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Hector DeJean

Hector DeJean can frequently be found in comic stores, bookshops, and the Eighties. His serialized story of a private detective who only solves food-related crimes is no longer online.

Follow Me into Weird Worlds: DC’s Black Orchid

By Hector DeJean

April 15, 2016

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…

Follow Me into Weird Worlds: DC’s The Phantom Stranger

By Hector DeJean

April 8, 2016

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…

Powers 1.10: “F@#K the Big Chiller” Episode Review

By Hector DeJean

April 5, 2016

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…

Powers 1.09: “Level 13” Episode Review

By Hector DeJean

April 4, 2016

Episode 9's official title is “Level 13,” but for a show that favors music-related titles, a fitting one here would be “Who's Zooming Who?” Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley) has agreed to join Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor) on his excursion back to the prison known as The Shaft to kill Wolfe (Eddie Izzard), before Wolfe becomes…

Follow Me into Weird Worlds: DC’s Deadman

By Hector DeJean

March 31, 2016

A recent query from Criminal Element asked which overlooked superheroes would be deserving of their own movie or TV show. One logical answer to that is DC's Deadman, except for one thing: Deadman has already had his TV shows and movies, many times over. Allow me to explain: Created in 1967, Deadman was a circus…

Powers 1.08: “Aha Shake Heartbreak” Episode Review

By Hector DeJean

March 29, 2016

We were wrong about Johnny. So, remember that drug Sway that Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor) was making from DNA he stole from Wolfe (Eddie Izzard)? The drug that he was peddling to “Powers Kids” all over the place? The drug that killed Olympia (Adam Boyer)? The drug that Walker took, which allowed him to temporarily…

Powers 1.07: “You’re Not It” Episode Review

By Hector DeJean

March 28, 2016

The direction of this series hasn't always been clear—the way it jumps in and out of various genres can make it tricky to anticipate—but at this point, there's a definite shape to the ten episodes: Setup (Episodes 1 & 2), engagement (3), initial conflict centerpiece (4 & 5), and, in a moment of downtime, reassessment…

Follow Me into Weird Worlds: DC’s Horror and Supernatural Comics

By Hector DeJean

March 24, 2016

The first stirrings might have begun with the Deadman, an acrobatically-inclined ghost who inhabited the bodies of mortals for a few moments at a time; or it might have really become a trend when the Swamp Thing arose from eons-old muck to stalk horrors in a world blotted with shadows; and maybe I never noticed…

Powers 1.06: “Raconteur of the Funeral Circuit” Episode Review”

By Hector DeJean

March 22, 2016

If Episodes 4 and 5 headed into Aliens territory, Episode 6 opens like a tribute to Silence of the Lambs; Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) is back in his cell, which now has a drainer to keep his powers repressed so he doesn't need a daily icepick to the brain anymore. The drainer's inventor, Triphammer (Andrew Sensenig),…

Powers 1.05: “Paint it Black” Episode Review

By Hector DeJean

March 21, 2016

Although Episode 4 ended with viewers smack in the middle of Wolfe’s (Eddie Izzard) rampage through his prison, Episode 5 opens in the 90s, at a nightclub where young Christian Walker (Sterling Beaumon) and Johnny Royalle (Sasha Feldman) are buddies scoping out the ladies—one of whom is a sultry Retro Girl (still Michelle Forbes). This…

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