This isn't going to be a review of "The Legend of Will Power #1."
If you want a review, here it is: it's awesome. If you like superhero comics, you will like THIS superhero comic.
So, that's the review. If you are interested in supporting independent creators - and, more importantly - if you are interested in reading a good comic, you can buy Will Power #1 at this website: RIGHT HERE.
But now I'd like to talk about what specifically makes Will Power #1 awesome in my SPOILER-TASTIC breakdown. I'm calling it a 'breakdown' because it's shorter than 'nerd dramatically summarizes comic' and also because 'breakdown' sounds cool.
Much hullabaloo and kerfuffle is made these days about a narrative technique in comics known as 'decompression.' Basically, instead of trying to condense a story into a single 24-page issue, authors tell that same story over a couple of issues. This allows for more natural dialogue and a slow build-up of dramatic tension. Also, evil villains no longer have to explain their entire evil plan in a single dialogue bubble two pages before they are kicked off a cliff.
On the flipside, this style sometimes results in the second or third comic of a four-comic "arc" consisting entirely of superheros standing around a table arguing with each other over the philosophical implications of it all. These segments might be compelling when the entire story is collected in a trade paperback (otherwise known as a book). However, when people pick up a superhero comic and expect them to do superhero stuff, and instead find 24 pages of Wolverine arguing with Cyclops over a grilled cheese sandwich... well, they can be a tad miffed.
Which finally leads me to Will Power. Will Power bucks the decompression trend and how. Will Power #1 isn't just compressed, it's hyper compressed. It's ironic that Will Power's uh, power, is that his molecules are super-dense, because the comic he's in is pretty dense, too. Seriously, it reads less like an origin story and more like a Wikipedia entry on the Will Power universe, complete with little blue links masquerading as characters who literally pop into the story out of nowhere and then vanish. If the old saying is true about great stories asking more questions then they answer, then Will Power #1 is the greatest story ever told.
This is a comic that contains: epic legends, gods, science experiments gone horribly wrong omg, shadowy villains, time travel, robots, super heroics, and a quarterback winning a high school football game. Oh, and there's a two-page epilogue with monkeys and dinosaurs in it.
It starts with an intro... or should I say intro(s).
The first tells the bombastic legend of a guy who was "once a man, but now a God."
A guy who likes to hover above cliffs, apparently. Wait a second... the guy on the cover is wearing jeans and a t-shirt! Am I reading the right book?
I'm not the only one confused, as at this point, the actual narrator is interrupted:
The next page reveals that the narrator is some Viking-type dude talking to a bunch of kids. All of them are apparently gods. And the "godlings" don't want to hear about Will Power's epic... power. They'd rather hear about how he was really good at football. So after a splash page revealing a giant statue of Will Power engraved with the words "GREATEST HERO" (foreshadowing omg) they cut from the distant future to the 1990's where quarterback Will Power single-handedly wins an important football game by running the ball into the endzone himself.
The fist emblem on his shirt -
is revealed to be the logo of his football team. The team is called the Titans, although for some reason, their mascot is a giant fist:
Please tell me he's not called "Fisty." Oh god.
Anyway, after the game, they head to the office of Will's dad - who JUST SO HAPPENS to be a super genius super-scientist. What. a. coincedence.
Will's dad is so friggin' smart that he literally has a time machine just lying around that he hasn't fixed yet because he's too busy with other stuff. You know, like taxes. Or whatever.
The first invention he mentions is actually a "Fifth-dimensional stasis chamber" that can keep anything inside it nice and safe gee I wonder if that's gonna come up later here's a hint YES.
Long story short, some shadowy figure flips the switch on one of the other physics-raping inventions in Will's dad's lab, resulting in THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE becoming less dense. Not just the planet (which would be sufficient for most stories), not the solar system, NO.
The universe - you know, the infinite expanse of space in which all matter exists - gets transformed in about eleven seconds. Damn, Will's dad. Don't you scientists ever consider the consequences of your actions?
Come to think of it, why do you leave your matter-density machine on the "f**k-up the entire universe" setting, and then design the machine to turn on by flipping one frickin' switch?
Seriously?
I mean, you don't wanna like, have two keys that hafta be turned or... even one key? Hell, couldn't there just be like a shut off valve? Somebody press ctrl+alt+delete!
Also, it makes the coolest noise ever - actually, it's five noises in a row:
FFFLLLLLAAAAAZZZ!!!
And when the world came to an end, a sound echoed across the veil of time: ZZZZING!
God, I love comics so damn much. What was I talking about?
Oh, right. Will's dad shoves him into the stasis-chamber-thingy that was conveniently introduced like half a page ago, and Will is protected - effectively making him super diesel in the now less-dense universe. By the way, has anyone outside of a comic ever referred to their dad as "Pop"? Like, after the Depression, I mean. Wait, why was the matter-density machine so dangerous again?
WHY WOULD YOU BUILD IT THEN?!
He probably got taxpayer money for it, too. Thanks, the government.
So then a time-traveler with a wrist-mounted robot appears and kidnaps Will's dad.
No, seriously:
Nice hoodie. And I don't mean to tell you your business, time-traveler guy, but "There's no time!!!" ?
???
How can a time-traveler ever not have enough time? What part of time-travel do you not get? Or do you just suck at your job?
So some other stuff happens, blah blah, and Will wakes up in the future.
And he seems pretty chill about it.
He's even got
Like, literally hanging onto him:
I forgot to mention that Will had a girlfriend (or at least a girl who thought she was his girlfriend) in the past. What happened to her? Oh, right - he heroically saved her during the lab accident.
I mean, he shouted over his shoulder at her to save herself while he ran in the opposite direction. Like a
By the way, possibly my favorite part of the whole comic is the explanation Vince came up with to explain why Will takes waking up in the future like a champ. Instead of going, you know, "Where am I? The future??? Everyone I've ever loved is dead!!!"
(There is never NOT a reason to show that meme.)
So why is Will totally okay with waking up in the f-f-f-future?
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
So, long story short, Will fights a robot and his friend winds up in the distant past (having hidden in the time machine during the lab accident).
That's two cliffhangers in a row. Unless you count "what happened to Will's female friend." Or whatever that time-traveler guy was about. Or...
Forget it. There's a lot of stuff to look forward to, is what I'm saying. I can only hope Vince can keep packing so much random awesomeness into each issue.
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