Welcome to the new normal.
Powers Vol. II, # 1
W: Brian Michael Bendis
Ill: Michael Avon Oeming
C: Peter Pantazis
What Has Happened Before:
Christian Walker, former superhero and current police detective, and
his partner, Deena Pilgrim, are assigned to the force’s Powers
division, crimes that involve super-human victims or offenders.
In the wake of a superhero going insane and nearly killing Pilgrim, the
use of all super-powers is banned by a presidential order.
What Happens Now:
The “good” Powers have obeyed the law and all but disappeared.
The bad Powers ignore the law and are in the process of carving up the
city. An unregistered Powers, believed killed, spontaneously
awakens and kills the investigating detective. The news of this
spreads and urges Pilgrim to return to work, perhaps too soon.
After some initial awkwardness, she and Walker re-team to go after the
rogue Powers. Just as they make their move, unexpected—and all
but unbelievable—help arrives.
When Powers Are Outlawed…
Anyone familiar with this excellent “hero noir” series will see exactly
zero changes for the jump from Image to the new Icon creator-owned
Marvel imprint, and of course, that’s an great thing. BMB
does note in the back of the book the hows and whys of the move, but
this is irrelevant to the brand new post-Powers-ban world that we’re
introduced to, in typical style, with news commentary and
person-on-the-street interviews interspersed in the narrative.
Yet again my man Bri knocks off a supporting character in dramatic
fashion! Whassup wit dat? No, I’m nowhere near as invested
in this one (and neither are any of the characters in the book, for that
matter), but it drives home the point: our Powers squad is even
more hindered in an already impossible job now that the good Powers
have respected the new law and faded away…almost. This bad boy
ends with a bang, though when you see it, you’ll realize how logical it
is. Great stuff as always, though, and, if you think about it, a
great allegory for the gun control issue: now that there are no longer
any superhuman good guys to keep the superhuman bad guys down, they
overrun the city and the police are powerless (heh!) to stop
them. Given the high likelihood that Bendis is at least
left-leaning, if not a full-on lib, this is a curious turn. He
does have Walker mention something about having relied on the good
Powers too much, but we’ll have to see if he finds a clever way to
neutralize the bad guys without the super good guys coming back.
Yeah, right.
Recommendation: Buy