Powers 6

Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming

Rating: worth multiple reads, as a single and as part of the final story

This book continues to be the best value in comics: not only a page-turning, fast-moving story with enough stuff in the art and dialogue to warrant multiple reads, but the snarkiest letter column / self-promotion / interview prose stuff in the business. (Although I'm told that Brubaker does similarly awesome stuff in his creator-owned books, so...) This $4 actually gives an hour or so of entertainment. That's good, and better value than most movies.

The plot outline: a powers homicide that wasn't; snarky police humor; Enki investigating Walker without his knowledge (who's the mysterious voice on the phone?); Walker and Calista fighting a Lovecraftian menace; snarky police humor; and the reveal of this story arc's main homicide.

Considering that every story arc's main homicide has turned out to be something fascinating and destructive (the Superman-analogue going nuts in a not-quite-Irredeemable manner is a notable one), I'm interested to see where this is going to go. I kind of gather that the victim - unknown through this point - is a New Gods-esque figure. This would lead you to believe that the messy homicide scene is going to reveal some fascinating, dark, and powerful stuff going on. I look forward to the journey.

The main fight scene, in a temple in the Andes, was confusing, intense, and mostly dialogue-free. One of the things that I love about Bendis is how he feels comfortable letting his artist "carry the load," if you will. This fight was against a mysterious and scary set of beings in a world with slightly different physics; witty banter and jokes and bragging would not be appropriate. Plus, Walker's been through this a few times. Also interesting is how the color palette shifts around during the battle: yellows and whites for the first part; and reds and yellows for the ending. The background colors and general shading is different in the temple fight scenes than in the human, homicide world, and I appreciate that. I admit to not really understanding Walker's powers - I think they're something like Green Lantern, but not color based - but that might be my inability to pay attention more than Bendis's explanations or lack thereof.

The dialogue in the police sections was biting and sarcastic as usual. Definitely a high point. The art was gruesome on the new corpses, particularly the featured stiff, and I'm entertained by the new and gross ways that Oeming seems to find to display these corpses.

The letter column was its usual entertaining self, with a funny bit on Planet of the Apes and the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. The interview with David Mamet was cool, as well, talking about his drawing and writing and other interesting stuff. A good read; I admit to skimming it right now, but it'll get a good, solid study during my third or fourth read of the comic.



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