In DC Power: Rise of the Power Company #1, DC Comics presents stories re-introducing the long-time team with new members.
DC POWER: RISE OF THE POWER COMPANY #1
Written by BRANDON THOMAS, VITA AYALA, JOHN JENNINGS and ZIPPORAH SMITH
Art by RAY-ANTHONY HEIGHT, CAANAN WHITE, KELSEY RAMSAY, and CHARLES STEWART III
Main Cover by KHARY RANDOLPH
Variant Covers: ALITHA MARTINEZ, DAVI GO, VALENTINE DE LANDRO
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: January 29, 2025
This review contains spoilers
It’s been a while since readers have seen the Power Company in action. With the rollout of DC’s All In initiative and Josiah Power’s appearance in Black Lightning, you know something was afoot. The was confirmed with the release of DC Power: Rise of the Power Station #1. DC used its cultural anthology series to re-introduce the team’s name to readers. At the same time, the five stories in the issue identifies the key players the will be a part of the announced one-shot story coming out in April, The Power Company: Recharged #1.
The first story is DC Power: Rise of the Power Company #1, “Company Man,” is written by Brandon Thomas with art from Charles Stewart III. Thomas is the perfect person to put this story together, considering the role Josiah Power has played in Thomas’ Black Lightning series. The story, split into two parts (the first and last stories of the issue), reveals several things about the meta mogul. The first part of “Company Man” reveals that there is something wrong with Josiah’s meta ability, so much so that Steel (John Henry Irons) has to Boom tube him to a moon of Mars in order to discharge built up energy.
The issues are confirmed in part 2 of “Company Man,” as Josiah attempts to recruit Black Lightning to lead the newest incarnation of the Power Company. While Jefferson turns down the offer based on issues covered in Black Lightning #3, you can sense in Thomas’ writing as well as Charles Stewart III’s art that the rejection of Power’s offer is not set in stone (you can also cheat and read the April solicits). Thomas and Stewart III do an awesome job in quickly establishing a connection between Jefferson and Josiah, whether it’s their dialogue with one another or the way they give each other dap.
The inner stories of DC Power: Rise of the Power Company #1 focuses on the other players of this new Power Company. Each story has members teamed up in twos. The second story, “Ring of Power,” features Vixen and Bolt. While this might have been the weakest of the 5 stories in the issue, it is still good. Vixen is in search of Bolt, who has not been able to garner the power given him by Black Adam. And deep down, it doesn’t appear he wants to find it. After speaking with an astral goddess, Malik finds the wherewithal to find the power of the lightning within him to regain the powers of Bolt, joining the battle with Vixen.
(My only issue with this, and it’s me being petty, is during the Dawn of DC era, Vixen was hinted as being connected to Batwing. We were promised more, but yeah, didn’t happen.)
“Unfinished Business” from John Jennings and Atagun Ilhan is probably my second favorite story within DC Power: Rise of the Power #1. The story focuses on Green Lantern (Jo Mullein) and Cyborg who find themselves in outer space on a mission. They end up fighting Despero, who briefly takes over Jo’s mind. What really stood out to me was the connection that seemed to appear between the two colleagues. I have never seen this with Cyborg, but to be fair, I have never been a huge fan, so it is possible that he had a connection with someone in the past. If, however, they do look in this direction, I’m on board with the idea.
The inner stories round out with “Dynamic Duo,” written by Vita Ayala with art from Ray-Anthony Height, focusing on Batman and the Signal. Right off the bat, I had to slap myself. In reading the first few pages of Ayala’s story, I was wondering why the hell they were writing Bruce with the voice they gave him. Then I noticed the darker skin and realized that Ayala’s Batman was Jace Fox. That was truly a brain fart moment.
From there, the story flowed so much better. Ayala showed how much Duke and Jace had in common in addition to their skin color. Ayala and Height produced a great story. The way Ayala wrote the two characters showed the potential of them having a brotherly relationship much like we see between the Robins (when Damian isn’t trying to beat one of them unconscious). Duke and Jace playing spades together as the story ended was great. There is truly potential between those two to have a great partnership outside of the Power Company.
(For the record, I hate one-on-one spades. I gotta have a partner to run a few Bostons on our competitors.)
The art within DC Power: Rise of the Power Company #1 is phenomenal. Each artist brought their A-game to this issue. Charles Stewart III takes the cake, however. While I knew I was reading a different title, Stewart III’s line work along with Thomas’ dialogue had me feeling like I was reading Black Lightning, which makes sense considering this story spins out of the series. The art from Atagun Ilhan in “Unfinished Business” is just as stunning. He’s does great work on Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet. It’s great to see him in the pages of this issue as well.
The colors for each story however, is pretty much perfect, hence the given score. In each story, the colors from Ulises Arreola, Francesco Segala, Andrew Dalhouse, and Chris Sotomayor just bring everything together. Of the four, I am the least familiar with Ulises Arreola, but based on what I saw in the issue, I am excited to see more.
Final Thoughts
DC Power: Rise of the Power Company #1 is a great way to introduce/re-introduce the key players involved in the new Power Company. Now that this has been done, bring on Recharged.
