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Primal Force
proposal and artwork by Kurt Belcher
The pendulum
swung -- tingling with power.
A young
hero in Belfast caught the first flash and knell, although his
pendulum was in a small house nearly forty miles distant. He immediately
knew that he was needed, grew a cage of ivy around his feral nemesis,
the Dogman, and flew away for home.
In a tent on an icy plain in northern Greenland, a flash from
a similar pendulum had its keeper digging deep into the bottom
of his travel bag searching for it. Although he knew any call
from this quarter was by definition urgent, he ignored the bell
softly tinkling in his mind and tucked the pendulum back into
his bag. 'Later,' thinks 
Black Condor, ' -- a few days more and I can answer.'
A shell
of a man that never existed twitched to life in an extraordinary
cave in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. His pendulum called from within,
directing him to his purpose. The young ones would not return
for some time…a great wind arose and carried him away.
In an evil
house in Hong Kong, the pendulum around its wearer's neck tingled
with life. The Claw told him to silence it, and he listened. He
had more important things to do than go back to those losers again.
Still, in the back of his mind, protected from the prying senses
of the Claw, he made a promise that he would answer the call when
the opportunity arose.
A tall dark-skinned man suddenly reached inside his shirt to
feel the power emanating from his pendulum. For the moment, the
search for his father would have to be abandoned -- he seated
himself at one of the 
computers in the Keystone City Library and transmitted himself
across a modem line to New York City. It would be some time before
he would return, and find just how close his objective was.
In the City,
a clay man born and reborn again, waited for help to arrive … praying to an unknown Creator that they would hear and respond.
PRIMAL
FORCE is meant to explore the darkened corners of the DC Universe
-- although there was another PRIMAL FORCE series before, I don't
think they achieved this aim very well. The group was too much
like a superhero team, and there was too little supernatural events
taking place. With a supernatural group, stories should be told
that genuinely scare the reader -- another point at which the
original series failed miserably.
The group
called the Brotherhood of the Ley will inhabit the Mystery Mansion
of the deceased hero of the universal Crisis, Mark Merlin, a.k.a.
Prince Ra-Man. After their first meeting place is destroyed and
tainted, the will to the Mansion is discovered in the possession
of the group's deceased leader, Dr. Mist. The Mansion will be
kept in good order by the group's housekeeper Wotan, formerly
a Golden Age villain. Also living in the Mansion is a number of
other supernatural characters, some classic, others never-before-seen.
In the course
of the many tales told about the Leymen, new members will take
the oath of the Prime Ley, while others will resign for various
reasons. There will never be more than a manageable number in
the group at a time, both in terms of cases they investigate,
and in terms of being written. Red Tornado will feel that his
place is no longer with the group, but as an advisor to the youthful
team of heroes called Young Justice. Although there will be no
outright replacement for him, another member will fill the spot
left empty by his absence -- and Tornado WILL return to help the
team from time to time. Another being that does not actually join
the Leymen, but will be there as a kind of advisor, is the ex-Atom
villain, ex-Swamp Thing villain, and ex-New Guardians member called
Jason Woodrue (a.k.a. Floronic Man, Floro, Wood-Rue). Last seen
nearly destroyed, and tending to his regrowth at the end of the
SWAMP THING series, Woodrue is brought to the Mystery Mansion
by a mysterious figure and left there -- soon spawning diminutive,
twisted versions of himself.
Villains
will range from demonic threats like the Demons Three, summoned
by a misguided sorcerer -- to the return of Amethyst's nemesis
Dark Opal, as the president of a large corporation. Although there
has rarely been interaction between the regular DC Universe and
Vertigo since the split between the two, I would like there to
be interaction -- with appearances from a lot of established DC
magical characters. Including everyone from Arion, through to
Doctor Occult, the Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, the Parliament
of Trees and many other Vertigo-oriented characters.
Most of
the stories will involve the Leymen members directly, including
cases that they take and such. There will also be 'ghost stories',
historical bits and pieces, dream-tales, imaginary stories, etc.
told in the course of the series. Each of them gives crucial insight
into the personalities and pasts of characters that work with
and within the Leymen.
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