Powers, Vol. 1: Who Killed Retro Girl?

Powers (2000) #1

by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming

Heroes glide through the sky on lightning bolts and fire. Flamboyant villains attempt daring daylight robberies. God-like alien creatures clash in epic battle over the nighttime sky. And on the dirty city streets below, Homicide Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim do their jobs. The mysterious death of Retro Girl was the case that launched one of the most celebrated comic series of the last decade and now...this newly formatted essential collection of the very first Powers storyline will introduce you to a world that won the prestigious Eisner award and made Bendis and Oeming comic superstars. This completely redesigned, reformatted, and reworked collection is perfect for new readers and old and will match the Bendis essential trades that Icon will be releasing throughout the year. Start your powers library here!!

"Bendis is the funnypages descendant of Sam Fuller, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino..."- Entertainment Weekly

"Bendis has rapidly become a true master of comic book creation!"- Comic Buyer's Guide

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indie-Punk hard-ass Deena Pilgrim always wanted to work in the 55th Precinct with the man with a huge physique, super broad shouldered, dark haired, veteran Walker, so effective in bringing down super powered villains; and she finally gets her chance, just as they get the 'Who Killed Retro Girl' case - the savage killing of one of the world's most loved female superheroes!

Calista is a little girl orphaned by a crime; Pilgrim & Walker have to baby sit for a few days. The humour around Calista's foul language is so funny.

In a world where supervillains take injunctions against superheroes, where the police have 'Drainers' to immobilise powered beings, where people get asked "Have you found the Clitoris yet?"... Bendis and Oeming carve out their own fascinating world in this darkly comic and darkly dark police procedural in a world of superpowered people.

Lots of, a very much more realistic approach to superpowered beings, filthy cop humour and lovely dark shadows in the fist-bump to crime noir artwork, takes what could have been an average book, to near the top of the pile and one of the must read graphic novel serials. This is pure Bendis and Oeming magic! 9.5 out of 12, very strong Four Star read. The TV show doesn't even come close :(

2012, 2019, 2017 and 2012 read

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second time reading Who Killed Retro Girl, but it had been 8 yearsish since I'd originally picked this up, so this was basically a fresh do-over for me.
I didn't remember whodunnit or why they'd dunnit, and I'd certainly forgotten why all the heroes seemed to trust the main character, Christian.



The gist is that this cop gets saddled with a little girl and a new/nosey partner on the same day that the heroine named Retro Girl turns up dead.
Things happen, secrets are revealed, friendships are formed, cases are closed, etc.



You know what I liked?
The story was compact and not overly wordy. I'm not a big fan of filling every little space in a comic book with WORDS. That kinda defeats the purpose of reading picture books, you know? If I want to read a novel, I'll read a goddamn novel.
Anyway.
Yeah, this was just a cool little story.



I don't know why I didn't keep reading this one the first time around, but I've already got the next 3 volumes ready to go this time. Check it out if you're looking for a capes n crime story.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s Brian Michael Bendis’ formula for this series:



Throw in a pinch of The Incredibles and a dash of Raymond Chandler and you have Powers.



The skinny: Retro Girl, a seemingly invulnerable super hero has been murdered and it’s up to Detective Christian Walker and his new partner Deena Pilgrim to solve the case.



Walker harbors a deep secret, one that he does not easily reveal.



Along the way, Walker is saddled with a child, Calista, from a police raid.



And kids ask the gosh darndest questions.



The investigation into Retro Girl’s death continues apace.



…but still…



Bendis manages to blend two not that disparate literary genres into a singular whole that for the most part works. Bendis’ trademark wit is here and the story is well-paced without sinking under the myriad subplots and characters.

Bottom Line: This early in the Powers run, it’s not Grade A Bendis, but it’s entertaining enough. The art is cartoon-y, jaggedy and diagonally and not my cuppa. This was the Deluxe edition and so had a script and explanations of the Easter eggs and such in the back of the book.

Recommended for fans of Bendis, crime stopper books, Brubaker's noir stuff and readers who want their superhero books told from a different perspective. Not recommended for people who want to know what a clitoris is.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second or third time through this series. And if anything, I'm enjoying it more this time around.

This is one of the rare superhero comics that you don't have to know anything about superheros to enjoy. (The few others I can think of are The Authority and Astro city.)

Truth is, in many ways, this isn't a comic about superheroes. Or rather, I should say it's not *just* a comic about heroes. It's more a mystery and a police procedural than anything. As the main characters are cops that have to do their job in a world where there are people with Powers.

There's some satire of the superhero comics in here, but it's gentle and subtle. By which I mean if you know a lot about comics, you'll see it and smile. But if you don't, you won't spend any time scratching your head wondering what's going on. I can say this for a fact because reading the series this time, I got several jokes that I wasn't even aware of my first time around.

While this is a long ongoing series, it's more a series of connected stories than a great sprawling unending open-ended narrative. (Think of it like the Dresden Files, rather than the Batman cannon.) This is nice, as it gives you the best of both worlds: narrative closure *and* long term story arcs and character development that isn't available in shorter fiction.

Best of all, the comic is consistently written and drawn by the same writer and artist. That means the entire story is consistent in terms of its quality and tone throughout the 12 issues I've read. That's something you don't see very often, especially in Superhero comics.


Is it worth your time? Absolutely.

Dealbreakers: Avoid this is you utterly can't stand superheroes, cussing, or the thought of an issue where you see two monkeys having some fairly graphic sex.

Me? I'm okay with those things. So I enjoyed the hell out of this. Five stars.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a reason I keep going back to the well and reading this series again and again. Because it's fantastic! This is peak Bendis to me. The dialog is spot on. The stories are interesting. The chemistry between Walker and Pilgrim is excellent. Bendis is top notch at writing crime comics and police procedurals. This is a bit of both.

I love all the little easter eggs Bendis and Oeming throw in there too, with other creators' superheros showing up in those little interview segments. Here you had Madman, some of the Atomics, Shadowhawk, and Savage Dragon to name a few.

Oeming's art is very stylistic. It's definitely influenced by Bruce Timm and Batman: the Animated Series. I dig it, but I get why others might not.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two coppers investigate the death of a superhero in Powers, Volume 1: The Subtitle Explains the Premise!

I’ve read quite a bit of Bendis’ work but never his best known earliest comic, Powers - until now. And I wasn’t impressed.

It boils down to five issues of Detective Man and Detective Woman (I forget their names but those suffice) talking to lots of people before a cliched culprit is revealed in the final issue, whose motivations are eye-rollingly obvious and silly. It’s so boring.

From the first page, you’re hit with the Bendyman classic of word balloons - and plenny of ‘em! It rarely lets up, even occasionally forgoing word balloons so that entire blocks of text can be printed down one side of the page with images on the other side. Goody.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the dialogue was even slightly entertaining or relevant but mostly it’s simply a case of Bendis’ verbal diarrhoea in full flow to mask the total absence of an even halfway compelling story. There are literally entire pages where characters repeat the same words to one another to no effect. This is how issue five starts:

“Nothing.”
“You have nothing.”
“I have nothing.”
“Nothing… nothing?”
“I have nothing at all.”
“It’s been two days.”
“You think I don’t know that? I know that.”
“Two days is forever in a murder investigation.”
“I know.”
“And you have nothing.”
“I have two days’ worth of nothing.”
“Damn.”

That’s an entire page! FFS, give this man an editor!

So I can’t really blame artist Michael Avon Oeming for recycling panels over and over within the same page to keep up with Bendis’ nothing script, which he does often, though it does make for a crap-looking comic. Functional is the best I can say of Oeming’s art.

I really hate the trope of having information conveyed via TV news reporters and that trope is used abundantly throughout this book. It’s such a lazy and tedious method. And it’s still more blocks of useless text to wade through that only adds up to “Police are continuing to investigate”.

I’d say the first volume of Powers hasn’t aged well but that would mean that it was originally good and I don’t think it ever was. Maybe it read better 20 years ago before Garth Ennis came along with The Boys and this post-modern take on superheroes was less worn-in. I just don’t think Bendis is that great a writer. He puts out a lot of stuff, and some of it is undeniably good, but the vast majority isn’t and Powers is firmly in the latter, early work or not. Definitely don’t bother with this dreary and overwritten rubbish.

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is only on Brian Bendis’ creator-owned properties that one can get pure unadulterated Bendis. He crafts his stories for trades, often in six-issue, decompressed arc. His signature has always been to bombard his panels with word balloons and caption boxes with dialogue, quips and swearing. He is indeed a potty mouth and only here in the Icon imprint that he can indulge himself, although the occasional damn and hell do sprout from the mouths of his corporate superheroes.

Powers is a police procedural set in a city where superheroes are a as common as paparazzi-hungry reality television stars. Crime fiction has always been Bendis’ strength and his collaboration here with Mike Oeming, created one of the best running superhero crime stories today.

This collected edition is a great entry point into powers and this is well designed hardcover with tons of extras. It has a full color hardcover sans the dust jacket and ancillary material like the original script, character design sketches and other stuff. This is another book I was glad to have found at such a bargain.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another interesting take on superhero comics. In fact this is more police procedural set in world of superheros and villains. Dialogues are believable and very well written and this comic manages to involve people with superpowers and still retain atmosphere of good detective book/tv show.

Who killed the retro girl is great great volume 1 and I can tell already I'm going to love this series.

[Artemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powers vol. 1 had a pretty slow and sloppy start, but at about midpoint it picks up the pace and becomes actually a pretty enjoyable read. Not the best thing by Bendis I've read so far (the best would probably be Alias, with Scarlet a close second), but it's just volume one, and I am really interested to see where this story will go in the following books.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cool police detective story. I like how Brian Michael Bendis writes the dialogues making it as real talk, how people talks in real life. Also, the mood of police investigation and how the murder affect the rest of people in the city is well managed. I like that Bendis didn't treat the readers as idiots since there are too evident clues about the case but he uses the partner of the lead investigator to speak out the doubts and hints that we got along the reading. Highly recommended.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the concept here, and the plot was pretty good. The main character of the detective was fine, and the kid was interesting. The female partner was really annoying and not at all believable as a police office. Did she even detect anything?

The art is not in a style I personally care for, but it worked fine for the tone of the story and it wasn't too hard to tell characters apart (despite all females having the same stereotypical comic figure).



A high three (3.4, say, not quite enough to round up) and I'll continue the series if the library has it.

Note: there is a lot of "bonus material" (aka crap) appended, so it is shorter than in looks, and from my perspective as a reader ended abruptly when I thought there was another plot twist coming.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is #96 of the top 100 graphic novels list.

I loved this interesting new telling of the super-hero world.

Heroes can lose their powers at any time, invulnerable heroes can be killed. Even the villains can occasionally be helpful.
Fascinating!

Christian is the powerful detective leading an investigation in the death of the most popular hero ever, Retro Girl. He also acquires a young girl who was the victim of a hostage situation. He ends up kind of babysitting her while waiting for an absent CPS that never shows up.

Deena Pilgrim, Christian's brand new partner in his investigations. She is cute, sweet, and very inquisitive. Sharper than Christian believes, and much more bull-dogged than he wishes her to be. She also wears belly shirts, which is awesome, because she's hot and cute at the same time.

Their case takes them through 32 super-heroes, and 32 super-villains. They end up questioning a teleporter based on a hotshot up and coming detectives hubris.
The surprise reveal of the killer is kind of a let down, but the end is really cool.

I hear there's a TV show, maybe I'll check that out too.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming detective drama that focuses on law enforcement in the world of caped heroes. There's a gritty wit about this universe that's accentuated by the simplistic, cartoon-ish art style which is contrastingly comprised of a lot of sharp lines and shadows. It's interesting, if a little slow and sluggish at times, and sets up a series that's has potential to be one of the stand out crime noir comic entries.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bendis' mash-up of the noir and super genres was at the time quite innovative, and even today it remains one of the best. That's in large part thanks to Bendis' strong, fun writing paired with Oeming's great, stylized artwork.

The heart of the book is the characters. They immediately leap off the page and make you want to learn more about Walker, Deena, and even Callista (who seems like just a one-off here, but would take on greater importance throughout the series). What's particularly notable is how much of Walker and Callista's future was foreshadowed right here in this first volume.

As for the story: well, it's procedural, not mystery. There are no surprise twists, just a slow walk forward on the evidence. It's actually the weakest part of the storyline, as no one figures out that the graffiti might be important until the end of issue three. (But perhaps that's just an issue with the artwork making it a little too obvious.)

Overall, an extremely strong beginning for a great new series.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powers is a clever blending of superhero and noir crime/mystery fiction. Superheroes not only exist, but they are a normal part of the landscape in this world. And they can end up both as murder victims and perpetrators.

Detective Christian Walker hides a past that is interconnected with superheroes who are involved in the latest murder case, Retro Girl, a seemingly invulnerable crimefighter who is found with her throat slit in a playground underneath a spray-painted phrase, "Kaotic Chick."

This provides for some interesting moments as Walker and his new partner, Deena Pilgrim work to solve the case. Any good police procedural includes a bit about the medical examiner, and one can imagine that trying to do an autopsy on a person whose body is invulnerable could be difficult. There's a bit of black humor inherent in that situation, along with the sadness that someone would murder a woman who was very much beloved to the city at large.

Another fun bit was when the detectives interview various superheroes and supervillains. Any self-respecting superhero-inclined geek would probably get a thrill out of this, and some of their answers were quite hilarious. It's interesting to see the varying level of cooperation in the case that the super-villains provided. Their replies very expressive of their individual personalities, both in the case of the heroes and villains.

The storyline in this is dark, but not too dark. Suitably noirish. The character development is pretty well-done. Christian Walker has the physique of a superhero like Superman or Batman, and the stoic demeanor, specifically the latter crimefighter. He also has a sense of latent anguish that his inquisitive partner ends up digging away at until he reveals a surprising past that provides a bond to the superhero community. It's clear that these super-powered people have very human personalities, both in the good and bad ways, as the reader finds out more about Retro Girl and the people who knew her closest.

Murder is always a tough subject. In this case, the reveal on who killed Retro Girl mirrors the senselessness of violent crime that we see in our real life societies. One would think that a superhero would be safe from such violence, but people always seem to find a way to harm each other.

The artwork is tailored to the noir storyline, with bold lines and figures, and the backgrounds done in shadows with minimal bright colors. The creators of the series studied the use of lighting in cinema, and it shows in the art design of this book.

This is a good start to a series. I'll be coming back because the storyline is very intriguing to me.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike most comic fans I enjoy a lot of bendis stuff. I know some of it isn't loved (X-men and most current comics from here) but I still like a lot of it. I especially LOVE his Daredevil/Ultimate Spider-man run.

So I decided to try out powers. Always seemed like a cool subject matter. Have regular officers deal with superhero issues. Basic right? However built it's in own world it could really turn out to be something very interesting.

What I liked: Christian Walker and Deena make a good combo. Christian typical badass who seems not to want to be bothered by anyone, including his new rookie partner. However the more you get to know each of them the more you understand their difference of how they were raised and also why they are bitter in different ways. On top of that I enjoyed the art a lot. Reminded me of the 90's batman type cartoon feel. The dialog was also a lot of fun, especially at the end. The last Confession room scene was great.

What I didn't like: Some of the dialog was too much. Sometimes taking forever to get to the end of the page because of needless dialog about nothing or repeats. Also the plot feels a little "been there done that" which is surprise since I really was sucked into Jessica Jones which is a very "detective" feel as well.

Overall I enjoyed it. Some flaws but I want to get more invested in this world. At the moment I'd give it a 3-3.5. Let's see how much better it gets!

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't overly care for this one. Just didn't click for me.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! I've never read a comic where there is an investigation into the death of a superhero. People just don't go around murdering superheroes. But this time someone did. This was part police procedural, part superhero comic, and part super awesome! I can't wait to read the rest of this.

[Rauf · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a murder mystery in a world like ours but full of people with superpowers.

It starts out alright.

The indestructible Retro Girl is found dead.
Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim try to find out who did it.

My favorite part is when the police couldn't perform an autopsy on Retro Girl's corpse...Nothing can pierces her skin. At one point they even apply a blowtorch on her and
still her skin is unscathed. And when Walker and Pilgrim asked the (parody of famous) superheroes and villains about Khaotic Chic. The dialogues are also really good. I always love a good banter.


I didn't like the ending though. It reeked of deus ex machina.
And one of the great things about reading a murder mystery is as we read, we always try to guess who the killer is by reading all the clues. Brian Michael Bendis, however, didn't put that much clues and suspects. I didn't feel involved with the pursuit.

Plus the artwork is kind of sloppy sometimes.

Still an OK read, though because ....

........


This work (and 2 other volumes; Roleplay and Little Death) is avalaible for FREE (free! free I tells yah!) at hiddenrobot.com/powers

[Zombieslayer⚡Alienhunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who killed Retro Girl?

All of America is asking themselves this question on the day the body of Retro Girl, a globally beloved superhero and American sweetheart, is found, throat slit and neck broken, outside an elementary school in the city she worked and (presumably) lived in.



It's up to Detective Captain Christian Walker and his new partner, former SWAT member Deena Pilgrim, to answer that question and bring the criminal to justice.

Retro Girl's somewhat dangerous ties to crime boss Jonny Royalle come into question, her relationships with various other superheroes, and... Her relationship with Detective Walker all come under the microscope as the hunt for her killer drags on.
Walker works alone, Deena idolizes him.
Can their partnership ever work?
And if it does, can they ever find out who burned out their city's star?

Powers has been on my TBR for almost two years. One of the first 100 books I marked as 'to-read', actually.
Don't ask me why it took me so long, because I do not have an answer for you.

The story is timeless. A superhero dies, a nation mourns, and their killer must be brought to justice. We've seen it with Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America.
You can't really get burnt out on this storyline, it's gripping.

"Could be a look-a-like."
"It isn't."
"But- how do you know?"
"Just do."

I've read Bendis before, the first volume of his run on Guardians of the Galaxy and one mess of an Avengers comic, but I never really appreciated him as a writer before. The characters are deep and personal, the dialogue is priceless, and the story is tight.
Nothing to complain about and a lot to praise- hence the five stars.

Art specs

Pat Garrahy (respect these artists by knowing their names, people) is a master.
My favorite comic artist is John Romita Jr. and has been for a few years now, but Garrahy is easily on par with the king of Marvel.







My inner eight-year-old is losing her mind because this freaking looks like the DC and Marvel cartoons that filled my childhood years (when I wasn't watching Japanese action cartoons or Loony Toons. Hence my 'violent personality', if you ask my family). I grew up in the 2000's, when this book was published. I can clearly see where all those animators got their inspiration from.
Garrahy is amazing, and I can't do anything but praise his work. Know the names, people. It doesn't take much.

This comic is a must-read for any crime fiction or superhero fan, and I must recommend this amazing volume. It isn't one of the hardcover 'definitive' editions, but it does include concept art and the introductory Powers comic strip that was used to promote the comic before the first issue dropped.

"I owe her this. And to have worked so hard and still have nothing, it kills me."

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a blast ! "Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?" is a perfectly paced noirish and brooding police procedural set in a world rampant with superheroes. The book balances the superhero and police elements perfectly and delivers a set of detectives that operate with just the right amount of tension and conflict to keep the reader's complete focus. Although there are significant darker elements in this book, enough optimism sneaks in to make it a hopeful as well as suspenseful story. Recommended for anyone who likes superhero stories with non-powered protagonists and is more inclined towards suspense fiction than straight out smash ups.

[Michael Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ace, fantastic, brilliant.
I'm biased, because I haven't yet read anything bad by Brian Michael Bendis, but I do love this.
Great artwork and witty dialogue. The whole arc acts as a great intro to the series, using some of the techniques pioneered by Moore in Watchmen, and using them well.
The story itself is simple, but tragically real, and puts a great spin on a number of superhero tropes.
Great stuff, now for the rest of the series.

[Aildiin · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first introduction to Bendis's creator owned work and it's rather good.
The art is simplistic but it grows on you.
I have to read more of this before I make a definitive opinion.

[Jedhua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Info: This collection contains Powers issues #1-6.

Other Useful Reviews: Matt Graupman's review


ABSOLUTE RATING: {3/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>



After the sudden death of his city's beloved superhero (i.e. Retro Girl), venerated detective Christian Walker is tasked with investigating the incident. Together with his gutsy new partner, Deena Pilgrim, the two find themselves faced with arguably the biggest case of their careers, and must outmaneuver the efforts of a rival detective determined to take over their case. With the eyes of the entire country watching, and left with a lack of workable leads, the case proves extremely challenging. But as the investigation proceeds, Deena becomes increasingly suspicious Walker is hiding something, and the further they get the more it looks like Walker himself holds the key to solving the entire thing.

There seems to be this belief among readers that Bendis’ superfluous style of dialogue is somehow realistic. It’s not. Let's just get that out of the way. I think it's much better to say that it's a distinctive and unusual style, but it's simply not how people talk; I'm not saying that the writer is on the wrong track here, but his approach doesn't seem completely accurate. The way I see it, Bendis has merely taken certain aspects of human interaction not often portrayed in comics and plays them out to the extreme. Few people I know of pointlessly interrupt one another as often as Bendis' characters, nor do they repeatedly parrot back what the other person said in question form to check if they heard right. And I think in his pursuit to accomplish this effect, he also made several other more subtle errors, but for my purposes, I think just those two points are more than enough to debunk that claim. In fact, compared to other top comic authors, I'm hesitant to make the claim that Bendis' dialogue is any more realistic than the norm.





That said, do I enjoy Bendis' style? Not really, no – at least not in its more undiluted form. But I think if you're like me, the issues following the first one and a half should be less taxing to get through. I think because Bendis had certain goals for plot setup and characterization, the comparatively oppressive amount of text in the first issue could largely be attributed to that. But then again, very much of it was trivial banter unrelated to the main plot, and I couldn't help but feel as if Bendis was trying to show off his "skills" in the first issue-and-a-half to hook readers early. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed, and I found his technique to be tiresome, awkward, and redundant.

But after all my criticism, I will concede that Bendis has got a pretty decent sense of humor. And even though I felt like he was trying too hard to include as many quips as he could (nearly wherever he could), there were several times I couldn't help but genuinely laugh at some of the jokes. My only problem is that the frequency of gags was a little higher than I would have liked. If I were him, I would have gone further down the road of black humor than the traditional stuff; it clashes less (or mixes better) with everything else he had going on.






Even though it seemed pretty clear to me that the writer *tried* to get readers to care about the death of Retro Girl, and feel invested in the case being solved, I can't say I was too much engaged at all. I felt the brief TV news excerpts included throughout the volume did a good job providing insight into what Retro Girl meant to the people she protected, but they were not enough to make me actually care, and actually became a little repetitive with time. Perhaps one thing Bendis could have done to rectify this shortcoming (and several others) would have been to cut down on some of the extraneous junk mixed-in with the main plot, and save some of the more useful material for later volumes. I'd prefer not to spoil too much by going into excessive detail here, but I will say that Calista was one of the main culprits. I mean, yeah, she did offer some solid comic relief, and she was very cute and likable, but this didn't do enough to justify her extensive involvement in the story. Only at the end does Bendis hint at her relevance in any significant way, and by then it's far too late (at least for *this* volume).





After a pretty strong and exciting opening, this book started to go downhill bit by bit. Still, compared to other popular procedurals such as Gotham Central , this book wasn't nearly as dry as it could have been; sure, there was a good deal of gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, and forensic science going on, but Bendis made a decent attempt to keep things from getting *too* dull. Some of his strongest attempts to combat this were included in the news snippets – particularly in the second issue – and his ideas for the history and characters of the world of Powers certainly does hold significant promise. And unlike Gotham Central, this book somehow also manages to benefit from a modicum of the spontaneity and excitement of a typical superhero comic, even despite it's focus on law enforcement. Unfortunately, when it came to that part of the book dealing with Deena's suspicions about Walker, the clues became more and more obvious to the point that I figured out Walker's secret a full issue before it was revealed. It was pretty damn obvious.



One clear thing I can say the book excelled at was the illustration. This book is one of the several examples of a comic whose artwork I initially disliked but grew to appreciate upon rediscovery. I'm not normally impressed by cartoonish art, but Oeming's contribution lent itself well to Bendis' wit, and provided some really fun action scenes. I was especially impressed with the artistic decision to opt for a first-person vantage point during the police door breaches. It almost felt as if I was watching a crime thriller on the big screen at a theater. Thrilling stuff! That is definitely something I should be seeing more of, assuming Oeming didn't copyright it or something since then.



I clearly wasn't crazy about the book, but I get that Bendis' heart was in the right place when he wrote it. One part of me wants to stick around long enough to see this series grow and develop some of the foundation that's established here, but 3 stars may not turn out to be high enough a rating to convince me. And it's so sad too, because I really, really tried to like this more. I honestly did.

Postscript:


At the end, I found the eventual reveal of the actual murder culprit not to be very satisfying or memorable. It just turned out to be some random crazy guy with a fairly typical motive. I wouldn't go so far as to call that a negative, but it surely wasn't a positive either. But coming after issue six, Bendis does provide a supplemental murder story that actually does the exact same thing (but worse), so I can't say I came out of this with high expectations about this series' murderers.

And finally, I really don't get the deux ex machina accusations going around about this book's conclusion. I know it's a cool term, but let's not overuse it. Yes, it was unexpected, but it wasn't particularly convenient or contrived. To me, it only made the end more interesting, and set things up nicely for future arcs. I couldn't even identify any box the writer trapped himself in, so I don't honestly see the need for a cheap exit.

[Ondřej Halíř · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tohle byl docela solidní off beat trip který mě hodně bavil.

Ze začátku jsem byl trochu rozčarován celkově z atmosféry a pacingu který jsem v komiksu už dlouho nezažil, celé to totiž bylo takové hodně bizarně zemité (to asi nedává smysl) Dialogy jsou sice často docela absurdní ale zároveň lidské a máte při nich pocit že takhle prostě na policejní stanici spolu kolegové mluví apod.

Ono celkově první book má hodně zvláštní atmosféru, zároveň je to celé příjemně absurdní a má to spád přičemž zároveň je to i docela velký slow burn. Hodně se mi navíc i líbilo to že často ve spodní části stránky jsou vždy záběry z televizních novin které souběžně informují a probíhají s vyšetřováním hlavním hrdinů.

Co se týče příběhu, tak mě fakt spolu s postavami bavil. Jde o docela nabušeného poldu co dostane novou parťačku a náhle se dostanou k případu mrtvé superhrdinky ( v tomto světě jsou lidé se superschopnostmi normální věc) no a začne jejich vyšetřování které se zdá být nemožné rozlousknout.

Fakt mě to bavilo, jak jednoduší kresba s coloringem, tak i chytrý scénář který si pohrával s žánry.

[Melania &#x1f352; · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,15/5

I wasn’t crazy about this one .

[Octavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genial guión y cojonudo dibujo. Noir + superhéroes en estado de gracia.

[Romain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un petit revival, ça fait du bien de temps en temps. Cette fois j’ai jeté mon dévolu sur Powers – j’ai une édition Semic qui tombe en lambeaux. C’était l’époque des crossovers entre l’univers des super-héros et celui du polar. Les scénaristes avaient peut-être le désir d’ajouter de la crédibilité et d’encrer leurs histoires d’encapés en ajoutant une bonne dose de flics et c’est pas les références qui manquent puisque ce registre a rempli des étagères de littérature américaines et a donné naissance à des heures et des heures de séries télé. A ce petit jeu, Watchmen a lancé un très gros pavé dans la mare en marquant le territoire et en restant encore aujourd’hui une référence dans le domaine. Mais d’autres auteurs on suivi ce filon. Parmi eux, Brian Michael Bendis sort incontestablement du lot et la série Powers est emblématique de son travail.

Sous ses dessins stylisés et dans ce qui ressemble à une parodie de super héros, se cache une histoire bien ficelée sans toutefois être exceptionnelle. Je dirais en tout cas accessible et facile à lire. Ce qui marque c’est surtout la mise en page et c’est justement l’une des marques de fabrique de Bendis. Multiplication des cases par des copier-coller ou de très légères variations pour créer un effet de répétition ou d’attente, narration sur plusieurs plans, etc. Beaucoup de techniques qui modernisent et agrémentent le récit. A lire sans modération pour passer un bon moment. Je me souviens que je m’étais lassé de la série – je ne suis pas un grand fan des dessins que je trouve trop stylisés, je préfère largement ceux de Torso ou de Jinx en noir et blanc et même ceux de Sam & Twitch plus proche des comics main stream. Mais ce premier tome quelques années après m’a fait bonne impression et donné envie de continuer. Dans le même genre, il faut également lire Gotham Central.

Également publié sur mon blog.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough read, but it fell flat for me. The story didn't ultimately "matter" a whole heck of a lot...
Where it loses most of it's allure for me however, is with the sudden and drastic format changes periodically throughout the book. Every once in a while the format changes to 'across both pages' instead of down the left side and then back up to the right side. In addition, I didn't like the news coverage formatting... it felt out of synch and flow from how the rest of the book read.
The full edition set was bound tightly- making it difficult to read some of the text that was in towards the spine.
Overall, it was difficult to read (literally) at times, but the story was good enough to sustain my interests. Neither main character left me wanting to know more about them, and like I mentioned earlier- the story just kind of moved along without any real punch.
The art was definitely "cool", but at times left so much detail to the imagination that I felt a little lost. There were too many small and snaking text bubbles... sometimes I'd find myself reading completely out of order.
Ok.. I think I've made my point. 2stars

[Summer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Powers is to Watchmen and Astro City as The DaVinci Code is to Foucault's Pendulum. The anemic and obvious writing is only overshadowed by the nauseating copy-and-paste art of the "Anatomy? What's that?" school.

If you want to read a good heroes-and-cops book, pass this one up completely and read Alan Moore's Top 10 instead. It's got fantastic writing and gorgeous artwork. Finishing Powers was seriously a chore.