The Power Fantasy Reveals First Look at Hippie Powerhouse Heavy (Exclusive)

Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard's new Image Comics series introduces the world to one of the book's main characters

By Matthew Aguilar - June 26, 2024 05:43 pm EDT

The talented team of writer Kieron Gillen, artist Caspar Wijngaard, and letterer Clayton Bowles are set to introduce the comics world to the six most powerful beings on the planet in Image Comics' The Power Fantasy, and we've got your exclusive first look at one of the heavy hitters of that elite group. The Power Fantasy takes place in a world where there are six superpowered beings trying to keep the world from falling a part at any given moment, and most importantly not trying to cause that downfall themselves. One of those in the mix is Brother Raymond, aka Heavy, who at one point was described as The Dude with a splash of Magneto. The character has evolved a bit since that original idea, and you can get to know the powerhouse in our exclusive teaser and preview on the next slide.

What Is The Power Fantasy About?

"The Power Fantasy is a drama about six people with the power to destroy the world trying desperately not to do that. Which means it's a book about people, so it's been fun just slowly showing them off. We've introduced three of our cast – Santa Valentina, Eliza Hellbound, and Etienne Lux. I'm only aware that we're revealing the core aspects of the world of the Power Fantasy as we go, "Gillen said. "Valentina is an angel – or at least what we'd call an Angel. Eliza Hellbound has made a Faustian pact. Those two imply something about our cosmology – that there's a higher and lower realm. Etienne Lux is what we call an Atomic, or 'The Nuclear Family' – people with gifts of varying scale who emerged post-1945. But Lux is a singular figure – he's a guy who stands apart from the rest of the Family. But to most the world, the face of the Atomics?"

Meet Heavy

(Photo:
Meet the superpowered being known as Heavy
- Image Comics)

That brings us to the superpowered being most commonly referred to as Heavy, and you can get a bigger sense of who he is in the teaser above. "Meet Brother Raymond 'Heavy' Harris. Most people call him Heavy now, if they're being polite. They're regularly not. The scars on his body are telling a story, right? He's the radical. My working name for his role is THE FREE RADICAL, which speaks to my pun addiction, but also what he is. He wants to change the world and protect people – most of all, the vast majority of Atomics" Gillen said.

What Is A Superpower?

"That's a key thing about our world – 'Superpowers' doesn't mean what it means in ours. It means specifically individuals with the power of a nuclear superpower. There's a fair few people with gifts of varying scales, but they don't matter strategically. This is a story about the big kids, and Heavy is very aware he's the biggest kid on the Atomic's side. As our story starts, he's in his late 40s, and at the head of a large commune of Atomics, called Haven. You can see it floating towards New York in the preview pages," Gillen said.

"What's Haven like? It's this huge chunk of a floating city, having around a portable singularity. (Heavy's a Gravity controller, a power I've always felt weirdly under-represented in comics.) What's it like aboard there? Well, the quote I nearly had on the teaser was 'People treat us like us a sex cult, when we're a revolutionary movement. And a sex cult' but it was a bit too long," Gillen said.

The relationship between Heavy and Etienne will have its share of ups and downs, and there are elements of another iconic comics friendship in the mix, but it won't really stay there for long. "The inevitable shorthand for him will be our Magneto to Etienne's Xavier. It'll do for a starting place, but the trajectories are going to spin off," Gillen said. "Not least, this is a world where change is possible. We're not tied to a status quo. We can genuinely change the world."

Designing A Powerhouse

You can learn a lot about Heavy just from the character's design, which Caspar Wijngaard built from the initial concept of The Dude meets Magneto. Gillen revealed that while it did start with that premise, it morphed into something else when all was said and done. "Caspar's design is one of of my favourites. The initial starting place was basically 'The Dude meets Magneto' – the gown, that general burned-out hippy vibe and so on. That led to the genius stroke of him having a spliff floating around him at all times... but Caspar played with it, and realised Jeff Bridges is wrong. This is a guy who would throw down with bikers back in the day. He's a Hippie, but not that kind of Hippie. He's got the casual air, sure, but you can tell he's a guy who could handle himself even if he wasn't capable of throwing continental shelves around. And all those scars, right? There's clearly a lot of stories carved into his body..."

You can pick up The Power Fantasy when it lands in comic stores on August 7th, and you can find our full preview of the epic first issue on the next slide.

Are you excited for the series? You can talk all things comics with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!