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The time has finally come. The Power Company is no
more. Well, I should say that the title is no more,
to be specific. I can't say for certain we'll
never again have to deal with this dysfunctional
team that made the Blasters (from the pages of
Invasion if you don't know) seem like a well oiled
performance machine, but in a world where Agent-X
can stave off death for a few extra issues
anything is possible. Now, while my words may not
be kind I don't despise The Power Company, I just
think that it's a title whose concept got the
better of it and ultimately led to its downfall.
Let's do a quick recap shall we?
The Power Company is a group of individuals teamed
together in order to fight and protect, as long as
you're willing to pay the price for them to do it.
If you're a nation, a corporation, or just a
really rich person, they'll protect you from the
threats that are coming after you. The team isn't
made up like a "regular" group of heroes, these
team members are associates and partners who work
together for the highest ideal of a team of heroes
can . . . money! So to wrap up, you've got a group of
individuals whose driving force to do "good" is
based on you paying them big bucks, and they have
the team working skills of Japanese Fighting Fish.
If you're thinking "this sounds like the current
U.S. Administration" you're on the right track.
The biggest difference is that the members of The
Power Company actually have shown varied levels of
a human conscience. I think that's about as
quickly and cleanly I can break down the team for
you.
Overall, while the idea of a pay-for-service group
of heroes isn't new (can you say Heroes for Hire?)
I did like the idea of having a group like that at
a level where their customers were those people
you would think could take care of themselves due
to finances or influence. Plus, you had a good
variation in the powers of the group. You had
folks with natural and enhanced physical
abilities, you had people whose powers resided in
their tech, and you had the unknown factors of
magic and alien technology. Unfortunately the idea
of a dysfunctional team went past a gimmick, and
rather than being used as a first major hurdle,
the group dysfunction drove the book . . . right into
the ground.
I stayed with this book because I hoped that the
"hurdle" approach would be taken sometime soon,
and the group would come out of some major battle
in a more cohesive form. It never happened. Each
time a new threat or situation ended someone ended
up evaluating the situation poorly and in a
completely selfish manner. As each new story arc
was completed I saw the team drifting further
apart. I could see that Busiek was working to
create a team that people could enjoy reading
about, but by the time he was pulling in the
reigns, the characters had already taken on a life
of their own.
In The Power Company you have seen what happens
when people who play at heroes don't all have the
honest desire to be heroes. With that desire you
can overcome the obstacles this group couldn't. If
you look at the 80's version of the Justice League
as written by Giffen and DeMatteis, you can see
what I mean. That Justice League was probably the
most dysfunctional group of heroes to ever be
pulled together that I had seen at that time. The
difference between the two groups is that the 80's
Justice League members actually wanted to do their
best to be heroes, and while some didn't
understand the methods used by other team members
they knew they were working towards the same goal.
Not everyone in a group has to agree on everything
in order to get things done, but they do have to
be willing to respect and to work with each other.
The Power Company's members were never able to
find respect for each other, and while the team
may not have paid the price, the title did.
In the end, The Power Company has become to me a
"what not to do" guide in creating a team of
heroes. I think anyone who works on a future team
title would do well to read through the issues of
The Power Company just to gain a better
understanding of how a gimmick can kill a title. A
gimmick is a gimmick, nothing more, and if you
overuse a gimmick people get sick of it. I do
believe that the concept of a super team for hire
could work, but not in the way The Power Company
executed it. Perhaps someday The Power Company
will rise again but I would be wary to spend my
money on it. If they had the right guest star it
might help, though. Of course I'm not talking about
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or any of the other
major heroes. If DC ever wants to revive The Power
Company with its current members the cover needs
to have a huge "Guest Starring: Tony Robbins" on
its cover, because I think that is the one person
who would stand any chance of saving the team from
itself.
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