The Power Fantasy #11: Bombs and Tables

In a now-famous interview between the American Film Institute and director Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock compares the mechanics of surprise and suspense in storytelling via an imagined scene where two people are having a conversation when a bomb suddenly goes off under their table. If the audience is unaware of the bomb, they, like the characters, will be surprised when it goes off. In a suspenseful version of the same scene, the audience is aware of the bomb, dreading what they know is coming but helpless to stop it. In The Power Fantasy, there are a multitude of bombs under the table at any given time, many of which the story has told us about and others of which go BOOM unannounced at the last minute. The metaphorical bomb that writer Kieron Gillen and artist Caspar Wijngaard stuck under the table last issue is perhaps the biggest yet: Eliza Hellbound’s thought-to-be-dead boyfriend Dev has been impersonating Jacky Magus for ten years. Now that they’ve reunited, they’re plotting to kill Etienne Lux. As the main characters gather in a stadium in Melbourne, things couldn’t be tenser.

The comic’s cover is a cryptic bloodbath, crimson gore splashed in a circular power symbol à la the series logo. It says nothing—who might be dead or who killed them—and also everything—because if one of the Super Powers dies, it’s goodbye, world. Caspar Wijngaard’s art is as stunning as always, volleying between Jacky’s grim and gritty Pyramid and sunny, saturated Australia. 

Admittedly, this issue doesn’t quite plumb the same emotional depths of those that have explored Catholic guilt or the vulnerability of sharing art. However, as the bomb under the table tick-tick-ticks away, the comic’s methodical pacing creates the kind of tension that creeps into one’s muscles. A clever visual mechanic in the final pages makes things especially tense and the conclusion manages to be surprising even when it seems clear enough where things are headed.