For those who haven’t read this yet, the idea is that every issue was a short story about a young person with a different “power.”
I say “power” instead of power or Power! because I guess some of these things would not really be qualified as powers. Eating human flesh? I mean, I guess it depends on the chef. You know that part in the Hannibal movie where he’s just cooking up a piece of that dude’s brain? I feel like brain meat would be rubbery. Not the most delicious part of a person. So eating that, that’s a sort of power, I guess.
The thing wasn’t up my alley because, frankly, I think I’m kind of over origin stories. I thought it was because I ended up reading the same origins so many times, and one of my fantasies is to have an amnesia that wipes only my knowledge of comics as it would allow me to enjoy them with a fresh eye. But it turns out, origin stories are just a little boring to me. Usually they’re a necessary evil to get to the meat of the story, but Demo is kind of all origin.
It’s not a bad idea, but I feel like comic book fans have seen about half of this whether it be Rising Stars or Rising Starts the TV Series aka Heroes.
So instead of talking more about how origins bore me, which is sort of MY origin and therefore also boring, I figured I’d write how I would handle a few of these situations differently if I were involved in them.
Issue 1 summary: A guy and a girl are running away. She is on mystery meds, and when she gets off them you get the idea some bad shit is going to happen.
Uh, baby, listen. I know you think that the meds you take to not make you crazy are really only because people are scared of your superpowers. But maybe you think that because you’re crazy, which is why you are taking the meds. Now, I’m not calling you a liar. Sweetness, maybe you ARE the only person who has ever been prescribed medicines to somehow dampen superpowers for some reason. And I want to encourage you to explore that idea, do some soul-searching, while I see other people, preferably who are either not insane and on meds or having superpowers that could blow up someone’s head. Either way.
Issue 2 summary: A girl can make anyone do anything she says. Or, to shorten:
Issue 2 summary: Preacher.
Okay, this is pretty serious. You seem sincere about being a normal kid, doing the right thing. So I can see why never saying a thing is appealing. But I think we can both see how someone pushes your buttons, and you hold it in so long that instead of saying something harmless like, I don’t know, “Please leave immediately and never talk to me again” you end up telling them to put a grenade in their own mouth and pull the pin. I feel like there’s room for compromise here.
Issue 3 summary: A (step)brother and sister come together at their father’s funeral, where the brother points out that their family line is immortal. Also, creepy incestuous vibes run amok.
Look, if you want to bang your step brother, just do it. The more you debate it in your head, the creepier it is. The more you think about it, the harder it is to get drunk and “accidentally” do it. Five or six times.
Issue 8 summary: A guy finds his dead girlfriend and listens to a tape she made him, which is full of instructions and revelations.
Um, sorry, but a tape that doesn’t include Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds”? Even once? Pass.
Issue 12 summary: Some kind of poem thing(?)
[angrily flipping back to cover to check price after finishing the issue within 40 seconds of reading]