America's Got Powers

America's Got Powers (single issues) #1-7

by Jonathan Ross (Narrator), Bryan Hitch (Illustrator)

Dezoito anos atrás, um estranho cristal aterrissou em São Francisco e sua chegada marcou o surgimento da primeira geração de super-humanos da Terra. Todo bebê nascido naquele dia ganhou um superpoder. Todos menos um: Tommy Watts, codinome Zero. Desde então, adolescentes superpoderosos se enfrentam em um reality show para entreter milhões de pessoas. Até o dia em que os poderes de Tommy finalmente se manifestam e lançam luz em uma série de acontecimentos muito mais dramáticos e mortíferos do que os combates televisionados! O governo dos Estados Unidos e o mentor dos jovens superpoderosos têm planos para Tommy e demais super-heróis, mas não anteciparam que ele e seus colegas poderiam ter seus próprios planos!

Conhecedor dos bastidores do mundo televisivo, o apresentador britânico JONATHAN ROSS - também autor de Turf, com Tommy Lee Edwards, pela Image Comics -, ao lado do supremo artista Bryan Hitch - Authority, pela DC Comics e Os Supremos, pela Marvel Comics -, criou uma série que brinca com o conceito de reality show e com aquela velha pergunta: o que aconteceria se ganhássemos super-heróis na vida real? Este volume publica na íntegra as edições 1 a 7 de America's Got Powers.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Science Fiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2012

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a different take on Rising Stars. It's the same basic premise except here the government is exerting more control over the powered kids, making them perform on an American Idol type show for superheroes.

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, written by that Jonathan Ross! An innovative super powered humans story. A generation of San Francisco residents get powers from birth, which has implications throughout the American justice, political and military communities. Good read. 8 out of 12, Four Star read :)

2014 read

[Gavin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid.
DNF.

A bunch of women in San Fran give birth to superpowered kids all at the same time after a crystal lands on Earth.

They turn it into the hunger games, keep the rest in mutant camps.

Cliches abound. Evil military, government (senator looks just like Sarah Palin) and mystery man.

Also a scientist who is a tweener.

One kid has brother who dies, but he has no powers. They manifest as very powerful when he saves a kid.

Cue the race for him between the underground, the military industrial complex, and the team of super kids who have to decide what to do.


Yawn. Lame. Art by Bryan Hitch, so I was expecting Mark Millar....that would have been better than this drivel.

So rehashed from every other dystopian mutant future reality shows are evil USA bad stuff with no originality.

Avoid. Now I know why none of the SCR have read this crap.

[Frédéric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blimey, this story was so unsubtle with bad guys so outrageous it was embarrassing. I’d have quit after issue two if not for Brian Hitch’s excellent art as always. But even taking that into account there’s no way in hell I’m gonna give this piece of trash more than 1*. There’s limits to what good art can salvage in a comic book.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eu não vi acontecer o mesmo buzz que aconteceu lá fora com esse quadrinho acontecer aqui no Brasil. Não vi nenhum site ou youtube de quadrinhos comentando sobre essa história em quadrinhos, ou ainda, dos leitores elogiarem essa obra. E isso que ela é feita por dois caras que são muito bem quistos tanto lá fora quanto aqui dentro, Jonathan Ross da série Turf e Bryan Hitch de Authority e Os Supremos. Possivelmente o que tenha afastado os brasileiros seja o título americanófilo. Por mais que nós consumamos os super-heróis dos Estados Unidos, nem sempre gostamos quando as capas deles apresentam elementos tão ufanistas e patrióticos. No bem da verdade, o quadrinho nem é tão patriótico assim, já que tem uma personagem maligna calcada na Senadora Republicana do Alaska, Sarah Palin. America's Got Power é uma conspiração sobre poder e sobre ganância e uma disputa sobre quem tem a razão, quando um jovem, o único da sua geração que não tem poderes, acaba tendo o poder -han, han - de mudar toda a situação do país. Eu adorei esse quadrinho, tanto o roteiro quanto o desenhos são muito envolventes e ele deveria ser mais elogiado, lido e pensado com cuidado do que os efeitos que acabou (não) causando em terra tupiniquins. Se você está em dúvida sobre esse quadrinho, recomendo que dê uma chance.

[G.R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak clone of Rising Stars.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this better when it was "The 4400".

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing premise that would've been better if kept to a small scale. I lost interest as it grew from something personal (family) to local (San Francisco) to national and planetary scope. Artwork was good.

[Dr. T Loves Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

What it's about: A mysterious, giant crystal appears in San Francisco that causes hundreds of babies to be born, each with a "power." Years later, those children have grown up and are being tested and pitted against each other in gladiatorial contests. But one kid, Tommy Watts, is the only one who seems to have no powers; he's the only "zero"-rated kid to come from the experience. Then he accidentally finds out that's not the case.

What I thought: Meh. The message seems to be that violence begets violence, but there's not much evidence that another path would work better, so the message falls a bit flat. Also, the characters are pretty sparsely fleshed out, so it's tough to get too worked up about any of them; and their personalities seem to shift from page to page.

Why I rated it as I did: I love a super-powers story, and I appreciate when a story arc wraps up in a reasonable number of issues. But this was a story that would have benefited from being slowed down and giving the characters some background and emotional stakes, instead of everything being a reaction to a physical threat.

[Hisham El-far · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jealousy. Greed. A hunger for a power that is not understood - and fear of the unknown.

America's Hot Powers by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch is a brutal exploration of the baser and unpleasant human reactions to things and people that are different. It paints a picture of crass commercialisation of the mistreatment of a generation who have been mysteriously gifted strange and powerful abilities.

Internment camps, special privileges granted to some in exchange for violent gladatorial battles for the entertainment of the masses - and the weaponisation of media against a pliable and fearful populace to stoke and further control power.

This graphic novel came out in 2014 - but if anything it is even MORE relevant now in 2019.

As brutal as this story is, it is entertaining - the art is very good, and it has tight storyline.

I'm glad I read it.

[Nieves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Durante todo el cómic se mantiene la acción, el argumento está bastante chulo y bueno, puede que no sea original (mucho x-men y género distópico he visto por aquí) pero aún así me estaba gustando bastante. El problema es que el final se desinfla mucho... no creo que sea el final apropiado para toda la acción que estábamos teniendo... Aún así, lo veo en el cine, tiene potencial.

[Matt Kruse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read. Not groundbreaking, but well done for about the first two thirds. However, as it approached the end it felt really rushed. I think this would have benefited from a few more issues to expand on some ideas and explore the world more.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid piece of work. Good art. Good writing. Good characters. They threw a lot of ideas at the wall and not all of them stuck, but enough to let the book rise to the level of average. I don't think the Sarah Palin satire really added anything, though Hitch captured the likeness well.

[C.W. Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

After picking up #1 on a whim, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this mini series! The art was cool, it has great writing and the story is an original take on the superhero genre. Pick it up, it's super!!

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very routine young superheroes story. Starts out with an interesting game show idea but gradually degrades into the trope of an unknown and misunderstood power that saves the day for little real reason.

[Doreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/3/14 I waffled between a 4 and a 5, but dat ending. Review tk.

[Noarev · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's got some interesting ideas, but felt somewhat rushed and the 'powers' aspect not quite fully explored. The type of ending used also could have gone differently, but it's typical sci-fi.

[Robin Blackwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good premise and promising first couple of issues. Then goes all over the place and completely peiters out by the ending

[Steph C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and promising premise, but a single volume felt like not enough for the ambitious world-building, and everything was a little crammed in.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, a bit cliched but good anyway. Works on the old adage ' with extreme power comes extreme responsibility' but is a little too reminiscent of other stories I've read.

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very interesting ideas, but ultimately a little shaky on the execution. Also, I was unnerved by the uncanny resemblance two character had to David Tennant and Sarah Palin.

[Charlie Easterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea and some fun story concepts but the pacing was off and the plot got wobbly near the end.

[Efe Sarıtunalı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sevdim :) Keyifli hikaye. Bir Rising Stars değil tabii ki, yine de okunur. Bryan Hitch'in çizimleri her zamanki gibi mükemmel.

[Gänseblümchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Band 1: 4*
Band 2: 3*

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes the roll call of superheroes in Marvel/DC can get a bit tiresome, silly even. There are SO MANY and you have to remember each one?

If you don't, like here, then the fights blur together. Especially when the main character's powers, crucial as they are to the plot, seem to ebb and flow at conveniently dramatic moments.

There is a bit, a little bit, of human politics, which gives this a little identity, but do people realize that senators and governors don't actually do everything. Sometimes, they don't even realize what's going on. I'm looking at you, Sarah Palin lookalike.

[Victor Sanchez · Rating 1 out of 5]

It kind of not makes any sense, even by comic book standards

[La Revistería Comics · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ross (pero no Alex) y Hitch (sí Bryan) juntan su mala leche y buenas plumas en este realityshowesco comic que revisita los dilemas de grandes poderes que supuestamente conllevan grandes responsabilidades y los circos mediáticos que se pueden armar enrededor.

[Vail Chester · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was needlessly cynical...also, whose idea was it to ape the title from "America's Got Talent?" Did they think there would be some massive brand recognition and think it might be like the show? Ri-diculous.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, I didn’t care for this at all.

[Matt Mazenauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strong opening issue, but the series rambled on without much of a point. A shallow exploration of the ideas in Rising Stars and Irredeemable.