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Jul. 1st, 2012 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cblj_backupIn my oh so copious spare time I've been reading back issues of Powers, which is superhero metacommentary from Image Comics, created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Avon Oeming (I'm trying to pay attention to who writes and draws this stuff, not that I ever managed to do that for television, so why should comics be any different, but I digress).
The concept of "superheroes have real-world problems like the rest of us" has been done before; in my admittedly limited experience I think Spider-man did it first, but it's much more fully explored in Watchmen and perhaps most recently in The Twelve though Iron Man also did a really good mini about it recently. Superhero noir. But it's a neat twist on it, combining that idea with a cop procedural, and the two main characters are compelling and banter well. When it's good, and it is good most of the time, it's so good. But when it's not good, it's really and truly bafflingly bad.
The nice thing about the really bad issues is that they also seem to be really irrelevant. You don't always get that in episodic storytelling; a lot of the time you have to wade through the bad stuff because it's relevant to a story that is not in itself bad, you just have to put up with some crap to get to the good parts. With Powers, the most insanely stupid issue is a one-off, and the other arguably lacking-in-quality issues are part of a single self-contained arc that doesn't much touch the larger story. There are portions of good issues that are bad, but they're subplots you don't have to pay attention to. I'm kind of gleeful about ignoring them.
I mean, if you're going to write badly, and let's face it everyone sometimes does, at least these guys have found a way to wall off the low-quality stuff from the rest. It's considerate, really.
(Also I ship Pilgrim/Walker like burning. She needs someone who can actually keep up with her and he needs a fucking hug.)
The concept of "superheroes have real-world problems like the rest of us" has been done before; in my admittedly limited experience I think Spider-man did it first, but it's much more fully explored in Watchmen and perhaps most recently in The Twelve though Iron Man also did a really good mini about it recently. Superhero noir. But it's a neat twist on it, combining that idea with a cop procedural, and the two main characters are compelling and banter well. When it's good, and it is good most of the time, it's so good. But when it's not good, it's really and truly bafflingly bad.
The nice thing about the really bad issues is that they also seem to be really irrelevant. You don't always get that in episodic storytelling; a lot of the time you have to wade through the bad stuff because it's relevant to a story that is not in itself bad, you just have to put up with some crap to get to the good parts. With Powers, the most insanely stupid issue is a one-off, and the other arguably lacking-in-quality issues are part of a single self-contained arc that doesn't much touch the larger story. There are portions of good issues that are bad, but they're subplots you don't have to pay attention to. I'm kind of gleeful about ignoring them.
I mean, if you're going to write badly, and let's face it everyone sometimes does, at least these guys have found a way to wall off the low-quality stuff from the rest. It's considerate, really.
(Also I ship Pilgrim/Walker like burning. She needs someone who can actually keep up with her and he needs a fucking hug.)
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Date: 2012-07-01 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-01 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-04 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 03:04 am (UTC)the most insanely stupid issue is a one-off
This is the monkey-fucking issue, right? (If there's a more insanely stupid book than that, I may have to put off getting caught up on Powers, in order to prepare myself.)
If you start writing Pilgrim/Walker fic, that will pretty much make my life complete.
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Date: 2012-07-02 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 07:50 pm (UTC)I'm not making sense.
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Date: 2012-07-03 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-04 12:24 am (UTC)I just got bored waiting for dialogue to show up.
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Date: 2012-07-02 09:59 am (UTC)It's all you say and MORE. It's like Bendis is channeling the madness of Ellis and Ennis, the sheer weird of Moore and the brain-fried antics of Hunter S. Thompson.
Which number are you on?
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Date: 2012-07-02 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-03 12:24 pm (UTC)I kind of actually really like his girlfriend, too, though I assume she's going to get killed soon.
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Date: 2012-07-03 11:42 pm (UTC)I can't say a damned thing in reply because of spoilers.
Oh wells.
And Walker is very big. It's hard for anyone to hug him.
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Date: 2012-07-04 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 01:29 pm (UTC)For example? One chapter is a choose-your-own-adventure story - there are a couple of paths which lead to the 'correct' ending, and depending which choices you make, a certain character's motives can come across as purely noble and well intentioned, or completely selfish and manipulative, or a mix of both.
I'd also recommend Chew, just because it is hilariously macabre and bizarre. It's set in a universe where chicken has been outlawed post the avian flu epidemic, causing all kinds of speakeasies and bootleggers to pop up. The main character has the power to tell the history of any object by eating it. He gets involved in murder cases. It goes downhill from there.
There's also Fables - it's gone downhill lately but at its peak it was a fun, noir-tinged take on the idea that fairytale characters are real, and living as refugees in New York after being driven from their homelands by a mysterious villain.
(I...may read too many comics. ^^;)
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Date: 2012-07-02 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 07:48 pm (UTC)Political commentary and evil cops. Basically that.
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Date: 2012-07-03 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 05:33 pm (UTC)Oh, and I don't know if you saw the news, but the Powers pilot that got filmed in Chicago didn't get picked up - apparently the network is going to develop it some more and try again.
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Date: 2012-07-02 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 07:19 pm (UTC)