Issue(s): Power Pack #41
Cover Date: Nov 88
Title: "Smokeout"
Credits:
Steve Heyer - Writer
Sal Velluto - Penciler
Stan Drake & Don Hudson - Inker
Marc McLaurin - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Another writer fill in. This one's themes are the futility of fighting crime at the street level...

...and the peer pressure to smoke.

Those themes are fully appropriate for the Power Pack book but writer Steve Heyer and regular artist Sal Velluto fail to capture any of the charm of the early issues of this series. Part of the problem i've noticed, and this isn't specific to Heyer's issue, is that the emphasis has shifted so that the focus is on more realistic problems and specifically issues surrounding Alex's coming of age. The book was a lot more fun when it was young kids fighting space aliens and robot monsters. Now we're dealing with topics that could be equally applied to any teen super-hero.

This results in an Alex that is getting totally stressed out (reminiscent of Peter Parker's ulcer circa Amazing Spider-Man #113)...

...and while some degree of angst works for the Power Pack book, it drowns out anything else here.

This issue is also the second in Power Pack's mythos after Marvel Fanfare #55 (and the first by publication date) to feature a wisdom-dispensing janitor. This guy doesn't have any super-powers, but he does have a very positive attitude about getting kicked out of his apartment (by a corrupt landlord who is trying to clear the building so he can burn it down for the insurance money, and who eventually dies of a heart attack because he's a smoker), and is more than willing to provide guidance to random kids he bumps into on the street.

In the end, Alex and his buddies start using the man's work shed - where he's been living since he got kicked out of his apartment - as a club house.

I demand that Anti-Smoking Junior League be added to the list of Alex's Affiliations in the next release of the Marvel Handbook.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A