The Power Fantasy #3 is written by Kieron Gillen and published by Image Comics. Artwork, colours and main cover is by Caspar Wijngaard and letters by Clayton Cowles.
The Power Fantasy #3 is available from today, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.
Synopsis
On July 16, 1945 the world changed forever. Santa Valentina was born. There was also the Trinity test, but that’s not as important. As the world hangs in the balance, we explore the life and times of the girl who fell…skipped…to Earth.
Also: check out that cow!
Review
Kieron Gillen is a writer who has proven time and time again why he’s one of the best modern comic book writers of our time. There have been many comics that try to subvert what a superhero is or what having superpowers means, and with The Power Fantasy, Gillen boils it down to a nuclear war on the verge of happening. In the first issue, Etienne stopped Heavy from wiping out a continent after the US government launched an attack on him by assassinating the President and everyone within his vicinity. In the second issue, we dealt with the repercussions of Etienne killing the President, and as a wanted man, he has to hide himself while still making do with his promises.
This issue steps away from the chaos we’ve been following in the past two issues and instead focuses on a singular character, the angel, Santa Valentina. A fan-favourite character of mine, this issue only made me love her more. It takes us back to July 16th, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was dropped and, more importantly, when Santa Valentina was born.
She was an unstoppable kid, one that any military or government would have wanted to use as a weapon, but she kept herself hidden while bouncing between various families. We get to see her first meeting with Etienne, who knew of her existence, and even back in 1957, it shows not much has changed between their relationship. There are significant events mentioned in this issue, and while none of it makes much sense at the time of reading this issue, such as “The Second Summer of Love,” the data page at the end of the issue reveals that some of these events, such as the latter, will be explored in later issues.
There are other events, such as “The Devil,” which are self-explanatory from Etienne and Valentina’s discussion and don’t need further explanation. We live in an age where modern readers would rather be shown instead of being told, and even when they’re told, they still want to be physically shown. Thankfully, Kieron Gillen fights against that here by showing that he’s only going to explore events that are integral and otherwise don’t have much context.
There are six people with superpowers, and for the most part, they’re just trying to live, but are persistently being seen as a threat by the US government. This has been shown in the first two issues with the attacks that have happened on Heavy, and now we find out that Valentina also received the same fate, although she went through extra measures to destroy the nukes to ensure that there will be a future.
Caspar Wijngaard’s colours express the level of destruction but also show how the US views these nuclear explosions through their eyes; it’s beautiful to them. All of this comes back to a conversation between Valentina and Jacky Magus at the start, painting a clearer picture of why Valentina doesn’t trust anyone who makes weapons, which also includes Magus as part of that description.
Verdict
The Power Fantasy #3 is another masterpiece of an issue written by Kieron Gillen, with Caspar Wijngaard expressing the emotional trauma that Santa Valentina has had to deal with, leading to the character that she is today in the modern day. This is the best interpretation of a world with superpowers, and using 1945–1999 as the time period for The Power Fantasy is pure genius by Kieron Gillen, as this story is about nuclear war. It’s a cold war between superpowered beings and the US government.
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