Issue(s): Power Pack #14
Cover Date: Sep 85
Title: "School daze"
Credits:
Louise Simonson - Writer
June Brigman - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker
Rosemary McCormick-Lowy - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Douglas Carmody, the Pack family's father's boss who got fired when Power Pack destroyed the device that the Snarks were after in their first story, is back, and this time he's got himself a jetpack and some other weapons and is calling himself the Bogeyman. He kidnaps Katie from school.

Alex and Jack manage to get out of their classes to try to stop him, but they're too slow to follow him (at the end of this issue, Alex will get the idea to design glider wings for himself so he can ride the air currents).

Julie is in the middle of a test, further complicated by the fact that some of her classmates have planned to cheat, and Julie, while she doesn't want to cheat herself, has agreed to pass the answer sheet. Jack screws everything up by sneaking in to tell her about Katie during the test.

Jack, of course, thinks this is a great opportunity for her to leave school (since the teacher won't miss her because she's been sent to the principal's office), but Julie is of course distraught.

Power Pack finds "Bogeyman" and kick his butt...

...but they don't have a permanent solution for him. He knows their identity. They can't kill him or knock him out and store him in the Arctic next to Snake-Eyes, and they can't bring him to jail without revealing their IDs. For now they just let him swim away after Katie disintegrates his jet pack.

The Bogeyman character is of course ridiculous, but he's depicted more as an unstable man than a traditional super-villain, so it works. And the real story here is about the difficulties of being a kid super-hero. The complications of getting out of class and dealing with bad guys who know your secret identity are all realistic problems that haven't really been explored before. And the cheating issue is handled really well. Julie's reaction is nicely done.

Similarly, we get to see a kid super-hero actually use his powers to show off a little.

I guess we've seen similar situations with Spider-Man and Nova, but Alex is dangerously close to exposing his secret here, to a degree that i think we haven't seen before. All really nice, especially with Brigman's art.

Quality Rating: A

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Carmody as the Bogeyman

Chronological Placement Considerations: Pushed back in publication time a bit to make room for Power Pack dependencies on Thor and Fantastic Four in issues #15 and #16.

References:

• Power Pack destroyed their father's anti-matter device and cost Carmody his job in Power Pack #2. He went after the kids without any fancy gear in Power Pack #5.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A