Scan barcode
cassie_grace's review against another edition
2.0
So horribly unpleasant that I couldn't enjoy it. Memorable for its bleakness.
carroq's review against another edition
4.0
This book was included in the Powerless box I received from Comic Bento. It is part of Project Superheroes, but it is a standalone book and my first foray into the series.
The book is presented more as a mystery. It starts with an apparent suicide outside the town of Blackcross in Washington and the police are trying to figure out what happened and why. As the story unfolds, we learn that many of the characters are being haunted by ghosts. I thought there was a pretty good explanation of what was causing this.
There is also a serial killer on the loose that is being investigated. The two aspects eventually come together and reveal what is behind all of this. The characters themselves could have used some more development. What is present is fine, but doesn't go into depth for background.
I like the art. The characters are drawn well and the setting is developed well. There are some contrasting elements that I thought were great. The use of images alone for the beginning and end sequences worked really well.
The book is presented more as a mystery. It starts with an apparent suicide outside the town of Blackcross in Washington and the police are trying to figure out what happened and why. As the story unfolds, we learn that many of the characters are being haunted by ghosts. I thought there was a pretty good explanation of what was causing this.
There is also a serial killer on the loose that is being investigated. The two aspects eventually come together and reveal what is behind all of this. The characters themselves could have used some more development. What is present is fine, but doesn't go into depth for background.
I like the art. The characters are drawn well and the setting is developed well. There are some contrasting elements that I thought were great. The use of images alone for the beginning and end sequences worked really well.
triley115's review against another edition
3.0
So this book was a pretty solid read with an ending that makes me want to find the rest! Lots of supernatural superpowers.
soless's review against another edition
2.0
Started out really interesting and then spun off into stuff that's probably only relevant to folks who've read the other Project Superpowers stories. Which I haven't.
pearseanderson's review against another edition
4.0
I was thrown into this story, discovering pretty quickly that it was connected preestablished superheroes because I felt like it was all a soft reboot. But it was a good soft reboot. Ellis promised a lot: a mysterious location, a small town, complications, but that wasn't really here. These events could've taken place anywhere, and they followed a pretty simple origin-story background. But DAMN was that origin-story setup rewarding, to see strangers come together and discover their backgrounds and powers and whatnot. So it was fun, but when I finished I tried to see if there was a continuation, but I couldn't see. It just ended. All these interesting characters and a small series of conflicts and then one (maybe?) dies and the others do . . . what? What's going on?
So structure/infodumping: brilliant—it confused me but filled in enough that I didn't have to read other comics
Plot: eh
Coloring/art: brilliant
Ending: what?
So structure/infodumping: brilliant—it confused me but filled in enough that I didn't have to read other comics
Plot: eh
Coloring/art: brilliant
Ending: what?
jgkeely's review against another edition
1.0
It had always been my experience that you can't go wrong with Warren Ellis, so it's a shame to have been proven wrong. While some of this book's basic ideas are interesting, the treatment is sadly lacking. The characters are simplistic and grating, the dialogue awkward, and the plotting unfocused. You can see Ellis trying to express some interesting characters, but his treatment lacks subtlety, leaving us with uncharicteristically ham-fisted interpersonal conflicts interposed with transparent exposition.
The zombie genre is often bare-bones and fast-paced, and perhaps in trying to adapt to this style, Ellis lost his funny, cranky cynicism. In fact, almost none of his crankiness remains, though there is a certain cynicism in the utter bleakness of the series. Ellis is at his most unsentimental here, which may be why his characters feel so expendible.
There's lots of sex and gore and morally outrageous turns, but without good characters or a good story to pin it on, it falls rather flat. Fiumara is certainly a deft hand when it comes to shotgun head splatter and dangling viscera, which was why I was surprised to see how ugly, plain, and poorly-constructed his normal humans were. When your zombies are prettier than your heroes, you have a problem.
Normally, you can judge an artist by how good his hands are, since hands are so complex and difficult to draw, but Fiumara's are fine, it's mainly the faces and bodies that he mangles. The backgrounds are likewise impressive, though why you would skimp on the faces of the main characters, the things the reader will be seeing more often than anything else, I can't begin to guess.
This whole thing was a mess from stem to stern and I'm finding myself hopig it isn't a sign that Ellis has passed his prime. I know some authors, even once-remarkable talents, can fall utterly flat later in their careers, and I hope that Ellis' best years are ahead of him, not behind him.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
The zombie genre is often bare-bones and fast-paced, and perhaps in trying to adapt to this style, Ellis lost his funny, cranky cynicism. In fact, almost none of his crankiness remains, though there is a certain cynicism in the utter bleakness of the series. Ellis is at his most unsentimental here, which may be why his characters feel so expendible.
There's lots of sex and gore and morally outrageous turns, but without good characters or a good story to pin it on, it falls rather flat. Fiumara is certainly a deft hand when it comes to shotgun head splatter and dangling viscera, which was why I was surprised to see how ugly, plain, and poorly-constructed his normal humans were. When your zombies are prettier than your heroes, you have a problem.
Normally, you can judge an artist by how good his hands are, since hands are so complex and difficult to draw, but Fiumara's are fine, it's mainly the faces and bodies that he mangles. The backgrounds are likewise impressive, though why you would skimp on the faces of the main characters, the things the reader will be seeing more often than anything else, I can't begin to guess.
This whole thing was a mess from stem to stern and I'm finding myself hopig it isn't a sign that Ellis has passed his prime. I know some authors, even once-remarkable talents, can fall utterly flat later in their careers, and I hope that Ellis' best years are ahead of him, not behind him.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
More...