Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Mike Avon Oeming
Colored by: Peter Pantazis
Lettered by: Ken Bruzenak
Editor(s): James Lucas Jones and K.C. McCrory
Publisher: Icon/ Marvel Comics
I’m a big enough man to admit it. I like the comedian bookending technique Bendis has used on this arc, even if, as comedians, these individuals aren’t particularly funny. However, I am not sure I entirely grasp how it all fits together. I mean, I understand that this month the guy on stage is talking about the one moment where you can change your life by what you say or what you don’t. I understand how that fits in with Pilgrim’s current IA troubles and, in a nice twist, how it highlights Walker’s choice regarding a certain cosmic costume (a nice plot swerve there it was). What I cannot seem to make fit is the disparate comedian routines from each issue. How, for example, does this issue’s perspective on turning points and last issue’s diatribe against the anonymity of the internet link up? What are the ties that bind this technique together? Until I can strike upon that, it is a little more than a neat technique.
This complaint (or admittance of my stupidity) aside, this is still an excellent issue. As mentioned above, I enjoyed the ending which revealed the comedian’s speech did not just refer to Pilgrim, but Walker as well. It is an interesting turning point for the book. If it was any other title, I might grouse about how dangerous a move it was and one that could, possibly, divert the book from its original premise. Powers, however, has delighted in this sort of thing in the past and still landed upright, and I have no doubt that this will be the case here as well.
For me, the two best scenes in the book are Pilgrim’s rescue from IA by her captain, giving that minor character a real chance to shine, and Walker’s “Someday you’ll understand” comments to Pilgrim as he tries to get her to open up about what happened in the interrogation box. It, of course, highlights Bendis’ already well known skill with dialogue, but it also serves to reveal pieces of the characters we have not seen before. The captain has never really progressed beyond a man who divvies out assignments to the detectives, but with one three-line burst, he displays a dedication to his colleagues that has heretofore gone unexplored. In Walker’s case, we know he cares for Pilgrim, that much is obvious. However, he is the type of guy who cares in silence and never takes the time to articulate it. To have him overcome his typical attitude (he has only done it once before, when Pilgrim was in a coma) shows the seriousness of what Pilgrim is going through as well as the level of his commitment to her. Strong stuff.
All of this would not be possible without Oeming, whose art style would seem so theoretically opposed to this book, but is, in fact, perfect. Witness the rolling destruction that leaves a crater in the middle of a suburban city street for evidence of how this “cartoony” style never fails to deliver the level of mayhem that is required in this title. And, because it would not be an issue of Powers without it, Oeming manages to work in a gratuitous topless shot. Well done, sir, well done.
