Powers

by Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Kleid

Powers features one of the most awarded and acclaimed teams of the last several years and winners of the 2001 Eisner award for best new series.

Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim work out of the special homicide office in charge of cases that involve Powers, those that have talents and abilities far beyond those of normal men.

This graphic novel details one of the most disturbing cases of their careers. A group of college kids who role play their favorite super-heroes are being murdered one-by-one, and unless Walker and Pilgrim can stop the killer, more kids will die.

• ISBN10: 1582402329
• ISBN13: 9781582402321
• Publish Date: 1 January 2002 (first published 1 November 2001)
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Out of Print: 17 October 2007
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Image Comics
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 112
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

I love superhero stories. All the classic comics, plus more recent novels. So when I was offered this for review, I leapt at the chance. It takes a classic detective story and adds superhero elements, based on the comic book series of the same name by Brian Michael Bendis, and an hour long show on the Playstation Network. However, whilst it seemed that I would not be at a disadvantage being unfamiliar with the Deena Pilgrim universe, I definitely felt I would have enjoyed the book a lot more were I more familiar with it.

Also, I feel like this book may have suffered slightly from bad timing. I began reading it at the same time as I was reading Calamity, the third book in the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. Reading two books about superheroes at the same time – especially when one of them is from a series you really love – you’re sure to compare the two, and unfortunately The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim didn’t quite live up to it.

Overall, I didn’t particularly enjoy this one – the detective element or the superhero element. There wasn’t much involvement of superheroes, apart from a link with the murders that Deena investigates. The whole mystery felt a bit of a mess, and rather than drawing me in and encouraging me to work things out for myself, it just really confused me. There was an entire chapter where one character was referred to by three different names, constantly alternating – which had me convinced for a while that there were in fact two characters present, instead of one. I found myself reading this book only at lunchtime at work, mostly just because it was smaller and easier to fit in my bag than the other book I was reading…

It’s a shame that this one didn’t work out for me. If I’d previously read the comic and understood more of the back story then perhaps I would have enjoyed it a lot more – so I’d love to hear if anyone has read both, and enjoyed them!