Powerless (comics)

This article is about the 2004—2005 comic book series. For other uses, see Powerless.

Powerless is an American comic book published by Marvel Comics. The six-issue limited series–written by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson, and illustrated by Michael Gaydos–began its monthly publication on August 1, 2004 and ended on January 1, 2005. It features characters from the Marvel Universe in a world where superpowers do not exist.

Powerless
Cover for the collected edition of Powerless. Art by Alex Maleev
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Limited series
Genre	Slice of life
Publication date	August 1, 2004 — January 1, 2005
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	William Watts Peter Parker Logan Matt Murdock Frank Castle Bruce Banner Norman Osborn Wilson Fisk Eric Magnus Gwen Stacy
Creative team
Written by	Matt Cherniss Peter Johnson
Artist(s)	Michael Gaydos
Colorist(s)	Lee Loughridge

Plot summary

A psychologist named William Watts wakes up in a hospital after a three-day coma. Fresh in his mind is the world of Earth-616, which he experienced while asleep. As William returns to his mundane daily life, he encounters three familiar faces: Peter Parker, a high-school student who is pressured by Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn to conduct industrial espionage on Stark Industries; Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who battles an uphill case against crime boss Wilson Fisk to absolve Frank Castle of murder; and Logan, an amnesiac soldier who is led to believe he murdered Charles Xavier, one of William's patients.

Inspired by Matt's conviction, William leaves his bystander position and begins to act to help the three: he helps reveal Charles' murder was done by a third party, citing Logan to investigate Eric Magnus; he convinces Castle to reveal vital information to Matt's case; and he acts by calling the cops to assist Peter in arresting Osborn, who attempts to murder Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, but gets himself accidentally killed instead. After Castle's trial, Fisk murders Murdock. Castle assassinates Fisk in retaliation, which places him on the path to becoming the real-life Punisher. The series ends with William contemplating how the coma has shaken him from the stupor of life, as he reflects on his coma identity as Uatu.

Publication history

The comic book limited series Powerless–written by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson, and illustrated by Michael Gaydos–began monthly publication by Marvel Comics with the release of its first issue on August 1, 2004,^[1][2] and concluded with the launch of its sixth and final issue on January 1, 2005.^[3] A collected edition of Powerless was released on January 5 of the same year.^[4]

Issues

Issue	Publication date	Ref.
#1	August 1, 2004	[2]
#2	September 1, 2004	[5]
#3	October 1, 2004	[6]
#4	November 1, 2004	[7]
#5	December 1, 2004	[8]
#6	January 1, 2005	[3]

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Release date	ISBN	Ref.
Powerless	Powerless #1–6	January 5, 2005	ISBN 0-7851-1511-0	[4]