Powers (43 page)
Authors: Brian Michael Bendis
Deena lowered her head, adjusting her cap once more. A memory stirred, and she closed her eyes, drifting back to November two years before
when a noise captured her attention, the sound of war coming from the city. Cops and Powers joined her on the porch, investigating the commotion without leaving the house.
Fuck
, she'd thought.
I'd be off like a rocket. If the APHD allowed, I'd be out there myself, fighting the good fight
. But that would be a long time coming. Deena had to start college, hadn't even lived on her own. She had to abide her father's rules, follow his word.
Not for long,
she'd promised herself.
Before you know it, I'll be out of college and deciding shit for myself. What to think. What to eat. Where to live. And no one will tell me what to
be
. I can be anything I want. Even a cop.
Especially
a cop.
Deena opened her eyes. She found herself in the moment, within a
sea
of cops sitting at attention, clad in their dress blues. She watched the reactions of her fellow graduates. Many were smirking, grab-assing with their friends. Several were quietly conversing with family in the audience. Only a select few were listening to the speeches, faces drawn and solemn, rapt with attention.
Even fewer had their eyes closed, as Deena had, lost in private thought, overwhelmed by the moment, the pomp, the ceremony. This was her family now. These were her people, the men and women with whom she couldn't wait to serve. With whom she couldn't wait to partner.
It had been a long, painful road from Atlanta. But here Deena stood, beneath a hopeful sky, less than an hour from succeeding. She had done it herself but was far from alone. She felt her colleagues in the crowd: the solemn cops, those with something to prove. And the honest ones, dedicated to being just and true. They were everything that Deena hoped to be. Everything that she'd longed to be.
She had done it by herself, arriving beneath the clear, blue sky. She'd endured five months of heartache and hardship and planned to savor the moment forever: the exact moment that Deena Pilgrim could refer to herself as a good cop. Maybe the last good cop she knew.
First, though, she would have to endure the rest of the speeches.
But that was fine. Deena was on point. And she had survived worse in order to become a good cop, to accomplish her mission.
And everything she'd survived, she'd survived in its name.
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Mike Oeming drew my first-ever convention sketch in 1994. He was working on Judge Dredd, and as a hopeful artist at his first con, it was a genuine thrill to interact with one of the guys “behind the curtain.” Mike's austere linework made me a lifelong fan, and I was lucky enough to get a second sketch at my first con as a pro in 2001, shortly after the debut of
Powers.
The sketch?
Brian Michael Bendis
,
Powers
cocreator, ordering Mike to return to work.
Since that show, I've been lucky enough to work with Mike on an X-Men comic and maintain both a personal and professional relationship. I'd never met Brian, though I'm equally a fan of his work and story: balding Midwest Jew writer made good, a fortune and glory tale I'd hoped to re-create if not best (I'm still coming for you, Bendis). Thankfully, fate and opportunity brought we yidden together and I'm proud to say that I've met and worked with one of the most exciting, endearing writers in my field, a creator who is generous to collaborators and offers a unique (and dialogue-rich!) take on sequential art. With Mike, Brian has created one of the most engaging female protagonists in comics today in Deena Pilgrim. Her voice and presence ride between confident and broken, determined and despairing, loyal and lost, and both boisterous and neurotic. Deena goes the distance, personality-wise, with another famous comic book hero, a web-slinging hero upon whom the Bendis stamp has long been imprinted. But unlike Spidey and some in her immediate circle, Deena wears her enthusiasm, guilt, and turmoil for all to see. She is Bendis and Oeming unfettered by masks, honest and open, offering a grounded point of view in a world where the impossible is just another Monday. Thanks, guys, for allowing me the chance to speed through your world and expand the history of an amazing character I've very much come to know and admire.
Thanks, as well, to Nicole Sohl at Macmillan Books for making the editing process a breeze, and to Brendan Deneen, who was my agent, then my editor, but always my friend. An additional high five to Charlie Olsen, who always has my back. Special acknowledgment to Tony Lee for putting Brendan and me together at a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund gathering, emphatically stating how we had to work together. Well, here you go, Tony. That'll be $25.99 hardcover, please.
And last, but by no means least, extra-special thanks and love to Laurie, Jack, Owen, Olivia, and Connor. It's never fun when Dad suddenly drifts away, staring into space during a family outing because he's plotting new ways to make poor, unsuspecting characters suffer. It's even worse when he disappears each night to orchestrate the horrific results on the printed page until 2:00
A.M.
Thank you for being my amazing, supportive partners-in-crime, and for giving me another shot to make good every time I return from the struggle. I love you all. You are MY Powers.
Â
Brian Michael Bendis
is an award-winning comics creator,
New York Times
bestseller, and the current writer of
All New X-Men
and
Uncanny X-Men,
which debuted at number one on national sales charts. He is one of the premier architects of Marvel's Ultimate comics line and has also consulted on many film projects, including the Iron Man trilogy and
Guardians of the Galaxy
. He has won five Eisner Awards, including two for Best Writer of the Year, and was honored with the prestigious Inkpot Award for comic art excellence. He lives in Portland, Oregon. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
    
Neil Kleid
is an Xeric Awardâwinning graphic novelist and authored
Ninety Candles,
a graphic novella about life, death, legacy, and comics, as well as the graphic novels
Brownsville
and
The Big Kahn
. He has written for nearly every comic book publisher in the industry, adapted Jack London's
Call of the Wild
into sequentials for Penguin Books, did the opposite for Marvel Comics' seminal Spider-Man story line “Kraven's Last Hunt,” and collaborates on the digital creator-owned series Kings and Canvas, with artists Jake Allen and Frank Reynoso for Monkeybrain Comics. By day, Neil is the art director for the Topps Company's digital suite of trading card apps. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and four kids, where he roots for the Tigers, grills like a king, and writes like a champ. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
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Contents
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.