Noble Vol. 1

by Brandon Thomas

[Quirky Cat]

Noble is the first of the new characters from Lion Forge Comic’s new lines, Catalyst Prime. The goal for Catalyst Prime is to have a new series launch every month for seven months, starting with Noble. I’m sure the goal is to establish a universe that can compete with Marvel and DC, and I wish them the best of luck (I truly believe that more comic companies is a good thing for everyone).



Noble volume one is only four issues, resulting in a limited amount of time to establish our main character, the surrounding cast, and the plot. Not an easy job by any means. I wish they had been granted more time to play with the story here, as I think Noble has a lot of potential; but the rushing speed took something away from it.
Being a new superhero, naturally we’re given some of his origin story; David Powell was an astronaut, willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good (literally – the comic starts off with him being presumed dead). Thanks to a mysterious and yet unexplained turn of events, the explosion he and his crew experiences gives him telekinesis (it’s less clear for the rest of the crew – but I have a feeling they’ve all been presumed dead too, but are just as alive and powerful as David is). This obviously sounds like it’s too good to be true – David survives the explosion and got superpowers! What are the odds? Of course that means there’s a downside, and in my opinion that downside is pretty massive (while also succeeding in making Noble feel more human again, kudos); he has no memory of who he was before the explosion.
Now, that may mean that David Powell is effectively dead, or it may mean he has some form of amnesia. Only time will reveal that, and I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about which way they’re going to go with that. That’s partially because having his wife looking for him really helped me get invested in his well-being.
I’ll admit there was some jumping around in the last issue that got me really confused; it seemed like they were introducing us to a handful of characters (friends, family, potential future heroes?), which is a brilliant idea. The problem is we were given only about 2 pages per character, and with the rapid changing between all the characters it got a little overwhelming. I think a more gradual built up for these characters would have been more beneficial. Rushing doesn’t help anything, especially not when it comes to establishing a new universe.
I think both Noble and Prime Catalyst have a lot of potential. I’m planning on following both to see what happens. I’ll admit I’m more than a bit curious about the rest of David Powell’s crew; will they pull a Fantastic Four sort of stunt and have them all get powers from the same events? Or are they actually dead? Either way, I can’t wait to see what happens.


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