Like Meeting Up With An Old Friend

Powers Bureau 6
Marvel Icon
Brian Michael Bendis, writer
Michael Avon Oeming, artist
********** Mature Content Warning ************

I don't know that Powers is a book for everyone, but I enjoy it.

I didn't start out with the book from the beginning. This is another title where I came late to the party. I was curious about it for a long time before I decided to just buy the first trade and try it. That would be Who Killed Retro Girl, the story arc that launched this series in 2000. In that story, readers are introduced to two police detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim. The pair work in a special division of the police force assigned specifically to cases involving people with superpowers. Some such people are good guys. Others are bad guys. Like in most fictional universes where some people have superpowers, there are a lot more bad guys than there are good guys, but even some of the good guys tend to forget there are other non-powered people around.

I liked that first trade so much, I bought the next couple and so on. I continued to enjoy Powers in trade format through the rest of its Image run, and then switched to buying single issues when Bendis and Oeming moved the title to Marvel's creator-owned Icon imprint in 2004. Like any series, some story arcs are better than others, but I've enjoyed reading about the characters through all of the changes in their lives and their world.

In mid-2012, a major catastrophe struck the Powers world and its characters, changing them even more. The title went away for a bit and then relaunched earlier this year under the new name Powers Bureau. The name change reflects the series' new reality after the world-altering event that ended the previous series. In this new world, all powered individuals are outlawed and any case involving superpowers is literally a federal case, handled by the FBI. Pilgrim had joined the FBI before the previous series ended in 2012. This first story arc shows Walker joining the FBI, too, so a casual reader might think little has changed with this series. Rather, the renewed focus of the characters and of the creators is obvious in every page of Powers Bureau.

I've always enjoyed reading Powers; that's why I continued to buy the title despite its erratic publishing schedule. But there's an excitement in the book now that I hadn't really noticed was missing until I felt it come back again. Bendis knows these characters and writes their dialogue in a kind of shorthand that feels like two friends talking to each other. And while Oeming's art still has the same cartoony Powers style, it also seems to have matured some as these characters have aged in the series.

Powers Bureau is definitely good comics!

This Is What Graphic Storytelling Should Be

Scene of the Crime Deluxe Edition hardcover
Image Comics
Ed Brubaker, writer
Michael Lark and Sean Phillips, artists

You'll care about these characters -- they're that well written -- but don't get too attached because many of them won't make it through the stories alive.

I like a lot of what Ed Brubaker produces. He tends to bring out the best in the superheroes he writes, but he truly shines writing everyday people. One of the first series where I really took notice of his work in particular was DC Comics' Gotham Central. That series, with just a very few cameo exceptions, left out the superheroes in favor of focusing on the detectives in Batman's hometown, and Brubaker and co-writer Greg Rucka wrote those folks well.

From there, I signed on for Brubaker's Criminal run with Sean Phillips at Marvel Icon. Here the focus was on criminals, but in a world without superpowers. These are everyday lowlifes -- bank robbers, con artists and ne'er-do-wells. In this series, I found myself feeling sympathy for, and even cheering on, many of the hard-luck cases who filled the pages of Criminal.

All of that is what led me to this Scene of the Crime hardcover. The miniseries by this name is not Ed Brubaker's first comics work, but it is his first work for DC Comics, originally under the Vertigo imprint. The main mystery presented here, "A Little Piece of Goodnight," was intended to be the second case in an ongoing comic series, Brubaker explains in the text piece at the end of the volume. Instead, the editors chose to lead with this tale, and before it was concluded, the ongoing became a series of minis, then just the one story.

The only exception was a short story titled "God and Sinners: A Scene of the Crime Christmas Mystery" which was written for a Vertigo anthology book that printed a few months before Scene of the Crime No. 1 debuted. It is the only other story published to date featuring the main characters in the Scene of the Crime universe -- young private detective Jack Herriman; his uncle, Knut Herriman, a semi-retired, semi-famous crime-scene photographer; and Knut's girlfriend, Molly -- and it is also included in this volume.

The fact that these two stories are the only Scene of the Crime tales to see print so far is one of the many crimes detailed in this book. Jack not only gets to the bottom of the main mystery in "Goodnight," but readers are also treated to much of Jack's own back story and motivations, something Brubaker says he planned to reveal over the course of the ongoing series, little tidbits at a time. It is good that he knew the series wasn't going to be able to continue and could rework all of Jack's story into this single tale. Jack's personal story is every bit as interesting as the missing person case he is hired to solve and the larger plot his investigations uncover along the way.

Once again, Brubaker has crafted an incredible narrative that leaves me wanting more of the same. There is little one can say about a book to more highly recommend it than that. And this tale is also beautifully, grittily illustrated by Lark and Phillips, two frequent collaborators of Brubaker's.

Audiences May Be Blown Away, But Not In A Good Way

Today, we're going to combine purposes just a bit. We're still going to be looking at a recent comic read, but this one also has the distinction of being made into a movie that will be coming to a theater near you in April. Whether or not that ends up being a good thing remains to be seen.

Let me start off by saying that I'm going to try to keep specific plot spoilers to a minimum. The comic contains many twists and turns that I found genuinely surprising when I read them, and if the movie stays true to the inspiration -- which most accounts credit it for doing -- I don't want to spoil those for anyone seeing the story for the first time. But there is one major "reveal" that I think the general public needs to be let in on ahead of time.

I recently received my copy of the much delayed final issue of Kick-Ass, the Marvel Icon book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. This final book has come out so much later than the first seven issues, in fact, that I re-read the entire series, just to refresh my memory. I enjoyed re-reading the earlier issues just as much the second time around, so make no mistake, I think this is an excellent comic created by two greats in their fields who know how to utilize this medium to great effect. Millar weaves a great story with believable characters that an audience can come to care about quickly. And Romita is perfect to illustrate the gritty tale Millar weaves. And make no mistake, this story is VERY gritty, grisly, almost painful to witness at times for its graphic violence.

That's right, I said graphic violence. Now, this revelation isn't a surprise to anyone who's read the book. Far from it as the graphic nature of the story was disclosed up-front in the solicitations for the book. That's where I fear the movie is going to generate problems and hurt itself, and possibly the medium, as well.

Let's take a minute and review the basic plot for anyone not familiar with it. Kick-Ass is Dave Lizewski, a high school student who frequently describes himself as "not the class jock or the class geek. Not the class clown or class genius or class anything." He is a fan of movies, video games and superhero comic books -- a fan who wonders why no real people ever got the idea to put on a mask and costume and hit the streets looking for wrongs to right. When Dave can't come up with a good answer to that "why not" question, he decides to give it a try.

Things don't go spectacularly well on Dave's first outting, except for the fact that he manages to save someone's life. So he continues to go out in costume, discovering others who are doing the same thing. Sound about like what you'd expect so far? Well, keep in mind that this comic's creators are trying to keep the story firmly grounded in the "real world." So, when someone gets punched or kicked or slammed into a wall, foes fight back, flesh yields, and bones break. Also bear in mind that in the "real world" not everyone has the same values. Not everyone would have a problem employing lethal force for the "greater good." In fact, some folks might thrill at a permanent solution to criminals.

I've seen the trailers for this movie being shown in the theaters right now. They are playing up the "fun" aspects of the book, which are very much present. Dave sets out to be a superhero because he thinks superheroes are cool. I do, too, so who am I to argue? But there's more to this young man's story than fun. Things which might not be appropriate for young children to watch.

Yes, this film has an R rating, and, if the film stays true to the book, that rating will be deserved. But potential viewers don't always pay attention to the ratings. Some parents might find the R rating puzzling if they see the fun superhero trailers being shown. So they bring their children to the film anyway and subject the tykes to some pretty horrible deaths and dismemberments.

There are too many folks still out there in the world who view comic books as only children's fare. These folks fly into a rage of righteous indignation when they encounter adult themes and mistakenly believe such comics are being sold to children instead of realizing that comics -- like almost any other medium -- have many different categories of stories geared for many different audiences.

Can you imagine what these folks will think when this movie, after being marketed as a fun superhero film, turns out to be a bloodbath of mayhem in their eyes?

This is the kind of backlash I fear from the way the Kick-Ass film is being marketed right now. Without any regard for whether the film is good, I'm afraid it is going to be attacked for being unfit. I hope time proves me wrong, but that's my concern.