Issue(s): Power Pack #47
Cover Date: Jul 89
Title: "Elsewhere"
Credits:
Jon Bogdanove - Writer
Jon Bogdanove - Penciler
Hilary Barta - Inker
Marc McLaurin - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
It's not really true but i feel like it's with this issue that Jon Bogdanove's run really begins. He's written a few issues prior to this but they've been interrupted with fill-ins, and they were mostly part of Inferno. So it's only now that we see what his run is really going to be like.

Unfortunately, the answer is "overly whimsical" and that's not really what Power Pack needed to be at this point.

Alex realizes at this point that they have been wearing the wrong costuems since they switched powers, and so he suggests that they switch.

I mentioned a few issues back that it was a little weird for me to see a shirtless Katie. In this issue, it's Julie, too. She's only supposed to be 10 or 11 years old at this point so there shouldn't be anything wrong with it; it's just odd to me.

But the story for this issue relates to all the books that Julie has been storing in her pockets, which you can see Katie pulling out now that she's getting that costume.

And the kids debate whether the endless pockets and ability to disappear and come back clean should be explained with science-fiction (shunting off molecules the way Pym Particles do) or fantasy (it's magic!). While that debate is happening, though, Katie winds up going into the pocket.

And as she does that, the book gets turned sideways.

I'll include the remaining scans rotated for readability, but while Katie is in "Elsewhere", the book is read sideways, and sometimes even rotates around or has different characters on different planes. The realm that she enters is really a mish-mosh of various worlds, basically taken from all the books that Julie had been storing.

When Katie gets back, she explains that the kids can just phase their costumes off and back again to get them into the right sizes.

It's all very cute and clever, but i could care less. This used to be a serious book that happened to deal with kids, but now it's a cartoon (the fact that last issue's fill-in was a Goo-Gams story did not help). Still, Franklin Richards returns next issue so that's worth sticking around for, right?

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Power Pack change costumes

Chronological Placement Considerations: Since Power Pack change costumes in this issue, it's a marker for continuity inserts and inventory stories. That said, the kids must have once subconsciously worn the "right" costumes, since Marvel Fanfare #55 has to take place prior to Inferno.

References:

• Power Pack's parents learned and then were made to disbelieve that the Power kids had powers between issues Power Pack #42 and Power Pack #44.
  
• Power Pack switched powers in Power Pack #25 but kept their original costumes at that point.
  
• They originally got their powers and costumes in Power Pack #1-4 (which is getting a plug because these issues were released in trade at this time).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

... I don't think that would fly today... Kind of surprised it did then

The pupil-missing characters are Jiggs & Maggie from the "Bringing Up Father" comic strip by George McManus(the "king"). The mustache guys are Mutt & Jeff from the same-titled strip(and a long-running DC comic).

Wait, is there a Plastic Man comic in there? How did that sneak in?

And yeah...pre-pubescent girls topless...that...won't fly these days.

For that matter, the perspective-flipping and the giant mushrooms are probably homages to another old comic strip, Winsor McKay's little Nemo; the doglike fellow int he uniform is probably supposed to be Offisa Pup from krazy Kat. The whole thing is an homage to early 20th century newspaper comics.