Marvel Flipside

Power Man

While 2010 seems to be winding down with less and less "progeny" characters on the shelf, there are still several protagonists whose origins / backgrounds are tied to being a child of an already-established Marvel character. One of the few breakout stars that I've failed to mention has been also born out of an event-- Shadowland's Power Man.

From Shadowland - Power Man #1 (2010); cover by Michael Perkins

Actually, this legacy character isn't related to Luke Cage, the former Power Man, himself. Instead, he's a chip off the old block of one of Cage's old enemies… Shades.

Shades was the former criminal partner to Comanche, although the two were little more than common thugs, but they shared a common origin, of sorts, to Luke Cage in Cage's previous life as a man in prison (for a crime he didn't commit, though!) The two were helpful in a story that finally brought Luke Cage's past out into the open, as the three started out on a mission of mutual revenge, but once the truth was out, Shades and Comanche were re-imprisoned while Cage was vindicated.  Still, these guys were pretty close to being archenemies of Luke Cage because of their sort-of kind-of shared background, and they were trotted out a few times accordingly. Once they even got serious power upgrades, with shades given a visor not unlike a certain Cyclopean X-Man.

Which is where the new Power Man's story kicks in. Apparently, Shades had a family and kids all along! He and his son happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they were in a house that got exploded by Daredevil when he went crazy and made a Shadowland appear in New York. This also exploded Shades' glasses, also known as shades, and the fragments embedded into his son, Victor, changing him. Now with the power to absorb the "chi" of area around him, he set himself up as a new hero-for-hire to pick up some of that cash that people keep wanting to throw at heroes for solving their problems for them.

Until Nightshade wanted to reclaim her property, and such property being Shades' original power shades. Ah, Deadly Nightshade! One of my favorite villains! I suppose it will take a new Power Man +  ol' Iron Fist team up to solve the day, hm? 

Worst Marvel Cover: September

Hmm. I really wanted to make this Astonishing X-Men cover the worst, but I guess that would be just because I think it's embarrassing to be caught reading it in public. It seems one of those ideas that works better as a private joke or simply a feature on a DeviantArt site and the feature cover for on one of Marvel's flagship titles. That, and I have always thought yellow to be a terrible choice for a comic cover.

But instead I give the award to Shadowland: Power Man #2. The problem here is a matter of perspective. While the actual figure of the new Power Man seems just fine, the figure of Luke Cage is all kinds of disproportionate. That, coupled with the unfortunately tangled staging of the two combined, makes the cover too muddled to be effective. It's distracting how the piece confuses the eye more than guides it, and this is coupled with the fact that it's too centered with no playing with dead/negative space. I'd add to the fact that the new Power Man 's color scheme isn't great, with the colors of his costume too similar to his glowing skin-slash-power display. Instead, why not go with complimenting or contrasting colors-- anything to avoid the visual confusion! Sorry Mike Perkins! You definitely deserve better than the Worst, but there's just too many issues.