Powers: Definitive Collection, Vol. 3

Powers: Definitive Collection #3

by Brian Michael Bendis

This deluxe hardcover collects Powers Volume 6: The Sellouts and Powers Volume 7: Forever, plus extras! In The Sellouts, a member of one of the classic supergroups falls victim to a seedy sex scandal, and the murder investigation takes Walker and Pilgrim on a journey that will forever change the way the world looks at superheroes. And in Forever, experience the origin of Powers! It's a story that literally spans the history of man as all the mysteries of Powers and the Powers universe unfold, following a lone warrior's trek through the greatest stories ever told. Collects Powers #25-37.

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

496 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2008

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

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a range of emotions. The Sellouts was probably my least favorite arc so far. It's begins with a sex tape being released with an analogue on one of the Super Friends. The seedy side of powers stuff is just getting to be an old schtick. It's followed up by my favorite arc yet.

Forever is Walker's origin. I love how it's constructed with each issue being a different time in Walker's life while mimicking a different genre. You really feel for Walker after reading this. the poor guy has been through so much.

As far as extras go, the Powers story from the Oni Color Special is included. It's hilarious. Walker and Pilgrim investigate the murder of Madman, investigating various indie comics character throughout the book. Bendis skewers all his buddies. I absolutely loved it. There's also a script of the infamous monkey issue, along with sketches, interviews and the like.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me this series is still gangbusters, I loved the tawdry details of "The Sellouts" even though I've seen similar stories done elsewhere (Top 10 springs to mind) but the petulant dickishness of so many of Bendis's characters had me laughing legitimately out loud from time to time.



This volume then switches gears big time and finally delves into Walker's long-awaited origin story and history as a high flying hero and boy is it a doozy. Bendis isn't really all that coy about hiding his influences and everything from Kubrick's 2001 to Conan to '80s schlock like Highlander gets more than a generous nod here. Some of the imagery and storytelling is pretty graphic but for my part I loved it, and enjoyed seeing what for me was a novel take on the conundrum of living forever and what it could do to a human being's memory.

So all that said,

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the first arc is quite possibly my favorite so far. The idea that an extremely powerful superhero (ex. like Superman) could just go off the deep end one day is really fascinating. The second arc is...a little odd and I don't just mean the monkey sex. While it does expand upon the mythology of the series and we do get Walker's backstory, it raises more questions than it answers. Hopefully, something will come of this later in the series.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone needs to do a timeline of who did their "superheroes gone bad" comics when so I can figure out how original these things are or are not as I am reading them now, years after they were published... In any case, I know this wasn't the first time heroes were depicted as real, flawed and corrupt, but the police procedural angle really helped it seem fresh and different in the first volumes. Here in volume three I really started to have a sense of deja vu with the plot, but the thing is this actually predates two of the books it most reminds me of (Irredeemable and The Boys). I'd say this does it better than the former at least, my only issue is that it kind of feels like it tied up the whole story the way it ended, but I know there are several more volumes after this and I wonder how it will avoid falling into a repetitive cycle of solving a new variation on a dead hero every few issues.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great comics can come when the artist is unconstrained by corporate dictates. Or you can get an entire issue of monkey-men doing monkey stuff.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first plotline here - The Sellouts - starts out good, and just gets crazier and crazier. Unfortunately, it ends up getting so out of hand that the ends seems sort of weird. I think this is intensified by a lack of epilogue. There's only a very brief ending after the finale, and it doesn't address very much of the craziness we just witnessed. Then, with little resolution, we're on into...

The second plotline, Forever, is quite ambitious. And the ending is really good. And it's about time we got some backstory for Christian. But, having said all of that, the first half of it isn't very interesting. It's just to episodic, and the reader knows the premise of the whole thing by the end of the first issue, so we're just waiting on everything to hit the fan. I appreciate Bendis' ambition here, but it didn't really do it for me.

[Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably my favourite stretch of Powers and is near my jumping on point. I remember the "monkey sex" issue as being hugely controversial at the time, but subsequent issues in that arc justified how it played out.

There are two main story arcs in this volume. The first being a Powers-style procedural looking into the murder of Redwing, a Batman analog, after a leaked sex tape, and the second being somewhat of an origin story for Walker.

I had always viewed Walker as being just extremely long-lived but after re-reading his origin I think he is also reincarnated after longer-than-human life. This would sqare with Wolf's apparent reincarnations as well as give the possibility of Walker's return someday after the Powers' finale. Seeing how Walker, Zora and Retrogirl meet also makes Zora's death in the previous volume more poignant.

[Trey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am consistently surprised at how bad the production value is on the oversized Powers volumes. The art often looks pixelated, like they started with poor resolution and just blew up the pictures. The first arc (possibly an inspiration for Irredeemable?) leads to a new status quo, and the second arc presents the origin of Christian Walker. Don't be shocked by the "Monkey F***ing" issue: it does end up leading somewhere.

[Amritesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review covers the complete series)

A gritty mix of crime drama and superhero deconstruction, set in a world where people with powers are often selfish, reckless, or corrupt. It follows homicide detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim as they investigate crimes involving people with powers. The writing mixes noir-style dialogue with grounded character development, while the shadow-heavy art gives it a stylish, atmospheric look.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Forever arc in the Powers series is probably my favorite superhero arc of all time. It’s completely contained inside this hardcover collection.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually like Powers a lot more than I thought I would. I'd prefer more of cop story in these comics, and Bendis seems to want to tell a world building story. That's my biggest problem with these comics. Bendis thinks its the whole world and history we care about, when it's the characters. It's stopped being a police procedural a while ago and is trying to be another Watchmen. Outside of Bendis' annoying dialogue, there's still a good story in this. I just want it to be as good as it first was.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, what can I say?, this volume is a great follow up to the previous volume. The first half was a great ending to the "Sellouts" storyline, and probably the best Bendis writing I have read. The second half of this book is probably Oeming's shining glory, his artwork made me said "word?!" enjoying each panel and the superb storytelling prowess he brings into the book.

I am looking forward to reading more of this series.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best thing about this run is that the timeline expands backwards into Also-Sprach-Zarathustra monkeybone-becomes-monolith territory without becoming hokey. In fact things become even more interesting. Might be a metaphor for DNA or something, but I'll just leave Bendis to keep painting a petty grudge match across the universe.

[Mely]

Apparently, at the dawn of time, the first two superhero man-apes fought over a woman, whose rape and death happened only to support the male narrative. Also, man-ape social arrangements involved 5 males for every female.

I actually liked the story arc before that quite a lot, but SERIOUSLY.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is losing me a bit. I feel like it's taking itself too seriously and is getting progressively more dialogue-heavy. I did enjoy the issues dealing with Walker's origin. That was interesting.

[Geoff Derks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sellouts - 4/5. Forever - 4.5/5

[Peter Goutis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "Forever" story line is by far the best Powers story written. It's worth reading this series just to get to that story. Awesome.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm impressed. This went places that I didn't expect. Very Highlander-like in plot and feel but with superheroes.

[Jipi Perreault · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point, the series shows some sign of redundancy. However, the change of statu quo keeps us hooked for the next volume.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one more than the previous two.

I think it is because Walker's history allows us a break from the relentless dialogue that Bendis overdoes.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay collection a little disturbing at points but kinda what is expected from Bendis.

[Jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone literally cut out a page in my borrowed copy. I think it was a very naughty page, if you know what I mean.

Just from these 3 volumes, I've found it to take on a very interesting point of view- a detective who was an ex-hero, solving cases that involved other superheroes (who were cast in a very human light). Very different from the conventional superhero comic, based around the cliched "saves" the heroes do. It's refreshing.

So far, I've enjoyed it thoroughly. The artwork is great- I don't know much about comic styles, but I like it.