Powers Bureau #6 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (story), Michael Avon Oeming (art), Nick Filardi (colors)

The Story: The first major story arc of the new Powers Bureau is wrapped up in an action filled finale.

The Review: Ever read Encyclopedia Brown mysteries? Most of the time, the clue was pretty transparent and easy to discover. Once in awhile, the clue was some obscure little factoid that had nothing to do with the actions of any of the characters and I re-read the story several times before flipping to the answer in the back of the book. That’s the way I felt after reading this issue. I really wish I knew what was happening with this title. Bendis must have something hidden up his sleeve because the quality that once marked the adventures of Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim has deteriorated to such a degree that it is actually embarrassing to read.

Generally when I’m confronted with such a drop-off in quality I search to see if there is something I’m missing.  The only thing that seems fundamentally different is the appearance and behavior of Walker. Since becoming a federal agent, the verbal sparring and razor-sharp dialogue between Walker and Pilgrim has disappeared. Perhaps this reflects their new roles as federal agents and not actual partners. Bendis hints at something else, though. At the end of the Powers title, during the war with Damocles, Walker and TripHammer are missing and presumably injured. This issue of Powers Bureau hints at the events that happened immediately following the GODS storyline and immediately preceding Powers Bureau. Something terrible happened that delivered a major psychological and possibly physical blow to Walker and resulted in the death of TripHammer. Will Bendis explore this in future issues of Powers Bureau or will this story thread be dropped and forgotten like so many others?