Powers 8: Legends

Comic Info

Powers (2) #4

Reprints Powers (2) #1-6 (July 2004-November 2004).  Powers are illegal and keeps criminals off the street has gotten harder for the officers.  With the number of police killed in the line of duty increasing, the arrival of a new Retro Girl could bring hope and restore the glory of the Powers.  Deena Pilgrim finds herself back at work, but attempts to bring in a Power could be deadly…but it could also reveal a secret that she doesn’t even know.

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Powers Volume 8:  Legends is a Marvel Comics superhero book released under the Icon imprint.  Follower Powers 7:  Forever, the series features art by Michael Avon Oeming.  Issues in this collection were also reprinted as part of Powers—Book 4 and Powers:  The Definitive Collection—Volume 4.

Powers 7:  Forever felt a little like an ending to Powers.  With this volume, Powers is getting a soft reboot as it jumps officially from Image to Marvel (Marvel did some of the reprinting of the previous run).  While the book and the creative team is the same, this volume feels a bit small…and that is a bit sad.

Overall, the series is still one of the better reads, but it also is starting to feel like Bendis has done this before.  The plots and plotlines volume to volume start to blur and it is getting a little harder to have shock value after some of the things that have happened in Powers.  Cutter’s head might get ripped off in this collection, but Powers has shown so many horrible things so many times.

Powers (2) #6

The story itself has a couple threads.  You have Walker investigating the new Retro Girl (which is a fun throwback to the first volume of the series), and you have Deena Pilgrim tracking down a killer but falling victim herself.  This is added on top of Powers being outlawed and some of the Powers deciding to reform and buck the law.  All three stories have bigger outcomes for future storylines so Bendis continues to do a good job world-building…but it just feels a little like a repeat.

Michael Avon Oeming still really gets the project.  The art is stellar and despite the blocky, throwback style of Oeming, it has a real modern look with heart.  Like many of Bendis’s titles (so I can’t entirely blame Oeming), it sometimes is difficult to determine if it is meant to be read across both pages or as two vertical pages…the spread style is important to the style of storytelling, but I wish that the flow was better demonstrated.

Powers 8:  Legends is a new start to a series that quickly became a classic.  Unfortunately, Bendis has upped the ante so many times with the series that matching each energy and emotional impact is nearly impossible at this point.  I hope that he can keep the shock and awe going, but it doesn’t seem like it is sustainable.  Powers 8:  Legends is followed by Powers 9:  Psychotic.

Preceded By:

Powers 7:  Forever

Followed By:

Powers 9:  Psychotic