Fire Power by Kirkman & Samnee, Volume 4

Fire Power #4

by Robert Kirkman (Writer), Chris Samnee (Artist), Matt Wilson (Artist)

The one who wields the fire power is destined to save the world, but Owen Johnson has turned his back on that life. He doesn't want the power, he never did. He only wants to raise his family and live his life, but unseen forces are at work to make that impossible. Danger lurks around every corner as Owen's past comes back to haunt him. 

Collects FIRE POWER BY KIRKMAN & SAMNEE #13-18.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Young Adult, Comic Book, Action, Adventure

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2022

About the author

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.

Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.

In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.

Reviews

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Family, fireballs and mother-flippin dragons. It's a fast paced, plot progression focused entry that goes from high school shenanigans to snake people and mountain fights in the blink of an eye; location whiplash at its finest. All the characters are continue to be fine, but the love triangle is incredibly weak. Fire Power is at its best when it's focusing on the Johnson family rather than throwing in more arbitrary wedges in an already bloated conflict. For the most part, it's fun, but if you go into the finer details, the flaws will become apparent

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was epic!

Owen and his family battle the serpents omen after some big revelations with Haley, also they come to the island of the flaming fist/scorched earth clan and immediately see their friends falling into the control of Serpents but its the big return of Master Shaw that makes this volume so worth it and I love the reveals but the last issue which had the dragon reveal omg I just love it!

Its a very fast paced volume as Kirkman introduces the new villainous group Serpents omen and immediately makes them dangerous and giving Owen some challenge as he has to fight his own friends and also some interesting reveals with Master shaw and the payoff to last volume and the scene is gorgeous as SAMNEE just draws the heck out of it and it just increases the tension. This is the best Kung-fu/martial arts comic I have ever read easily and it doesn't miss a beat till now, a must recommend!

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The woman made out of snakes and the giant dragon! Really good volume.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah damn, Fire Power continues to be so damn entertaining.

This feels like a nice fresh arc. Everyone's back home, chilling, working on trying to live a normal life. Also training and learning to shoot fireballs because, come on, that's awesome. But these pesky little snakes that can take over minds have a different plan. They begin to go into everyone's mind and force them to do the bidding of the old snake lord...

It gets so damn fun. I mean it's always good, and the family dynamic is one of the best in comics. Refreshing to see Owen just be a regular dad and husband and even his little spat with the wife felt realistic and never overly dramatic bullshit.

But yeah, this series is still a great read and I'm picking up the big size deluxe versions for it no doubt.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this series is always a blast to read and this volume is no exception. Just as Owen and his family think things may have calmed down, in comes the serpents omen. Snakes are coming after folks, biting them and putting them under someone’s control. It was cool so see something from the first volume come back full circle and prove to be true. Now this person has called upon something else believed to be a myth now also proven to be true. What the hell is Owen and the gang going to do about this? Great volume and as usual, great art by Samnee.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

We're back where we started in Scorched Earth - Owen and clan are back home, dedicated to just bein' regular folks. Which of course fails as the kids are now martial artists and the dad can produce fireballs. Oh, and that snake lady is still after them.

My favorite parts of the Fire Power series are the slow moments where Owen's family acts like a family. My least favorite parts are the bang-bang action scenes that completely derail any character development, particularly for the Scorched Earth clan members or the villains, who are still a relative blank page despite their importance. Scorched Earth devolves into such action scenes fairly quickly as the seeming resolution of the previous volume is undone by a bunch of snakes.

Chris Samnee's art continues to be great, but the breakneck nature of the storytelling is diminishing my love for Fire Power. The first two volumes really excelled at letting the story breathe and it feels like we've lost that pacing entirely. The ending of Scorched Earth promises big things to come, but they're unlikely to be slow-moving.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frantic action and mind-controlling snakes. Should be fun, I guess, but it all left me cold.

I have another volume on hand, but I should probably just be letting go of this series.

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot bounces back without pause after the previous volume and gallops along at full speed towards an expected but nonetheless impressive finale.
There is always a good balance between spectacular action and a much more intimate family drama, with a dash of humour to tie it all together.
However, I note a little complacency in the final issue, which takes far too long to reveal an ending that everyone has guessed long ago, and a marked decline on Samnee's part about two-thirds of the way through the book.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a fun, fast read though I feel the world-building is running out of puff a little...though the final panels preview a new scale of conflict that will definitely firmly move this title from "heightened reality" to "gonzo" from this point on.

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

[AJ Kallas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continually amazing!

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A confession - I thought the story was over with the previous volume. Everything had been wrapped up to a suitable level of satisfaction. But I should have known better - Kirkman takes a couple of untied threads and weaves an entirely new chapter that ups the stakes for the family and the entire world. When snakes start appearing and biting warriors, they get possessed, and the snake-warriors have some high aspirations. It takes new allies and surprising reveals for our protagonists to hold their own, and this is not a volume with a happy ending, or much closure at all. But it is full of action, a fair bit of humor, and a good bit of intrigue as well (Seeing Owen deal his wife meeting Ling is great on all levels). My only real complaint is that there are so many main characters that some get only brief chances to shine, but I do think everyone gets one or two big moments. Also, the fight scenes get a bit chaotic, and it's hard to discern a couple characters from each other. But that's a minor problem in an otherwise electrifying and action packed book.

[Chris Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and predictable. Gone is the wit that made earlier books so much fun. Gone are the cool action panels, replaced with bloated fight scenes. The characters mostly lack personality. Some of the final images are awesome, and I’m invested enough to see this through at least another volume.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume balances somewhat calm family life with some of the biggest and plot dependent action yet, as the servants slither into our heroes lives and make it much worse. I already hate snakes and this doesn't help at all

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirkman & Samnee's family adventure with a kung-fu focus continues as the family tries to get back to normal but have new group of antagonists that might be their biggest threat to date. I felt the pacing is still way too fast (its like the opposite of Kirkman's Walking Dead) but the book was very entertaining. We get more huge fight scenes that were beautifully drawn by Chris Samnee but we also get some more human elements as the family deals with last volume's revelations. The story also ends on a powerful cliffhanger. Overall, another exciting adventure.

[Myles Gerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another awesome volume!! Tensions rise and action really picks up here- I also love those moments between Owen and Kelly, they’re definitely the emotional highlight of this series. Shaw awakening was so freaking cool too- the cliffhanger at the end of this book was great. And once again, the art and action was fantastic. Read this series!

[Andrew Sorrentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good guys versus serpents! The characterization of a loving, supportive family in a graphic novel continues to make me happy. Dynamic art. Explosive finale!

[Dair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stellar art and coloring. The story is fine but not anything decidedly special.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owen tries to keep his family safe.

[Albie · Rating 3 out of 5]

starting to feel like things are just repeating itself... especially with the same locations repeating

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels a bit rushed. The dust is settling from the previous volume, but there are still some loose ends. Remember that lady who turned into snakes? Well, she's an agent of the serpent, and serpents are like dragons, and there's that room with the dragon. So, yeah. Snakes invade the Scorched Earth Clan and the Flaming Fist temple and they go after Owen and his family. I feel like it looks too similar to the previous arc, same locations, same characters. I would have liked to see the world fleshed out a bit more before going right back to the temple.

As always Chris Samnee draws movement beautifully.

[Paul Allard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kung fu comic series continues and there’s non stop action.

Owen and his family were living peacefully but the Serpent Omen have grown in strength and this volume is mainly about their power and success against the forces of good. There’s loads of fighting action culminating in a cliffhanger. The illustrations are reasonably clear and the plot is quite easy to follow. I hadn’t read the previous volume but it didn’t make any difference. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from a friend.

Honestly, Fire Power just continues to get better and better in my opinion. I was worried that it would start to get a little repetitive, and I have found taking breaks in between each issue has meant I've had to keep refreshing my memory, but it hasn't hindered my reading experience too much.

I have really been enjoying this series thus far.

[JCRD]

Me encanta esta familia. Kirkman no es un guionista que destaque por la belleza de sus palabras, pero se nota que el tío escribe con el corazón y que sabe desarrollar una premisa.

El apartado artístico buenísimo, como siempre, y madre mía el despiporre del final. El siguiente tomo promete.

[Zachary Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume reminds me of the famous line from the movie Snakes on a Plane. The action picks back up after the last volume wrapped up the first story arc in current day. Such a fun series that I can’t wait to read more.

[Luke Costin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ll ever not be impressed by Samnee’s art. I love how fun this book is, just pure entertainment.

[Joshua]

What I gotta tell you? It’s. Chris. Samnee.

[Peio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es difícil hacer algo más entretenido. Lloro por no ver esto en movimiento y me jode tremendamente no poder jugar algunas de las viñetas.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snakes, snakes, and more snakes. Enter the dragon. Wei Lun is great.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read. The art is so bombastic and the family aspect is truly done well. Hoping this can get the invincible animation treatment one day.