Comic of the Week: “The Power Fantasy” #6

Welcome back to G33k-HQ’s Comic of the Week, where every week or so we look at one of this week’s comics that deserves a closer look, whether it’s to highlight everything awesome about it or just rant for the internet to see. This week, it’s most certainly an “everything awesome” week, as we explore “The Power Fantasy,” written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard.

Comic books are typically filled with characters possessing amazing powers, capable of reshaping the world if they so wished. When those super-powered characters clash, it’s an epic showdown of immense proportions…

… And it must be absolutely terrifying to a regular human.

Writer Kieron Gillen’s “The Power Fantasy” takes a different approach to super-powered characters, creating a story where the goal is to avoid having them fight at all costs. In this world, the few powered characters are a nuclear option, and the peace between them is shaky at best. Nations and powered characters alike make their moves, trying to gain an edge or maintain an uneasy alliance, raising questions of morality and ethics under the looming threat of superhuman oblivion.

Issue #6 progresses the story, picking up from last issue’s twist and bringing in a new one that threatens to tilt the balance of power. Issue #5 ended with Superpower Jacky Magus joining up with the US government, which basically means America now has a living weapon that could help them fight all the other living weapons… should it come to it.

Now we see how the other Superpowers react, leading to a need for new alliances and revealing a new player that adds a further complication to a situation that’s already on a knife’s edge.

“The Power Fantasy” is a comic that’s heavy on the dialogue, worldbuilding, and characters, and that is very much a good thing. There’s conspiring, negotiating, plotting, and planning, coming from a balanced cast of characters with distinct drives and personalities.

Each character feels unique and fleshed-out, with their own goals, motivations, and worldviews. For some, we see their worries and insecurities. For others, we learn more about their past. The characters, like the story and world, unfold in front of us slowly, drawing us deeper and deeper into the world of “The Power Fantasy” as we go.

It’s no surprise that we’re getting such a gripping story in a well-built world, considering Kieron Gillen’s past work. He’s written some absolutely fantastic comics, including personal favorites like “DIE” and “Once & Future,” and “The Power Fantasy” follows in their footsteps as an utterly engaging narrative. It’s not action-packed (in this world, that would be a very bad result), but it doesn’t need to be. The narrative pulls you in and won’t let you go, at least not without making you spend a lot of time thinking about ethics and the necessary connectivity of power and morality.

That brings us to the artwork, with Caspar Wijngaard handling the illustrations and colors. Wijngaard has a distinctive style, using clean, strong line work and a balance of detail and unique silhouettes. There’s a subtle shift between colors and the hardness of the characters based on the scene and characters involved to control the tone, along with excellent uses of lighting and shadows to catch the eye and manage the atmosphere.

Wijngaard’s artwork is particularly impressive for backgrounds and settings. We get some excellent establishing panels, like Valentina’s house orbiting the planet, the overhead look down at the Pentagon, Heavy’s Haven, or even just Masumi’s apartment in Tokyo. Each of these are rendered with incredible detail, making the world feel alive.

The artwork also shifts significantly as we go into flashbacks, changing the entire style into a more traditional medium as we see glimpses of the past. These are accompanied by a change in the panel layouts, adjusting the reader’s flow with them.

The colors do plenty of work as well, enhancing the illustrations with atmospheric tones. Not only do the color schemes shift based on the characters we’re following, the background tones add to the mood and employ some nice gradients to really bring out the surroundings.

A sudden shift from dark greens and grays to a fiery magenta can help a character pop off the page and cement her as a major player, while atmospheric blues and teals against a night sky cast an entire page in the beauty of the cosmos, but can just as easily be used to illuminate a character in the light of a computer screen.

There are some amazing, unique stories that simply can’t be told in the Marvel or DC universe, even when they involve superheroes. Kieron Gillen is no stranger to writing superhero stories, but “The Power Fantasy” takes the genre to places it’s never gone before and keeps us on our toes every step of the way. All the while, Caspar Wijngaard’s artwork brings this world to life and makes every scene hit its mark. The story of “The Power Fantasy” has only just begun, and there’s no telling where it’s going to go — but you’re going to want to find out.