Reviewer: Daron Kappauff
Story Title: The Sellouts Part 4
Quick Rating: I’m beginning to expect more from this title
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils by: Mike Avon Oeming
Inks by: Mike Avon Oeming
Colored by: Peter Pantazis
Lettered by: Ken Bruzenak
Editor: Jamie S Rich & KC McCrory
Publisher: Image
Well, we got another issue of Powers this week, and well that’s about how I’m starting to feel about this series. When this series began, I couldn’t wait each month to get the next one, now it’s more like “hey another issue of Powers…there’s another title for me to pick up this week.†It’s not that the series is bad all of a sudden, it just doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere. Each story arc is fairly similar to the last, and each issue there within could move the story along a lot faster than it actually does.
Now I know Bendis is known for his dialogue, and all thought it’s good, it’s really getting to be too long winded. For instance, the first 10 pages of this issue focus on Detective Kutter as he questions Red Hawk’s butler. The diatribe goes on and on and only leads to the arrest of a person, who though affiliated to the deceased, had nothing to do with it, and the detective pretty much knew that before he went to make the arrest. What’s the point? The only time we see Detectives Walker and Pilgrim is in a rehashed scene from last issue. Now I’m all for developing secondary characters, but I want some forward momentum in my story as well.
You could probably skip this issue and pick up the next without skipping a beat. In fact the more I think about it, with this series you could probably be safe with picking up the first issue of the story arc and the last. Everything in between is mostly clever yet monotonous dialogue that barely moves the story along. Everything you really need to know happens in the first issue and in the last…this may be the way I start reading this series.
As much as I might be criticizing this series, I have to give credit where credit is due. Michael Oeming is the driving force of this series. His dark, animation style, of pencils and inks are what bring me back to this title month after month. Why this guy isn’t doing work for any of the Big Boys I’ll never understand. I’m sure he loves doing all this creator owned stuff, but you’d think the guy would want to collect a paycheck, and considering his talent I would think somebody out there would want to hire him.
