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Powers Vol. 1

8/10

By Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming, Pat Garrahy

Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? Powers is an innovative and exciting new comic that keeps getting better. With one foot firmly planted in the classic crime noir/police thriller world, and the other kicking its way into the superhero community, Powers creates a cool hybrid-genre and comes closer to the feel of a movie than any other current comic (Preacher is an exception.) The basic premise behind the series is, "What's it like to be a city cop who investigates superhuman crimes?"

The first eight issues of the book are a complete storyline, focusing on the murder of a beloved superhero, Retro Girl. What's her relationship to our protagonist, grim-faced detective Christian Walker? And how will Walker's new partner, spunky rookie Deena Pilgrim, fit into an overwhelming, dangerous world of inexplicable powers?

Bendis has become a celebrity in comic coteries mainly for his preternaturally realistic dialogue, and Powers is his best showcase for that. The speech balloons are laid out so you can really tell more than one person is speaking at once, mimicking the reality of a busy street or crowded police station - a sensation that is taken for granted in movies, impossible in prose, and rarely harnessed in comics. Bendis and Oeming also take advantage of timing, freezing a panel for pauses in the dialogue and using empty black space as silences. The series is both suspenseful and often humorous.

The collection itself is probably one of the best ever put together in comics, akin to a DVD Director's Cut of the original issues. Not only is it bound and printed beautifully, with a new cover, but it includes every extra you could imagine. An Oeming sketchbook, a series of Powers strips that ran in Comic Shop News, a gallery of unused art and covers, and more. And the best added feature? Bendis's original script for issue one. All together, a nice package for a ridiculously low price. Truly a gem.

 

 

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