djotaku's Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection #1 - Volume One review

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    Could Only Exist Nowadays

    Powers reads and looks like a combination of a webcomic and a 2000s indie comic.  Like a webcomic it really takes a long view of the storylline.  There are things that happen early on, like a little girl that the main guy ends up saddled with, who plays essentially no role at all.  She gets shuttled into daycare and is never heard from again.  Which makes it all seem pointless unless you're taking the long view of the plot - which most indie comics don't do - not knowing how well they'll sell.  Webcomics, being essentially free to create, tend to take such long views. 
     
    So what to make of the overall Powers environment?  It's yet another realistic look at a world with heroes.  But, unlike Watchmen, Top Ten, or others, it's not meant to be a deconstructions.  Rather, it's a world in which something happened and super heroes have retired or given up and wearing costumes is illegal.  But, at least in this first year, no one is playing hero or anything.  (Which is where I thought the comic would go)  In other words, I thought it was going to be kinda like Marvel's Civil War or something, but without the burden of knowing all the characters and who to work for.  Instead we follow two cops (one of them new, as ALWAYS - just read Proof and it's the same thing as well as Top 10) who work the super hero beat.  But, it's no like a deconstruction world where there are superheroes that need to be policed because they're abusing their powers or something.  They just start off investigating the murder of a super hero. 
     
    I'm not saying that I'm jonesing for a deconstruction.  (It may sound that way based on what I've written so far)  No I'm just saying where I kept thinking it was going to go.  The indie comics world is full of deconstructions and we don't necessarily need another.  I just feel like after a year's worth of comics, I still don't really get where Bendis is trying to go with this.  And, while he's written some interesting characters with some backstories to get to, he just hasn't made it so compelling that I care to keep reading.  (Unlike Proof)  He just hasn't given me a cliffhanger or anything so compelling that I want to keep reading. 
      
    One comment on the art layout -  it would be a little less confusing as a webcomic, but as a comic book the panels can be confusing to read.  We've been "taught" over time that you read all the panels on each page - not across pages.  So it took a while for me to realize I'd been reading it incorrectly.  Also, this binding makes some of those panels near the inner crease hard to read.

    So, should you read it?  Hard to say.  If you can get access to a library or something where you can preview it - that'd be a good way to see if the story and art style are for you.

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