Gail Simone is crashing into a new comic book universe this year as the prime architect of LionForge's Catalyst Prime superhero line.

The veteran scribe and the newly minted universe of characters will collide later this year, with Simone making her LionForge debut Sunday afternoon at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The Catalyst Prime line was conceived of by LionForge co-founders Carl Reed and David Steward II, and over the past year the publisher has launched an expansive variety of super comics without the capes and tights.

In a CBR-exclusive first interview on the hiring, Simone promised her arrival to the universe of Accell, Noble, Summit and more series won't be a reboot or a reset of any kind. Instead, the writer plans on tossing her ideas and excitement into the mix with the current crop of Catalyst Prime creators like Joe Casey, David F Walker, Amy Chu, Jan Duursema, Larry Stroman and more. Below, Simone opens up on why she's taken on the new challenge of leading her own superhero universe.

CBR: Gail, you're coming on as a major force on LionForge's Catalyst Prime line, but what exactly does this job entail? I'm sure there will be some writing in the cards, but do you view your role here as a more editorial or collaborative one long term?

Gail Simone: Oh, definitely collaborative. The Catalyst Prime Universe is this wonderful, vibrant reality. It’s smart and surprising. I keep saying it reminds me of when I was a kid, reading my first X-men comics, and realizing there was this whole world, this whole reality, that I could just plunge into headfirst.

My role, which we will be talking about a lot more soon, is to help shape and connect the universe, to keep that feeling as we expand and grow. The CPU works differently from most publishers: the characters can age, change, die, they have lives. I get to help steer the speedboat, but the drivers are our fabulous team of writers and editors and artists.

That’s a weird analogy. I’m sticking with it. I bet that’s a weird-looking boat, though.

This is an entirely new superhero universe that is still forming its mythos and identity. I know you've done plenty of "ground up" superhero stories with things like Welcome To Tranquility and Leaving Megalopolis, but leading an entire line of books seems like a whole new challenge. Was that "leveling up" a part of why you wanted to take this on?

This is the truth, the very first thing that got me excited was the line-up of writers. It’s people I am already a fan of. But yes, absolutely, this is a thing I haven’t done before.

When I started to immerse myself in the books themselves, it’s easy to fall in love with the characters. I want Noble, Summit and Accell to be out there, to be in front of as many eyeballs in as many places as possible. And I became very enamored of what Lion Forge stands for, it’s the exact same thing I have tried to emphasize for a long time…comics for everybody.

And at the end of the day, it’s a new sandbox. There’s just unlimited potential.

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Expand on that. What has been your impression of LionForge's work on this line to date from David and Carl's conception to what Joe and the many creators assembled in the first wave? What are you hoping to carry over from that launch (both in terms of ideas and creators) and what things do you want to mix up?

All of it. We want to carry over all of it. My feelings on reboots are well-known. I get why they happen, sometimes they might be necessary, but in the end, my preference is always this: Every story happened, every story counts. And Lion Forge feels strongly about that, that bond of trust with the reader.

And again, they hired people whose work I already follow. The books are a pleasure to read, the characters are fresh and smart. But it’s a sizable line now, and I know from experience it helps to have someone connecting the dots.

The promise of Catalyst Prime has always been a superhero universe that looks a lot more like our modern world in terms of diversity. What does that commitment mean to you as a storyteller? What do you think are the best ways to commit to that ethos both on and off the page?

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I feel like the answer to this is simple, hire awesome people who are looking to the future and not seventy years ago. No one loves the icon characters more than I do, but the talent pool in comics is so vast and deep now, we don’t have to settle. We can pick the best people and make the best comics, comics that we are all proud of. Comics for everybody.

Storywise, there's a wide variety of concepts in the Catalyst Prime line. There's epic heroic discovery in Summit. More grounded team work in Incidentals. Hyper-fast action in Accell. Political thriller superheroics in Superb and on and on. What are the characters or concepts that you most want to get your hands on and why?

Oh, I want the writers of the books to stay on the books and do their best work forever. But I also want to get my hands on all those characters.

There’s a way to do both.

The Catalyst Prime universe began with a big bang of sorts with the arrival of the mysterious asteroid a little over a year ago that got the ball rolling. What kind of moment, event or story are you going to crash into this universe with?

I don’t want to reveal too much, but I think we need to see the anvil that these characters are forged upon. We need them to have an unshakable force beyond their imagination.

That’s all I can say for now.

But it’s gonna kick SO much ass.