The week leading up to Christmas was as slow as expected. As usual, The “Gang War” and “FAll of X” storylines are dominated by pull lists. Hickman’s “G.O.D.S.” book dropped another issue and a few more Spider comics. And while all of these books were ok, I must admit that my best read from this list has to be the collected 4 volumes of Brian Michael Bendis’ “Powers”.
Comic Book of The Week:
Powers Collection Vol. 1–4
I first read Powers when I got through the first volume of Bendis’ run on Marvel’s New Avengers. After going back and reading his Daredevil, and Alias, someone suggested I try his Powers. I fell in love after the first issue. The story of a division of the police that dealt with superpower-related crime with a former ‘Supe’ and his foul-mouthed partner was a great read. Throw in Michael Oeming’s Batman The Animated Series-style artwork and it felt like nothing else in comics at the time.
As of today, Brian Michael Bendis is my favorite comic writer of all time. He usually trades that position with Jonathan Hickman depending on the day of the week, but at this time Bendis has the spot. I kinda lost track of him when he went to DC. Except for Batman Universe, all of his work there wasn’t that good. And I started to wonder what I saw in his work. But then I went back and read the remainder of this Marvel work, Ultimate Spider-man, Miles Morales: Spider-man, The Defenders, etc. and I was in love again. So when I saw the four-volume bundle of his Powers book, I jumped at the chance.
The main draw of this book is the dialogue. When just skimming these pages, you’ll be intimidated by the amount of work bubbles covering a lot of the pages. But once you start reading the clever interactions the characters exchange during the scenes, you’ll realize they’re all necessary. I’m currently only through a third of the first volume, but it’s rekindling the fun I had the first time I read it. These volumes will coast with me through the holiday season, and will have me ready for new quality content the start of 2024.
Best of The Rest:
