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A review by drtlovesbooks
America's Got Powers by Jonathan Ross
2.0
What it's about: A mysterious, giant crystal appears in San Francisco that causes hundreds of babies to be born, each with a "power." Years later, those children have grown up and are being tested and pitted against each other in gladiatorial contests. But one kid, Tommy Watts, is the only one who seems to have no powers; he's the only "zero"-rated kid to come from the experience. Then he accidentally finds out that's not the case.
What I thought: Meh. The message seems to be that violence begets violence, but there's not much evidence that another path would work better, so the message falls a bit flat. Also, the characters are pretty sparsely fleshed out, so it's tough to get too worked up about any of them; and their personalities seem to shift from page to page.
Why I rated it as I did: I love a super-powers story, and I appreciate when a story arc wraps up in a reasonable number of issues. But this was a story that would have benefited from being slowed down and giving the characters some background and emotional stakes, instead of everything being a reaction to a physical threat.
What I thought: Meh. The message seems to be that violence begets violence, but there's not much evidence that another path would work better, so the message falls a bit flat. Also, the characters are pretty sparsely fleshed out, so it's tough to get too worked up about any of them; and their personalities seem to shift from page to page.
Why I rated it as I did: I love a super-powers story, and I appreciate when a story arc wraps up in a reasonable number of issues. But this was a story that would have benefited from being slowed down and giving the characters some background and emotional stakes, instead of everything being a reaction to a physical threat.