Power Lines #3

Power Lines, Issue #3 is another series I didn't know if I'd continue reading.  It's good enough, but I'm having to do three blog entries a day to catch up with the current comics.  Why don't I just read for fun and not blog about it?  I just don't know how.  I started reading comics three years ago, and I've written about every single thing I've written since the second or third month.  The two to four novels I read a month only get a few sentences on my Facebook page, and I think I've only reviewed a novel or two since I started this blog earlier in the year.

Taking place in the Bay Area, Power Lines is about a young, black hoodlum from the Iron Triangle who has super powers in Benicia (he's the Eagle), and a racist, white mother who has super powers in the Iron Triangle (she's the Hummingbird).  All the while, two Native Americans are watching them, as are the media.  One of the Native Americans is called the Coyote, and he's a Trickster.  There are other "animals," including the Old Bear and a talking Crow, but none of them have extraordinary physical powers.

I love how Jimmie Robinson excels at all aspects of comic book making.  He could get work as a writer, an artist, and a color artist, but instead, he does all three jobs on this one title, like a Japanese manga artist.  He isn't one of my absolute favorite letterers like Rus Wooton, but he gives himself a difficult job in lettering this title: there's a lot of dialogue.  He uses slightly thinner lines in the lettering than I'm used to seeing (I'm no expert), but this is necessary due to the aforementioned dialogue.

Issue #3 is an especially good issue of Power Lines, one that I regret putting off reading as long as I did.  It's not a "black" comic, a "white" comic or even really a "Native American" comic.  It does play with stereotypes, and there's even the occasional grain of truth in the tirades of "Mrs. Fox News."  You can see how angry the three main characters are, although the Coyote is the only one who's out-and-out evil, attacking random tourists and trying to kill off the Hummingbird and the Eagle just so his bloodline remains pure.