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POWERS #14
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Image Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Colors: Peter Pantazis
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Copy Editor: KC McCrory
Price: $2.95 US/$4.75 CAN |
It seems to
me that the hardest thing to do in writing, whether it's comics, movies,
television, whatever is to write a solid ending. "I had a problem with the
ending" is probably one of the most-often overheard phrases when leaving a movie
theatre, behind only "I paid eight bucks for that?!" This of course is my cutesy
and overdrawn way of saying that, in regards to the Olympia story, I had a
problem with the ending. The book is almost as great as it always is, with some
really funny character moments and some black humor about cops and dead bodies,
a great chase scene, another fantastic interrogation scene and a cliffhanger
that makes me want to reach into the book and demand the next issue right f'ing
now... but I had a problem with the ending.
My problem, to be blunt, is
that it wraps up way too fast. Bendis's pacing is usually pretty good, and if he
errs, it's usually on the slow side, which is often for the better. This issue
is paced pretty well, with a leisurely and funny look around Olympia's home and
a great ramping up of tension as they get onto their suspect, but it felt like
it could have used about two more pages. The reversal of having caught the
villain and realizing they'd been had was a bit too quick, and the ending (and
funny bit therein) lost a bit of its punch as a result.
Of course, after leading the
review with the problem I had, I should go on to talk about everything that I
liked about the issue. Which was a lot. Bendis has developed a knack for two
very specific things in his cop/private eye comics work, one of which is the
interrogation scene and another of which is the gallows humor that cops engage
in at a crime scene or in the morgue. Bendis and Oeming do a hilarious gag at
Deena's expense that just had me laughing out loud, despite the presence of a
dead body who died a tragic death. That the incident allowed us a little insight
into police procedure and pecking order was a nice bonus.
I also quite enjoyed the look into Olympia's private life. This is the kind of thing Powers excels at, examining what superhumans would be like if they were super humans and not archetypes in
capes. There's something really cool about a secret lair, and it was a lot of
fun to see Deena and Walker in Olympia's home talking about it and relating it
to Walker's own experiences.
There are a couple of the
other traditional staples of this book here, done as well as they always are.
The questioning of suspects, which uses a lot of small panels, repetitive
dialogue and a general sense of banging your head against a wall really gets the
feeling of questioning multiple suspects across. That the story shifts so
smoothly into a chase scene, going from mundane to intense, is a tribute to the
skills of Oeming. Oeming, by the by, gets in a few typically gorgeous shots as
well, such as Olympia's moonlit flight over the city, the double-page spread of
Olympia's lair and the unexpectedly vivid sex scene. Kudos also to Peter
Pantazis, who has picked up the coloring of the book from Pat Garrahy with
relative ease, and who does a bang-up job on this issue.
Then there's the ending. I've gone into my problems with the pacing early on, so instead I'll just mention that the last couple of panels were downright evil. I was all set to turn the page and see what was going on, what new development we were seeing in the case, when suddenly... I hit the letters column. Funny as always, but as I read the whole thing, I was reminded of the agonizing wait that I only seem to feel between episodes of The West Wing or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which, though it sounds
painful, is a very good indicator of how much the story has me hooked.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
