Powers #8 Comic Review & FX TV Series Update

Powers #8 picks up right from this point. The host of Powers That Be that was interviewing this god, Artemis, is muttering to himself and clearly shaken. You would be too, if the person’s head you were interviewing just exploded right before your eyes on a live television broadcast.

Walker and Sunrise are deciding how to proceed with questioning when Walker’s old partner and newly appointed FBI Agent Deena Pilgrim shows up and takes the lead on the case. Seems the Feds get involved when gods start a splodin’ on TV. The dialogue takes place in uniquely intertwining speech balloons, that at first can seem a little hard follow, but actually help the dialogue flow in a more natural manner.

Following up on an online lead, the trio of investigators sets out to find a god named Hades and ask him a few questions. Eventually they make their way to Hades zero-gravity speakeasy. Michael Oeming switches up the formatting of the art in this section to give the sensation of weightlessness and a little disorientation — it’s a nice touch that adds to the scene. Hades claims to have had his powers broken in a fight, and that they don’t work right any more. He also reveals that some “Powers” would be happy to be rid of their abilities, and that there are even underground experimental procedures to accomplish just that. Is this a new lead or just ramblings and rumor?

This case needs to break pretty soon. Maybe a trip to the corner’s office for the autopsy report will shed some light on this investigation? Or just maybe this visit will reveal information that makes finding the killer as quickly as possible an even more urgent manner?

The artwork in this issue, and Powers in general, is really fun. In a printed letter at the end of this issue, Bendis credits Oeming for doing much of the heavy lifting for Powers #8 while Mr. Bendis was otherwise engaged. You can really feel a heavy artist’s influence throughout this issue, with nice splash and double-page spreads. I am a huge fan of Michael Oeming’s work. He doesn’t illustrate in a hyper-detailed manner, but his work has such brilliant formatting, use of negative space, dramatic light and dark contrasts, emotion, and style that it really is a joy to behold. Since he lives here in the NW, I have had the pleasure meeting Mr. Oeming on many occasions. He is a friendly gentleman who really loves to create art. Follow him on Twitter or visit his blog and you will see that he constantly posts work for people to check out. You would think that when someone creates art all day for a living that the last thing they would ever want to do is draw just for fun — but not Michael Oeming. I have seen him post work that he has done because he “just felt like drawing Hellboy” that day. I tell you this because his work has a free feeling; and an element of je nais se quoi that you start to understand and see more and more if you become familiar with his work. And may I just add that Mr. Oeming’s title pages (like the one from this issue below) always remind me of the great old title pages that Will Eisner always included back in The Spirit? This is a nice tradition that I would like to see in more comics.

This was good issue, even if it seemed cut a little short for some updates. It is so nice to have Powers back again. So why the long delay? This is the very first issue Brian Michael Bendis addresses in his written The Line Up section at the end of the issue.

Powers FX TV Series Update

Bendis apologizes for the huge delay, but explains that he has been busy with his role as executive producer for the Powers TV series for FX.  He explains that this is Powers’ only shot to get on film, and he wants to do the work justice in adapting it.  Paired with the fact that Bendis works on so many projects, this is a reasonable explanation.  Mr. Bendis then takes the time to fill us in with five pages of Powers TV series news. Speculation as to the future of the show has run rampant after Powers was scheduled for some reshoots after initial shooting had finished. Many sources made this sound like a massive overhaul, but Bendis says it was really only a few days worth of reshoots and not uncommon for shows on FX (he cites the successful series Sons of Anarchy as an example to support this claim). He doesn’t promise for certain that the show will air, but seems to be fairly confident that it will. Personally, I really hope that it does. He also goes on to quip that if the show doesn’t air he will have:

“…a copy of a very expensive pilot I’m rather quite proud of. I will show it at conventions after Locke and Key.”

There are all kinds of other production tidbits, news, and images from the Chicago shooting location and set. If you are like me and have been wondering what has been going on with the Powers series, this update is really quite interesting. At this point it looks like the show could air next year. In the meantime, Bendis promises another issue of the Powers comic series in the not too distant future, so keep your fingers crossed on multiple counts.