Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Powers #8

Here's a comic that's had a spotty publishing schedule of late - Powers.

Which is kind of surprising, because it had a long healthy (and mostly on-schedule) run before the latest round of renumbering.

The comic merges superhero fare with a police procedural format, and it's quite good, in a raw, no-holds-barred, definitely not for kids kinda way.

It focuses on Homicide Detective Christian Walker, a former "Power" (superhero) who lost his abilities, so he devotes himself to solving Power-related murders.

His first partner was Deena Pilgrim, who now works for the FBI. Together, they've faced some gruesome and puzzling murders.

The ongoing story focuses on the murder of several "gods" - a group known as "The Golden Ones," who claim to be deities, but apparently they can be killed.

The most recent murder happened on TV - yet no one seems able to figure out what happened - and that's the challenge facing Walker, his new partner Enki Sunrise, and Pilgrim.

The match of these two never-before-combined (as best as I can remember) formats works very well (and may be appearing in a new TV show - someday), and writer Brian Bendis does his usual phenomenal job of creating "real" characters, with crisp dialogue and murky motivations.

I really like Michael Oeming's art - gritty and gruesome, expressive and dark - it's a perfect match for this series. And he's an artist who started out strong and just keeps getting better with each issue.

This would be a tough issue to start with, since the story started months back and has been hanging ever sense - this is definitely not a "done-in-one" kinda comic.

But if you're looking for a hard-hitting police drama with some superhero curves added, you'll find no better comic around. Highly recommended!

Grade: A-

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