Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Matt Cherniss & Peter Johnson
Art by: Michael Gaydos
Colored by: Lee Loughridge
Lettered by: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics
There are some days when I’m sitting in my room, throwing a tennis ball at the ceiling that I sit and wonder what my life would be like if things had been different. What if I hadn’t been bitten by that radioactive sloth that has given me powers beyond that of a normal sloth. If I hadn’t dipped my fingers into radioactive waste that allowed me the power to destroy pop-ups on porn sites with uncanny speed. Not to mention I’m a comic fan, which means that I’m trying to help a world that hates and despises me…
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to never have had these powers. Powerless answers these questions – except having to do with real heroes.. and sadly, not me.
Story!
Doctor Watts wakes up from a coma to find out he doesn’t live in a world with Galactus and Hulk and Thor. What a boring life. He’s been out for unknown reasons for the last three days. As we go throughout his normal day, we start to realize that the travelers through Watt’s life are a who’s who of the Marvel U. The Richards family is common practice doctors. Emma Frost is a hottie with some relationship issues. Matt Murdock is a lawyer doing his best to fight Wilson Fisk in the courtrooms.
At the end of the issue we are given one last person who doesn’t have powers. He’s the one that you could nitpick about, as he has a modified version of one of his powers on the last page of the book. It’s an arguable point, but I think they could have done it a bit better. That is, unless we learn why this specific Marvelite NEEDS to have this apparatus strapped to his wrists. Yes, I’m being vague. Only vaguely vague though, so you can figure it out.
Art!
With a title like ‘Powerless’ and the cover showing three very normal people with their character counterparts above, I’d like to think that you can figure out what you are going to be reading about. The bland grey background even shows that the world we’re entering into is much more boring than the world of superheroes and villains.
Michael Gaydos is good at what he does. His style is by far not a standard – it’s gritty and dark, and thick and completely different than the standard glossy mock anime style that has been attacking the rest of the world. We haven’t seen much of him since Alias went to the Pulse, so it’s nice to see that he is still doing well.
Overall!
It’s a great concept, and if Marvel had their own version of ‘Elseworlds’ this would be their big title right now. I would have bought a double-sized version of this in prestige format. Without question. I hope that it sticks with those we’ve been introduced to already, and doesn’t do a ‘shove em all in’ that happens quite a bit in these stories. (1602 was good, but geezus!)
