I’m a fan of POWERS. Really, I am. I’ve been buying it from the first Image issue, I have the first 4 trades and plan to buy the rest eventually. But as of this, issue #14 of the Icon era, I’m done with the regular issues. For $3.95, I’m treated to yet more crappy stand-up/spoken word intermissions throughout the book. There are double page spreads that are either hard to follow because they aren’t laid out obviously enough for your eye to instinctively follow, or the word balloons are split across the crease so you have to slow down just to figure out what’s being said. This issue’s lettering is, without a doubt, the worst, most pixelated lettering I’ve seen in the title to date. Seriously people, there’s absolutely no good reason for the lettering to pixelate. I do graphic design for a living - page layouts, logo design, the whole nine, and if I ever gave a client a final product that looked like this issue, I’d be lucky to recieve half payment.

Bottom line: Bendis and Oeming are both amazingly talented creators who made their names and careers on POWERS. Unfortunately, the title seems to have become a casualty of their success. I’m flipping through my Image TPBs right now, and typos aside, the general quality of the art and writing is so much higher, it’s shameful. The basic plotlines being explored right now in the series are genuinely good stuff. But the actual execution really feels like an afterthought, the book itself seems slapped together in an afternoon rather than something someone’s spent time on, and for $3.95 an issue, we deserve more. If the collections are more reasonably priced, I’ll consider continuing on with the book, but as of right now, I’m going cold turkey on what was once one of my absolute favorite series. And that sucks.

Comic Reviews