's pretty psychedelic (I can dig it), and sometimes I wasn't sure what was going on. Also, I wasn't too thrilled with the sketchy style of the "Amazing Grace" female superhero's artist.

But I really really liked the vintage style of the writer. He used lots of narration a la Chris Claremont. Now does that mean more "tell" then "show", or does it mean more "compressed show" and adding more content? And, uniquely, thought bubbles, which seemed to go completely completely out of vogue after The Watchmen comics. Very few silent panels were present, and the ones there were were pretty small. That's the way it's done, as far as I'm concerned. Stop wasting friggin' real estate with an expensive color comic book page and give me more story. Reading time was about 4 hours for 300 pages.

The tone of the narration was a little weird. There's a lot of humor, which often worked against the drama. But there's intelligence too. Few seem to be reading this but me. But I was happy with it. Comics Alliance did actually give it a "cool" blurb. Maybe I liked it because of my vintage comics roots.

Also, click "see review" to see my status updates on the book.

I wish they had gone whole hog and done the comic in four colors like it says on the back, or 64 dithered colors.

[Doreen · Rating 2 out of 5]

7/8/14 Have never been so relieved to finish a tpb. Review tk.

7/10/14 http://www.iwantmytwodollars.com/2014...

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this comic is all posturing by Joe Casey and very little substance past it's statement of intent.

Casey, is one of my favorite comic writers. He's all about claiming to subvert expectations and avoid the predictability of contemporary superhero comics, but its all sleight of hand impovisation (see "The Bounce"). Casey can succeed--but he's like Millar. He's got a big mouth that he usually can't back up.

This is a comic with an interesting framework--three stores set within the same universe, each focusing on a different heroes (who never meet) but tangentially facing the same threats (taking place on 12.21.2012). One version is "What Went Down", another "What REALLY Went Down".

Covers for the series were back genuine rockstars in the medium; Rafael Grampa, Paul Pope and Brendan McCarthy. The interior were much more indie comic thant refined house-style of Marvel and DC.

So, ultimately the effectivess is only 2-stars. But the ambition is five stars for me. Casey isn't going to rejuvenate anything like Alan Moore (Swamp Thing) or Frank Miller (Daredevil, Batman) did. This is on par with his Vengeance work.

And he's tastes in artists in inspired, but its not quite as visionary as those like Bernie Mireault, Dennis Fujitake, Pander Bros, Mitch O'Connell, Hernandez Brothers, Kevin O'Neil, Seth, Ty Templeton, Steve Parkhouse, Chester Brown, Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, Tim Sale, Peter Bagge, Francesco Francavilla, Geoff Darrow, etc.

But it's kind of attempts that get us to Marshall Law, Mudman, Zaucer of Zilk, Prophet, Paradax/Rogan Gosh, Dream Thief and Copra. And Casey's more successful collaborations like Butcher Baker, Sex. Godland and The Bounce.

Comics are supposed to be lo-fi future shit. It's time more people tried it.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A uneven, but interesting experiment.
Casey takes a handful of c-lister characters and sees if he can re-imagine them and play with some concepts and different takes on comics.

Like any anthology the various stories are hit or miss, but gets an extra star from the writer part of my brain, as it was interesting to see Casey just experimenting.

[Alex Barrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it interesting that most haven't heard of this, and those that have are so split in opinion. I found it fresh and interesting. It's definitely not standard fare but I've enjoyed it a couple of times.

[Oscar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abuuuurridooooo!!!

Creo que este comic falló intentando ser algo medio profundo en la temática de super heroes.

Las dos estrellas son solo por el arte decente.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, funny, moving, pure Joe Casey writing, and great offbeat art. I definitely need to revisit this again.

[Mike Jozic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't always know what was going on, I didn't always like what I read or saw. Still, the good far outweighed the bad and I applaud what Casey and his respective art teams were doing with this book. I wish there were more like it.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. It has its moments.