I am still trying to work my way through my reactions to the third volume in the Powers series. We’ve previously been introduced to the world and its concepts quite well, so by now the interactions between the main cop, his new partner[1], and the superhero-related crimes they investigate are comfortably old hat. And the stories in the book (big hero dies in a way that reveals salacious sexual peccadilloes; smalltime hero and villain conspire to make their comebacks) are quite good. Yet, I found myself really disappointed with it.
And the why? I feel like I’m being unfair, with the massive amount of monthly comics from the early ’70s I’m reading right now that are frequently guilty of this and yet I never give a second thought about it there. But, my problem with Little Deaths is that nothing new happens. Did I learn anything new about the world? Not that I can tell. Was an important new character introduced that I need to keep an eye on? It’s always possible, but I don’t believe it. Detectives Walker and Pilgrim entertained me as always, but no new facet of their characters or relationship was revealed. It seems ridiculous to complain about a comic book being more like cotton candy than steak, but it turns out that I’ve come to expect substantive new material from any given book, and today I simply didn’t get that. Oh well. At least I learned Olympia (who I hadn’t heard of until he died) has a thing for redheads? Useful!
[1] Although I say it that way, I kind of think that Deena Pilgrim is the character best suited as stand-in for the audience and therefore the actual main character of the series. The probably-cancelled The Good Guys on Fox does the same thing, though without superheroes. Still, I’m not sure how to refer to a rookie cop and his experienced partner, since the X and new Y flows so much better.
FWIW, I think Powers basically goes nowhere interesting, and gets too caught up in its own uninteresting “mythology” bullshit.
Which means that, weirdly, I think Bendis’ corporate work for Marvel is better and more interesting than his personal, indie work.
(Although actually, Alias, which is both indie and personal AND corporate work for Marvel, may be his best stuff, and it is probably not a coincidence that in many ways his Avengers stuff feels like a sequel to Alias.)
Although I’m getting more and more concerned about agreeing with you entirely, right now I would settle for mythology bullshit, as this one didn’t even have that!
Someday, I will remember to look more carefully at the shelves for Alias. And Astro City, for that matter, since there’s a goodly amount of it that I haven’t ready yet.