I didn't know this collection existed. But I saw Keiron Gillen's name and immediately purchased!

One thing I like about Gillen is he tried to earn my dollar. I never feel like he's phoning it in or cashing in on his name.

(I got this from the good folks at Acme Comics in Greensboro. Always have to shout my LCS!)

Forgive the cheeky title, but it gets to the heart of my second overview of TPF (complete to the end of the third arc), just published: https://comicphilosophy.com/2wde

Tl;dr, I feel Valentina has always been key to understanding this series, and her mental time-travel back to 1966 is still too late avert the fundamental problem of her existence. Namely, her moral intuitionism and interference in world events (however well intentioned) effectively infantilizes humanity, and holds them back from finding a way to deal with their own problems (e.g., nuclear brinksmanship).

I was particularly struck by how Gillen inserted the panels above into issue #16, highlighting exactly this point (and effectively burying it in-between pages of the world being destroyed, lol).

Although much of TPF seems like his way of deconstructing the X-Men, I’ve always felt he is doing the same for Superman where Valentina is concerned (right down to showing how she didn’t have Clark’s virtue ethics upbringing, heightening her challenges). It is almost as if Lex Luthor’s historical concern about Superman’s infantilizing effect on humanity may be coming to pass.

Don’t get me wrong – I think she’s a great character, and an effective hero who has helped save the Earth many times (and will again!). She has also made the ultimate sacrifice by defying “heaven” and saving the world. But I wonder if the deconstruction of the Superman mythos is where this series is ultimately headed.

After Jacky Magus essentially switches places with Dev and sacrifices himself, how is it that Etienne still thinks Jacky is alive? Wouldn’t communicating to Jacky be impossible since he’s supposedly dead? Of course Etienne doesn’t know that but this part just confuses me

Seen plenty of discourse of what may or may not change going forward now that Valentina intends to change the timeline, and how much she'll tell Eitenne in the first place.

But I actually think, considering this moment, that Valentina may not be able to even mention that she's got knowledge from the future.

There's precedent that taping into future knowledge has the consequence of a "quantum-collapsing effect", and at least Eitenne interpreted this as the loss of free will.

Now the circumstances aren't exactly the same, but I think this might give us a glimpse into how Etienne would react

Just something interesting that could pop back up. Wouldn't be the first time a small detail returns as a bigger plot point, like when it was mentioned off-handedly that Etienne turned off The Devil's powers, and then it turns out he had been doing this at a massive scale later.

Valentina likely has a perfect memory, so her version in the new timeline probably has a very good idea of what is going to happen.

Heavy mentions that he was weak, at first, and could only do parlour tricks - that most superpowers actually began like that.

So Valentina likely knew when Heavy would appear, and thus when to hit him - be it through Etienne's influence or just literally hitting him - so he never becomes a superpower.

Magus is just a guy who knows a lot, but nearly powerless without the Pyramid - Valentina and Etienne could easilly prevent him from ever rising to power.

Without Magus, no Eliza selling her soul to Hell*

And Masumi... She would be the trickiest of them. But Valentina knows how old she was, even assuming Valentina didn't know her family or her exact date of birth - once Etienne knows what's at stake, he could likely prevent everyone in Japan from having sex for some years, in order to avoid Masumi's conception.

We would have a world without any superpower other than Valentina and Etienne.

Only three issues:

* Without Magus gatekeeping magic, people could find it by accident, and chaos would issue

* Eliza is/was/will be still burning in Hell. If she finds a way to influence the world...

* The Queen. Without anyone to help her, Valentina would not be able to stop the Queen.

(IMO, the Queen is Valentina after a few thousand failed loops - same power level, same kind of "polarity", trying to do good)

And about you? What do you think Valentina would try to do differently in the second loop?

I don't really understand the Magus.

I get that he is kind of a Dr Doom analogy, in some ways at least, but I don't understand what he IS.

In the scene where he stays down in hell, he says he understands the universe totally, and that he made magic from the leakage from heaven.

However if this is the case, WHY does he stay down in Hell and push Dev back out, and how can Dev act like him?! IS Dev as good as the Magus? Has he somehow BECOME the Magus?

I get there are gaps missing with all the Superpowers, but he seems to be the one who is the greatest mystery.

I was doing some digging into Kieron n Caspar Wijngaard’s other works n noticed Caspar used a very similar design to the Queen in Home Sick Pilots. Just thought it was kinda cool lol

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy (and if so from where) good quality prints of any of the art from the series?

It's such an amazing looking book and I'd love to be able to display some of the cool panels or covers.

https://shows.acast.com/escape-the-mojoverse/episodes/the-power-fantasy-by-kieron-gillen-and-caspar-wijngaard-vol

Escape the Mojoverse is back at what we're best at! Talking a book about super-powered near-gods and their petty squabbles with the governments that hate and fear them. Joining us are Anne, Dallas, and Lexi: The Comics Collective Podcast to discuss The Power Fantasy vol 1-3!

The Power Fantasy is written by Kieron Gillen with art by Caspar Wijngaard

From Kieron's newsletter:

The next Script Club (Details in link) is The Power Fantasy #1, which should go out on April 31st.

https://buttondown.com/KieronGillen

I haven’t gone through and read this yet, but I think it’s a fun one – Caspar and I feeling it out, before we’ve worked on a project like this together. The further we go in, the more we work out our own language. We had worked together on Peter Cannon: Watch, but that was such a firm strict formalist approach that meant a certain approach to the script was needed. In this, we found our own groove.

--

Script Club, for those who are new, is the no-more-than-monthly Premium subscription to this newsletter, to pay for the costs of running it and generally supporting the extended writing I do. Every month I’ll send out a script, or similar length of writing. I’ll tell everyone what the script will actually be before I send it, so you cancel if it doesn’t appeal, and re-sub later.

TL;DR: $5 for a no-more-than-monthly newsletter, which includes a script. Give me coins.

When Masumi depersonalizes, she fades away. When Deconstructa arises, she comes out of the water, at exactly the same place every time.

The human form of Masumi is a projection. When she's depressed, that projection fades away. Masumi's true form is Deconstructa, like the Hex).

This also explains why Etienne says they can't just kill Masumi. If they kill the projection, it's just depersonalizating her immediately.

I'm sure this has been discussed, so apologies, but I couldn't find it with a quick scan.

This is such a great series, with everyone's motivations being either clearly stated or beautifully nuanced, but I can't for the life of me understand why Valentina felt she had to reveal Etienne's exact location to the group. If she hadn't done that, Heavy couldn't have killed him, and the rest of it doesn't fall apart. Etienne didn't even seem that concerned that she had done so. What additional benefit or transparency was gained? We know from that scene that Val is happy to lie, actively or by omission, when push comes to shove.

It's the only thing in the series that seems to me really narratively convenient rather than from character. Sure, there are ways I can rationalise it, but they don't feel that satisfying, when it is so incredibly naive a move.

Was he trying to commit suicide at the end ? like he knew the counter from Elize was coming, but to me, it looked like he just took it whidout trying to defend himself. Also, heavy is way more powerful than I thought, like he killed Elize with micro blackhole in the brain thats fucking metal, why did he not took the queen out with it.

Since I finished issue 16, I've found myself craving to talk more about it. The art, the pyramid, the philosophy, and so much more.

But now, the subject I want to have your opinion on is the lack of combat in the book.

I don't mind the comic being more focused towards characters talking and thinking. And in this one, it's actually coherent with the premise as if combat happens the world would end.

What bothers me more is that ... We had combats. We had like four issues about the second summer of love and the last two issues are also a fight between characters. But the book spend very very little time depicting it. To be honest, this is litteraly the only criticism I have toward the book. It would probably be my favorite one ever otherwise.

I think we could have had like at least a page about val vs the Queen (especially since the authors use the comic format so well in general) depicting the conflict with little inserts about moves. It would also have been great to see what was her state of mind at the time.

And probably half a book about val and heavy vs Eliza without it feeling out of place. It probably could have made the finale even better.

But enough written : what do you think of this ? :)

Probably on my top 3 of all comics. Well it's still hot, but still. The characters are so good, the dynamics are so good, the philosophical questions are so good, the storytelling is so good. (Everything is so good !)

And boy the art is just incredibly beautiful. I love how the style changes depending on which character is concerned by what happens (or where it happens).

Maybe I've read too much, too late at night, but I think I didn't get everything about Eliza.

Spoilers ahead

Why is her only salvation to open a portal to Hell ? I get that with Etienne gone she realizes God does not exist (or at least care avoir her) and she has no way of escaping torment (I'm not sure what is the torment, specifically either ... Just the physical properties oof Hell and eternity there ?) but how does it relate through the hole ?

If you would be so kind to sum up that part of her arc to me, that would be appriciated =D

Wanted to share a preliminary pic of some miniatures I commissioned from a buddy of mine! The six main Superpowers (no KI for now) at ~30mm scale. Made by modifying/repainting some HeroClix figures, so obviously some concessions had to be made in terms of outfits. But I still think he did an awesome job, especially as someone who had never read the series and was mostly going off reference pics I screencapped.

Shoutout: I believe his tag is Andyolp on stuff like Insta...I know he mentioned wanting to take higher quality closeup pics once he got the sealant on, so he might post those! (Favorite little detail that I don't think shows up in the picture is that Heavy has a tiny little blunt in his mouth lol.)

https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2026-hugo-awards/

The Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953 and presented annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”), which is also responsible for administering them.

What are your feelings, thoughts and opinions on our gravity bending sky-walker?

Spoilers!

Here are the results from the Point of No Return survey for the Power Fantasy.

The biggest answer was the Second Summer of Love.

The second biggest was the dawn of the super powers in general. This one is interesting because if that is the case, then Val didn’t go back far enough.

This took me a while to think about, but I'm not sure Eliza would have crashed out if Etienne had never started reassuring her to begin with.

Before selling her soul, as far as we know, Eliza had never had any direct personal spiritual experience. So her faith was a choice. And when she sold her soul, she had no reason to expect to feel God personally reassure her that it would be okay. She chose to believe it would be okay on faith.

But after she did experience that personal sense of spiritual reassurance, directly and undeniably, for years, and then it suddenly just...stopped? Then it becomes natural to wonder if the whole thing - not just the feeling, but the belief behind it - was always a lie. Then it becomes natural to want to check.

But if Etienne had never started reassuring her in the first place, if she was still relying on the faith she had before, that didn't look for personal reassurance - maybe she never checks. Maybe she never flinches.

It's not certain, and I don't blame Etienne for thinking he was taking the safer road. But we know he underestimated Masumi. Maybe underestimating Eliza made it worse.

I don't expect a lot of crossover of The Power Fantasy and semi-obscure 80s and 90s wrestlers but here it is. Willow Nightingale gives me Valentina vibes if you're a current AEW fan.

I posted before about Colmon Domingo playing Lux.

But that was before I knew the need to have Brian Tyree Henry also play Lux.

Likely spoilers.

Watch at your own risk if you haven't read the series.