Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-losing SKTCHD, David Harper. The other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava.

The Power Fantasy had all the markings of a flagship Image Comics title, with an elite creative team in writer Kieron Gillen, artist Caspar Wijngaard, letterer Clayton Cowles, and designer Rian Hughes, a superb concept in an alt-history version of our reality where different superpowered beings exist as perpetual threats and deterrents for each other, and excellent timing with Gillen coming off a renowned run on Immortal X-Men at Marvel. It had all those markings, and the good news is, it’s lived up to that potential, even if it’s always felt like it deserved a bit more attention than it’s earned so far.

That’s especially true now that it’s reached its third arc, where things have gone crazy. It’s been an explosive stretch for The Power Fantasy, and that made it feel like it was the right time for Double Take to turn its attention towards that series. That’s what we did this time, as we explored this latest arc, the two that preceded it, and the superpowers that lead its cast in a discussion about the series so far.

As a note, we did put this together before the 15th issue arrived, so if you’re surprised to not see any references to the incendiary events depicted on its pages, it’s not because we haven’t read it. It’s just that we read it too late for this conversation. What it does contain, though, are spoilers for the story so far from The Power Fantasy, so if you’re trade waiting or just haven’t caught up yet and you really care about being spoiled, there’s your warning.

Let’s get to it, though, as we turn our attention to The Power Fantasy and the near-constant threat of the end of the world it and its cast present to us.