Powers

[MrHat]

Playstation Network show.

I just watched the first episode.  It's about a police department chasing bad guys with powers but actually entertaining.  And it has everyone's favorite south african.

Also, people with out powers can get a temporary power by...swallowing.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, that's pretty true to the comic.

I think it's pretty wise to dump the whole elaborate mythology that Bendis established in the original series. It got pretty unwieldy pretty quickly, when the basic core of the comic is:

Police procedural in a comic-book world, where comic-book superheroes act like celebrities in our culture act, and to include all the adult material that both police procedurals and celebrity culture imply.

First episode does a fair job (though noticeably on the cheap) at following that premise.

[Velorath]

Tried watching the first episode last night but it just felt cheap and poorly written to me.

[pxib]

I'd been seeing Youtube ads and hadn't realized it was based on the Bendis series. That's a... hard sell.

World design is tough, and this setting has mutually contradictory source material:

Police procedurals depend on consistent rules, both in terms of the courthouse law and common physics.
Superhero comics depend on consistent insanity and unreality keeping our suspension of disbelief in neutral.

Bendis' writing - on yet a third hand - tends to bluff past any problems in his story by having strong personalities in human conflict talk about it in serious tones for several pages until you're so distracted that another crazy thing can happen.

In the Powers comics this kind of works... for the first few arcs. Then the sheer weight of stupid, ill-considered background details crashes across it like a tsunami and no amount of snappy backchat saves us from how no detective could possibly function in a world where reality is as flexible as it has to be to make the superpowers work. Bendis just hasn't got the world design chops for the challenge, and I somehow doubt Playstation Network's goons are going to do any better.

Is there room for it to be enjoyable stupid? Sure. Is that what Bendis wanted to do, like, ever? Nope. Is that what the Youtube ads are aiming for? Definitely not.

I love what Powers (the comic) wants to be, even as I'm frustrated by what it actually manages. I'll try to watch a few episodes of the series if I can figure out how to access them.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, Powers only worked for, I dunno, a few arcs. Then the Deena Pilgrim shit on one hand started to weigh it down and the Christian-is-immortal and then he's Green Lantern just burned it all up.

You can only have cops chasing superheroes if you really establish some strong rules about why that's not flat-out stupid. If you're going to go full superhero-crazy with it, you have to do something more like Top Ten. (Which would make a great adult-audience animated series if the rights are available.)

[pxib]

Exactly. Either embrace the comics madness like Top Ten or create a narrow, logical, coherent superpower "science" in order to focus on the police work like... uh...

Hm.

[HaemishM]

I haven't read Powers, but I'm not surprised it starts off well before turning to shit. Bendis really hates the concept of super heroes as a whole and should not be writing them, except they are what makes the money in comics (and these days gets you movie work).

[schild]

And it has everyone's favorite south african.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is British, you racist.

I have not seen this show.

[Khaldun]

 

[Ironwood]

Oooo, does he make anyone fall on their sword ?

[schild]

I don't even know if he's on the show.

[Ironwood]