by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Michael Avon Oeming (art), Nick Filardi (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)
The Story: Walker and Calista go on their first adventure together, a god (maybe) is found murdered, and a certain someone makes her unexpected return in an unexpected capacity.
What’s Good: Calista comes out as the star this month. While her role as Walker’s student expands with her first team-up alongside him, she’s the highlight this month if only because her personality really shines. Calista is really at her most adorable this month, so much so that it’s impossible not to like her. Best of all is that this likability is wholly natural and never saccharine, as it’s accomplished chiefly through Calista’s absurd sense of humor and Bendis’ writing of her youthful impatience. Calista’s dialogue was a job well done by Bendis this month; she’s funny, she’s human, and her age and personality really come through.
Other than Calista-related awesomeness, this month is fairly devoted to set-up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s intriguing and really promising for the future, as Bendis seems to intend this arc to address a region of superheroics that he’d left untouched so far. It looks as though this arc is going to be dedicated to the mythological gods who always seem to somehow find their way into superhero tights in the comics world. That Bendis has never even once mentioned this area before is stunning and that I had never thought of it myself is testament to how good Powers really is. Considering the various intelligent riffs Bendis has made on superhero comics in Powers, I can’t wait to see what he does here.
Then of course, there’s the surprise return. Even though it’s not really a surprise, given the solicitations and the cover of next month’s issue, the capacity in which the character returns is certainly an interesting one.
What’s Not So Good: Walker slaps on the superhero tights this month for a battle with….something. It’s an extended sequence and I really can’t say I was a fan, if only because the battle itself is meaningless. We never really have any idea what the thing Walker’s fighting actually is, what its abilities are, what it even looks like in its totality, or what its intentions are. He just fights it, while Calista helps out, then stands triumphant. It feels half-assed and borderline filler. If the battle was meant to develop Walker’s relationship with Calista, it didn’t need to take that many pages and there’s no reason why the battle, and the adversary, couldn’t have been more intelligible. The fact that I know that this battle is utterly seems unrelated to the upcoming arc also means that we’ll probably never get any more info about any of this.
It doesn’t help that Oeming’s depiction of the battle, and the monster, is equally muddled and confusing. I’ve often stated my love for Oeming’s creative layouts and uses of perspective, but he goes wildly overboard this month with that battle. It makes the action incredibly difficult to decipher and makes an already irritating experience even more so. Sadly, this also seems to be Oeming’s “big moment” this month, as the rest of the book is relatively restrained and is a merely solid, but not exemplary effort on his part.
Conclusion: A decent issue where Calista’s awesomeness outweighs a crappy battle.
Grade: B –
-Alex Evans
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