Power Pack
PURPOSE: To Protect Earth and still make it to classes on time
AFFILIATIONS: Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger, Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards, New Mutants
ENEMIES: Snarks, Boogy Man, Marauders, A.I.M., Taskmaster, etc
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Parents Apartment in New York City
FIRST APPEARENCE: Power Pack #1 (1984)
HISTORY:
Alex, Jack, Julie, and Katie Power were four pre-adolescent children, who were
siblings to each other and who were granted superhuman powers by a member of the
alien Kymellian race.
The children's father was a brilliant scientist. Dr. James Power sought a new means
of deriving large quantities of energy inexpensively for peaceful purposes. He
discovered a method of converting matter to antimatter and converting it to
usable energy. Dr. Power designed a machine, which could open a small portal into
another universe, which operated under scientific laws different than our own.
The machine could then project a small amount of matter, held within a magnetic
force field, into the other universe, where, through unknown processes, the charge
and spin of the matter's atoms would be changed, causing the matter to become
antimatter. The machine would then withdraw the antimatter back into Power's own
universe, and remove the magnetic held, allowing the antimatter to contact matter
under controlled conditions. Matter and antimatter annihilate each other upon
contact, each being entirely converted into vast amounts of energy. Dr. Power called
his machine, which was built under a government grant, a matter/antimatter converter.
Dr. Powers's discovery came to the attention of Aelfyre Whitemane, who went by the
nickname "Whitey," and who was a Kymellian, a member of a non-humanoid alien race
that lived elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy. Whitey was a scientist whose field
was the study of alien races, and his first assignment was the observation of
Earth's humans. He carried out this assignment by monitoring Earth communications
transmissions and by tapping into Earth computers from his sentient starship, called
a "smartship." Both Whitey and his smartship developed a deep affection for humanity
through studying Earth's literature; indeed, the smartship named itself "Friday"
after a character in Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe."
Upon learning of Dr. Power's discovery through monitoring Earth computers, Whitey
determined to do what he could to prevent its being used. In ages past the Kymellians
had discovered the same process but they tested it without realizing that they had
not yet mastered all of the physics that the process involved. As a result, they had
unwittingly set off a chain reaction that destroyed their planet, killing all the
Kymellians living upon it. However, there were still many Kymellians living on space
stations and on planets they had colonized, so the race continued to survive. The
Kymellians have since completely mastered this matter/antimatter conversion process,
which is their main source of energy, but because of its danger and destructive
potential, they keep the process a closely guarded secret from other races. Whitey
feared that the testing of Power's matter/antimatter converter might similarly
destroy the Earth, and he sent a message to the Kymellian Homeworld, telling them
of Power's discovery and asking permission to warn Dr. Power of the conversion
process's dangers despite Kymellian laws against interference with alien races.
The message was intercepted by the Z'nrx, a reptilian race from another galaxy whom
Whitey called "Snarks" after the monster in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.
The Sharks intended to use the matter/antimatter conversion process that Power had
discovered as a weapon against their own galaxy. Therefore, they jammed Whitey's
message, preventing it from reaching the Kymellians, and shot down Whitey's smartship.
The Snarks thought that they had destroyed it, but actually they had only damaged the
smartship, and it landed on Earth near Dr. Power's home. The Snarks then kidnapped
Dr. Power and his wife Margaret, intending to force them to reveal the formula for
the matter/antimatter conversion process.
Dr. Power's four children found Whitey's smartship and two of them, Alex and Katie,
met Whitey himself. Aelfyre Whitemane was a Kymellian "sorcerer." He did not have
any actual magical abilities, but all Kymallians are born with the potential for
powers for absorbing and projecting energy, for altering the molecular density of
matter, for moving themselves at superhuman speed either through teleportation or
flight, and for varying or revering gravitational attraction. Whitey could exercise
these powers to certain extents, but he had devoted his past life to science and
therefore had not spent the years of continual training necessary for fully developing
his powers. Whitey used his powers to rescue the two other children, Jack and Julie,
from the Snarks.
In the process of rescuing the Power Children, Whitey was wounded by a blast from
a Snark laser gun. Whitey took the children back to his smartship. Alex told Whitey
that Dr. Power's lab intended to test the matter/antimatter converter the very next day.
Whitey explained that the anti-matter converter, if activated, would destroy their
planet just as it did his.
Later that night the Snarks captured the smartship
in a tractor beam. Whitey, who was dying from his wound, decided that there might
be only one way now to prevent Earth's destruction. A Kymellian can transfer his
powers to another Kymellian. Whitey realized that Earth humans have highly adaptable
structures capable of acquiring superhuman powers. Therefore, Whitey decided to try
to divide his powers among the four children, so that they could fight the Snarks
and stop the converter from being activated. Aelfyre Whitemane initiated the transfer
of power to the children and then died, vanishing from sight.
The Kymellian Smartship mourned his master's death but transferred its loyalty to
the small humans. It was designed for exploration, unfortunately, and not combat.
The children soon discovered that they each now had one of Whitey's superhuman powers,
although the powers did not function in exactly the same way that they did for
Whitey. The Children followed the "Snarks" and fought the aliens so they could rescue
their kidnapped parents before the Snarks could discover the secrets of the anti-
matter converter. The youngest child; Katie, discovered that she could disintegrate
anything she touched and toss around balls of concussive energy. Unfortunately, the
power was very difficult to control. Katie took the name; the Energizer, due to
her ability to store energy and fire it from her body.
Julie called herself Lightspeed because she could fly fast, leaving a trail of
colored light behind her. Unfortunately, the Snarks realized that the Kymellian
had transferred his powers to the "human hatchlings". This only made the Snarks
eager to capture the children to see if the powers could be used to strengthen
their Leader.
Alex took, the name "Gee" due to his power over gravity ("G-power"). He discovered
that he could make objects the touched lighter than air or increase their weight
manyfold. He could affect very large objects but quickly discovered that even
weightless objects still had inertia that must be overcome. Fortunately, Alex loved
science and knew some basic principles of physics.
Jack called himself "Mass Master" because he could take gaseous form or compress
his mass to as to become tiny. When he took on his "Cloud Form" he found that he
lost his clothes. He could fly while in this form but was initially limited to
using his powers to hide the group. He later found that he could shrink but
maintain his mass. He came up with a maneuver he called his "60 pound Jackhammer"
attack.
Using their powers and their own wits, the Power children escaped the Snarks,
destroyed the converter, and rescued their parents. Alex called the four children
the Power Pack. The Power Pack are too young to act as professional adventurers,
but they continue to have adventures requiring the use of their superhuman powers
when the occasions arise.
The Children soon discovered that Friday the Kymellian Smartship was capable of
many surprises, chief of which was its unwavering loyalty and love for the children.
Jack's powers caused him to lose his clothes and so Friday supplied the children
with costumes that would adapt to their powers and that had communication devices built
into them.
Power Pack fought the Snarks and badly damaged their spaceship but were unable to
rescue their parents. Forced to retreat, they had to turn their efforts to stopping
their Dad's boss "Mr. Carmody" from activating the Anti-Matter Converter" and
destroying the world. Unknown to Dr. Power, Carmody planned on selling the converter
to the army and using it as a weapon. With the help of Friday, they located and
destroyed the device but not before making Carmody suspicious and earning his
hatred.
With the Anti-Matter Converter destroyed, the Power pack turned their attention back
to rescuing their parents. They followed the Snark Ship and fought the aliens who
had been attempting to probe their minds to discover the secrets of the Anti-
Matter Convertor. The Snarks were well aware of the existence of the device and
how it had destroyed the Kymellian Homeworld. They wanted to use it as a weapon
to help their faction take control of the Snark Empire.
Using their newfound powers, the children were able to rescue their parents and
returned them to their beach-side home that had been ravaged by the Snark attack.
Their parents memory had been damaged by the mind probes and were unaware that
days had passed since they were taken. Friday had left to spend time in orbit
around Earth but had warned the children that their parents memory might have
been tampered with. The Children were afraid of how their parents might react if
they discovered what had happened and so kept their powers a secret.
The Powers only remembered snatches of memory from their seizer by the Snarks
and whenever they tried to think about the Antu-Matter Converter, they developed
headaches. Their father's boss arrived with men from the government. Carmody
recognized the children as the ones who had destroyed the Anti-Matter Converter
but could get no one to believe him. When a mutant detector failed to reveal
the children as mutants, the government men lost interest but Carmody chased the
children and tried to capture and then kill them. The Power Pack used their
powers to defeat Carmody but managed to conceal their powers from everyone else.
Carmody was taken into custody but vowed revenge upon the children.
Dr. Power moved his family to New York to escape the terrible memories he and his
wife had and took a job as a Professor. The Power Pack quickly met Spider-Man as
well as Cloak and Dagger. They fought a Xanthian Boulder Crusher called "Snake Eyes"
and with Marrina's aid were able to defeat it and put it on ice. They also met
Dragon Man and rescued the monster from a criminal intent on using it for evil.
They soon faced Carmody again who managed to get his hands on a battlesuit from
a contact he had at Project Pegasus. He managed to capture Katie and threatened
to kill her. By now Carmody had lost his job with the government and blamed the
children for his ruin. He studied the children from hiding and studied their
powers. The Children managed to defeat him with the aid of the Asgardian "Warriors
Three". The Asgardians warned Carmody that they would tell Thor of his misdeeds.
Later, Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four,
became a member of Power Pack without his parents' knowledge. Franklin took the
name Tattletale because he can foresee possible future events though visions he
experienced. Kofi, a young Kymellian related to Whitey, came to Earth to warn his
"Cousins" that the Snarks were planning on attacking them. He became an ally of Power
Pack and is an unofficial member of their team.
Son of a Snark Queen, Jakal plotted to become the next Emperor of the Snark
Empire. He planned on capturing the human children and stealing their Kymellian
powers to make himself the most powerful Snark in the Galaxy. After a hard
fought battle, Katie threw a power ball at Jakal. The Snark's force field
overloaded and Jakal was horribly burned. Friday decided to move Jakal to
the Arctic where they had also stored "Snake Eyes".
More Snarks arrived on Earth and rescued Jakal who was now half mad due to his
injuries. Jakal was the Queen's pawn in her bid to control the Snark Empire,
however. Even with the aid of Kofi and Tattletale, Power Pack was captured by
Jakal and the troop of Snark soldiers at his command.
Meanwhile, Tattletale (Franklin Richards) on Earth had a dream in which he saw
Power Pack in danger and captured by Jakal. Summoning Friday, Franklin left his
parents a cryptic note explaining that he had gone to save his friend. Tattletale
discovered that his powers had grown and that he could now be seen when he visited
places in his "Dream state". He searched for Kofi and discovered that his alien
friend was being chased by Sbarks intent on killing the young Kymellian.
Queen Maraud's advisor tested the transfer machine first by draining the healing
powers of Kofi's father and transferring them to himself. The advisor used the
healing powers to heal Jakal's wounds. In the battle that followed Jakal's
hand was burnt and shriveled when he attacked Katie and grabbed her and she
accidentally unleashed her unstable disintegration effect. Katie was badly injured
in the battle but found by a race of friendly burrowing creatures. Kofi's father
had also escaped in the battle and taught Katie how to use Kymellian techniques to
heal her wounds. Meanwhile, the superhuman abilities of the three captured Power
children were transferred into the "Super-Snark" Jakal using Snark technology.
The transfer was a success! The powers of Alex, Jack and Julie were transferred
to Jakal! Alex, Jack and Julies were helpless and in the grasp of monsters.
Jakal flaunted his new powers and pulled the children around in chains. He revealed
Queen Maraud's plan to poison the Emperor and openly tried to kill the dying Emperor.
Dreaming that Power Pack was in trouble, Tattletale summoned Friday and was
rushing to their aid. Tattletale used his powers to foretell how Kofi could escape
from the Snarks. Demonstrating unheard of power, Kofi teleported into a crystalline
bubble and then into outer space. Tattletale had seen this in his dreams and told
Friday to remain in the area. The crystal protected Kofi for the few seconds
needed to find the ship and teleport to safety.
Katie, now healed, found Jakal and her siblings. She was angered by the way Jakal was
treating them. Jakal was tricked by the children into smashing the transfer
machine. As he tried to kill the children, the powers that he had stolen were
transfered back to each of them as he touched them.
Queen Maraud attacked the children as they regained their powers, using a deadly
ray beam. Her weapon's beam struck Jakal instead and pushed his mind over the
edge. His dying wish was that his body be healed and given to replace the Emperor's
body whom Maraud had poisoned.
However, instead of the powers returning as they had before, now Alex possessed
Katie's Energizer power, Jack had Alex's Gee power, Julie had Jack's Mass Master
powers, and Katie had Julie's Lightspeed power. With the change in power ownership
the children acquired new code names, Alex was called the Destroyer, Julie was
Molecula, Mistress of Density, Jack was Counterweight, and Katie was Starstreak.
They soon learned the limitations and hazards of their new powers and often wished
for their original powers.
Their next adventure had them facing the Mutant Killers known as Marauders, coming
face to face with Sabertooth and surviving. Alex quickly learns that possessing
Katie's destructive power is a terrible responsibility. Power Pack meets Wolverine,
Beta Bill Ray and the New Mutants and then encounters Mr. Carmody who now calls
himself "Boogy Man". They also encounter The Avengers and The Fantastic Four.
Later still they encounter Hobgoblin, Warlock and Sunspot of the New Mutants.
After several more adventures, Power Pack returned to the Kymellian world, as
Queen Mother Maraud of the Snarks tried again to destroy the Kymellians. The Pack
narrowly escaped the Snarks and end up getting their powers switched once again.
Alex became Mass Master, Julie became Lightspeed again (often returning to the
codename Starstreak) Jack became Energizer, and Katie became Counterweight. Before
they could return to Earth, the cosmic entity Numinous appeared before the group.
The entity convinced the team to return to the space station, which housed the
planet's survivors. Power Pack arrived at the space station in time to save the
Kymellians from an attack by Maraud, and the Kymellians were ultimately relocated
to another planet.
In the Inferno storyline, New York is besieged by hordes of demons and Carmody
is transformed into a demonic creature who is still bent upon the destruction of
Power Pack.
Later still, Power Pack began experiencing more changes. They encountered and
sheltered an alien Elan (whether with was the same alien as the Infant Terrible
or another member of that race remains unknown) and Alex, in particular, thought
he was going bald. After becoming embroiled in fight between the alien Star-Stalker
and the planet devouring Galactus' Herald, Nova, the Pack returned to Earth and
Alex discovered that his baldness was the beginning of a transformation into a
Kymellian. The Power Pack's father, calling himself "Mister Power," joins the
Pack to defeat an attack of the criminal Red Ghost, but was revealed to be the
Elan in disguise. During this time, the Pack's mother, began experiencing mental
breakdowns due to her knowledge of her children as superheroes. Ultimately, the
Power Pack left in Smartship Friday to travel the Earth in order to find cures for
Alex and the Pack's mother.
Later, Julie begins to figure out that there is no logical reason for Alex to turn
into a Kymellian, any more than it was logical for her parents to behave the way
they did. This realization is bad news for the Technocrat, the Kymellian responsible
for creating that species' artificial homeworld that they were originally inhabiting
at the time of the Pack's creation. After the Pack's contact with Numinus, the
Kymellians were returned to a normal world so the Technocrat could no longer control
them.
In order to regain control; the Technocrat planned to destroy the Kymellians' new
world and put them all back aboard a satellite. The most efficient way to do this
was the matter/anti-matter converter. With the Whitemane clan the last custodians
of the formula, the Technocrat's best bet was to try to take the formula from Jim
Power's mind. So he kidnapped both parents very shortly after the Pack's return to
Earth, using "pseudoplasm replacements" for the Power parents, a controllable
lifeform that replicates a creature onto the molecular level. Later, when Alex
began to realize his parents were acting so abnormally, the Technocrat replaced
Alex as well. In Alex's case, however, the pseudoplasm began to break down, and
reverting to the original Kymellian form that the Technocrat had selected for his
pseudoplasmic servants.
Upon this discovery, the Power Pack fought against the Technocrat and Queen Mother
Maraud, discovering that they can switch powers anytime they want to. Ultimately,
the Power family is reunited, Technocrat and Maraud are defeated, and the Powers
return to Earth, albeit apparently unable to switch powers any longer.
Power Pack as a whole dropped out of sight for a while, and eventually Alex Power
was contacted by the young superhero team New Warriors, during a time when the
regular Warriors were scattered across time. Alex stole the powers from his siblings
for himself (now that he was older and able to affect a power transfer by himself),
believing that continued super-heroics would be too dangerous for his brother and
sisters. Calling himself Powerhouse, Alex joined other young heroes in a new New
Warriors team and served with them for some time.
Alex later left the New Warriors, giving the powers back to his siblings and vowing
to never steal them again. However, Alex did just that when the New Warriors called
upon him again, and even allowed the New Warriors to use the Smartship Friday.
Moreover, Alex believed that he stole the powers permanently, causing a rift between
him and his siblings, who thought they could no longer trust their elder brother.
During Alex's last adventure with the Warriors, the Smartship Friday was stolen,
recovered, and nearly destroyed in the process of saving humanity from the threat
of the alien Dire Wraiths. Friday barely survived, and the ordeal led Alex to think
that, if it were Power Pack in action instead of just Alex, that team probably could
have found a way to save Friday. None of the New Warrior seemed to care for Friday
as much as Alex. The Dire Wraith Queen Volx and the Neo-Neutralizer weapon almost
cancelled all of the Warriors' powers (including Alex's), which caused Alex to
inadvertently return the powers back to the Pack, and he retained his gravity powers.
After this adventure, Alex left the New Warriors.
The Power family have just recently moved to Bainbridge Island, approximately ten
miles away from the city of Seattle, Washington, due to Dr. James Power getting a
new job. (At this point, both parents seem to know of their children's dual
identities and are comfortable with them.) Almost immediately, the Power Pack were
taken to Snark World to help stop a civil war.
At the time of this writing, Power Pack's most recent adventures have them meeting
The Avengers in their new Title; Avengers / Power Pack Assemble! (2006) These
adventures take place in the Marvel Adventures Universe.
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