Saturday, July 08, 2006

In 1984 Marvel kicked off a new series set in the Marvel Universe with kids as the main characters. "Power Pack" was targeted at 12-year-olds like me but it never worked on the same level as the X-Men or Spiderman, probably because those comics featured characters who are outcasts and misfits, and if that doesn't speak to the average 12-year-old I don't know what does.
Anyway, Power Pack got super powers from some weird horse-headed alien creature.
They used these powers to rescue their parents and fight crime and government agents sent after them.
For whatever reason, Marvel decided to try the concept out again a few years ago. I picked up the first eighteen issues in a hard-backed graphic novel "Runaways" at our local library.
The concept is updated. The kids are a little older, eleven to seventeen, and they are not related, or even particularly close. Their parents belong to the same charitable organization and they meet up once or twice a year.
The complication arises when the kids discover that their parents are super-villains plotting to destroy the world. In spite of (or maybe because of) this adolescent fantasy the comic works. It is really well written and was difficult to put down. Read it. Anything else I write is a spoiler.
It also prompted me to look up the Power Pack. What have those kids been up to?
Alex, the oldest, stole the powers from his younger siblings and went solo for a while. Before the New Warriors blew up a town and prompted the Civil War Meta-Human Registration Act, Alex was a member. He quit just before that unpleasantness because he had second thoughts about stealing his power from family.
There are new, out-of-continuity mini-series out and in development which are suitable for all ages and co-star other Marvel characters. I plan to try to find them for Gwynyth.
I'd rather delay her theories that her dad is a super-villain as long as possible.
If she doesn't know, she won't have to lie to the authorities to protect me. Besides, in a few months my death ray should be complete and hydro-carbon free.

3 comments:

Andrew Moore said...

Are you icing the core with liquid nitrogen, or have you debugged the whole electrical plus chemical iodine situation? At any rate, I figure you've boosted your power to six megawatts, which would be enough to make enormous Swiss cheese or vaporize a target from space. I have a line on a tracking system and large rotating mirror. I'm just not sure how easy it will be for you to gain access to the mini-shuttle for a test run. Better start it out on a radio-controlled bomber. Just make sure your optics are clean, whatever you do.

Pamela Moore said...

We could always fill our old professor's home with popcorn, rent a stupid car and wear funny mustaches, sneak onto the government base where the system is held, reprogram the system with new coordinates, and have his home filled with popcorn by the end of the day. The little kiddies will bring their dogs and wagons to consume the popcorn that flows from the broken windows and sagging eaves while Tears for Fears plays in the background.

Garrick said...

Liquid nitrogen AND popcorn! Both are tasty and low in net carbs!
I've built the super-structure in the shape of a peace symbol and I'm powering this death ray with positive energy -- because I'm completely positive that these people need to die. Horrible, terrible, peaceful deaths.
Unfortunately I'm in no condition (pigment-wise) for the Tanning Invitational at this time.