The Power Fantasy #9 // Review
The last thing that was on her mind as she started to pass out was, “I hope I’m not about to kill everyone again.” Her friend was there in Japan at the time. Tokyo would have been the one place that might have been prepared for what was coming next given what they had been through. Of course...one can only be so prepared for a big chunk of Australia floating over a major metropolitan city. Some of the implications of this and more find their way into the pages of The Power Fantasy #9. Writer Kieron Gillen and artist Caspar Wijngaard continue an intriguing super-powered drama into its eighth issue.
The two of them are talking with words, but they’re not necessarily talking with their mouths. She’s concerned that he’s playing God. He may not have a whole lot of emotional connecting to the world, but the power he’s got necessitates a cool disconnection with emotion in order to maintain his sanity. There’s someone else, though...someone with a level of power that means her mental health is a “first rank threat to the world’s existence.” And so if she is going to have to hear something upsetting, everyone is going to have to pay really close attention to her reaction.
So much of The Power Fantasy could be done as a stage play. Seriously. On a dramatic interpersonal level, it’s fairly brilliant stuff. The problem is that so much of the story ends up resting there in the dialogue without engaging the visual potential of comics. It’s a lot of talking heads. The fact that some of them happen to be talking place 60 miles or more above sea level between super humans is only a detail. And it’s a detail that isn’t as significant as the inner emotional reality of the characters.
It’s important to note that while the script isn’t totally embracing the comic book format, Wijngaard’s style makes it all look so intensely cool anyway. The subtleties and nuances of human emotion aren’t just vividly present on the page with Wignfaard...they’re beautiful. (Even when they’re being ugly.) So the script might not feature a whole lot that isn’t just talking, but the artist makes it all look so good that it doesn’t really matter. But y’know...GIllen could do a hell of a lot more in the way of showing and not telling and it would go a long way toward elevating the already lofty genius of the series.
The Power Fantasy continues to be really, really captivating as it moves through its eighth issue. It’s a very sharp and clever progression from some of the more genius super-powered dramas of the past few decades. It’s been great fun seeing it emerge even if it hasn’t always been totally coherent or all that interested in letting the reader-in on the intricacies of the world it’s presenting to the page. So it’s kind of weird, but it continues to be a lot of fun.
