This article has been updated with additional information from Gail Simone on Twitter.
In an interview with Deadline, writer Gail Simone announced “Seven Days,” a biweekly seven-issue series that will be the first crossover event in Lion Forge Comics’ Catalyst Prime Universe. Illustrated by Jose Luis (‘Aquaman/Suicide Squad: Sink Atlantis’) and Jonas Trindade (“Arrow,” “Stormwatch”), the storyline will see the arrival of the alien being responsible for the meteor showers that gave humanity superpowers. He wants to terraform Earth – but first, he’ll give its inhabitants a week to put their affairs in order and say goodbye.
Launched during Free Comic Book Day in May 2017, the Catalyst Prime Universe is a thoroughly modern superhero world, featuring diverse characters like Noble, Summit, and Accell. Gail Simone, who joined Lion Forge as the line’s chief architect last summer, said, “You go to any convention in the US, you see this unbelievably diverse group of people and it’s lovely. The CPU feels like that.”
Regarding the story itself, she described it as akin to classic disaster movies like Earthquake and The Poseidon Adventure, where “you don’t know who is going to die. And I love the spectacle. Event comics have a lot of tropes now… big threat, a character dies, another loses an arm, it’s not really a formula I want to follow. What I want is, give these characters something they’ve never faced, never even imagined. And see what happens to the people on the street without plasma powers. We have an unlimited budget, we’re not monitored by a big film company. There’s tremendous freedom.”
All the other Catalyst Prime books will go on hiatus during the event: Simone explained “you don’t have a million tie-ins you have to buy or a thousand variants you can’t get. It’s just this one, massive story, like a lightning bolt in the middle of your comics purchases. We mess things up. But we have fun.” She indicated a couple of titles will be canceled as a result of the event, although some titles starring new characters will be launched as well.
“Seven Days” #1 will be released in July.
