It's the late 1960s and the comic book world is rocked - not by the dynamic illustrations of Neal Adams or the bold design work of Jim Steranko or inept Weathermen vaporized by their own homemade explosive devices, but the spectacle of a blue misty guy socking a dude in purple and white underwear! It's POWER COMICS!
Long before the indy B&W boom or the direct market, young pioneers who could barely freakin' draw were boldly carving out their own corner of comic book history with daring original concepts and exciting fresh ideas.
For instance, Quarterstaff here is a guy who puts on a costume and beats people up! Nothing says "efficiency" like hitting somebody with a garbage can. I mean, it's there on the street, right? Why not use it?
Telling somebody it's "common knowledge a crime syndicate wants to complete biological experiments with you" is just a polite way of saying the whole town thinks they're a tramp. A mannish, lumpy tramp. Luckily, nebbishy Carl here is actually Quarterstaff!
Let's see, open folding staff, put on collapsible costume, swallow hormone enzyme, catalyze complex formula, leap into action!
And he beats people up and the French guy gets electrocuted. That's an ending we can all get behind. But what else does POWER COMICS hold for us?
Science fictional excitement with "Spectra 13!" Yes, nothing like some thought-provoking speculative fantasy by people who can't be bothered to use complicated tools like "rulers" or "circle templates." Hm, I wonder what their favorite science fiction television program was?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say their favorite show was "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea". No, I'm kidding. "Star Trek", "Star Trek" all the way baby. Specifically the scenes of "Star Trek" starring Mr. Spock. He's dreamy.
Let's meet our crew! They look like a fascinating and capable bunch of pointy-eared freaks. It's helpful that the text informs us Mrs. Pherson is a "very pretty woman" because the artwork ain't gettin' the job done, boys. Also she's some kind of alien women's libber, what with not taking her husband's name and all. Well I never.
\...And that's all you'll see of the crew because immediately Mr. Nova and Mr. Galhous are teleported off the ship by the Power Of Spirograph.
LOOK OUT FOR THAT "ENERGY ROCK"! It's amazing how even in the world of comic books, where you can create fantastic worlds that are only limited by your imagination, that the artist would choose to give us the Paramount backlot, complete with fake boulders.
Wow, what a cliffhanger. I don't know how I'll be able to wait until the next installment, so excited was I by the spectacle of a guy pointing at a rock. Come on POWER COMICS, you promised me a blue misty guy punching a guy in two-tone underwear!
How did Randy Wilson gain the powers of X The Unknown Factor? A floating head gave it to him one night! This is ALSO how he picked up a veneral disease, but we won't go into that.
I BE BOG. WHO BE YOU? (alternate Bog dialog upon meeting one of the Doobie Brothers: WHICH DOOBIE YOU BE?) The awesome Bog arrives from Rigel eager to beat up on X, The Unknown Blue Misty Guy. I don't blame him.
WE HAVE GOOD FIGHT! WAIT A MINIT I ASKING THE QUESTIONS! And finally POWER COMICS lives up to its promise by giving us the underwear man vs smoke man fight of the century.
Like all true sportsmen, our fighters shake hands and show their common decency and love of Fair Play. This REALLY PISSES MING THE MERCILESS OFF. Something must be done - but what? I know. WAR WITH RIGEL, presented in the greatest single comic book panel to ever come out of the self publishing revolution of the 1960s. Let's just look at it for awhile.
Oh yeah, that's what it's all about, right there. And that's what POWER COMICS is all about, it's about 24 pages long and it came straight out of the 1960s, the OTHER 1960s they don't talk about, the one filled with earnest nerds eschewing that dope smoking hippy free love for clean cut muscular War with Rigel. Evolutionary dead end, or ancestor of the terrible B&W superhero comics of the 1980s? Who knows? All I know is I'm going to keep an eye out for those energy rocks, Mr. Nova.
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