It may seem at first like the death of just one member of a popular team of superheroes. But the threads of this plot go much deeper.

Benmarley, a member of the team FG-3, is found brutally slain. Heck, the man exploded from the inside out, and even in comic-book form, it's a gruesome sight! But routine questions of teammate Boogie Girl go awry, and soon there's fire and death and, oh, Det. Deena Pilgrim has a brief but hot sex dream about Det. Christian Walker before waking up in the hospital.

The investigation that follows gets even more heated as it goes along, with more deaths, a fatal clash between heroes, a helicopter that crashes on a busy city street, a suicide and more. By the end, there's even a government conspiracy involved -- you just knew there had to be one eventually, right? -- as well as a fabricated origin story and attempts at a cover-up that don't sit well with friendly neighborhood homicide detectives Pilgrim and Walker.

The Powers series, if you can't tell already, is not your average superhero book. It deals with a side of the genre you rarely see, the foibles and personality quirks of superpowered people that can sometimes lead to murder. It's dark and sometimes a little bit frantic, but it never stops entertaining.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
7 April 2007