Power Pack 43 - Inferno

The Bogeyman has captured the Pack's parents and seemingly destroyed the family forever.

Power Pack #43

Jon Bogdanove wrote without distraction
Jon Bogdanove, Sal Velluto penciled to good reaction
Stan Drake, Al Williamson and Company inked in fractions
Joe Rosen lettered-in the captions
Glynis Oliver colored this attraction
Carl Potts can't get no satisfaction
Tom DeFalco Chief of Hoo-Haa Action

Carmody the Bogeyman has captured the Pack's parents and forced the children to reveal their secret powers. He takes off across New York with the four Powers in pursuit but anger and an inability to wait to work together works against them. They come across demons attacking people and pause to deal with them. Meanwhile in space Kofi learns the Kymellians have rebuilt Friday the living smartship but the ship's essence is fading away and nobody can understand why. The Bogeyman climbs the Chrysler Building and taunts Power Pack as they approach and attack. They save their parents but are left uncertain what to do with the Bogeyman who will just keep coming back. In anger Alex determines to kill him but the parents talk the children down and tell them they love them still. The Bogeyman is outraged at this display of familial affection and charges at them but goes over the edge, falling into a raging fire. The children take their parents home as the city seems to be returning to normal.

This issue starts with one of the biggest moments in the entire series - the Powers' parents discovering their children have powers and are using them. Much debated both in the series itself and on the letters page the matter has been forced by the intervention of their revenge seeking archenemy, raising the stakes. Inferno supplies the backdrop to the changes in Carmody and also demons who provide a distraction in the chase but this is a highly personal tale focused on their true worst nightmare.

It's a story of discovery with both Alex and Julie finding new ways to use their powers - Alex can now fire multiple smaller powerballs at the same time and Julie can generate a molecular density field of condensed air - along with the family as a whole discovering about each other. At first Jim and Maggie react in disbelief but when they see their children acting to defend the family they remind them they are still their children and loved no matter what with Maggie even reminding Julie of a past conversation when she said she'd love her even if she could fly. Jim and Maggie have been put through quite a bit over the course of the series without knowing why things keep happening to their family so it makes sense they can understand what's happening and not much of a further stretch that they can accept it. However some will find it far too lubby dubby and can sympathise with the outrage of Carmody as he reacts in disgust, recalls his own harsh childhood and then cannot come to terms with the monster he has become.

However the very end of the issue suggests a different track as the children head out to help with the clear-up operation and the final panel shows their parents in total shock. Was a change forced upon this story that we'll see in the next issue? The cover to this one has a scrap of paper on it with "An introduction to Xavier's Sch... Gifted You..." and the cover to the next issue previewed at the end here shows the four children flying away from their parents with a suitcase and crying with some of the New Mutants in the background. Was there a plan to send them off to Xavier's school and overlap with the New Mutants more often?

At its heart Power Pack is a series about family and this issue challenges the dynamic like nothing before it. The dark world around them is as nothing to the darkness that has invaded their family and it's understandable how the children react in fury rather than thinking calmly, whether it's Katie charging off without the others or Alex determining to kill Carmody. And this is that rare issue that truly changes everything, doing so in spectacular style.

Power Pack 42 - Inferno

Power Pack face their worst nightmare as they discover the Bogeyman really is under the bed.

Power Pack #42

Jon Bogdanove who both wrote and penciled lightly
Stan Drake who finished in ink tightly
Don Hudson inking the backgrounds slightly
Glynis Oliver who still colors brightly
Carl Potts editing nightly
Tom DeFalco Editor in Chief Politely
[And Joe Rosen lettering with credit overlooked unknightly]

(In case you're wondering about issue #41 it was an unrelated issue by a different team that saw the Pack dealing with a landlord committing arson so as to use the insurance to clear his debts.)

In Limbo Douglas Carmody gets changed by N'astirh and sent to Earth. The heatwave in New York coincides with all four Power children coming down with a fever and being unable to join together to use their healing powers to cure themselves as their parents are constantly around. The flat experiences more of the weirdness as living sewage and mildew invade whilst out on the streets Carmody and other demons make their presence felt. The Powers plan to leave the flat to stay at a relative's who has a water supply but Carmody sneaks into the building and confronts them in the lift. Grabbing the parents he demand the children reveal their secret.

Many of the foes thrown into Limbo in various issues have been transformed by the magic there into something far more demonic and dangerous and so it's natural to give Carmody a power upgrade beyond a simplistic man using technology into something far more powerful and dangerous. His demonic form retains his obsession with decency, attacking gangs in the street and then picking on a loud obnoxious fat man and stealing his suit to create a suitably comic appearance for this monstrous foe.

Much of the issue focuses on a seemingly ordinary family trying to survive in the madness caused by illness, the heatwave and now reports of the demons invading New York with the complication that the children could easily cure their illness and deal with many of the immediate problems but it would require them to give away their secret. Meanwhile their parents are suffering the effects of the madness with Jim worn down by the heat and long walk home through streets overflowing with rubbish when public transport packs up whilst Maggie is showing signs of collapsing under the strain.

And then the Bogeyman attacks and forces the children to reveal their identities to their parents.

The debate about whether to tell them or not had been running for a good while both in the stories themselves and on the letters page but seemingly resolved with a decision to not do so. However the cliffhanger to this issue blows so much open and offers a real prospect that a major lasting change is being made here.

This makes the slower pace of the issue feel natural. It's all building up to the key moment at the end so it helps to give us a final look at what life has been like for the parents before the bombshell. Making such a bold move is a shock but also offers true change going forward.

Damage Control 4 - Acts of Vengeance

And so we come to "The Final Act!" as Damage Control's second limited series comes to a conclusion, with this issue featuring a prominent guest star in Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. Fury's own series was up and running at this time but notably didn't take part in the crossover, with a change of writer around this time possibly the explanation. But instead Fury and his fellow agents get used here in a showdown for the corporate wranglings that have crippled the special repair business.

Damage Control (volume 2) #4

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inkers: Stan Drake & Marie Severin
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colour: George Roussos
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Big Guy you don't wanna mess with: Tom DeFalco

The issue is surprisingly predictive in its revelation that Damage Control is being run into the ground by its now owner, who "is willing to gut the whole company to raise cash". Damage Control may at times allow for subtle digs at the distinguished competition, but this target would ultimately prove closer to home given the convoluted corporate manoeuvres in the 1990s that ultimately left Marvel as a whole filing for bankruptcy. Fortunately for anyone without a business education the story presents the financial situation in a sufficiently simple form to understand how the owner wound up owing the Kingpin a lot of money and had to resort to bleeding the company to death.

Elsewhere the workers are still on strike but are talked into helping stabilise a building whilst a rescue operation is carried out, reflecting the very real dilemmas often faced by striking firefighters. Placards with slogans such as "DC is grossly unfair" and "DC stinks" are surprising in that Marvel could print these and get away with them (and not have to modify the artwork for later reprints). It's not clear who exactly is responsible for them, but a glance at the credit lists for the creative shows that only some of them went on to do much work for DC comics. Perhaps the scene at the end when the Damage Control building, with a prominent "DC" marked out on the roof, is sold to a comic company who "made a great deal of extra money this summer from a movie" helped placate feelings. Meanwhile over in another DC, Anne Hoag ensures that Commission on Superhuman Activities doesn't deliver a unanimous report in favour of registration.

Steadily the management rebuild relationships and reputations, helped by Fury, and Shield leads a takeover bid. Here comes perhaps the most dated joke as a subordinate Shield agent produces a briefing on computer that will take three hours to deliver, until Fury demands a one-word recommendation on whether to buy. This predated the arrival of Power Point and the computers of the era were not the best things for presentations. Robin Chapel faces down the Kingpin to make it clear he's no more influence in the firm, something he just doesn't mind as the "Acts of Vengeance" have proved quite profitable. Finally we learn that Damage Control has now completed the clean-up after the Acts.

This is a bit of a rush around issue aiming to tie up all the threads raised by the earlier ones and wisely sets itself at the end of the crossover to allow for a clear conclusion. Still it provides a good comedic take on corporate rescue packages and company chaos and gets extra credit for doing this long before Marvel faced its own problems. This is a fun little epilogue.

Damage Control (volume 2) #3 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)