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Underground > Comic Books >

POWERS is cool

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03:25 / 06.09.01

Hey folks,

For my money, POWERS in August was the best purchase I made. Better than Grant's double-header.

Bendis and Oeming are really filling out their world in issue #13.

Any other thoughts?

-Jesse

(I will go into more detail later)

Lurker in the corner

05:12 / 06.09.01

Hey, Rev, how's Cassidy and Tulip?

12:47 / 06.09.01

The Powers collected edition went down quite well .. but it cost a hell of a lot when compared to the actual amount of comics within it.

I like the way it takes all the elements of comics storytelling that I normally find pretty tedious and makes them .. highly entertaining.

23:04 / 08.09.01

I read Powers all the way through until the current storyline. I liked the dialouge and writing on each of the stories but the conclusions seemed hurried. I decided not to judge Bendis on his first story alone so I continued with the second only to be let down again.

03:26 / 10.09.01

I think it is fair to say that POWERS is not as good as Top Ten, but then Bendis is not Moore, he has not been in comics as long. Furthermore, Top Ten focuses a lot on the powers of the characters, where as in POWERS the main characters have no powers. Would Top Ten be as good if Sarge was not a super-dog?

Is POWERS better than Swamp Thing? I think so, if only in terms of atmosphere and enviroment. Whereas Moore in Swamp Thing was working within an pre-existing world, Bendis forged his on his own. Bendis has made a distinct effort to flesh out his little creation and #13 shows just how well he can do that. POWERS 13 is like a 22 page magizine about people with super powers. There are fake adds and all that which you would expect if Vouge or Vanity Fair fell into a world with super heroes.

I think it is fair to compare POWERS with Watchmen, and I think POWERS falls behind here. One part of this is because Watchmen was a miniseris with a long but initially defined plot whereas POWER is a ongoing mag which is just getting its feet off the ground. I do like Oeming's art more than Gibbons however.

quinine92001: I think your critism is valid, I have the same feelings re: the masquerade plot line.

I guess I am just trying to say that POWERS is better than most comic books out there and that more people should look into it. #13 esp was an incredibly innovative look at how to build a universe.

-Jesse

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

10:34 / 10.09.01

As far as Powers being better than other super stuff out there, definitely. And the faux magazine issue did look pretty neat, but at my age, I remember how cool I thought the Marvel Year In Reviews were and I'd have to pick them over the Powers issue, just for sheer glossiness.

And bringing up Watchmen reminds me that Moore did that whole thing in every issue of Watchmen some 15 (eeeeek!) years ago.

But, yeah, better than a lot of stuff out there. But I can't really back up that oeming v. Gibbons statement.

If Oeming could ever pull off the symmetrical issue of Watchmen...well....I'd like to see him try, is all.

Wow. Calm civilized debate on the Internet. I love you, Barbelith.
Benjamin.

11:16 / 10.09.01

I've heard a lot of otherwise reasonable people say that they didn't like the art in Watchmen and I don't understand it at all. Gibbons art isn't flashy or overly detailed but it serves the story perfectly.

12:26 / 10.09.01

I've tried repeatedly to get into Powers, I really have, because everyone and his dog tells me it's just soooooooo brilliant, but each time I sit down to read that first story arc I get about half-way through and just give up. I hate the art and Bendis' writing is tedious and not nearly as clever-clever as he apparently thinks it is.

>>> I do like Oeming's art more than Gibbons however.<<<

(jaw drops open) As pointed out above, Gibbons' rendering may not be to everyone's taste, but from a storytelling and structural standpoint it's peerless.

16:14 / 10.09.01

Never trust a talking dog. Fucking liars, all of em.

04:24 / 13.06.04

So does anybody read it?

I bought the first five trades and read the rest in singles. I think near the end of Sellouts, the series changed completely and turned into the Best Superman story never told.

The apemen buttfucking apewomen was bizarre but Bendis was making a point.

I think Who Killed Retro Girl is a great story and the following storylines are interesting but Bendis surpasses all previous stories with the ending to Sellouts and the following arc.

Volume 1 is over and I'm beginning to see why Bendis wins all Eisners. Ten years in comics and that guy has an impressive catalog already.

14:37 / 14.06.04

I enjoy POWERS a lot, both Bendis' writing and Oeming's art. After reading Bendis' stuff for 2 years, his style can occasionally wear on me but overall I like it a lot. And of all his stuff, POWERS is one of the most fun and clearly one the dearest to his heart since it's his baby.

15:41 / 14.06.04

I hate Bendis like poison. I think he's a worthless hack. I think he is to writing as Liefeld was to art, that is a ninth-rate Frank Miller wannabe with a good line of bullshit which the retarded management has slurped up like gravy.

Seriously, man. If you put all the hype out of your mind and actually read the man's comics, they are the most deplorable crap evar.

Why am I in such a bad mood today?

18:44 / 15.06.04

I really like Bendis' dialogue, but sometimes his storylines move too slow. There's usually a few filler or slow issues until the storyline gets to the point. His Ultimate X-Men run was really bad about that. Taken as a whole, however, I really dig Powers.

Season 2 is just around the corner...

20:36 / 16.06.04

I didn't realise Powers had been snaffled up by Marvel now.

20:37 / 16.06.04

I like Powers quite a bit. Unfortunately, I think Bendis is treading water at this point. I'd like to be proven wrong, but that whole series of historical issues reeked of poorly-executed episodes of "Forever Knight."

13:10 / 17.06.04

What can I say to convince you that all copies of any POWERS book, or any book by Bendis, and possibly Bendis himself, should be burned on a big fundamentalist superhero pyre?

13:35 / 17.06.04

I wasn't all that impressed either - read a friend's copy of who killed retrogirl and was singularly unmoved to read the next volume conveniently placed within arms reach...

13:40 / 17.06.04

Although think 'fortune and glory' is great stuff...

15:04 / 28.06.04

Ok. When this thread begun, I had read the three first volumes. I thought it was a good comic, but far from the best Bendis works (Daredevil, with no doubt). Powers was a darker Astrocity-like comic, but far worse than the original.

Now I've read volumes four (Supergroup) and five (Anarchy), and ¡it's awsome cool! ¡better than Astrocity!

21:49 / 28.06.04

I read a friend's copy of the first volume, and it was cool and all, but not sufficiently moving to get me to actually spend money to read the rest. I did eventually check the second volume out from the library; it wasn't as good as the first, but certainly worth reading for free.

My take on Bendis generally is similiar to my take on Warren Ellis. Both are impressively skilled craftsmen, but neither is particularly original. Even their best works tend to feel familiar rather than groundbreaking, which is a problem for works which are so obviously trying to be groundbreaking (though this is more the case with Ellis than with Bendis).

13:50 / 09.07.04

New ICON issue is out -- it's pretty good. Thoughts?

Walker as drawn by Oeming looked a little odd - which is funny since Oeming created the character. Walker just didn't look like he normally does, to my eyes.

And we all knew a certain young lassie was coming back eventually...

I thought it was cool how they killed off a supporting character who I thought would be a regular.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:07 / 09.07.04

I said "Holy Shit!" out loud.

14:23 / 09.07.04

Yeah, that double-page spread at the end had a nice punch to it.

And the lettercol is always fun - and now we get to read the bizarre Powers Personals too!

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:40 / 09.07.04

Actually, I wasn't surprised by that, it was what happened about fifteen pages aHEAD of it.

15:46 / 09.07.04

Enjoyed it as well. It's interesting to see this as a #1 with SO MUCH back-story. I wonder if the new imprint will foster many or any new readers...

20:31 / 29.07.04

Second ish is out -- it's cool. Fun stuff.

18:05 / 13.08.04

The 3rd issue is good, except the scene on the cover doesn't occur in the issue, does it? Deena does't hand out an ass-whuppin' in #3 -- she gets one.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

18:21 / 13.08.04

The covers on Powers tend to never happen in the actual comic. It works on other books but it's just confusing on this one.

Other than that, good issue.

19:31 / 13.10.04

Big issue comes out today (#5, I think), apparently with some shocking developments. I honestly have no idea what those developments might be, I'm just very curious.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

19:38 / 13.10.04

Ha! LITERALLY shocking!

I was so troubled by the alluded to developments (which ended up all red herring-stizz) that a barely read the issue. If Deena was getting gang-raped by nerds I wanted to see Walker ripping heads off A LA PRONTO. What actually happened was a lot more interesting.

15:57 / 22.10.04

The book has been on a consistent high since Sellouts.

Really interesting developement.

And does anyone else think Bendis came up with the coolest "origin" story for Walker?

I'm digging this book.

14:32 / 20.04.05

More shit happens to Deena.

And Deena finds out that Callista is the new Retro Girl.

Just when I thought this book was getting a little slow, it's been picking up again.

10:07 / 26.04.05

You know, TV listings would be much more interesting if they read like the above entry.

24: 20:00-21:00. More shit happens to Jack.

The West Wing: More shit happens to President Bartlett.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: More shit happens to Buffy. And everyone else. More shit than you ever thought possible. Yes, they're repeating season six again.

12:19 / 26.04.05

*lol* I didn't want to spoil since the book had just come out that week.

19:09 / 01.09.05

latest issue is out, technically its Powers #50. The lettercolumn is something like 12 pages, with answers being provided not by Bendis but by comedian Patton Oswalt and some other comedian. It's kind of funny; just glad to see Powers achieving its 50th issue. There's a decent interview with Bendis & Oeming in there as well, plus a Bendis-drawn cover.

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