We here at ComicsXF are pretty much in the tank for The Power Fantasy, Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard’s new Image Comics series about six superpowered individuals who cannot fight or else the world will blow up.
It is the perfect Gillen concept in that it is big and colorful and witty while also, at its heart, frighteningly depressing. Wijngaard’s art levels up to match, snapping on a dime from bright and poppy to scratchy and ominous.
In building up hype for the series – Gillen’s return to creator-owned comics after three years in the Immortal X-Men and Eternals sandbox – the team is sharing details on each of The Power Fantasy‘s lead characters with different sites. Today, ComicsXF exclusively reveals the deets on Morishita Masumi, aka Destructa, an artist whose depression could one day kill us all. Cheers!
Check out some unlettered art from issues #1 and #2 featuring Masumi below, a variant cover by Sweeney Boo, and keep scrolling for Gillen’s thoughts on the character.
And for more on The Power Fantasy, listen to Gillen and Wijngaard’s appearance on The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
“We’re doing this slow unveil of the cast of The Power Fantasy, and the last two have been what we call Atomics (aka “The Nuclear Family”). These are people who emerged with impossible gifts in the world post-1945 (and specifically one day in 1945. You can likely work out which one.). They’re a large community, the vast majority of who have no significant ability at all. They’re basically party tricks, at best. The Superpowers who our story revolves around are exceptional, on a whole different level even to the ones who do have abilities commensurate to what you’d see in another comic. Etienne Lux and Heavy are different in lots of ways, but there are similarities. They’re both political figures, with their own goals in the world. They’ve butted heads, and had to compromise with one another to get what they want.
The third Atomic is different, in that her goals are simple.
She doesn’t want to kill every single person on the planet.
Meet Morishita Masumi. Or, as she’s known in the world of modern art, “Deconstructa.”
I’ve said that part of The Power Fantasy‘s backstory was realising that once you reach past a certain level of power, a superpower would be basically worthless. An Atom Bomb is only really there to kill us all.
Masumi is the purest expression of that. Her gift is one which activates when her depression and alienation grows too much. She disappears. It arrives.
Her life is about trying not to use her gift. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she’s been in therapy since the first event. Most of all, she tries to channel all these awful feelings – self-hatred, depression. shame, guilt – into her art. Many artists talk about how their art is what keeps them alive. Masumi thinks that her art keeps everyone alive.
That’s horrible, but that’s just the tip of that particularly awful iceberg. Imagine everyone else around you knowing that truth, and then imagine how they then treat you. Everyone knows Masumi needs to be kept happy… which means Masumi, in her heart of hearts, cannot trust anything anyone ever does for her.
She’s probably the most depressing character of The Power Fantasy. At least top two. We haven’t talked much about Eliza Hellbound, who petrifies me, but Masumi is just awful.
I think that means you root for her. Every page I’ve written with Masumi, I like her more. If Power Fantasy has any connective tissue from WicDiv (and it clearly does) it most clearly shows in Masumi. She’s about art versus the end of the world – even her life contrast between the Bjork-isms of her in public versus her being hyper casual in private seems to have WicDiv notes? See what you think.
Anyway – we’ve provided some early Concept Art here, and a page from issue 1 and 2.”
The Power Fantasy #1 arrives in stores Aug. 7 from Image Comics.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
