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THE POWER COMPANY #1
"Executive Search"
Recommended (7/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Like most of the one-shots that preceded this first issue, The Power Company #1 is an example of a well-constructed super-hero tale. However, also like those one-shots, it is very conventional, offering little in the way of surprises or new twists, and at this point the team doesn't stand out much from the Titans, JSA, JLA, or any of a dozen other super-hero teams. Busiek walks a fine line between giving too much information to those who dutifully followed the "Powersurge" one-shots and keeping it accessible for those who didn't, and just the glimpses we get of how these different personalities interact is promising. In addition, Grummett's artwork blends very nicely with Von Grawbadger's inks, providing the series with some solid artwork. So far, that's my overall impression of Power Company...
it's solid. Not thrilling, but solid.
Obviously, the most intriguing and special thing about The Power Company
is the idea behind the book, a group of super-heroes for hire who operate the
way a law firm does. This is their twist, but in the first issue Busiek doesn't
make much use of it, instead having a training exercise and a museum break-in
that wouldn't have felt out of place in any given super-hero team book. There
are hints of the intriguing corporate side of the book, notably with the
dialogue between Josiah Power and Skyrocket, but those interesting elements are
given scant panel time so that we can instead be reintroduced to all of the
characters, including the villainous Cyber.
Busiek was in a bit of a
no-win situation as far as exposition and character development goes. The nuts
and bolts of the characters, the various origins, have already been done in the
"Powersurge" one-shots, but he can't expect people to have bought all of them,
so he has to hedge his bets with recap. Unfortunately, for those of us who did
read all of those one-shots, a lot of that material is repetitive, such as
Skyrocket's page-long inner monologue about her powers and her parents or her
expository reactions to the rest of her teammates. In fairness, I don't know
that Busiek could have had any less exposition than he did and still called this
a first issue, but the feeling I got after reading all of the introductory
one-shots was one of mostly treading water.
One aspect of the series
really impressed me, though, and that was the artwork by Tom Grummett and Wade
Von Grawbadger. Grummett's work is marked by strong anatomy and storytelling,
but he often lacks the flair of more dynamic "name" artists. However, his work
here is quite impressive, getting a softer polish with Von Grawbadger's inks and
delivering some really nice action scenes, particularly Skyrocket's early battle
with members of the Cadre. His action scenes in this issue are pretty exciting,
and he gets more than a few chances to show that the heroes and villains know
how to make an entrance.
The components for an excellent series are all there with Power Company.
It has a strong creative team, a good central premise and interesting
characters. While it's not clicking for me quite yet, I have hopes that the more
unusual aspects of the series will start to show up a little more now that the
first issue, heavy on the action and establishing character, has gotten the more
mundane basics out of the way.
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