"Like that
pulp hero from the '50s...All he did for
this city, and now he's a gag -- a
cautionary tale. I couldn't let that
happen to her. You people -- you didn't
deserve her. No. No you didn't. You see?
You see what I did for you? I preserved
her. She's a god now. Immortal,
untouchable. The city needs her just
like she is -- for always. Immortal. And
now they have her.
"They have her."
-- The Killer
Homicide
Detective Christian Walker is having
another bad day. Not only do all the
criminal crackpots ask for him personally,
but he also has to break in a new partner
-- the hot-headed Deena Pilgrim. Then his
bad day gets even worse when word comes
that the city's most celebrated citizen
has been murdered and he's drawn the case.
Did
I mention that all these crackpots have
super powers? And that the murder victim
is -- make that was, the city's champion
-- the allegedly invulnerable Retro Girl?
No
clues. No forensics -- the hero's
powers hamper the autopsy. And no
leads. All of that topped off with a
possible conflict of interest (PLOT
POINT!) with our lead Detective.
Everything is intensified by the
surrounding media circus as Walker and
Pilgrim chase down leads and the usual
suspects. Desperately searching for just
pieces of the puzzle -- let alone trying
to make the few and jumbled pieces they
have fit together.
*
* * *
Writer
Brian Michael Bendis is a lightning-rod to
most comic fanboys and girls. Some love
him, some hate him. Where do I fall? Well,
I'll go on record to say I absolutely HATE
what he's done to the Marvel Universe. Not
the Ultimate Universe mind you, that's his
playground and he's welcome to do anything
he wants there. But I weep for the
disaster that was Avengers
Disassembled
and everything that followed. However,
when he's not destroying my childhood, I
actually kind of like what he does with
his own toys, like POWERS
and Ultimate
Spider-Man.
On
the surface POWERS
is just an amped up version of your garden
variety TV police procedural like Law
& Order: SVU.
But in this case it would be Law
& Order: SHVU
-- Super-Hero
Victim's Unit.
In
this universe wearing a cape, whether
you're a good guy or a bad guy, is illegal
-- unless you have a registered permit.
Meaning if you don't have one and you're
caught in spandex, you get arrested.
Despite all the government interference
there are those who would still fight the
good fight for truth, justice etc. etc.
And in this universe, the
"Capes" have all the same
foibles and hang-ups as the
"Norms." And when one of them is
killed because of those foibles or
hang-ups, that's when our protagonists go
to work.
Now
it did take me awhile to really get into
this book. I was having a hell of a time
navigating the panels and word balloons.
Sometimes the action would cross the
gutter instead of the normal progressive
layout and I would get lost. Old habits
die hard I guess. It wasn't until the
beginning of the second chapter when the
medical examiner went schizo during
Retro-Girl's autopsy that I finally got
into the rhythm, and then the whole thing
gelled for me.
Oeming's
art is deceptively simple and once you get
the feel of his layouts, it really grows
on you as the story progresses. His
noirish landscapes and character designs
reminds you of Gotham from the animated Batman
series. What l really like is his use of
black space. Half the dang panels are in
shadow and it works wonderfully.
Bendis's
plot moves methodically along while Walker
and Pilgrim throw out a wide net, hoping
that something relevant will crop up.
Despite these best efforts, most of the
critical information finds its way to them
or is stumbled upon by accident. It's a
slow and steady process but the pieces do
finally start falling into place.
And
just like in those TV shows, the drama is
in the uncovering of the truth: meaning
you've got 55 minutes of build up, two
minutes of climax, and three minutes of
resolution before the end credits roll. Who
Killed Retro Girl
is no different. After a lot of tail
chasing for four and half installments, on
critical piece of evidence -- in this case
a some distinctive graffiti, opens the
floodgates. Then the killer is revealed
and his motives are quickly wrapped up
before the reader even realizes what
happened.
So
who killed Retro Girl? I'm not going to
say because that, of course, would ruin
the mystery. I will say that I was a
little incredulous when I first read it;
but the more I thought about it, the more
it made sense -- even though it was kinda
out of left field.
POWERS:
Who Killed Retro Girl?
was a good read with interesting
characters who live in a universe that
deserve more exploring. There are some
intriguing subplots introduced here and
some history that I'm anxious to uncover.
So I'm sold, and will be checking out
future volumes when I hit the comic shop.
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