Issue(s): Power Pack #34
Cover Date: Jan 88
Title: "Child's play"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Louis Williams & Larry Alexander - Penciler
Tony DeZuniga - Inker
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Louis Williams draws the first three pages only.

This is a pretty annoying fill in with both Katie Power and Franklin Richards being bored in their respective houses (actually, it's said that Franklin is just visiting at Four Freedoms Plaza)...

...and so they sneak out and wind up in a nonsense adventure with Madcap which...

...when they realize that Madcap is a dangerous lunatic, teaches them a lesson about responsibility. Or at least teaches Katie.

Stiff, rushed art that makes the kids look like those trolls with the hair...

...and the extremely annoying Madcap (this was my first encounter with him in realtime), and as a fill-in, a story with no impact on anything. It's only my completist mentality that keeps this out of the recycling bin. Louise Simonson has always managed to keep this book about kids readable by people of all ages, but this issue by Howard Mackie is definitely kiddie fare, and it shows the danger that this book will face when Simonson leaves.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Katie says it's been "weeks" since Power Pack last had an adventure, although i suppose that could be childish hyperbole. Franklin and his parents are just visiting from Stamford, which places this after Fantastic Four #307, when they leave the team. But Fantastic Four #308 kicks off the Fasaud storyline that ends with the Thing mutated, and so since the Thing appears in this issue in his regular form, this must take place between FF #307-308, meaning that the Richardses weren't away for long. Next issue is a Fall of the Mutants tie-in, placing this issue before all of that.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A