'Astonisher Vol. 2: All The Nightmares' by Alex De Campi with art by Pop Mhan and Al Barrionuevo is a graphic novel in the Catalyst Prime universe about a hero with a rather weird power.

Magnus Attarian is a wealthy heir who went in to space and came back with a decidedly weird superpower: he can traverse the minds of others. He did this in the first volume and discovered a threat coming to Earth and ended up with PTSD. This volume picks up from there as Magnus finds himself surrounded by a team that want to help him as he gears up to fight his own brother.

Like most stuff I've read in the Catalyst Prime universe, I found this alternately boring and confusing. There needed to be more action earlier on and Magnus really comes across as a terrible person. Perhaps that is what is meant, but it was hard to feel for him or his weird powers. The art is decent enough.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Oni Press, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Again with this Catalyst Prime series, I didn't read the first volume, so I felt a little left out. Also, there are some gaps between issues/plot points that needed some clarification or ironing out.

This was actually one of the better Catalyst Prime books I've read. Good art, decent characters and story, even if the villain is a direct ripoff of Stephen King's Crimson King from the Dark Tower. The plotting if off though. You'll have issues where very little happens and then they head off into space and save the world all in one issue after wasting the past three issues.

Outer space, inner space, science fiction, psychics, the paranormal and a Cthulhu-level inter-dimensional threat combine to give readers a genre-bending — and occasionally confusing — tale. Some of the characters are cheap stereotypes out of central casting (evil, mad scientist; dragon lady mom), but the story is fast-paced and entertaining.

The continuing journey of Magnus who controls and, in many ways, is the Astonisher, takes on the role of a hero trying to hide. In “Astonisher Vol. 2 – All The Nightmares” [Alex de Campi/Lion Forge/144pgs], Magnus is at a loss with his powers. The idea is that a suit is what allows him to becomes superhuman. The women he is surrounded with including girlfriend Sasha, almost act as his clan but he feels that he doesn’t deserve to be with them. They are accomplished both in life and in education while he finds himself lacking. After he escapes from his original captors, he reaches out to a Federal agent who understands his plight. Said Federal Agent also just happens to be head of a secret section of the FBI. While certain elements of this perception are circumspect at best and require a certain suspension of disbelief, it allows the story to establish Magnus’ want of his old life or at least the superficial joy of it. His brother Drew in some megalomaniacal fashion is preparing to brainwash most of the planet through an app and a satellite link provided by his and Magnus’ mother who is the head of Alistat. The story progression is fairly standard and takes a bit longer than necessary to kick in. It is only when an older Zelda-like lady enters in at the bequest of the Federal Agent does the graphic novel kick up a notch. Her attachment to the astral plane and her ability to transport Magnus gives the story the ability to jump both in meta as well as literal structures. The pace is upped immediately but the progressions become, though fun in certain ways, akin to “Moonraker” in many respects. While a certain part of resolution and transcendence happens on the way to space both inside and outside the mind, “The Astonisher” seemingly exists in his own world where the ability to act is just reasoned in the aspect that he has no other choice.

D

By Tim Wassberg

This is just my fault; I need to stop requesting second volumes in indy series in which I start lost and work from there.

Still a series with some great elements (most of the dialogue and action scenes, the mental health angle, and especially the older female characters) stranded in a slightly too trope-y D-list superhero universe. The human villains in particular feel overfamiliar, and it's tricky taking their parasitic overlord seriously when he's referred to as Big Red, which to me will always primarily be an insalubrious North London rock pub.

(Netgalley ARC)