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.
“Superpowered.” You have certain preconceptions. They’re incorrect. Here, that word has a specific technical definition. Namely, “any individual with the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the USA.” There are six such people on Earth. The planet’s 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 ComicsXF’s coverage of The Power Fantasy. I’m former Judgment Day correspondent and DIE player Sean Dillon.
Rasmus Skov Lykke: And I’m 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 Gillen’s work (with the esteemed Jamie McKelvie). Needless to say, I am a huge fan. As such, I’m very familiar with his writing, but haven’t 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 aren’t what they seem on the surface.
Rasmus: It’s 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 there’s the fact that he speaks with such casualness, while eating a slice. It’s idle pondering, but we already get the feeling that he actually could take over the world.
It’s 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 isn’t as looming figures dominating the page. If anything, they’re the smallest people in the page, background characters in someone else’s story. There’s 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 it’s Cowles’ letters that ultimately draw us in to our two focus characters for this scene.
Rasmus: It’s really carried home by the second page, with Valentina’s response to Lux’ question.
Yes, this is a serious book about what it would mean for the world if people with superpowers existed. But it’s not just that. It’s also about people and culture. One of Gillen’s stated inspirations for this series is Andrew Hickey’s 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 he’s gotten and I’m 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. It’s only when they’re 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: Wijngaard’s 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 people’s 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 people’s 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: It’s 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 people’s 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. It’s the things that make this feel like a world that’s lived in. A world with history. It’s 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 they’ll tell you more about the world. Except here it’s hinting at a past that we’re 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 can’t 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 there’s so much tension at work and we’re left at the edges of our seats wondering what will happen to Etienne Lux, but they also create a cast of characters that we’re interested in seeing more of.
It’s not only the plot that’s interesting, it is much more this cast of characters. I’m more interested in seeing them interact more, than what happens in the story. And I’m 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
- ComicsXF’s 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 Hughes’ 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 can’t 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.
Sean Dillon is a writer/editor for numerous publications, including PanelxPanel, Comic Book Herald, and Arcbeatle Press. He is the author of two books.
Rasmus Skov Lykke
Rasmus Skov Lykke will write for food (or, in a pinch, money). When not writing, he spends his time with his wife, their daughter and their cats, usually thinking about writing.
