Powers, Vol. 11: Secret Identity

Powers (2000) #11

by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming (Illustrator)

A dead Cosmic Avenger shows the world that there are forces at work that no mere mortal cop could possibly understand, but it doesn't matter either way because Internal Affairs has set their sights on Deena Pilgrim. Walker and Pilgrim have been homicide detectives and partners for years, but secrets they've kept from each other are now too big and too dangerous to remain secrets for long. Things are about to get really crazy... even for the Eisner Award-winning Powers From the writer of New Avengers Collects Powers (Vol. 2) #19-24.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Crime, Fiction, Comic Book

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2007

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

2021 review: Secret identities abound in this volume with both our main protagonists hiding a part of themselves from everyone else. As the recently reformed Heroes super-team starts having serious implosion issues, Deena and Walker are on the case, but have to keep a watch out for the FBI, super villains, superheroes gone bad, the media, Internal Affairs... and secret identities! As ever wit the focus on costumed heroes the book quality drops and it's only when the focus is back on investigating the case that this volume gets better again. By this stage of the series every volume has key issues in and around the ongoing personal stories of our protagonists. 7 out of 12, the weakest volume in the series, in my opinion.

2019 review: Yet another outstanding volume as resurgent super hero team The Heroes implode with murder, murder and murders. The first victim - someone stands on his head and twisted his body round 'til his neck broke... ouch! .. seriously... ouch! Carnage and more carnage is just the start of it as Pilgrim and Walker are giving the case, partly to protect Pilgrim from Internal Affairs. As more clues and twist and turns ensue, the number of suspects just keeps on growing. A 'superhero' Powers volume with ultra violence, conspiracies, Walker back stories and foul mouthed Pilgrim getting from all-sides! 9.75 out of 12.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone's is targeting a superhero team one by one. The end of this took an odd and confusing left turn into demonland. Oeming's art took a terrible turn when this occurred too. I couldn't tell what was going on. I do wish for once this would actually be a police procedural where Walker and Pilgrim work and solve the case. Too often some deux ex machina moment happens that lays the solution in their lap. Bendis has written enough detective fiction to do this. I'm curious why he has seemingly steered clear of that in this series. Bendis's reliance on crude dialogue is starting to grate on me as well. Line's like "Looks like someone is about to get their taint punched." just aren't doing it for me. Who talks like that? Bendis's dialogue is usually the strongest part of his storytelling.

[Melania 🍒]

3,45/5

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and complicated and confusing. The details are all good and then huh what? A little bit more clear story line would be better. And maybe a smaller body count. This style of introduce me to an interesting character and make me like them and have sympathy for them then kill them has to stop eventually. But darn well done. But not enough Calista or Deena in this one. 3.5 of 5.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powers has been heavy on metaplot since the start of v2, and this volume shows the strength of that: when one of the Heroes from Powers, Vol. 8: Legends shows up dead, we suddenly have a connection to one of the cases that goes beyond our typical connection to Deena and Walker. It's a great use of the improved continuity of Powers since it moved to Icon (Marvel).

I think some of Powers' best moments have come when the procedural work of the comic moved straight up into active and exciting superheroics, because Bendis quickly turns it into shocking reality. And, we get that here too offering the storyline even more strength.

Of course the great subplots we've had going throughout v2 continue as well, with the prime one focusing on Walker this time around, though Deena's story gets some movement as well.

As a whole, v2 of Powers has been the comic thrumming along at its best, and this is another example of that.

[Elfo-oscuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este es el mas flojo de los ultimos numeros leidos, di que la relacion Deena con Michael siempre gusta de leer pero los casos que van teniendo no tienen ese factor de sorpresa del principio. Espero que sea justo un bajón y mejore en el 12

[Jordan Lahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another compelling mystery, with interesting character moments and plenty of action. Continues to remind me why Bendis is the best in the business.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christian Walker è un supereroe, ma non lo sa quasi nessuno. Dana Pilgrim è malata di potere, una malattia che si sta diffondendo nella città, ma non lo sa nessuno. I due si scontrano con i problemi di un gruppo di supereroi (gli "eroi") che si è suo malgrado imbattuto in uno dei figli di un'entità molto potente, vecchia quanto il mondo, vecchia quanto Christian Walker. Segue una terrificante scia di sangue. Walker si confronta con il padre del piccolo dio omicida e trova l'unica soluzione possibile: lasciare che il ricettacolo umano dell'entità si ammazzi, privando l'essere del proprio tramite verso il mondo. Nel processo, Dana scopre che Christian è tornato a vestire i panni di un supereroe, senza averle detto nulla: scopre un segreto proprio mentre stava per rivelare il proprio. Inutile dire che non prende bene il fatto di aver perso l'esclusiva sui segreti non rivelati. Insomma: nuovo ottimo episodio di Powers. Nonostante i disegni di Oeming.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of things happened with this one. . . some of the flashback stuff was meh but it was a tiny part. I would love to know where Deena is at the end.

I thought the Queen Noir storyline would end better, it was kind of lame at it's conclusion.

[Ilan She · Rating 5 out of 5]

Addictive story and best artwork so far

[Jacq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una buona storia, ma certe situazioni iniziano ad essere un po' ripetitive, il che riduce il coinvolgimento del lettore. Voto: 8/10.

[Colin Rapp-Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read

[Matteo G · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, I am loving this series, and I read volume 11 all in one go, just great

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series continues to be awesome. So many twists, your head will spin…with delight!

[Phil Bova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Simply beautiful and fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed this volume, as the deeper explanation of these multi-layered characters has been revealed. Well, to a certain degree anyhow. However, it saddened me to see the reaction from Deena when she found out about Walker's Powers. I thought she would have been more apathetic to his, as she carries the same guilt hiding her powers from him.
It felt like a huge break in their relationship...and it usually changes the dynamics following.
That being said, this world of Powers created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming is even deeper in scope as each volume continues. The richness in these characters is beautiful. Their writing continues to amaze me, and the story progression is smoothly accurate and well articulated.
Love this title.
Highly recommend for those interested in noir crime, and superheroes.

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eleven volumes in, with five more to go (including the two volumes of "Powers: Bureau") and a couple of things are beginning to really bug me about "Powers": one, the continued objectification of women (I already made mention of the Rob Leifeldization of the series with its women with unrealistic body proportions on another review); two, the unnecessary sex scenes and nudity that contribute absolutely nothing to the story (they are beginning to feel like a visual clutch to keep slobbering fanboys happy); and three, the equally gratuitous meta quality of its narrative. If in the final pages of Volume 10 Bendis and Oeming seemed to be referencing Alan Moore's "Promethea", the truly laughable and ludicrous ending of this Volume (where Walker fights Satan himself) is going for a Mike Mignola vibe that doesn't quite work. Am taking a brief break from the series.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An especially bleak volume that feels at first like a return to the "FG3" story line of a much earlier volume, "Secret Identity" focuses on Deena's continuing collapse and Christian's continuing adjustment to his role as The Millenium.

It's darker than it looks on the surface though. There was legitimate government conspiracy--a common genre fiction villain, although one that often feels all to plausible if not all to real--behind the FG3 meltdown in earlier books. In this book the fall tends out to be simultaneously much more banal and much more frighteningly purposeless, much like evil itself. Also, Walker meets a being who claims to be Satan.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Powers: Secret Identity", the 11th volume in the "Powers" series, is another fast paced adventure featuring detectives Pilgrim and Walker. In this volume the secrets the detectives keep from each begin to become unmanageable as they scramble to find the truth behind the murders of multiple members of the same super team. Expect, a quick look into Walkers current extracurriculars along with a flash back to his vigilante days in the 30s. IA closing the net, lots of redballs, a few reveals about Queen Noir, giant robots rampaging against the White House, Walker getting a scolding of galactic proportions and Pilgrim feeling the pressure - lots of pressure.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best in the series and much better than the last few. Lots of good twists and character background details. I felt some of the material approached the epic gold of my favorite supers books, like the Dark Phoenix saga and Watchmen. Some really good stuff.

Reprinting the book's script as the last few pages of the book was very self-indulgent and mostly useless, EXCEPT when they described the scene between Walker and the devil, where I learned some details that I couldn't discern from the art itself.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made the mistake of beginning this pretty late at night a few days ago, and subsequently didn't get to go to bed until it was done. More of the dame goodness from Bendis and Oeming, as they continue to take the book's original, crime-based noir premise with a superhero twist into very odd, celestial and religious ground.

Reading it out loud sounds like a horrible idea for such a good book, but, in reading it comes across incredibly well.

[Emily Guendelsberger]

I don't know why there's still so many typos in Powers. It's on a major label. I'm one your-you're misunderstanding away from writing to Bendis and offering my oh-so-professional proofing services free of charge. Because dammit, somebody has to spread the use of catchphrases like, "Uh oh, looks like someone's about to get their taint punched!" and I don't see Superman writers picking up the slack on that anytime soon.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that this one slipped a little. Still some pretty shocking moments, here, but something about the writing on this one just didn't connect for me. I guess I'm starting to wonder what powers will be left if the story arcs keep killing off whole supergroups. Still, even slipping down some, this series is better than anything else out there.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Powers #19-24. The Heroes learn that Queen Noir's husband was killed, and Pilgrim and Walker are called in to investigate. Powers continues to be a strong comic. The characters have a lot of depth, and Bendis usually takes a higher road on humor (although sometimes he does sink to a Kevin Smith level). The art is great, and it compliments the story.

[Korynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume focuses on the unraveling of yet another superteam, this one started by a member's spouse being found murdered in their home. This leads to betrayal and more murder finally ending in a totally unforeseen battle between Walker and Satan. You think I'm kidding? And Deena finally comes to a decision about her dark secret only to be shocked by Walker's new situation.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have done without the Satan stuff or the boring ol' shock value moments, but up until then, it felt like the old Powers again, with Walker and Pilgrim working a case. Better than last time at least means hope for the future, yes?

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

this gets 4 stars for 2 probably unfair reasons:

(1) i did not appreciate the shift to non-hand-lettering; and
(2) the typos started to get to me.

but this series continues to be totally awesome.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a fan of the "profane" and evil gooberyness, I loved this volume and the shadow demon. Walker's purpose is being fleshed out and Deena's story probably needs more definition, but I'm still innit.

[Pablo]

Despues del anterior voluemen parecia que iba a dejar el toque negro detectivesco.... Pero solo era un espejismo, sigue mantenido ese toque negro detectivesco mostrando que a los superheroes tambien los siguen asesinando y sus crimenes lo resuelven personas sin poderes....

[justin van matre]

damn you amazon. i don't want to pay more for faster shipping.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story, but the layout is very difficult to follow. Not the equal of its predecessors in the series.