One difference between a comic book story and a crime story is the amount of face time given to the villain. In the early days of comics, only the heroes had to make tough choices; villains rarely stayed around beyond a couple of issues. In contrast, a crime story gives its dangerous characters a chance…
After a slump that had Luke Cage getting wheeled on a gurney for almost three whole episodes, Cage and his show come roaring back to life in Episode 11, shielding decent people with his indestructible frame and sending bad guys to the floor with flicks of his wrist. As I said in my first wrap-up,…
Like a lot of story types—Westerns, soap operas, romantic comedies—there are limits to what superhero tales can deliver. You don’t have to read too many Marvel or DC comics before you start seeing familiar patterns and structures, and when you translate those comics to the big and small screens, you don’t break free of those…
In 1994, Marvel Comics released a four-issue comic book miniseries by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross called Marvels, and it was built on an interesting concept: It told the stories of four classic superhero encounters from the point of view of an average-joe bystander named Phil Sheldon. Phil witnesses the Submariner battle the Human Torch…
Luke Cage arrives on Netflix with a lot of cooks throwing a great many ingredients into the pot, and while that’s usually a recipe for disaster, the show isn’t just passable, it’s goddamn amazing. It’s hard to pick out the single greatest element (the music and the way it’s used may even be superior to…
One of the factors that distinguishes a costumed vigilante from another is their attitude towards crime. Does a caped powerhouse see villains as foe to be bested, in a kind of high-powered sports rivalry? Are criminals more of a societal problem—a sign of a communications breakdown? If you’re Batman, you might see a gun-wielding mugger…
The history of comics is a catalog of creations that began as throwaway entertainment and ended up succeeding far, far beyond what their originators could have ever predicted. The pair of Cleveland boys who came up with Superman sold the rights to their character for $130. The Hulk originally only lasted for six issues before…
What are you left with when you take away a superhero's origin story? A costume, some powers, and…that's about it. Origins are huge part of the standard comic book character template—especially in movies—but they can also present problems. As I mentioned in my last piece about the Phantom Stranger, some superheroes bend under the weight…
Ask me my favorite superhero—that's easy. The one character whose comics I want to be buried with; the guy I would dress as at Comicon, were I to be so lame; the hero whose powers I would most want to have: the Phantom Stranger. No question. Part of the appeal is that the Phantom Stranger…
So, where are we left at the end of Powers? Where has the journey led, and what have we discovered from this hard-to-categorize show? What, exactly, did we watch? A little evaluation of the series, before I get to the episode summary: the reason why I said, at the outset, that Powers was a sci-fi…
