Writer Kieron Gillen has lately been busy charting the course of the X-Men franchise, penning books like Rise of the Powers of X and Immortal X-Men (which won IGN's Best Comic Book Series of 2022 award). Now that Gillen's tenure on the X-Men line is drawing to a close, what comes next? The answer is The Power Fantasy, a brand-new collaboration with All Against All artist Caspar Wijngaard. It's a superhero series that promises to be every bit as epic and unique as Immortal X-Men, and one that's equal parts The Boys and Watchmen.
IGN can exclusively debut new artwork from The Power Fantasy, including some of Wijngaard's striking character designs. Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at this very promising new series:
The creative team on Power Fantasy also includes letterer Clayton Cowles and designer Rian Hughes.
The Power Fantasy is a series where the word "superpower" has a very specific and dire meaning. A superpowered individual is one who possesses a destructive potential equal to the nuclear arsenal of the United States. In this world, there are six superpowers, and humanity's survival depends on ensuring that these six beings never come into conflict with each other.
"With any new story, meeting the cast is such a huge part," Gillen tells IGN. "You do that at every stage - from announcement, to first cover, to first page. So now we get closer to release, actually starting to share stuff is hugely exciting. Caspar and I have been dreaming this up forever, and now we get to Show and Tell. The story is about six people with the power to destroy the earth, trying to get on. Who they are is the heart of the story, so meeting them is huge."
Gillen continues, "We thought an introduction to one of the cover stars would be fun. We're basing character names off the stage names that were common in the period they appeared - she's kind of our puritanical post-punk character who spent most the early 80s in a magical squat in London before (er) becoming who she became. She's called Eliza Hellbound, because she knows exactly who she is."
"Eliza is definitely the most ‘me’ character, at least in terms of design," Wijngaard says. "On paper she evokes my love for JRPGs and Fantasy, twisting armor with fashion over function attire. They are is also an extremely pained and in a constant spiral of emotional turmoil, the red mood present is a constant reminder of the monstrous forces she's got herself eternally tied too."
Gillen also teases of the above artwork, "As well a little of the development work, here's what she's up to in the first issue..."
The Power Fantasy #1 is priced at $3.99 and will be released on August 7, 2024.
Also debuting in August are Wolverine: Revenge, a blood-soaked new series from Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo, and the crossover series Ultraman x Avengers.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
