Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The problem with relaunching superheroes

Or more specifically, the problem with relaunching Power Pack.
I first came across Power Pack in the back of the Thundercats comics in the 80s. They were awesome. Even when the Thundercats stories turned into tripe it was worth getting the comics for the short Power Pack strips. I recently went on ebay and bought the majority of the run of the 80s Power Pack comics, and man, they are still fantastic. Well they got a little odd and silly towards the end, but the final issue, the holiday special, that cleared up and wiped out the previous rubbish plotlines made up for it.
Louise Simonson was the original writer for the Power Pack, and she is good. She also did some of the Death of Superman storylines - but to be honest I preferred the Pack stuff.
Anyway, a few years ago (I guess) Marvel decided to relaunch Power Pack. I eventually got round to buying volume 1 in the digest size edition, and, well, it sucked. It was boring. the characterisation was off. It was told from Katie's perspective but she didn't feel like a real little girl anymore. Too cutesy, not enough depth. I didn't like it.
For some reason I thought I'd pick up the X-Men/Power Pack crossover trade, The Power of X, from the library the other day. probably just to confirm my suspicions that it remained bad. It was. So I'm gonna tell you what is wrong:
  • Katie suddenly using her powers to hurt people, willingly. Ok she's defending herself. But the Katie I know went through a massive guilt period because she'd nearly destroyed one of the Snarks. She then decided not to use her powers. She didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, she didn't think it was right. I don't care if it's a bad guy, (In this case The Marauders), she wouldn't do that. You're taking away her maturity for the sake of a (crappy) fight.
  • Julie telling a science conference the origin of their powers (posed as a hypothetical origin). This is not Julie. She's the cautious one. Sure, she wants their parents to know, but not like that!
  • Power Pack suiting up and fighting in plain sight at the above mentioned science conference, where their folks are also attending. And not even using Jack's cloud cover! Or getting masks!
  • Shouldn't Beast have heard of Power Pack? I mean, they're good friends with Logan, and Shadowcat.
  • Julie's boyfriend. Ok, so I figure they've got older. But Julie is definitely not more than 15. She's probably not more than 14 or 13. So how come she has a boyfriend that is doing a science internship? I mean, how old do you have to be for that, 18?, 19? At least. Certainly not left than 18. So 14 year old Julie, with an 18+ year old boyfriend. Ewwww.
  • Julie is in an off kilter, tilted semi-coquettish pose on the cover. Jesus she's a young kid! That's wrong.

And the stories don't flow. This comic sucks.

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