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THE POWER COMPANY SKYROCKET #1
"First Gleamings"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Joe Staton
Inks: Christian Alamy
Colors: Carla Feeny & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
The elements of the Power Company origins are beginning to look a little familiar, and the wisdom of using quite so many one-shots to launch a series looking less and less wise. In this issue, we learn all we need to about Skyrocket and her powers and personality, but the elements of the story run very close to the same elements that were in Striker Z, Witchfire and Josiah Power, and I'm getting a little tired of reading the same basic story over and over again, especially when I know how much better Busiek can be. That said, Skyrocket is an interesting origin story, and the character is another gem, with unusual powers and well-thought-out motivations. Though I'm rapidly losing interest in the "Powersurge" one-shots, my interest in the characters of The Power Company ongoing is still
there.
Celia Forrestal is a great
character, and it's clear that Busiek has put a lot of thought into how her
background and the region she came from have formed the woman she is when we
read about her. Her patriotism, which led her to the military; her friendly
relations with her parents; her desire to do good, they're all well-established
and believable aspects of the character. I also appreciate that Busiek is
addressing one of the big foibles of DC and Marvel alike, namely why there
aren't super-heroes outside of the coastal cities. In addition, he addresses
another foible, the small number of black characters, without making Celia feel
like a token or a stereotype.
Though the dialogue is
sometimes clunky, reading quite plainly like something meant to inform readers
rather than like actual conversation, Busiek does impart a lot of information
with it. The relationships between Celia and her parents and the brilliance of
her parents is an important part of Skyrocket, and it is made quite clear in the
reunion sequence in the lab.
It was a nice treat also to
see Hal Jordan presented as he was, rather than retrofitted into the psychotic
he has become in the DC Universe. Using him to inspire Celia, as Superman
inspired Josiah Power, is a nice way to tie the Power Company into the DC
Universe without relying overmuch on its ever-shifting continuity.
As far as artwork goes, Joe
Staton has generally been hit-or-miss with me, and I didn't find his work here
all that exciting, but it was certainly professional and clear. I noticed that
the facial details on various characters, including Celia and Green Lantern,
seemed to shift on just about every panel, but that could also be down to inker
Christian Alamy, whose work seems an odd fit for Staton's work.
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