Ed. Note: This is a special spoiler-free advance review of The Power Fantasy #1. Check back next Wednesday for the full review, with spoilers.
âSuperpowered.â You have certain preconceptions. Theyâre incorrect. Here, that word has a specific technical definition. Namely, âany individual with the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the USA.â There are six such people on Earth. The planetâs survival relies on them never coming into conflict. Come dance to the ticking of the doomsday clock with us in The Power Fantasy #1 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Caspar Wijngaard, lettering by Clayton Cowles and design by Rian Hughes.
Sean Dillon: Hello and welcome to ComicsXFâs coverage of The Power Fantasy. Iâm former Judgment Day correspondent and DIE player Sean Dillon.
Rasmus Skov Lykke: And Iâm Rasmus Skov Lykke. You might know me from Kieron Gillen coverage, such as Judgement Day, Immortal X-Men, DIE the RPG, The Wicked + The Divine and Young Avengers.
Sean: I think I have your book on that last one.
Rasmus: Yes, I literally wrote a book about Gillenâs work (with the esteemed Jamie McKelvie). Needless to say, I am a huge fan. As such, Iâm very familiar with his writing, but havenât read much by Caspar Wijngaard yet, save for his collaboration with Gillen on Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. What about you, Sean?
Sean: Both Home Sick Pilots and All Against All are phenomenal books. Highly recommended works. His Star Wars work is perfectly good stuff, though very much working in IP. I feel like I should reread Angelic at some point, though I remember quite liking it. And his Star Trek short is phenomenal in its usage of paneling and mirroring.
Rasmus: I have been meaning to read Home Sick Pilots and All Against All, and after reading this first issue of The Power Fantasy my desire to do so has only increased. This is one hell of an opening issue.
Sean: Amen!
Fell in Love Years Ago With an Innocent Girl
Sean: As to be expected from a Gillen comic, things arenât what they seem on the surface.
Rasmus: Itâs definitely not black and white, clear cut good versus evil. Etienne Lux is the first character we meet, on this gorgeous splash from Wijngaard. Lux might well be the bad guy. But at the same time, he clearly has good intentions, being preoccupied with the ethics of it all.
Then thereâs the fact that he speaks with such casualness, while eating a slice. Itâs idle pondering, but we already get the feeling that he actually could take over the world.
Itâs a great start, with a seemingly simple opening line.
Sean: Additionally, consider the way in which the two characters are drawn in this splash. The approach Wijngaard takes with them isnât as looming figures dominating the page. If anything, theyâre the smallest people in the page, background characters in someone elseâs story. Thereâs a degree to which Lux and Valentina blend into the wall behind them.
There are a number of delightful details your eye is drawn to on this page from the psychedelic Peace Love billboard to the small bits of graffiti that dance around the building. But itâs Cowlesâ letters that ultimately draw us in to our two focus characters for this scene.
Rasmus: Itâs really carried home by the second page, with Valentinaâs response to Luxâ question.
Yes, this is a serious book about what it would mean for the world if people with superpowers existed. But itâs not just that. Itâs also about people and culture. One of Gillenâs stated inspirations for this series is Andrew Hickeyâs excellent A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs and this opening exchange is already displaying that influence.
Sean: Hickey has long deserved the success heâs gotten and Iâm quite happy for him.
Relatedly, the narrative keeps the pair in the background throughout the majority of the scene, often having “one panel only” characters overlap our two leads. Itâs only when theyâre the sole focus of the conversation, when Lux has deliberately moved other people out of focus with his powers, that they take the foreground of the scene. This visual language is key to the work.
Rasmus: Wijngaardâs storytelling is just top notch here.
I also love the casual way Lux is using his powers. The first few instances even flew by me, as I was engrossed in their conversation. He just gently nudges peopleâs attention away, without any effort. Using his mind control to make the pair effectively invisible, as they talk. Which, both given what is to come, but definitely also the cover image, is actually scary. That he has so few qualms about messing with peopleâs minds, despite proclaiming his ethical aspirations, is alarming. Nothing is as dangerous as a righteous man.
I Know That There Shall be Peace in the Valley
Sean: Can I just say, I love the character design work Wijngaard does in The Power Fantasy #1. We learn so much about who these people are by virtue of what they look like. We can see how time has aged Lux not just from the gray in his beard, but from the furrow in his brow.
And Heavy is perhaps the most flagrantly great example of this. At once looking like an aged hippie guru and a world heavyweight champion, we can see the utopian vision of the world he has, the hard fought battles he endured in the process, and the brutality he is capable of all from a single image.
Rasmus: Itâs one of those brilliant designs, where the second I saw him, I wanted to know more about him.
Speaking of design, as we move further into the story, into 1999, we also see a storytelling trick lifted from Watchmen, with peopleâs fashions not resembling the actual 1999, but instead the 1999 of the story. The presence of these characters in this world have a far reaching impact, even out into fashion.
Rasmus: The thing about these small things is that they add so much to the story being told. Itâs the things that make this feel like a world thatâs lived in. A world with history. Itâs like the best moments of superhero comics, where you hear about The Mutant Massacre or something, and want to track down those old comics, because theyâll tell you more about the world. Except here itâs hinting at a past that weâre going to encounter in future issues, as the series spans five decades.
Sean: A part of me wants some moments to remain lost to the reader. Forever unknown as real history often is. So many details are often lost to figures with great power deciding to remove them completely. And in a story about the immorality of power, it would be apt to not see the full scope of their damage.
She Was Right in the Rain of the Bullets That Eventually Brought Her Down
Sean: All of which to say, The Power Fantasy #1 is an extremely fascinating book and I canât wait to see where things are going to go next.
Rasmus: Yeah, the truly impressive thing about this issue is that not only do Gillen and Wijngaard create a world full of wonder, truly awesome powers at display and the logical implications of treating superheroes as nuclear weapons, where thereâs so much tension at work and weâre left at the edges of our seats wondering what will happen to Etienne Lux, but they also create a cast of characters that weâre interested in seeing more of.
Itâs not only the plot thatâs interesting, it is much more this cast of characters. Iâm more interested in seeing them interact more, than what happens in the story. And Iâm plenty interested in what happens in the story.
As Gillen has jokingly said for months, as he was developing The Power Fantasy, this is the new Saga. Come for the story, stay for the characters.
Fantasizing About Power
- ComicsXFâs coverage of The Power Fantasy will involve a rotating cast of critics exploring the implications of the book each month. We hope to see you there.
- Rian Hughesâ design work is, as to be expected, top notch.
- You can feel the shift in settings. From the cleanliness of the city at the cusp of the century with its lack of graffiti to the brickwork and color of the buildings. I canât wait to see if Wijngaard depicts the grimy decay of 80s New York. Or, for that matter, the number of other historical places left to offer.
- The back page of the issue is taken up by indicia. The diligent reader is rewarded for reading through it.