Power Pack 39 - Inferno

The Pack face the prospect of having their secret exposed.

Power Pack #39

Louise Simonson wrote with flair
Sal Velluto penciled with care
Mark Farmer inked on a dare
Joe Rosen lettered with a payer
Glynis Oliver colored in her lair
Carl Potts edited - beware!
Tom DeFalco read with a glare

As noted at the start there are a few issues that haven't been included in the various Inferno collected editions that are still worth a look at for their contribution to the wider story. One such issue is Power Pack #39 which starts off their confrontation with Carmody the Bogeyman which runs into the crossover. So far it appears to have had only one reprint in Power Pack Classic Omnibus volume 2 (which otherwise contains issues #37 to #62 of the original run plus the 2000 limited series, various one shots, inventory material and guest appearances).

(Oh and to set something down at the start the spelling of the villain's alias is all over the place in these issues. I'm going to stick with "Bogeyman" throughout.)

This issue sees the series continue to fight a sales decline (it was already a lower frequency direct market only book by this stage) by switching to a format with more story pages and fewer adverts on better quality paper - and with a small price increase. As we'll also see the series is in some creative flux which will impact on these issues as we go through them.

One of the key questions for the Pack in this period was about whether or not they should tell their parents about their powers. Their parents already knew they had met aliens on multiple occasions but the powers remained a secret with the children disagreeing about whether to take them into confidence. Now two developments are pushing this debate to the forefront - an anonymous caller who has discovered their secret and the publicity around Rebecca Littlehale, a young mutant with the ability to teleport towards any bright light she sees. She was rescued in an earlier issue but now faces a storm as her house is besieged by both reporters demanding a demonstration and protesters both in favour and against her. Then the house is firebombed and a strange flying man in armour captures her, leaving the Powers to chase her, discovering the man is their old foe Carmody the Bogeyman who is now working for the Right to capture young mutants for experiments. And it turns out he is the anonymous caller, sending photographs of the children using their powers to their parents. They manage to destroy the most incriminating but get grounded for climbing out of their flat window.

This is a pretty intense issue in stepping up the conflict with Carmody now connected to various foes from the pages of X-Factor though he is also willing to give his captives to whoever bids the highest. On a previous occasion Thor and the Asgardians threatened Carmody if he ever acted against the children again but it's now clear that something has neutralised that threat.

Rebecca's power is pretty awkward which suggests it won't be much use to many but her situation makes for some dramatic scenes that reflect the debate amongst the Power children that was presumably also being argued out on the series's letters page. This issue is also a strong reintroduction for the children's archenemy and sets up to a key encounter next issue so it's a surprise that it's been left out of the collected editions. It also shows that the series still had a lot of life in it at this stage despite the warning signs about declining sales.

Punisher 29 - Acts of Vengeance

As might be guessed from the cover, this issue is one of the easiest to place in the overall order of the crossover since it features the same fight as in Avengers #312. However it also demonstrates some poor communication and editing across the crossover since the Avengers shown are the-then regular line-up of the east coast team and the venue shown inside is the exterior of the Guggenheim Museum, whereas the actual fight involves a team of mostly west coast Avengers in Avengers Park. More pertinently both Doctors Doom and the mysterious stranger are shown watching the events without the rest of the leading super-villains. It's moments like these that really undermine a crossover as the inconsistencies stand out so prominently. This becomes even more irritating when the Avengers' fight only appears in one panel despite also seizing the cover.

Punisher #29

Writer: Mike Baron
Penciler: Bill Reinhold
Inker: Mark Farmer
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Colourist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Carl Potts
Dr Doom: Tom DeFalco

At a baser level it's also something of a shock to come straight from the Avengers issue where Doctor Doom pointedly stayed aloof from the petty squabbles of the other villains whereas here his scene with the Kingpin shows a much more argumentative Doom who is openly contemptuous of his ally as a "cheap gangster" and much easier to manipulate. The story is entitled "Too many Dooms", which proves quite appropriate given the multiple portrayals of the deposed monarch. Curiously it's the other Doctor Doom, the boy Kristoff with Doom's implanted memories and personality, who comes closer to the more conventional portrayal than the real thing.

Or maybe, as the Punisher speculates, we haven't seen the real Doom at all and instead there are more impostors than a first glance would suggest?

The Punisher is left trying to navigate between the two rival Dooms, with one hoping he will destroy the other but Frank is canny enough to realise the futility of this given the number of Doombots around. Instead he opts to free himself and find a way to bargain out of the situation. This leads to him and Microchip making a dramatic escape from Latveria with even Shield as an obstacle to returning to the States. But his eventual solution proves quite logical.

As individual issues of Punisher this two-part storyline has been quite a good way of taking the crossover premise to produce a solid story with an unusual for. However as part of a wider crossover story the different presentation of a key scene in one of the core chapters and the different portrayal of Doctor Doom sticks out, making this corner rather less effective.

Punisher #29 has been reprinted in:

• Essential Punisher volume 3 (2009)
• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Punisher 28 - Acts of Vengeance

It's easy to forget that there was a time when the Kingpin was the Punisher's greatest living foe. Yet it makes perfect sense for a leading crime lord to not only repeatedly have his operations disrupted by a persistent vigilante but also that he would take action to try to neutralise that problem. However the relationship between the Kingpin and the Punisher is very different from the former's with both Spider-Man and Daredevil. It is much more a business arrangement with the Punisher an operating liability that proves difficult to remove, rather than the personalised struggles elsewhere. But not everyone realises this and so it results in the Punisher being targeted by Doctor Doom.

Punisher #28

Writer: Mike Baron
Penciler: Bill Reinhold
Inker: Mark Farmer
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Colourist: John Wellington
Editor: Carl Potts
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Time and again throughout this crossover there's a real sense of hostility between at least some of the leading villains (others don't get much panel time together) to the point that they're trying not just to defeat the heroes but to demonstrate that they can succeed where others have failed. Doctor Doom has been used rather a lot in this crossover but most of the time he's been organising the lesser ranks of villains or operating from afar. It's a slightly shocking move to see him taking on a foe directly, even if he is doing it through Doombots.

The idea of the Punisher fighting Doctor Doom at first sounds about as silly as, well, Daredevil versus Ultron but that hasn't stopped this crossover from doing such things. This story features very much the scientific dictator side of Doom rather than the more fantastical, with the deposed monarch deploying a Doombot, mercenaries, a tank and even a pair of fighter planes. It does actually score damage in destroying both the Punisher's van and one of his warehouses but it's all ridiculous overkill, showing how arrogance and rivalry can drive a determined individual to go to extreme lengths.

The Punisher is also a determined man and a canny one. Rapidly realising he can't fight off all the resources of Doom and he can't easily kill someone who operates through an army of duplicate robots, he decides to instead steal something that Doom values and use it to force the doctor to back off. This results in him and Microchip going hiking through the mountains of Latveria in lederhosen, a sight rarely seen. However when he reaches Doom's castle he soon discovers there's more to his new foe than meets the eye.

There's a sense of absurdity to both the Punisher's adventures and to the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover as a whole so a story in which he's targeted by one of the biggest villains in the Marvel universe isn't actually that surprising, especially given the nature of the rivalries amongst the key villains. And Frank's response is perfectly logical. There's plenty of fun imagery in the story, from the hiking to the Punisher's rocket pack, making for a good action packed first parter that sets up a strong conflict on multiple levels.

Punisher #28 has been reprinted in:

• Essential Punisher volume 3 (2009)
• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)