The bestselling, award winning writer Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Die) and creative powerhouse artist Caspar Wijngaard (Home Sick Pilots, All Against All) took Emerald City Comic Con by storm on Friday when Gillen shared news of their upcoming The Power Fantasy series at his Spotlight panel to a standing room only audience. Gillen and Wijngaard were guests of the show and further entertained a queue of enthusiastic fans eager for for more details on this forthcoming series with Image Comics slated for August.
The Power Fantasy concept is laid out in a two-page comic advert released at the book’s announcement. It’s a world where “Superpowered” has a specific meaning. It’s reserved solely for those with the destructive potential of the nuclear arsenal of the most powerful nations on Earth. There are presently six superpowered beings, and the future of the planet is reliant on them never, ever coming into conflict.
“The Power Fantasy emerged in a similar way to The Wicked + The Divine,” said Gillen in an exclusive scoop with The Hollywood Reporter. “I was doing a book at Marvel, and became aware of exactly the sort of things I could do with the reins taken off. As The Wicked + the Divine was to Young Avengers, this is to Immortal X-men. It’s a comic informed by superheroes, but one where a fight is the absolute lose state, for everyone. It’s set from 1945-1999, and so is a chance to really have fun with an alternate cultural history too. I think you can see it as an extension of my best work: WicDivian alternate-pop culture, a cold-war take on Uber’s realpolitik, Die’s social group drama hyper-charged by genre…”
Wijngaard added: “Once Kieron had pitched the basic outline for The Power Fantasy I knew this was the story I felt comfortable most telling. We’ve been able to create some incredible characters, each with their own vibrant personalities and worlds in which they inhabit. If you are a fan of my most recent image titles Home Sick Pilots and All Against All, you’ll see a lot of its DNA here. I’m truly putting everything I’ve learned into this series, and The Power Fantasy is a large and beautiful canvas for me to operate on.”
With an approach that sits between The Boys and Watchmen and a music video aesthetic, The Power Fantasy #1 will be available at comic book shops in August.
