Powers is a comic book by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Michael Avon Oeming (artist), and Pat Garrehy (colorist). Powers was originally published through Image Comics beginning in 2000, but in 2004 it moved to Marvel. The series remains creator-owned as the first title in Marvel's Icon Comics division. The series won an Eisner Award in 2000 as Best New Series for that year. Powers has been optioned as a possible movie.
Story
Powers is set in a world where superpowers are relatively common, but not mundane. It follows two detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, police officers in a homicide department devoted to cases that involve "Powers" (people with superpowers). Walker himself used to be a costumed superhero under the name Diamond, becoming a police officer after he lost his superpowers. However, he still has contacts in the superhero community.
Through the various cases Walker and Pilgrim investigate, Powers delves into the seediest aspects of the superpowered lifestyle: deranged stalkers, groupies, government conspiracies, drug abuse, sexual kinks, petty scams and genocidal delusions of grandeur.
Gradually, it becomes evident that the relationship between Powers and regular people isn't wholly benign, and that opposition to the superbeings is approaching a critical point. When the most powerful of the Powers goes insane and wreaks global destruction, the President declares a ban on superpower activity.
At this point the series jumps back to tell the story of how the Powers came to be, and the origin of Detective Walker, in an arc that raises as many questions as it answers.
Collections
- Who Killed Retro Girl? (collects Vol. 1 #1-6; ISBN 1582401837)
- Role Play (collects Vol. 1 #8-11; ISBN 1582402329)
- Little Deaths (collects Vol. 1 #7, 12-14, Annual, Powers Activity And Coloring Book; ISBN 1582402698)
- Supergroup (collects Vol. 1 #15-20; ISBN 1582403090)
- Anarchy (collects Vol. 1 #21-24; ISBN 1582403317)
- The Sellouts (collects Vol. 1 #25-30; ISBN 078511582X)
- Forever (collects Vol. 1 #31-37; ISBN 0785116567)
- Legends (ISBN 0785117423)