Customer Reviews

Powers: Roleplay

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"Powers Vol. 2: Roleplay" collects the second major story arc of the comic series Powers. Like the first volume, "Who Killed Retrogirl," "Roleplay" is entirely self contained and has a complete story from beginning to end.

The strength of Powers lies in its almost flawless craftsmanship. The series balances heavy drama and sharp wit, larger-than-life heroes and fully realized characters. The razor-sharp writing is complimented by the stylized, cartoonish art and drab colors. These are creators in full control of their art form.

Storywise, "Roleplay" brings the concept of heroes down to the level of impressionable college students. Those without powers long to have them. Lacking an incident of cosmic chance, the best they can do is play dress-up. These innocent games draw the wrong sort of attention. Its a Powers comic, so people die. Homicide detectives Walker and Pilgrim are on the job.

I stopped reading comics in the mid-nineties. I felt like I had read all of the plots, seen all the characters and heard all of the dialog before. I happened across this book in a bookstore earlier this year (2002), though, and was stunned.

This comic had interesting characters, good dialog and a great setting. The plot isn't anything new (tracking down a serial killer) but it is executed well in this setting.

The two main characters, Detectives Pilgrim and Walker, are normal humans who investigate crimes related to "Powers" (superhumans). The focus here is more on the crime and the characters than it is on powers and special effects. This is what makes the comic so good. Instead of 10 pages of laser beams and force fields, you get dialog, characterization and story. Sure, there are superhumans around, but they are more background than focus.

So, if you stopped reading comics because everything seemed the same, give this one a shot. (The first one in the series is not as strong, although still worth a read.)

Detective Christian Walker and his new partner, Detective Deena Pilgrim work "Powers" cases; That is, homicides dealing with Super-Powered victims and/or perpetrators.

Their new case is the slaying of a group of College students. All were found wearing Super-Hero costumes. They were part of a campus Role-Playing game that involved roaming the city dressed as Super-Powered individuals (which is illegal in itself, as non-licensed costume wearers are subject to jail time..), and were all "On Patrol" when murdered. All clues point to a long-vanished Mob Enforcer called "The Pulp"....But why come back after all these years....and why kill defenseless kids? This is the mystery at the core of Role Play, and the answer is a shocker.

Brian Michael Bendis' writing is, as usual, top-notch; I do wish someone would carefully proof-read his stuff, though...There are numerous spelling errors, and he can't seem to differentiate between "Yours" and Your's". Stuff like that makes a book look amateurish, no matter how good everything else might be.

Artist Mike Avon Oeming has a deceptive style; It looks cartoony at first glance, but soon draws you in with an amazing depth of facial expressions and true talent for making "Talking Head" sequences come alive.

Powers: Role Play is totally self-contained, and no prior knowledge of the series or characters is necessary. Fans of Superheroes and/or Crime fiction will have a blast.

I'm reading them in order, and I found this enjoyable. Kudos again on the art, and on the production. Lots and lots of jet black ink here. It looks great.

I've found this the long way through Bendis, enjoying a lot of his Marvel stuff and then into some of the mature-audience stuff. I've enjoyed lots of his stuff very much; got to say from reading the first three collections that Powers seems to be at the top of the heap.

In the past month I have gotten hooked on the Powers series and I've read pretty much everything that I could get my hands on. Thus far, I have only Powers Vol. 1: Who Killed Retro Girl? and Powers, Vol. 13: Z to read before I have read all the collections. While I enjoyed this one immensely, I didn't take much away from it besides it being a setup to better things later on. The actual mystery carries on the whole Behind the Music vibe but this time it's about the bands that imitate other bands (aka the tribute bands that only Chuck Klosterman writes about) and they get killed like the real heroes. The cover has Christian Walker's costume from his superhero days and I suppose that would be shocking in a deceptive way to people who were reading the series then but I have seen Walker established as a cop first and a former superhero second (with some weird developments beginning with Cosmic) so it didn't have much impact on me.

The storyline is cool. THe characters are interesting. I would give it more stars if it was one of the first ones I've read but I have seen where this series goes and this particular story is pretty light compared to the rest of the Powers books.

A group of youths indulge in a role playing game that involves running around in costumes, which is illegal under the law. This adds to the spice in this costumed version of 'Killer'. When they unfortunately run into a real power on their escapades things go terribly, terribly wrong. A much more low level case for the detectives.

In the second story arc of Brian Michael Bendis' wonderful Powers, we find out a little more about the world of Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim when they are brought in on a powers-related murder case where the victims were all power posers.
Roleplay is about the murder of a few college students who enjoy roleplaying as superheroes such as the recently-deceased Retro Girl and Diamond, the former alter ego of Walker. However, we quickly learn that it is illegal for someone without powers to wear costumes or impersonate existing heroes. Although the reasons for this law are never explicitly stated, it is a fair bet that (1) doing so puts "normal" humans at risk due to high levels of supervillains, and (2) we begin to get clues that powers-humans relations aren't that good (a sign in the lobby of an apartment complex states that the landlord doesn't rent to powers).
As Walker and Pilgrim try to find the supervillain responsible for the kids' deaths, the pair have to deal with ex-villain collaborators and the city's underworld, which only complicates things in our modern age of litigation.
Overall, Roleplay wasn't as strong a story as Who Killed Retro Girl, but it was still interesting and whoed us a more "everyday" case that Walker and Pilgrim deal with. Not every case is going to be high profile or very personal, and it was fun to see the pair dealing with something a little more mundane. The writing and art are showing subtle improvements, and I imagine that things will continue to get better for Powers.

Powers is a very special comic that has occomplished the impossible. It's original, humourous, entertaining, and every other word that has a hint of positive meaning. BUY THIS ITEM!!! (hey, it's written by Bendis so there isn't much or a risk :)

Brian Michael Bendis, Powers: Roleplay (Image, 2001)

Bendis continues his series with this second collection. The story: our intrepid detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, are sent to investigate the almost-simultaneous deaths of a number of college students. The catch: the college students, who don't have powers, are roleplaying superheroes. (In this world, wearing a superhero costume, if you're not a power, is illegal.)

Like Who Killed Retro Girl?, Roleplay stands as its own book, though you'll get more of what's going on between Christian and Deena if you've read the first book. Either way, though, Powers is a series worth checking out. The writing is good-- the best I've ever seen from Bendis-- and the artwork is right up the alley of traditional superhero comics, but with enough modern differences to keep things interesting.

Get to know Powers; you won't regret it. ***

Bendis and Oeming's series has always been more than a cop drama in the world of superheroes. In this story arc, they possibly bite the hand that feeds them - they discuss "fanboys" who dress and act like the heroes they idolize, who are being killed off. In the original Image comics, Bendis shows open contempt for "regular" comic book fans; his letter columns (not reprinted in this volume) contain nasty and scatological replies to gushing fans who idolize his work. Here, he openly gives his William Shatner response to fans - "Get a life!" - within the story. He and Oeming are seeking to make "Powers" something more than a standard comic - and while going beyond standard comic book fandom is a necessary step towards that goal, this particular story may seem like unnecessary roughness to many.