Louise Simonson might be best known as co-creator of seminal X-Characters like Cable and Apocalypse (with Chris Claremont, Rob Liefeld and Jackson Guice), or perhaps as one of the key writers of the “Death of Superman” story, but those accomplishments are still only part of the work she’s done in superhero comics. After editing various Marvel books for years, Simonson was inspired to create a new team in the Power Pack, which featured four super-powered siblings (Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power) who gain their superpowers from a horse-like alien (called Kymellians, at war with the Snarks) named Whitey. In collaboration with the great June Brigman, Marvel’s first-ever preteen superhero team was formed.
Power Pack Classic Omnibus remains a unique book all these years later, and though it was ostensibly aimed at children, the stories often leaned into fairly adult subject matter. After all, Power Pack #27 saw the children appear in the Mutant Massacre, where they worked to stop Sabertooth’s murderous rampage across the Morlock tunnels while witnessing the attempted annihilation of an entire community of mutants. Yet the greatness of Power Pack is in how it mixes incredibly heavy subject matter with the endearing dynamics of a family that truly loves one another. The worse things get, the more the Power kids come through for each other, and that’s largely what continues to define the team here in the latter days of their ongoing.
Collects: Power Pack (1984) #37-62, Excalibur (1988) #29, Power Pack Holiday Special #1, Power Pack (2000) #1-4, Fantastic Four (1998) #574, FF (2011) #15, Power Pack (2017) #63, Power Pack: Grow Up! and material from Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #6 and Marvel Fanfare (1982) #55 [Read more…] about The Power Pack (Don’t) Grow Up (And That’s Fine) In The Power Pack Omnibus
is one of those books that tells its story so well that it almost becomes a masterclass in how to create a perfect horror comic along the way. Focusing in on two “hurt people that hurt people,” I Walk With Monsters is a story of revenge that never sums up even a shred of sympathy for its villains. Rather, it shows us how our heroes are so often more complicated than we want them to be.