Powers
Remember how I said yesterday that one of the few TPBs I will pick up immediatly without even opening in the store is anything involving Powers? Well...funny how the universe worked. I went to the Hairy Tarantula (my big FLGS, or at least the main one I frequent) and, lo and behold, there was a new Powers TPB: Powers: Forever. The seventh tradepaperback, second under the Icon label, "Forever" chronicles the history of Christian Walker. Which is...unique among superheroes, to say the least.
Lemme put it this way: Vandal Savage has NOTHING on Christian "Diamond" Walker. The guy is one of, literally, the first superhumans. Back before there were neanderthals, and there were only a bunch of apes drinking around a small pool of water. Back when Red Stripe the ape decided to rape White Stripe the ape's favourite female ape, and when she resisted he...well, Red Stripe melted her by looking at her funny. And then White Stripe got superpowers as well (who even back when he was an ape looked a bit like Christian) beat the shit out of him. This more or less set the tone for the two immortals over the next few million years, as they eventually evolved into big, tall, strapping homo superiors.
It also explains how Christian lost his powers, talks about where Zora GOT her powers, shows a monastary of superpeople (including a Boxer Rebellion-era Retro Girl), and shows us what "Wolfe" can really do in a super-fight (he was a badass back in his old super-villain days). We also get to see Johnny Royalle in a super-fight (the guy's a damn good teleporter, I gotta say...he slowed down by the time Deena accidentally ripped his arm off), and we learn that Triphammer's power was the armor. Triphammer wasn't a gadget hero, he was like the Engineer. He grew his armor out of his skin (or possibly conjured it out of nothing, Sc-RY-ed style), and all the guns he pulls out, and the other shit...he grows all that as well. He's ALSO a super-scientist (he built the first power nullifier), but his main schtick is the armor. I like Triphammer a lot more now.
I'm going to be buying the Powers Scriptbook as soon as I can find a copy (or just order one off Amazon.com. First 11 issue scripts in 324 pages...just what a guy needs to brighten up his holidays.
Speaking of scripting, I've seen a lot of script styles lately. Neil Gaiman has one in the back of the 1602 TPB, Warren Ellis has one in the back of Absolute Planetary, I've got Greg Rucka's stuff in the Queen & Country Scriptbook, and Bendis script at the back of Powers: Forever. I gotta say that, overall, I like Warren and Greg's stuff the best, in terms of scripts. Greg's scripts are really nicely organized, and you know where everything's coming from (and is also the reason why I started numbering dialogue that occurs in Project Beowulf). Warren's stuff has some really nice, concise description. You know what's going on, even if he only spends a couple sentences on it. His descriptions automatically conjure up pictures. That's what I want.
This isn't to demean Bendis or Neil...no fucking way. Those guys are AWESOME. But just the way the scripts have been presented, perhaps. I dunno. Jason tells me that I script somewhat like Warren...I dunno. Maybe. *big ol' shrug* Perhaps.
And yes, expect those last 6 pages to issue 1 on Friday. I already know where I'm going with this. Issue 2's coming together in my head nicely, but I'm not writing anything down because I'm partially doing this as a stream of consciousness exercise to see if I can get my brain into spontaneously thinking in script.
Lemme put it this way: Vandal Savage has NOTHING on Christian "Diamond" Walker. The guy is one of, literally, the first superhumans. Back before there were neanderthals, and there were only a bunch of apes drinking around a small pool of water. Back when Red Stripe the ape decided to rape White Stripe the ape's favourite female ape, and when she resisted he...well, Red Stripe melted her by looking at her funny. And then White Stripe got superpowers as well (who even back when he was an ape looked a bit like Christian) beat the shit out of him. This more or less set the tone for the two immortals over the next few million years, as they eventually evolved into big, tall, strapping homo superiors.
It also explains how Christian lost his powers, talks about where Zora GOT her powers, shows a monastary of superpeople (including a Boxer Rebellion-era Retro Girl), and shows us what "Wolfe" can really do in a super-fight (he was a badass back in his old super-villain days). We also get to see Johnny Royalle in a super-fight (the guy's a damn good teleporter, I gotta say...he slowed down by the time Deena accidentally ripped his arm off), and we learn that Triphammer's power was the armor. Triphammer wasn't a gadget hero, he was like the Engineer. He grew his armor out of his skin (or possibly conjured it out of nothing, Sc-RY-ed style), and all the guns he pulls out, and the other shit...he grows all that as well. He's ALSO a super-scientist (he built the first power nullifier), but his main schtick is the armor. I like Triphammer a lot more now.
I'm going to be buying the Powers Scriptbook as soon as I can find a copy (or just order one off Amazon.com. First 11 issue scripts in 324 pages...just what a guy needs to brighten up his holidays.
Speaking of scripting, I've seen a lot of script styles lately. Neil Gaiman has one in the back of the 1602 TPB, Warren Ellis has one in the back of Absolute Planetary, I've got Greg Rucka's stuff in the Queen & Country Scriptbook, and Bendis script at the back of Powers: Forever. I gotta say that, overall, I like Warren and Greg's stuff the best, in terms of scripts. Greg's scripts are really nicely organized, and you know where everything's coming from (and is also the reason why I started numbering dialogue that occurs in Project Beowulf). Warren's stuff has some really nice, concise description. You know what's going on, even if he only spends a couple sentences on it. His descriptions automatically conjure up pictures. That's what I want.
This isn't to demean Bendis or Neil...no fucking way. Those guys are AWESOME. But just the way the scripts have been presented, perhaps. I dunno. Jason tells me that I script somewhat like Warren...I dunno. Maybe. *big ol' shrug* Perhaps.
And yes, expect those last 6 pages to issue 1 on Friday. I already know where I'm going with this. Issue 2's coming together in my head nicely, but I'm not writing anything down because I'm partially doing this as a stream of consciousness exercise to see if I can get my brain into spontaneously thinking in script.
posted by Derek the Bard at 1:47 a.m.
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