The Power Fantasy #9: Fear in a Handful of Dust

For the last two issues, The Power Fantasy has recounted a history of how the world almost ended in 1989, then didn’t—with the notable exception of Europe. This issue explores the fallout through the eyes of one of the series’ only truly normal people: Masumi’s girlfriend Isabella. While The Power Fantasy’s mass tragedies feel surreal and fantastical in nature, Kieron Gillen’s narration and Caspar Wijngaard’s artwork nonetheless flavor events with more familiar horrors like nuclear warfare and the COVID-19 pandemic. As the plot bounces between conversations and through time, Wijngaard’s approach to color continues to feel like a revelation, enlivening even the most static scenes with unexpected choices. 

Given Isabella is a Goth Italian lesbian, it should come as no shock that she, like Eliza Hellbound, has some Catholic Guilt™ mixed in with her survivor’s guilt. Since the first issue, The Power Fantasy’s creators have worked hard to establish a cosmopolitan central cast representing a variety of clashing philosophies. However, all seem to be either Catholic/Catholic-adjacent or atheist/agnostic, which admittedly narrows its philosophical field of view. Nonetheless, there are some devastating passages of prose within that scope and the arc’s exploration of faith, doubt, and manipulation offers plenty to chew on. Moments of levity are rare but welcome. And, as always seems to be the case, the issue’s final page is a shocker.