Powers: Season 1, Episode 4: Devil in a Garbage Bag
This show is definitely as far as possible from its source material. Christian Walker is insanely desperate to get his powers back. It makes him a very tormented character who seems as though he has a lot to prove. He’s like a man with a shrunken penis. Everything is all about compensation for him. He even takes the dangerous powers drug sway, which we learn has a very sinister origin: Wolfe’s blood.
We learn the dangers of Wolfe and we get more about the relationship between him, Christian and Johnny Royalle. They had mentioned a few things about it before, such as Wolfe being their mentor and having a penchant for eating people, but now we know more about how his powers work.
Unfortunately the show fails to reveal the cause of his massive psychosis. What made him go on such a rampage that he begged his protégés kill him on multiple occasions? What made him cause so much damage that Christian fought to stop him at the cost of his powers? Hopefully we get these answers as the show continues to move forward.
The stakes are pretty high in this episode as the main characters of the show find themselves trapped in a prison with this nearly unstoppable monster of a power. Everyone he comes into contact with is killed and eaten by him, increasing his strength and speed. His clarity increases with his power as it is healing his mind and his contact with Christian gives him strange visions, likely due to them each containing a small piece of each other.
Calista still seems to be a complete nutcase. Zora is a definite prima donna. Deena’s humor is coming off kind of dry and far less playfully snarky than I think they mean. Retro Girl is a huge b*tch. Triphammer is kind of stupid to be a super genius and Cross seems to be very similar to his comics counterpart, albeit much skinnier.
I do like the whole Chaotic Chick subplot at the moment. It seems to be leading toward the comic book’s opening “Who Killed Retro Girl” arc. I would find that immensely pleasing.
The world they have created for this show is very worthy of Brian Michael Bendis. This was a very difficult sell to begin with, but I think if it’s given time to find its way Powers will become… powerful? I for one, think it can only get better.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
