idonttakethislightly

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It's an interesting choice to just drop all those out-of-context facts, right? Once you've caught up, maybe check out my post and other people's reblogs/responses about how we each think the timeline impacts the story.

The spoiler-free tl;dr: for me, knowing the broad overview of what happened, and having the security of knowing the world and the main characters survive, gets me excited to see the details get filled in. I feel like proceeding through that whole timeline linearly would be nerve-wracking, if I encountered every crisis not knowing if TPF would end there. With the timeline, there's more anticipation mixed into the dread.

Someone else pointed out that it might be commentary on how Marvel and DC readers today enter into a world with decades of canon already established and have to play catch-up. And another person's take was that we see flashbacks somewhat subjectively, showing moments that various Superpowers remember as significant- having read issue 3, you've seen how all the flashbacks there are significant moments in Valentina's life.

Let us know what you think of the timeline's effect on the story, now and as you keep reading!

I am reading through Volume 1 and just got to the timeline at the end of chapter 3. This is a lot, and it feels like a spoiler, but it's very much an official one, so this forces me to reconsider just what they're doing with this.

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Excellent read on Etienne from just the first issue. He really does do that, pretending just to be reporting and going along with other people's plans, while actually furthering his own agenda. He lies to Magus about Eliza, he's weirdly eager to play along with Heavy but only up to a point, he phrases his greeting to Masumi such that she'll refuse to hear what he's doing until later...

As for aging, I won't spoil the things you're going to learn from the rest of the first trade (and what we've seen of the second trade) about the various Superpowers' concerns around mortality, and plans (or lack thereof) for the future. But yes, we should all be concerned that Etienne is aging.

While I wait for the first volume of The Power Fantasy to arrive, my mind keeps turning the first issue over and over in my head.

There's that subtle lie Etienne tells Magus while he's trying to coordinate all the Superpowers into not letting this escalate any further. He tries to pressure Eliza to keep Magus in check should this get out of hand, and she tells him to fuck off, yet he still tells Magus that she said she would stop him.

And what's interesting there is not just that it is a lie (Etienne says not too long before this that lying when necessary is not unethical), but how it fits with how he does his coordinating. He presents himself as just a messenger letting everyone know what everyone else is doing. This is obviously an act, since he has his own agenda, and the other five all know this about him, so you'd think that would take the teeth out of his 'diplomatic voice' shtick.

But what it actually lets him do, and this I don't think Magus and Heavy, at least, are aware of, is slow-roll his own agenda as the 'softer' option. He drops the bigger threat of Eliza (which is a little lie, because I think Eliza would act to stop Magus, but not at Etienne's urging), and then he brings in his own argument, which slips past their guard as a result.

The second thing I keep coming back to is that Etienne is visibly getting older. Valentina clearly isn't, it isn't a stretch to think that Heavy's regeneration protects him from some of the effects of aging, Magus has ways to keep himself alive, and Eliza's vibe gives off something like that as well, (I don't know enough about Masumi yet to say).

Yet Etienne, the one who's coordinating between them, the only one who seems willing and able to talk to all of them, who serves as the big red phone on all their desks, he is growing old. He will one day die.

And obviously he's not overly eager to set up alternate communication infrastructure, because the moment he becomes redundant he becomes a target.

And so the balancing act teeters once more.

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In Dev and Eliza's last conversation, he apologizes to her for being too scared to start a family with her… and she replies with a sex joke. Talking about it ten years later, she frames the moment as a heartwarming microcosm of a loving relationship: she'd always wanted to make him laugh. I read it differently though. I feel like Eliza was the one part of Dev's life that he took seriously, while Eliza never fully respected or committed to him.

In 1986, Magus promotes Dev to Fucking Arsehole, instead of Eliza as she'd hoped, and she breaks off their eight year long relationship because it's too big an insult to her pride. Telling the story later, she says, "…for all his many flaws, he fought for us," in reference to how Dev told Magus's top tier secrets to win back his wife's devotion. Eliza was worth that to him, but for her part, she only returned to him because he shared those secrets and the power they offered.

Years later, also in that last conversation, Dev tries to be gentle about it as he tells Eliza he'll have to die to save the world, "You? You're going to sacrifice yourself?" as if she doesn't think he really would. He admits he's really going to, as if he doesn't believe it either, and she pulls off both their masks so they can kiss. That's when he brings up kids and his death and his fears, and she replies with joking obscenity.

Dev might have been a cool dad, if he'd had the chance. Yeah, he's a jerk to Magus and he's apparently used magic to cheat at gambling. But he's also funny, brave, and fiercely loyal to people he really loves. I just don't know if Eliza would have been a good mom, or if their relationship would have withstood the additional stress of kids.

We'll never know, though. Dev died with the rest of the Pyramid, and Eliza descended so that their sacrifices would not be in vain. It's not clear, though… how much of her choice was for the world, how much for her pride, and how much for him?

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The main reason I think Etienne is so socially dependent on his powers is his conversations with Valentina and Heavy in issue 1. Valentina nearly kills him, Heavy doesn't listen to him until it's nearly too late, and in both cases it's because he leads with utilitarian arguments, and only tries out more human appeals when the utilitarianism has conclusively failed. He seems to think the other Superpowers think like him, because without the ability to know what they're thinking, he over-projects his own perspective onto the five other people in (superficially) similar situations. In that scene with Valentina, they've known each other almost a decade, and with Heavy they've known each other for over thirty years. In both cases, Etienne hasn't figured out how to talk so they will listen. It seems like he stumbles on the actual ways to persuade them by accident. Valentina is sympathetic to whatever past trauma/regret he reveals to her. Heavy backs down when his Family is threatened. But he doesn't think to try those things until he's already backed himself into a corner.

...Hmm. Now that I type that out, I guess it's possible that Etienne was considering those approaches all along? He might have been trying the utilitarianism first, and saving the emotional manipulation as a backup. But I don't understand why he would do that, when he's so willing to play games with everyone else.

incredibly funny moment. it's nice that we get reminded that Lux is also kind of a dork

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Etienne's so reliant on psychically reading people to know how to treat them, that whenever he can't do that he really flounders socially. Also, interesting to see that Magus has at least a basic grasp of practical close-quarters fighting- I would have guessed he'd rely on magic for that, but no, he's got backup skills.

(this is me saying that, not actually knowing what practical fighting skills look like. It's possible this only worked because Etienne wasn't expecting it?)

incredibly funny moment. it's nice that we get reminded that Lux is also kind of a dork

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This is a great overview/review of the first TPF trade, but the highlight is definitely this image (sorry for yoinking it, OP, but it deserves a broader audience.) I couldn't have said it better myself.

I love to see Kieron Gillen return for a stint at Marvel. His work for one of the Big Two of superhero comics usually results in getting a kernel of an idea that can’t be explored quite as far as he might want to in a work whose IP is not his own and thus subject to certain limitations. One such kernel of an idea (gestated during Gillen’s run on New Avengers) resulted in the Wicked + The Divine,…

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someone: fuck marry kill with any three Superpowers me: fuck Heavy, someone: why am I not surprised me: marry Heavy, someone: wait you can't just me: kill Heavy

for me it’s mainly a (I LOVE THEM ALL HOW COULD YOU ASK ME TO RANK THEM) kind of situation but if it came down to it.

Etienne

Eliza hellbounddddd wowie at that last issue huh

jacky magus

valentina

masumi

heavy

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-space station secret hideout

-nuclear irradiation

-scrambled eggs

come read the power fantasy we have:

-bisexual polyamorous hippie cult leader magneto

-kaiju toxic yuri

-charles xavier but well written

-presidential assassination

-cosmic toxic yuri

-captain america but golf

-M E A T O R B

-presidential assessination

-catholic guilt

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This is the thematically-incongruous song that plays in my head whenever I think about Eliza Hellbound, for literally no reason except that "Hellbound" rhymes with "Spellbound". I'm sharing this here so that Wednesday, when I'm reading about whatever none-more-goth Catholic drama went down in the SSoL, I will not be the only one hearing 🎶 now and forever I'm Hellbound 🎶 sung along to this perky little melody.

(I mean... it is a song about death, but it's the genuinely sweetest, most heartwarming song about death you'll ever hear)

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Here's my essay from @thepowercut about Eliza! Just under the wire for issue #8... let's see how well it holds up a week from now.

Eliza Hellbound: At Cross Purposes

By @idonttakethislightly with illustrations by Jason K Jones ( @jkjones21 ) and @idonttakethislightly

This essay was originally published on February 14th 2025, in issue #1 of THE POWER CUT, a fanzine about The Power Fantasy, the Image Comics book by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard. You can find that zine free to download right here.

As Jacky Magus gives a speech congratulating the Pyramid's newest Arseholes on their promotion, we get a look around at some of his listeners. Most of them look attentive, deep in thought, maybe a little nervous. They vary in gender, race, and the way they dress, but they're largely "punks who read books and hate power." The exception is Eliza, standing out from the crowd with her crossed arms and scowl, looking unlike any others in a neat white dress and a prominent cross necklace.

Eliza spends most of the rest of that evening calling out Magus on his hypocrisy, speaking up in a way the other Arseholes don't. She points out how he's hoarding and gatekeeping power, in betrayal of his Anarchist ideals. He admits to what he's doing, but claims that it's necessary. What Magus doesn't do is call out Eliza on her own inconsistency with stated values: if she's so opposed to the way he runs his organization, why is she sticking around and climbing through its ranks?

As readers of an ongoing serial story, we can't yet say for sure what Eliza's motives are. But her 1978-era membership in the Pyramid isn't the only time she cooperates with someone whose choices she vocally disapproves of. Her frustration with them seems to be grounded in her Christian faith, but we've seen much more of the judgement she passes on others than her own actions. Of course, there's a lot we haven't seen about Eliza yet, and there's some implications of big choices happening just off-panel. But so far, her most distinctive trait is her willingness to speak out against other people's choices, yet work alongside them.

In 1999, Eliza appears to still be closely allied with Magus. He says, "I went right, and Eliza arrived to join me." She retorts, "I'm not 'right'. I'm righteous." She doesn't argue with him that they're aligned, but she wants to frame it in moral terms, not political ones. She's the person Etienne asks when he needs someone to rein in Magus's behavior, implying that she has more influence over him than anyone else. She also doesn't fight Etienne on a decision she clearly dislikes, telling him "You're going to hell," but not actively stopping him or refusing to deal with Magus. In these cases, it seems like she's going along with other people's plans to keep the peace- to avert the apocalypse, Etienne needs to appease Heavy and Magus needs to stay out of it. Eliza's willing to tolerate choices she sees as morally wrong- but not willing to stay completely silent about it.

But Eliza does more than just go along with other people's plans- at one point, despite her consisten Christian theming, she chooses to sell her soul to the forces of Hell. We don't know the details, but it seems that she got Superpowers and a changed appearance in exchange for an afterlife in Hell (as implied by her full name being "Eliza Hellbound" by 1999.) Her choice was part of what stopped the Queen from destroying the world entirely, but we don't know exactly how. We don't know the details about what Eliza believes, or what Magus has taught her about Heaven and Hell. Still- someone with such strong ties to Christianity choosing to bargain with demons seems like a willingness to work with the opposite side.

So how can these later events inform a reading of Eliza's early-on participation in the Pyramid? It seems like Eliza, despite her differences from Magus, is like him in some ways- she has her principles, and expresses them loudly, but is willing to act in opposition to them for the greater good. Maybe Eliza's choosing to deal with Magus's hierarchy and hypocrisy because she's waiting to learn powers that will enable her to do good?

In that case, I think it's important to look at the diagram of "Secrets Revealed" to Pyramid members at different levels. As an Arsehole, Eliza's apparently been taught the powers of telekinesis, flight, violent abilities, and certain telepathic abilities. The Pyramid diagram does seem for real in that Fucking Arseholes do learn how to sell their souls, so the rest seems likely enough to be true. Presumably, Eliza's not telepathic on Etienne's level, or telekinetic and violent on Heavy's level- but that's still a lot of power.

When Eliza zaps through the sky, appearing next to Magus as he mourns for Europe in 1989, the visual effect of her powers is a cross cutting through the sky. When she zaps out of the conversation with Magus and Valentina in 1999, the effect is a crackle of red fire. We've seen the toll it takes on Magus to continually act against his principles- we barely know anything about Eliza's inner life. Maybe her continual cooperation with those she sees as immoral is also against her principles? The change from a Christian symbol of virtue, to a symbol of damnation, might say so.

But just before Eliza leaves that conversation, we see her through Magus's power-sensing magical vision. Her body is split down the middle- half black on a green background, half green on a black background. Maybe Eliza's skill with cognitive dissonance- speaking against someone's choices while acting to support them- has become core to her value system? But Magus says, "you're the same as you ever were." Paired with Eliza's choices, that makes me wonder if she's held that value all along.

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Thinking about visual storytelling, and the "camera angle" in comics. Look at the top-right and bottom-left panels specifically- the camera is really low in both, actually below Kid Ignition's eye level. But these (implicitly) aren't moments that Kid's remembering- they're what Heavy thinks his son's childhood was like. They're not drawn from Heavy's perspective, visually, but they are his perspective, narratively. I feel like there's something really profound to be said there about emotion and subjectivity and visual metaphor, but I can't put my finger on whatever it is.

Also, why is everyone lying in a circle on the ground in that last panel? That's the most contrived-stock-photo illustration of a happy community that I could possibly imagine. I think the takeaway here is that Heavy's incredibly adept at buying his own press, no matter how flimsy the narrative is.

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It took me way too long to realize this, but: the Valentina parts of TPF #7 aren't about how Valentina was in love with the Queen for a few months. They're about how she's still in love with the Queen ten years later. She talks about how wonderful everything was, makes excuses for why the Queen tried to destroy reality... I think the Queen was the only person (entity, whatever) who really made Valentina feel heard, or like the things she wants were possible. And so she's not over that, ten years and nearly a billion lives later.

[EDIT: Oh, and for another thing: from one perspective, Eliza had to sell her soul because Valentina didn't go along with Etienne and Magus wanting rid of the Queen earlier. I feel like that makes Eliza's insistence on Valentina's confession make a lot more sense.]

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This is just so eloquent. Eliza's cross (symbolic of her Christian faith) is the thing that visually-metaphorically "comes between" her and Magus. It's the "crux" of their disagreement. And it's the lens each of them sees the other through- he judges her for being a Christian, she judges him on the basis of her Christian values. And I feel like, even before I articulated all that stuff to myself, the image just visually works to convey those vibes. So good.

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Trying to learn to draw Heavy in my own art style. Somehow, the more I change the shape of his face, the more he actually feels right to me.

(Under the cut- a page from Haven's hypothetical swimsuit calendar.)

...look, if they're going to send me catalogs for overpriced activewear, they should know I'm going to draw this kind of thing and not actually buy anything.

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If TPF had in-universe tabloids...

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There are so many things messed up in Haven but I hope this metamour dynamic works out okay.