HBO meets the X-Men in Marvel mutant writer Kieron Gillen's new series The Power Fantasy with Caspar Wijngaard
'What if Watchmen had six Doctor Manhattans?' asks The Power Fantasy writer Kieron Gillen
Popverse's top stories of the day
- James Tynion IV teases what's next for Something is Killing the Children at C2E2
- Watch: Funko invites fans to fly the friendly skies at C2E2's "completely immersive" Funko Airways
- Watch: Artist's Alley Asks: Gene Ha, Cully Hamner, Jarrett Melendez, Rachael Stott, Soo Lee, and Tim Seeley share their Chicago tips while at C2E2
What comes after conquering time and space with the X-Men? The answer was revealed at Emerald City Comic Con Friday morning, with the announcement of The Power Fantasy by Immortal X-Men and The Wicked + The Divine writer Kieron Gillen and artist Caspar Wijngaard (All Against All, Home Sick Pilots), with letters from Gillen’s longterm collaborator Clayton Cowles.
"I've been trying to think about something to do with Casper [for years]," Gillen told the crowd. "When I was doing Young Avengers, [The Wicked + The Divine] came from Young Avengers. 'What would HBO Young Avengers be?' The Power Fantasy is that for Immortal X-Men. You can stop reading Immortal X-Men and jump over to read this and see what happens next. It's as if, what if Watchmen had six Doctor Manhattans?"
Teaser text from the slides presented at the show read, “The first extranormal individuals appeared in 1945. Some describes them as having ‘superpowers.’ It’s easy to laugh at the naivety. We now know the term has a specific technical meaning. To be a ‘superpower’ means you possess the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the United States of America. There are six beings with superpowers on Earth. The world’s continued existence relies on them never coming into conflict.”
The images shown in the slides feature the core cast of the series by series artist Caspar Wijngaard, as well as the opening pages to the first issue. Wijngaard joined Gillen on the panel for the announcements.
"We really didn't want to do capes, we wanted to feel more grounded with these characters," says the artist. "I wanted to visualize their powers in a weird way. They've all got their own separate skillset, they're all uniquely powered. It's fun to do that in a human element instead of just relying on a suit to do that."
"It's not really a superhero book," said Gillen. "None of these people save the world," before joking, "Well, they save the world by not using their powers."
The Power Fantasy launches August 2024 from Image Comics.
Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out our guides to upcoming movies, upcoming TV shows, upcoming comics, and upcoming comic conventions. If you're looking for specific franchises or genres, we have all the upcoming MCU, upcoming Star Wars, upcoming Star Trek, and upcoming DC movies & TV for you. If you're a fan of superheroes and not specific to just Marvel or DC, we have overall guides to all the upcoming superhero movies and upcoming superhero TV shows (and new seasons) as well.
