Issue(s): Power Pack #38
Cover Date: Jul 88
Title: "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep"
Credits:
Julianna Jones - Writer
Sal Velluto - Penciler
Stan Drake & Don Hudson - Inker
Marc McLaurin - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Don Hudson again does background inks. This issue is written by Julianna Jones, who is described in the lettercol as "another member of the illustrious Simonson family". I think Julianna is Louise Simonson's daughter from a previous marriage. It's another fill in at a time when this title was floundering and definitely needed some direction. Even on its own this issue is a mish-mosh of cutesy kid stuff and a somewhat more serious topic of bullying by new waver oil sheiks.

Julie has been working for two months in Home Ec on a stuffed sheep that she intends to give to her grandfather as a gift to remind him of "the good old days". But Julie and her friends are accosted by some bullies and Julie doesn't even try to fight back, and their stuffed animals are taken.

Julie decides to go after them using the Ghost costume she used on Sunspot.

Except it doesn't work very well.

Luckily, the rest of Power Pack show up to help.

They recover the sheep and turn over the other stolen goods to the police with a note telling where to find the bullies.

The most hilarious part of this story is Power Pack's father trying to take some credit for the gift.

Hey, dad, i didn't get you anything but my daughter made something for you in school, so that's kind of like all of us gave you a gift, right?

Like the crack house super-villain issues, this is another case where a character is colored black on the cover but not in the interior.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Power Pack switched powers in Power Pack #25.
  
• The ghost costume was used more successfully in Power Pack #33.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Every title has its period when the original creative force is exhausted and it needs to be rejuvenated. Unfortunately in-between those periods are a lot of bad stories. Even worse is that the truly creative concepts are harder to do. With ordinary crime fighters, writers can hack it and still turn in an entertaining, if pedestrian, story. They'll be forgettable, but they can keep the title published until someone new can take the concept and run.

Other than the Snarks, the Pack doesn't have a real rogues gallery. Nor any supporting cast outside the family. There aren't many existing tools out there for others to use.

A title like Power Pack is hard in that respect. You can't take any hack story and insert it in. Worse, because it is so different, a lot of writers won't know what to do with it and pass it over (a fate even the Hulk was subjected to many times) so you are really scrapping the barrel for a writer.

Power Pack needs the right kind of touch. It's a children's adventure book. It needs the right kind of danger, but not too much. It needs adventure, whimsy, love of family, and nostalgia (for older readers). It's a higher bar. You just can't send in the Molten Man and give the kids some lumps.