Interruptus: Powers #8 Review

I like Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers a lot. It has been on my pull list at my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to stop acting out the term “pull list” in front of the paying customers, for more than ten years. I have all the individual issues that follow the first “Who Killed Retro Girl?” arc back when the book was published by Image Comics. And I even like this individual issue of Powers. But I’m not going to recommend that you buy it.

It is, in fact, all but pointless to buy this book, because it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not, or if you like it or not. Falling in love with an individual issue of Powers is more pointless than falling in love at summer camp. It’s more pointless than falling in love with a hooker. It’s roughly akin to falling in love with a hooker in a city that isnt your own, that you might come back to in a few years, and as you’re zipping your pants you realize that all you remember is that her name is P-something.

Because this comic book simply. Does not. Come out. Ever.

This is issue 8 of Powers Volume 3. The first issue was released in November. November 2009. The last issue came out eleven months ago… and it left us in the middle of a story arc. So scratch the hooker-in-a-strange-city metaphor and replace it with a hooker in a strange city who jumps off mid-stroke to “run down to the store for a pack of cigarettes.” With your money.

“Gee, Rob,” you might be saying, “You sound awful pissed over a late comic book. Why are you taking it so seriously?” Well, because Powers is fucking awesome. Sure, I’ll cop to thinking it’s not as good now as it was during its first couple of arcs, and that it sometimes feels like an episode of Super Oprah: “You’ve got superpowers! And you’ve got powers! You’ve all got superpowers!” But if you’re even remotely a fan of Bendis’s writing, be it dialogue, character or story, you’re not going to get a better distilled version of it than Powers… which doesn’t matter because you can’t get Powers.

However, this month you can for a change, so let’s talk about the book. Apparently back in March, Detective Christian Walker and his new partner Enki Sunrise were investigating the murder of a couple of The Golden Ones – think Kirby’s New Gods with the added power of being legally defensible from to a plagiarism lawsuit – when a third is killed on camera during a live TV interview. Enter Deena Pilgrim, Walker’s original partner from the early issues, who is now an FBI agent after getting superpowers and disappearing after… fuck; I can’t remember. Seriously; those issues were, like, four years ago at this point. Maybe five.

Anyhoo, the plot almost doesn’t matter because you won’t remember what happened by the time the next issue (probably) comes out… but to be fair, Bendis does a good job of presenting the information you need to not feel like you’re reading a 27-page Rosetta Stone (Yes, 27. The first page is a splash pin-up that has nothing to do with the story… although considering it’s an image of a superhero pissing himself in an alley with a sign that says, “Will fight for food or beer,” I might try to buy it from artist Michael Avon Oeming at SDCC this year). And Bendis gives you the information with dialogue instead of captions or a giant “Previously in Powers” page (Although that page is there if you choose to sync up using it)… and that snappy, jerky Bendis dialogue is interesting and unique enough so you can almost forget that you’re sending two pages reading a pile of exposition. Almost.

And that Bendis dialogue is the best reason to enjoy Powers, man. Sure, you can get that in any of his Marvel books, but Powers, being his (almost) first rodeo and a creator-owned place where he can just cut loose, is like a mainline of the good stuff:

Leads.

Yeah, the things that lead you to a —

Don’t.

Hades. He has worshippers.

Worshippers? Hades worshippers.

Well, they are gods.

Worshippers. Well, it’s better than nothing.

Almost.

And there’s an exchange between Pilgrim and Hades – yes, the god of hell – that if it doesn’t put a smile on your face, you’re not blashphemous enough to be reading this Web site.

Oeming’s art is as good as it ever was, provided you like a style that’s cartoony, simply-lined and sparse. It is strongly reminiscent of Bruce Timm’s work on Batman: The Animated Series, which is a look that I have always loved on Powers. As a story about regular detectives working in a world of superheroes, I’ve always felt that Oeming’s work has always added a meta level to the book; seeing art that looks like the Justice League cartoon can make you automatically picture these cops working in the same universe, with the heroes out on Apokolips or something while these guys work cases in an alley. Oeming’s style can be a little jarring if you’re not familiar with or expecting it, but it serves this book extremely well.

So yes, Powers #8 is a damn good comic book. One that you shouldn’t buy. You don’t need to be getting your stories in dribs and drabs like this, and you probably shouldn’t be supporting a creator willing to leave his fanbase in the lurch for months at a time while he dicks around with other stuff (Yeah, that other stuff was the Powers TV pilot for FX, but still: no Powers comic? No TV money, Bendis). And the reality is that you probably don’t need to buy the book in some attempt to keep the title afloat in hopes of a trade collection; this is a Bendis book published by Marvel; Bendis could write his scripts in his own feces on Joe Quesada’s office wall and get his books published.

But if you do buy it? You’ll like it. It’s good… just don’t fall in love with it. Because God knows when you’ll see it again.