The Power Fantasy #16 // Review
It’s the year 2000. Eliza is imploding at the edge of the hole she bore into hell. Literally. The worst global superpower disaster since 1989 is over. Eliza is believed dead. Many more have died with her. The Pyramid had predicted no more than 30 million deaths. This is fortunate. In ’89, there were nearly a billion killed. So things might be getting better in The Power Fantasy #16. Writer Kieron Gillen and artist Caspar Wijngaard close-out a major arc for the series in what might be its last issue of the year. It’s quite a ride across a refreshingly dense conceptual backdrop.
Valentina loves the moon. She sees herself as an angel who has come to Earth to protect humanity from annihilation. Perhaps it's too late. Perhaps she hasn't really considered the full reality of the situation. But maybe she still can save everyone. Even in the face of all that they're facing. But maybe it's only a matter of time. But maybe it is time that is the problem. And maybe there needs to be something done about that as well. Things are very imbalance right now. But maybe Valentina can do something about that. She certainly seems to feel that she can.
So much of the way Gillen is framing the story lies in its pacing. With the 16th issue in the series, the author is moving in a direction where major things play out on a profoundly dramatic scale, punctuated by brief moments of very serious and very heavy drama. There's a lot that's making it to the page in very brief bursts of dialogue that shoot out really quickly between some very intense moments of action. There has been a great deal of buildup to the events which occurred in this issue. That foreshadowing doesn't make them any less shocking.
Wijngaard slams some very, very powerful moments into the page with some pretty overwhelming power. The script isn't giving him a whole lot of favors in finding ways to define the massive power that’s being shot across the page. It can be really hard to do that without a whole lot of reference with respect to smaller people involved in bigger events. In a way that's kind of the point. That's kind of the point with having characters that are this powerful. Is that concerns of individuals often get lost in the overwhelming wave. It's a really deep concept, but it's hard to bring across on the page and a way that feels truly monumental. Wijngaard renders some very powerful moments with huge spreads that feel overwhelmingly ominous in spite of the fact that there isn't much contrast to the massive force that’s sweeping across the page.
There's a considerable amount amount of integrity in deciding to take a couple of months off after this issue. Just so there's no solicitation or anything like that. The ending can have its impact. That can have its impact without any suggestion of what might be happening afterwards. It's very powerful stuff. It's very cool that they had decided to do this. However, they want to make sure that they have enough time. So it's entirely possible that they won't start this series up again until next year. Which, again: it was a great degree of admirable integrity in that. Rather than just rolling straight through with it. They're letting this issue have its moment.
