Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Coloring: Peter Pantazis
Lettering: Ken Bruzenak
Editing: James Lucas Jones
Design: Keith Wood
Powers is a book that has reigned as one of those books that I read every month at the top of my pile. It has a strong voice that is all its own, and even switching from Image to ‘Icon (Marvel)’ didn’t change that in the least. It has always, and will always, be Bendis and Oeming’s baby. That is the way it should always be as well.
Now, given its long reign as one my favorite books, I have come to expect that each issue should be a twenty-three page mountain of joy and comic goodness. Sadly, I’ve come across the exception to the rule, but not for the reasons I generally dislike a book… read on and learn.
STORY!
We start at Club Cinderella. First off, this is a new scene to start an issue of Powers. We’ve seen television shows, news reports, but never what looks to be the facade of a comedy club. It is here that we are introduced to a new character who has no name. He begins what we are to only assume is a comedy skit, but by page two you see this is more of a Lenny Bruce like diatribe about the state of liars in the world.
The ‘comic’ goes on for four pages about what we are as compared to what we yearn to be, so when we are finally dropped into the midst of a trailer park – we can only assume that any character we meet after this might be the very same person the comedian is talking about. Could it be the man watching the news? The brunette watching the man? The superhero that lands on the man vivisecting him? It really could be any single one of them.
What is intriguing about this use of an outside character should possibly remind you that both of our main characters, Deena and Walker, are both living secondary lives. Walker, a superhero turned cop after his powers disappeared, and Deena, a cop who has been given superpowers. Throughout the rest of the issue, we flash from the main story of Deena and Walker conducting a report on the previously mentioned vivisected man, to this stand-up gone awry. Each scene gains in intensity until we get the punchline to the entire issue. The dead vivisected man had a secret that he’d been keeping. We’re not sure if it’s the very reason he was killed (murdered?), but the comedian’s ending tells us that maybe we should have been expecting this all along.
Interesting, completely. Necessary, we won’t know for awhile, I don’t think.
ART!
Where the story of this issue is just as I expect from Bendis, giving just enough to make you want to know what is going on in the next issue, the comedian’s commentary aside. The other members of the Powers team let me down this time. Let me explain.
The cover, first off shows the New Retrogirl. She is standing in front of a pile of bodies that we are to assume she took out singlehandedly. Now, historically Powers covers have been not only distinctive (as this one most definitely is), but relevent in one way or another. This seems the type of cover I would expect out of a book like Ultimate X-Men in its sheer pin-up quality.
Now the art itself, that is just as you would expect from Oeming. The thick strong lines that makes Powers so unique, as well as the vibrant coloring. Two smaller details made this book confusing to look at. The lettering is bad. Not the font, but the spacing of the words in the bubbles during, specifically, the comedian sequences. It feels pushed together and badly formed.
Second, the subsequent glaring error is the constant reference to the girl that saw the murder/death happen. She is not only frequently referred to as a blonde, but also as Barbie. Either there is a joke that we won’t understand for a few more issues, or somewhere between writing and coloring, a mistake was made. At first it’s disconcerting, but then once you realize it, it makes you wonder why this book was edited so poorly.
OVERALL!
The writing in Powers is excellent. The art in Powers is excellent. The problem with this issue is simply that it seems rushed. From the lettering to the editing, it feels like somewhere somebody made a mistake in pushing this one through. It shouldn’t bother me, but I’ve come to expect almost near perfection from this book, so to see such a glaring error (or what I must assume is a glaring error) – it makes it that much more obvious.
