“Yesterday’s” Comic> Power Lords #1 (2025)

“This is the worst place to lose your contact lens!”

Power Lords #1

Oni Press (January, 2025)

WRITERS: Dennis Culver & Matt Houston

ARTIST: V Ken Marion

COLORIST: Andrew Dalhouse

SELECTED COVER ART: Dennis Weaver

LETTERER: Taylor Esposito

EDITOR: Karl Bollers

DESIGNER: Winston Gambro

Their enemies gathering together to defeat the Power Lords once and for all, Adam’s power jewel is also being secretly used to power the forming of a wormhole…until Adam and the jewel are separated from each other as they fall into the wormhole. One year later, Adam is working with a couple of cutthroat pirates to find it as the Power Lords try to find their missing friend. Unfortunately for our hero and his new…associates, Raygoth (one of the usual baddies) finds them first just as they finally locate Adam’s missing jewel.

What they got right: I can’t speak to adaptation on this one because I think I leafed through one of the DC comics once and that’s my experience with the media. The story itself is fine and the art is good. The new characters work okay. And for their shared universe they sneak in a reference to Symbion. This is admittedly one of the previously unrelated franchises (not even released by the same toy company) that I think does work together, along with Robo Force and Biker Mice From Mars. The other two (Sectaurs and Wild West C.O.W.Boys Of Moo Mesa) never felt like they fit, but I haven’t seen anything from the Nacelleverse take on Moo Mesa.

What they got wrong: A little understanding of the Power Lords might have been beneficial. They’re just names and characters from a failed toyline with a few new characters to me, and I grew up in the 1980s. Nothing about this comic really helped change that. I have no nostalgia connection because a friend had an Adam Power figure and that one comic I leafed through and that’s it. We haven’t even gotten a new cartoon like Robo Force had on Tubi.

What I think overall: Maybe someone more nostalgic could get into this, but stories like this need to please the original fans and nostalgic target they’re going for while still being an easy entry to new potential fans. Sadly, this comic doesn’t do that, but it’s not a bad comic otherwise.