Powers--by Bendis

[Mr. Negative]

I'm really suprised, looking at the wide variety of inspirations that people use for their campaigns, that Bendis' "Powers" hasn't come up more often.

 

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's readily available in Trade Paperback, and often in stock at major chain bookstores and comic shops.

 

Powers is a stand-alone universe (which is a nice option, in and of itself, as your players don't have to learn any 50+ years of continuity), where some people have "powers".

 

That's one of the nice things. No "magic vs. psionics vs. aliens vs. high tech vs. whatever). No aliens, no supertech (evidently), no magic (unless all powers turn out to be magic), no "mutants" vs "altered humans". This may seem a little restrictive, but it's kind of nice for a focused storyline (no intergalactic wars, etc.)

 

The focus of the story (so far as I have followed it) has been on two police officers, one of whom once was a Power. The other nice bit here is that police have "power dampers" which suppress Powers (all of them). However, they are huge and totally non-portable. Thus, if you can successfully arrest a Power, you can take him downtown and interrogate him (and kick him around, even if he was a brick). This is also cool, because it allows you to incarcerate and deal with supers without a secondary level of technology increase (no need for super-prisons, super-cells, etc.)

 

Powers are rated on a general level (1+), and only the highest level powers have really any massive influence (say level 9+). So far, there's really only been one "superman" like character, and even that person, on a destructive streak, doesn't do anything like move mountains. This isn't a strict scale, but a rating, applied by the police and public. Thus, there's a convenient way to describe a threat that is both "in game" and easy to understand (Stay away from this guy. He's a level 7, minimum.)

 

There doesn't appear to be any (or much) "super-tech", so you don't need to worry about the influence that Reed Richards types may have on the whole world. However, some Powers require various types of implants to use their powers safely, and others have implants to boost their powers, or allow them to use them without restrictions.

 

They've also basically not used certain types of supers, for whatever reason. Permanently giant or microscopic characters seem absent. Again, this may seem restrictive, but it means that basically everything fits around the human norm. People get into cars, get shot at, get arrested, get into fist fights--none of the really bizarre maneuvers that some superheroics get you into (shrinking into the opponent's brain, knocking over buildings).

 

"Powers" has also dealt with some common-place comic ideas. After the "superman" goes berzerk, and kills thousands of people (but again, no more than a major war--this isn't Darkseid), the president of the US makes it illegal to use powers (not to be a Power, but simply to use them). Of course, this also causes problems, as the law-abiding Powers stop using their powers, and the criminals don't (and this isn't a super-tech setting where SHIELD or PRIMUS is going to the rescue).

 

The other thing that "Powers" has done very effectively is to ground superheroism into a real world very effectively. It hasn't given you complicated rationales for how powers operate (for you to nitpick), but it has a world where comic books already existed. Thus, when "powers" emerge, people instinctively understand them, use them, and interact with them as the powers in superhero comics. People put on costumes, criminals rob banks, etc.

 

I highly reccommend checking it out (but be advised, it is CERTAINLY not for kids). I'm also wondering if anyone has run a "Powers" campaign.

[casualplayer]

Re: Powers--by Bendis

 

I think that you are missing stuff. Triphammer is a super-tech guy. FG3 was induced mutants. Christian Walker's powers just kinda happened. Retro Girl's powers have been passed down through the ages. That brunette flying when Walker got to the monastery was Retro Girl, and that was Zora in the background heartbroken that Retro Girl showed her up. It looks like Olympia croaked when he impregnated that woman and passed on his powers to the fetus. There are heaps of alternative origin Powers out there.

 

And SuperShock was directly responsible for the radiation guy going off in Utah. And he burned Vatican City and all of Iraq to the ground. At which point the series got too dumb to continue reading.

 

Used to adore Bendis' stuff but he started to believe his own fan press.

[sinanju]

Re: Powers--by Bendis

 

I've read a lot of the POWERS trade paperbacks and I like them. I think you're wrong about supertech, though. There's at least one "Iron Man" character (Rocket Red or whatever his name was), though he's not seen much--if at all--after the initial storyling, Who Killed Retro-Girl?

[Mr. Negative]

Re: Powers--by Bendis

 

I still wasn't sure about the "supertech" of Rocket Red. It isn't well-developed enough for me to make sure that he's a normal with a super-suit, or someone who's powers allow him to make/use/mesh with a suit (or even that the suit is simply a power amplifier like others have, but just "amped" up). I mean, it seems like he is a guy with a super-suit, but it seems weird that no-one else has much in the way of super-tech (other than the lame-o with the rocket-pack).

 

I now remember FG3 being induced. Oops. Still, it speaks to the larger point that there doesn't seem to be any difference in quality or kind with induced powers.

 

I would disagree that there are a lot of "alternate" powers origins, simply because we don't really have any information about the "origin" of powers in "Powers" anyway.

 

Are they mutations? Are they "radiation accidents"? Are they ancestral energies passed on through sex/death/childbirth? Are they mystical energies that can be triggered by various means (including chemical)? Are all of the superpowers of the same basis, or does magic & Psionics & mutations & extradimensional weirdness exist? I know that a lot of players like the detail, but I kind of liked the vagueness associated with "Powers", in that, because it was vague, you didn't have as much to nitpick and metagame (if midi-chlorians are in our blood, let's just vaccinate against Jedi instead of killing them).

 

My point was that the "superpowers" in Powers were more loosely defined (kind of like the Force USED to be in Star Wars), so that you didn't have (apparently) situations where someone is vulnerable to Magic, or capable of draining Mutations, or the like. Special effects were actually special effects (fire, lightning, ice) and didn't appear to be grouped in different "themes" with differing origins. There doesn't appear to be any functional difference, or any public stigma, associated with particular power origins. No one goes "I hate MUTANTS, but the Fantastic Four, who got their powers from cosmic rays, are totally cool, and Dr. Strange, who just chants and gestures, creeps me out, but I'd sell him donuts."

 

And while SuperShock did raze the Vatican and Iraq, compared to the "excesses" of DC and Marvel (killing galactic empires, altering reality, combining universes, unraveling the past, etc.), even this single, unbelievably powerful being had relatively limited impact. And it was made pretty clear that he was the "top of the chart" AND he was undone by a relatively minor power (nice use of suggestion).

 

I know that opinions will vary on "Powers." I was just suprised that, given the incredible range of influences mentioned in various threads, that I saw very little mention of "Powers", even by GMs who were raving about Bendis and his work at Marvel. I was curious if it was largely unknown, or generally disliked, or if people using it were kind of quiet. The other thing I wondered about was, given that "Powers" is almost completely unknown, compared to say, "X-Men", was that GM's who were using an established world were choosing to use something well-known, rather than a niche world.

 

I'm also not sure if Bendis' head has swelled, or if, because of his commerical and critical success, they now let him write ANYTHING and don't bother to edit or critique it (because he's "obviously a genius"). Too much success can ruin you even if it doesn't make you an egomaniac.

[casualplayer]

Re: Powers--by Bendis

 

You'll find a lot of people here who feel like I do. Bendis was amazing in his early days: Jinx, Goldfish, early Powers, Fortune & Glory. But he just became more and more gratuitous, and less and less respectful of the format he chose to work in. Maybe he caught something from Mark Millar? He is far too enamored of his dialogue to work on his pacing. I maintain that he has become unreadable except in collected form.

 

His early Powers was so good that the decline was heartbreaking. At least for me.

 

Oh yeah, he delved into Unity's backgrounds quite a bit, especially for him. SuperShock was more or less a golden age Superman, whose powers just continued to grow and grow. Ultrabright was a Hippolyta-type Wonder Woman, like an immortal demi-goddess who could command all men. Red Hawk was a US Senator and a Batman riff. Mystical Power-chuk Guy was just a punk and a jerk. I don't recall much about the Radioactive Man.

 

It would be a fun world to play in but it certainly is a dark one.

[OddHat]

Re: Powers--by Bendis

 

Well, for myself, early Powers was fun. The world was kind of low powered and not very well fleshed out, but it was well written. Still, when I'm looking for source material for a campaign, I want the crunchiest, most detailed world background I can find. It doesn't matter that I'll throw most of that detail out; the fact that it's there is what gives me a chance to pick and choose what fits my own Super-Hero Aesthetic.

 

As to a lower powered, kind of generic world, in most ways that's a fair description of the CU.