Powers: Little Deaths

Brian Bendis

I'm still not quite sure what to make of Little Deaths, the third book in Brian Michael Bendis' Powers series. For one thing, there's a story arc to it-- kind of-- but that takes up very little time. For another, the things we've come to care about in the series-- the characters-- also take second stage. This is a book that feels like Bendis had wanted to do projects like this while working on some other lines, and since he now had his own, he was capable of doing them, so he sat down and did them. A coloring book? I mean, come on.

The stories, when they're there, are up to the usual standard. Warren Ellis takes center stage in the second story as a ride-along on one of Walker's calls, a scandal surrounds superhero Olympia when he dies while having an affair, and an outcast superhero and his old nemesis meet for a final time. There's some setting up of the next volume-- specifically, the ubiquitousness and power of the tabloid press in Bendis' dysfunctional metropolis-- but, really, this volume simply isn't integral to the series, and can safely be skipped.