The Power Fantasy #3 // Review
1962. A girl named Valentina hears British pop hit “Telstar” for the first time. There are tensions in Cuba involving possible nuclear weapons. Valentina’s upset, so she gets rid of the nuclear weapons in Cuba and Turkey. A friend of hers just sent her “Telstar.” She heard the music of the future and wanted there to be a future for it to be in. This is the beginning of The Power Fantasy #3. Writer Kieron Gillen and artist Caspar Wijngaard continue one of the most compelling superhero series to come out in the past year with another thoroughly provocative issue that explores the superhero genre from a compelling angle.
Later-on they try to assassinate her with a nuclear warhead in New Mexico. Valentina is upset, so she makes a point of heading out to discuss matters with President Nixon in the Oval Office. She’s a glowing goddess. She’s trying to save the world and they’re just trying to kill her. She does the best she can to see that they don’t get hurt, but she IS radioactive. All those secret servicemen die of radiation poisoning. Organs liquified. She was young and angry. Didn’t know what she was doing. It’s decades later. Does she know now? It’s possible she’s learned quite a lot since that trip to the White House...
Gillen focuses the center of the issue on Valentina. It’s a good move. Valentina feels very much like a beatific and particularly appealing cross between Dr. Manhattan and Wonder Woman. Honestly she’s one of the single most appealing characters that Gillen has introduced in the series thus far. The focus on her really explains a hell of a lot about the world of The Power Fantasy. More than just that, though, Gillen places a 1945-1989 timeline at the end of the issue that references future issues of the series...some of which won’t even come out over half a year from now. There’s such a rich background on the history and it’s so very, very fascinating.
Gillen is jumping around in history quite a bit over the course of the issue. Wijngaard does a brilliant job of delivering the complex evolution of Valentina’s mind through a series of different scenes that all take place in drastically different points in history. There’s a profound amount of emotional and intellectual intricacy that is drawn into the face and posture of a very powerful goddess. Visually it’s quite breathtaking on an emotional level to see Valentina grow as society adapts to people with super powers in the course of the 20th century.
Gillen shares a few clever thoughts about his experience working with the series in after the timeline. He’s a sharp wit. “Even nice Atom Bombs aren’t very nice,” comes across as one of the better lines in the whole issue and it comes in his closing notes on the issue. There’s such an active conscience and consciousness about the series that feels so deeply engaging on so many levels.
Grade: A+
