At the end of Powers 25‘s debut issue, there was a big whammy concerning the series’ central case: a poker game had gone horribly wrong, featuring a man with a massive portal where his face should be. Lying on the table? The badge of Powers detective Deena Pilgrim. Powers 25 #6 flashes back to the exact moment this poker game takes place, centering on a conversation between Legacy Star’s Archie Gates (who’s being held by Powers in the present) and Powers National Security director Simms (who was the murder victim.) Meanwhile in the present, Detective Moebius Moon is pulled into a mystical realm by the sorceress Krystal’e, who has her own connection to the murder case.
Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming toggle between these segments with an ease that borders on the ridiculous. Since his comics career started with crime fiction, Bendis knows when to drop a big reveal and when to slow down to let the audience absorb the information; the best mysteries work when you can go back and look at how seemingly disparate clues might fit together. He also knows how to tackle certain superhero tropes, particularly when Gates brings up the topic of teleportation with Simms. There’s pros, like being able to get wherever you want without spending money on planes or other forms of transportation; but there’s also cons, like having the wrong person getting access to teleportation.
Oeming’s style fluctuates based on the setting, both in terms of the time period and the location characters are in. In the past section, Gates and Simms sit in a dark room, shadows playing across their face. It feels extremely ominous, especially when you consider what’s about to happen to one of these men, and yet it pales in comparison to what happens when Moon’s sucked into the realm that Krystal’e inhabits. Nick Filardi fills nearly every inch of the page with inky blackness, stopping here and there to add a trail of blue representing icy cold winds or Moon’s Kirby Krackle inspired energy blasts.
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What really makes Krystal’e creepy is the lettering style that Joshua Reed picks for her. It’s all jagged edges and wrinkly, misshapen word balloons, which further adds to the inhuman edge the sorceress carries. Reed, much like the rest of the creative team, is working from how someone would realistic react to the idea of magic. If Doctor Strange brought you to the Dark Dimension, or John Constantine summoned a demon in your house, it would be freaky as hell – and you’d probably be as pissed off as Deena, who drops a string of expertly crafted profanities.
The back matter in Powers 25 #6 is dedicated to the art of world building, which Bendis gives some deep insight to. Perhaps the most surprising tidbit he drops in this essay is that Christian Walker’s origins in the original Powers were developed when he retrofitted a pitch about Wolverine’s origins. Aspiring writers should take note, both because Bendis gives some good tips and there’s a lesson about not throwing away a good idea.
Powers 25 #6 starts to peel back the layers of its mystery, shifting between past and present while adding a new wrinkle into the mix. Even though it’s hit its halfway point, this series shows no signs of slowing down or dipping in quality.
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