This graphic novel dealt with a difficult subject: an American Jew's ambivalent feelings towards Israelis and Palestinians. Each page had 7 to 8 small panels that were full of text and watercoloured. The line work is simple but clear. There were a number of tall men with brown hair and if I didn't remember who was wearing what, I wasn't able to tell them apart. Other than that, it was fascinating and easy to read. Something I really liked, but didn't get a picture of, was how the artist dealt with showing someone telling a story or the main character talking to characters from those stories. In the first instance, the teller of the story is seen in their street clothes in the establishing panel, then the panel with their story has them standing in the midst of a washed out landscape, like they're there, but still in their street clothes. In the scene where the tour guard recounts a battle he took part in, he is surrounded by men in uniform who go about their business while he addresses the viewer. When the main character has a discussion, in her head, with a character from one of the stories she hears, they walk side by side but the imaginary person floats alongside her, slightly transparent and ghostly.
It's a neat cover, but that's about the only thing I liked about this title.
POWERS tells its story with skinny panels that subdivide the page 5 or 6 times and run left to right. It wasn't always clear if you were supposed to read each panel DOWN the page or ACROSS to the second page. I found myself having to backtrack and reread a few times when it became clear that the information was running across the spread. The newscaster sequences ran for 6 pages and it could have been read page by page or across the pages. Who knows? A stronger indicator of artist intent, or consistency through the comic would have been helpful.
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