Comic Review #42: Power Pack #14 (1985)

 

One thing that I now want to do with the Comic Review is as follows: Review at least ONE comic starring every hero in the Marvel and DC universes, no matter how obscure. Review one issue of every series ever published by Marvel and DC, probably more to be honest. Review at least every issue of one series. I also want to bring back What If Wednesday and Elseworlds Eroticism (what a terrible name) into the fold of The Comic Review. I also want to try to review more stuff that isn't Marvel or DC. I want to talk about First Appearances. I want to discuss more stuff from other countries. I want to bore you with discussions of Tintn and Manga! Everyone can't wait! I hopefully will go all over the place with Comic Reviews and bring you all kinds of cool stuff. Let's get into a series of comics that seriously should be more popular honestly. I'm seriously surprised that Disney hasn't made this into a cartoon series because it's superheroes who are kids! 

Louise Simonson has a long history in comic books. She was a fan of them as a kid. She was even the inspiration for the lady on the cover of the first appearance of Swamp Thing in House of Secrets #92. She ended up marrying artist/writer Walter Simonson. She wrote for the X-Men series X-Factor and New Mutants. She wrote for Superman and Steel and all kinds of series. This series here is one she co-created with June Brigman. June Brigman's art is fantastic and I wish she had done way more work for comic companies. This is the only series I can think of right now that she had a part of. 

Power Pack was a series about a set of four children. Katie, Alex, Jack and Julie Power who got superpowers from a alien race known as the Kymellia. They end up having to fight crime and make sure their parents don't find out about their powers. And work out all kinds of childhood drama. It's a neat take on the superhero thing and I've enjoyed every issue of it that I've read. This series is uh a lot darker and 80s' than the newer series. We didn't fuck around between 1980 and 1989. It wasn't in us. Anyway Power Pack #14 involves the kids getting ready for school. Talking about how they don't have as much money now that their dad lost his job with Mr. Carmody. Mr. Carmody was trying to turn the energy convertor he created into a weapon. It turns out that the energy convertor would have destroyed the entire damn planet so it was pretty good that the Power Pack destroyed it. Mr. Carmody is not happy. 

Katie Power goes to her Kindergarten class and BLAM fuckin' Carmody is in a fancy suit and has gone completely bananas and wants to kill the Power Pack. He kidnaps Katie and well Alex ends up seeing them and he tries to use his Gravity power to stop but Carmody uses his machine suit to send Alex off very slowly into space. It reminded me of that Simpsons scene where the Simpsons are driving away very slowly in a parade float. I like being reminded of when the Simpsons was great comedy. Jack Power sees them and tries to get his sister Katie to come help but only gets her into trouble when some jerk kids want to cheat and she gets caught. Not a good look Katie! They go out to help Alex and find Carmody. Rick finds Carmody and gets him to drop Katie so he has to rush down into the ocean to save her. They end up destroying the backpack he needs to fly and he falls into the ocean screaming about how he will destroy them. Carmody is a fucking lunatic.

We then go back to the school and Jack teacher some old ass brittle shithead literally makes fun of him. Asks him if fell into the toilet because he's wet. What a piece of shit. Fuck her. Don't make fun of your damn students. Katie is told that she shouldn't play with the water fountain on a cold day. Julie is being yelled at by kids who don't want her to rat on them. I think you should rat on people doing shitty things but I guess that makes me a bad guy. I dunno. Alex then is forced to run ten laps because he couldn't repeat a basketball throw he did earlier in the day. Kind of a dick move coach. You fuckhead. The issue ends with Alex realizing that he can fly if he controls gravity correctly.

FINAL VERDICT: I had a lot of fun reading this issue. A lot of great action, fun drama and enjoyable interactions between the cast. That's all I pretty much ask for a comic book series. I'm sure I will end up coming back to this series again and again. I bet you fine people can't wait!