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POWERS #18 (Best of the Week!)
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Avon Oeming
Colors: Peter Pantazis
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Copy editor: K.C. McCrory
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
This issue of Powers boasts the least amount of actual plot than perhaps any other issue to come before it, but it also stands out as one of the most powerful in the series thus far. Bendis captures an authentic cop-action feel here, and even though it's replete with super-hero elements, it still comes off as a cop story, not one about fantastic heroes and villains duking it out.
Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim finds themselves in way over their heads when they try to bring the powerfully fiery Boogie Girl in for questioning over the murder of her one-time teammate. Fortunately for the detectives, the surreal heroine named Zora hits the scene, and she and the two cops give chase across town. And as if things weren't hard enough, a news chopper gets in the way, looking to get some ratings-generating footage.
Oeming captures the chaotic sense of the chase in this issue wonderfully. Peppered in with those hectic scenes, though, are moments of fearful serenity. You know those times when you can see disaster striking almost in slow motion but there's no time for you to do anything? That's what Oeming manages to convey here as well. Furthermore, Pantazis injects excitement and power into this issue with some bright colors to convey some super-hero effects that contrast nicely with the stark film-noir backgrounds.
Deena really gets to shine in this issue (and in this story arc in general, actually). Usually, she's arund for the wisecracks, but here, we see her acting on instinct, and we learn what it is about her that made her want to be a cop. She's not about pointing guns at bad guys or free donuts or power trips. She genuinely wants to protect people, to keep bad things from happening, and it tears her apart when she can't.
Larger-than-life, ultra-violent super-hero storytelling like The Authority continues to be popular, and for good reason. Here, Bendis takes a look at that level of action, but from a completely different point of view. While other books focus on the superhuman, the spotlight here is on the human element, the bystanders. That, along with the strong police drama riff that's been a part of this book from the start, makes for a riveting read.
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