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Power Pack #40Issue(s): Power Pack #40 Review/plot: ![]() Alex, aka Destroyer, has an interesting way of dealing with being held by Cannonball. ![]() ![]() When everything's sorted out, it gets him some accolades from Cannonball and a renewed invitation to join the New Mutants. ![]() Notice Magik saying "so you guys 're Power Pack" and getting introduced to Julie by Mirage. That will be relevant to placement of Marvel Fanfare #55. The two teams bond over their perceived mistreatment by adults (Power Pack is currently grounded, and Magneto has similarly forbidden the New Mutants from leaving school grounds or using their powers). The New Mutants have also sneaked out to search for Rebecca. They decide to flush out the Bogeyman by having Warlock transform himself into a likeness of the Bogeyman (i'm seeing better art from Sal Velluto on this issue)... ![]() ...and they dress Katie up to look like Rebecca and then take a picture as if they snapped the Bogeyman kidnapping Rebecca in realtime. Magik then teleports the photo to all the newsrooms in New York, including J. Jonah Jameson. ![]() The idea is to get the Bogeyman to come after Power Pack, so the kids go home and the New Mutants stay hidden. Luckily Bogeyman attacks after the kids' parents leave the apartment. He actually manages to grab Katie and get away with her, but Warlock follows and leaves a trail - of himself - for the rest. It turns out that the Bogeyman has acquired the Millennium Falcon and parked it on top of a building. ![]() We saw last issue that he intended to betray the Right and instead sell Rebecca to the highest bidder. That turns out to be the demon N'astirh. ![]() N'astirh says he's actually interested in Carmody's soul, which Carmody said the Right had bought but then they subsequently defaulted on the payments. I kind of have the feeling Carmody is speaking metaphorically and doesn't realize that N'astirh is not. ![]() In any event, what Carmody is actually selling is mutant children. ![]() But Katie and Rebecca are actually too old for N'astirh's purposes. At this point Power Pack and the New Mutants attack. Carmody's "super-villain" name was originally a kind of bitter joke, referencing the fact that he was stalking children. But by now he's taken the Bogeyman seriously enough to have created an army of warped children's toys. ![]() They turn out to not be very dangerous, but they are still pretty crazy. ![]() ![]() ![]() Rebecca demonstrates the full extent of her power, which sucks. ![]() After Mirage displays his "greatest desire", which is a graveyard full of dead mutants, Magik sends the Bogeyman to Limbo. ![]() But don't worry, she "didn't hurt him". Just condemned his soul to eternal damnation and torture. ![]() No one objects. And the super-kids take Rebecca home. And that's it for Rebecca Littlehale, who chooses the name Lighttrakker for herself but will never appear again. It's a weird name - looks Nordic! - and maybe she should have made it two words to avoid confusion. But it's not like she was going to be picked for any kind of super-team anyway with those powers. I can just imagine using her in a role-playing game: Game Master: You are are being attacked by the Wrecking Crew. That's also it for Louise Simonson. This is her last issue on the title (until the 1992 Holiday Special) and after next issue's fill-in we'll be getting Jon Bogdanove's take on the characters. She ends with having the Power kids to resolve to not tell their parents about their powers, which is kind of a let-down after issues and issues of teasing the idea, and it's really just kicking the can down the road. But even though her run ends on kind of a whimper, it's been more positive than not and the early issues were a real joy. The characters she created have a legacy that continues well beyond her run and even after this series is cancelled. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: This story seemingly begins the same night as Power Pack #39. See my notes on last issue and Marvel Fanfare #55. In any event, a note on the opening splash panel says this takes place after New Mutants #66 and before New Mutants annual #4, and that makes sense since Mirage's powers are not creating solid objects. As noted in the comments, the chronology for the demon N'astirh is murky, but since he's still in Limbo here i'm placing this prior to X-Terminators #1, and this becomes his first appearance in my project. This is due to the fact that N'astirh's appearances in X-Factor #30-34 and X-Terminators #1 are tightly intertwined, and X-Factor #34 has a number of dependencies with other comics, including Uncanny X-Men #238 and Avengers annual #17. So since the New Mutants have to appear here before New Mutants annual #4 (part 4 of the Evolutionary War) whereas X-Factor #34 has to appear circa Avengers annual #17 (part 11 of the Evolutionary War), this appearance by N'astirh must take place earlier. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (5): showCharacters Appearing: Bogeyman, Cannonball, Energizer, Gee, J. Jonah Jameson, Jim Power, Lightspeed, Lighttrakker, Magik, Magneto, Margaret Power, Mass Master, Mirage (Dani Moonstar), N'astirh, Sunspot, Warlock, Wolfsbane CommentsThere really is no way to make sense out of the lead-in stories to Inferno, most of which were scripted by Simonson. Posted by: Michael | July 3, 2014 6:42 PM N'astirh doesn't say that Hodge is dead, Bogeyman does. Bogeyman doesn't know that Hodge survived the plane crash in New Mutants 60. As far as he knows the Right is no more because Hodge is gone (underground as it turns out). Since N'astirh says he's already been contacted about babies (not mentioning Hodge specifically), this takes place after X-Factor #32 (but before Hodge dies in X-Factor #34 because of how that issue ties into X-terminators #1). Why would N'astirh bother correcting Bogeyman's assumption that Hodge is dead? I assume that scene at the beginning of X-terminators #1 takes place earlier than the rest of the issue. I'm guessing N'astirh had his own plans for babies that just so happened to parallel S'ym's, so he went along with it. It's possible that opening scene, along with X-Factor #32 & Power Pack #40, takes place shortly before Uncanny X-Men #231 where a bunch of Limbo demons escape to impersonate "Baba Yaga" while the rest of X-terminators #1, when N'astirh arrives on Earth-onward, takes place after. Posted by: Jay Demetrick | July 3, 2014 7:53 PM "But it's not like she was going to be picked for any kind of super-team anyway with those powers." Right, because having the ability to automatically teleport to the brightest thing she can see is definitely not as useful as having the power to translate languages, spoken or written, human or alien in origin. I mean, that's a power worthy of being put on a team.;) Posted by: clyde | June 24, 2015 4:03 PM I just got the latest tpb of Inferno (volume 1 of 2) and it (mostly) agrees with this being N'astirh's first appearance (except for video screen appearances from X-Factor 32 and Uncanny, which are in the prologue). Power Pack 40 Posted by: Dave77 | April 28, 2016 11:12 PM Comments are now closed. |
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