Another superhero is dead, and homicide detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim aren't going to like where this investigation leads.

Olympia, it turns out, had a thing for redheads, and the image of the hero is quickly sullied as his various flings and affairs come pouring out of the closet after his inexplicable death.

Although an entertaining chapter in the ongoing Powers saga, Little Deaths is far weaker than the two preceding trade collections. While the scandal surrounding Olympia's death is interesting at first, it quickly becomes repetitive and just a little bit dull (much like the real world's current fixation on every little "surprise" scandal surrounding Britney, Paris or Jessica).

The book also includes the popular one-shot "Ride Along," in which comic-book writer Warren Ellis appears as himself, sidekicking for Walker to get a better feel for the job, as well as a brief stand-alone in which one hero's play for fame comes tumbling down. There's also plenty of filler, of varying levels of success. The magazine-style pages are a plus, exposing the hero fixation in Bendis's world, but the coloring book, for all its tongue-in-cheek humor, is a big waste of space.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
3 March 2007