Powers 7: Forever

Comic Info

Powers (1) #32

Reprints Powers (1) #31-37 (April 2003-February 2004).  Christian Walker does not know who he is.  Is he the superhero Diamond?  A barbarian?  An early man?  A Chinese warrior?  The years have passed for Walker and he has been hunted through the years.  Though his memory is fleeting, there is one constant…a man who has dogged him from the dawn of time.  Wolfe is coming for Christian, and the time has come to fight!

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Powers Volume 7:  Forever is an Image Comics superhero comic book collection.  Following Powers Volume 6:  The Sellouts, Powers was originally published by Image, but then reverted to Marvel Comics under their Icon imprint.  Featuring art by Michael Avon Oeming, issues in this collection were also collected as part of Powers—Book 2, Powers—Volume 3, and Powers Omnibus.

I voraciously read each volume of Powers as they were released.  I didn’t pick up the individual issues (and I’d still argue that Powers isn’t a very good individual issue comic).  Powers 7:  Forever followed the big cliffhanger of Powers 6:  The Sellouts (with all Powers being made illegal), but it went a different path.

This volume is all about Christian Walker and his origin.  Much like a Vandal Savage, Christian and his nemesis Wolfe are granted life with no end in sight.  They find themselves pitted against each other as early man and that hatred continues (at least on Wolfe’s part).  It is a subtle commentary on the nature of man, but it isn’t made the thrust of the storyline.

Powers (1) #34

What is fun about Powers 7:  Forever is that it gets to play with genres.  Bendis gets to do a virtually silent issue (minus grunts and screams), a Conan the Barbarian-esque issue, a martial arts issue, a 1940s early superheroes mystery-men issue, a throwback 1980s issue, and a modern day issue to wrap everything up.  It feels like a journey, and it is well plotted to get the reader in Christian’s shoes.

Oeming’s art is just as important as Bendis’s storytelling.  The writing is a bit more of a challenge with Christian evolving over the centuries, but it also has Oeming tapping into slightly different styles while maintaining the basic look and feel of Powers.  It could have been played for complete shock value with different looks and artistic styles entirely, but this way feels better for the story.

Powers 7:  Forever was the end of the run for the original Powers series.  Though Powers (Volume 2) took up immediately after this, it always felt like this was the real wrap-up of Powers.  I started to lose a bit of my interest in Powers following this volume and wasn’t as eager to get the collections.  Powers 7:  Forever is followed by Powers 8:  Legends.

Preceded By:

Powers 6:  The Sellouts

Followed By:

Powers 8:  Legends