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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: 2012-07-02 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)