I fell off the Powers wagon years ago (with the prehistoric arc which opened with barrels of graphic monkey sex — seriously!) but they’re touting this new issue (#25, out August 8th) as a good jumping-on point so I figured I’d check back in. I have to say I’m glad I did. The world of Powers is as visceral as ever — people in costumes are turning up dead, Oeming still is awesome, and Bendis is still Bendis — but at least one major thing has changed: Walker’s former partner Deena Pilgrim is missing and has perhaps gone rogue. Enter Detective Enki Sunrise.

Note: third page is not sequential with first two

We asked Oeming to tell us a little more about this intriguing new addition to the Powersverse:

“Enki comes in as Deena is going through crisis. We wanted a character that people would love, but wasn’t a clone of Deena, and we didn’t want to do the obvious which is create the opposite of Deena either. Enki is her own character, her flaws may be her loyalty to the job, but you know with Bendis writing that loyatly will be tested. There wasn’t any pre-thought put into her ethnicity, Powers is a world that reflects the one we see around us, I think it was just instinctual, much like how most of Powers is developed.

I wanted to give her a keen sense of fashion; since Deena is very tom boyish, I did want Enki to be thoughtful of her dress. The type of clothes reflect a strong sense of confidence and self-respect she carries. Her scarf is like Walkers tie, it’s her ‘cape’. After the first issue I drew her, I called Brian and said “Please, please lets keep this character around!!” And he laughed, he said ‘I knew you’d love her!’ and I do.

Welcome to Powers Enki, I hope we dont kill you.”

My thoughts exactly!

Actually, Enki is not Walker’s only new (to me at least) partner if you get my drift, but let us not venture further into Spoilerville.