“Catalyst Prime: Seven Days” #3 gives the beleaguered heroes and residents of Earth a glimmer of hope, and a new super to lead the pack. Warning: major spoilers ahead.
Written by Gail SimoneCover by Stjepan Sejic
Pencilled by José Luís
Inked by Jonas Trinidade
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Saida Temofonte DAY THREE: The Incidentals have been captured by Khrelan and their fate remains unknown. Meanwhile Khrelan has turned their eye towards Carmila Cruz, a young woman with a mysterious connection to the alien overlord. She may hold knowledge on how to defeat Khrelan and his Obsidian Men, or she may lead to the world’s downfall.
“Catalyst Prime: Seven Days” #3 (hereafter “Seven Days” #3) keeps the story ticking along but slows the book’s previously blistering pace a bit to sock in some extra details. Khrelan reveals more of his dastardly plan (apropos for a world-ending crossover event), Valentina goes recruiting, Kino latches onto a bit of hope and the kids find a way to actually kill one of the obsidian nightmares, so there’s hope on the horizon for all.
Look, crossovers are hard. Many of us are Crisis and event book vets, which means “Seven Days” has a near-Herculean task at its feet to pull off a cataclysm after such a short period of building these heroes. Event books run a high risk of delving into hokey, groan-worthy or just plain bewildering storytelling, and the first two issues of this book fall prey to a lot of those problems. However, Simone makes smart storytelling decisions in “Seven Days” #3. A third issue is a good time to pause and reveal a few things, as the monolithic mystery can only sustain us for so long. Khrelan’s race of reptilian overlords have been shaping humanity’s future for a long time to eliminate us a potential future threat, but what they didn’t anticipate was a little boost in evolution. So now they’re here, they’re pissed and they’re apparently willing to hold forth for a few pages on their mastery of the universe. Which, as we all know, is exactly what comic book villains should do. Involving the kids as the solution-builders brings some freshness and levity to the otherwise deadly serious tone of the book. And, after the well-crafted hell that Alistair Meath’s been through over the last couple years (helmed by Paknadel and Galindo,) his moment of hope is touching and timed well for maximum impact. We have macro- and micro-storytelling shifts in this issue that balance the overall doom, gloom and potentially ponderous melodrama at work.
Luís and Trinidade do a decent job with a very large cast, though there’s a general lack of cohesion and a few odd choices in the layouts. Of particular note here is a slender horizontal panel depicting Lorena, Astrid and Josita with a full-body, vertical composition. The panel is very clearly designed for space and to establish the next moment, as there’s no other way to fit all three characters onto the page, but that kind of extreme angle or choice immediately breaks the book’s reality. In addition, the lack of background detail makes all three characters feel like they’re floating in space. The final panel depicts Lorena handing Noble’s helmet to Astrid – an excellent story beat – but it’s diminished significantly because of the panel above it. There’s no moment of unreality, hallucination or emotion to merit the extreme choice and the page not only could, but should, function without it. Still, the creature design is imaginative, with a Silver Surfer-esque vibe to the monoliths and some good ol’ hardcore fantasy and sci-fi armoring and texture on Khrelan and his minions. There’s imagination and subtlety at play here if you know where to look, and Luís and Trinidade put in some good work.
Madsen’s colors are serviceable, and there’s effort put into nuances between skintones. Madsen also does work to bring cohesion to some of the looser layouts, as with the page mentioned above. The repetition orange – from the glow of the candles to Noble’s backlighting to Lorena’s helmet reveal – is a nice emotional beat of warmth and hope, and the cool blue a sobering reminder that the situation is still dire. Khrelan’s domain is appropriately weird and decked out in subdued rainbow hues, and the final page balances the color needs of no less than 11 hero costumes pretty well.
Continued belowTemofonte adds some nice balloon styling to Khrelan holding forth but keeps the font readable. Considering the balloons are black and the text is blue on a few swaths of black and blue backgrounds, the effect is pretty good. Narrative boxes get a similar treatment, the main font’s tight and there’s very minimal padding to make room for a necessary amount of dialogue for a crossover book. However, the narration at the end feels unmoored. Serif fonts are a hard sell in such a slick, digital product, and although Temofonte places the boxes well there are too many of them to carry the font choice. The problem of too much narration is a script issue but the effect is distracting. In a comic like this, we should be focusing on the art and the action on the final page.
Overall, “Seven Days” #3 adds some depth to a frenzied first dive into this event. Simone and the team have a lot of work to do, and they mostly pull it off. There’s enough backstory here to onboard new readers but also enough fan service for those of us who’ve been following along, and the indomitable threat is the right blend of ridiculous and sinister for this kind of comic.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – “Catalyst Prime: Seven Days” #3 slows the avalanche of the first two issues with some interesting story bits and better entertainment value.
