Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: June Brigman and Gurihiru
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: August 28, 2019

I will admit that I have no real prior knowledge of Power Pack, but the look and feel of it from just giving a quick glance has me excited to read and review it. It really seems like it’s my kind of book and if you listen to our podcast, you probably know what I mean. So, after reading it, is it still my kind of book? Let’s find out…

The book opens with me loving June Brigman’s art so so much! Instead of a full out introduction to the characters, Louise Simonson throws us into the deep end of the pool and lets the siblings interact with each other with flashes and peeks at their powers.

The story revolves around Alex’s thirteenth birthday party, but as the guests arrive, we are thrown 36.7 light-years away and get Kofi and Friday… a horse alien and a smartship Things get hectic quickly as a bunch of rude Broods (someone needs to trademark that pronto) show up and have eyes for Friday. After the Brood open fire, our two heroes head off to Earth to find Power Pack.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Alex’s party is going great…like so great since there is no chance that a smartship will come crashing into it. Guess what? It does and at least some of the kids see it and go to find out what’s what. When they run into Kitty Pryde and get attacked by the Brood, I’m sure they figured a bit out of what’s going on…trouble!

The extended scene has the kids and Kitty fighting the Brood and trying to free their friend, Kofi. I’ll admit that at this point I was very confused with who was who and what they could do. Simonson didn’t give me enough information about the Power Pack kids before things go crazy, but if you are already a fan, I’m sure you will enjoy all of this more than I did.

After Alex decides to go look for them, we get a cool guest star and then some major Brood ass kicking! In the end, Katie puts the finishing blow on them, but makes sure Alex knows she won’t hurt them even if they are the bad guys. It all ends with the family together and Katie even gets her action figure signed by Lila! Yea, it’s a big deal it seems!

We then get a backup with art by Gurihiru that is always my cup of tea. It’s the origin story of the Lila action figure and I liked this little bit the best. I’m sure it’s because we get a heavy dose of Katie who is easily my favorite of the team. Seriously, I loved this last bit and there is zero superhero stuff going on, just a family having pancakes and presents.
Since this is a one-shot, Simonson doesn’t waste time getting to the action, it’s just as a new reader, I was left behind a bit. Fans of Simonson and Brigman should really dig this since they are the target audience, but I’ll admit that by the time I was done, I wanted to go read those older issues so I could become a Packer as well! Yes, I did make up a name for the fans of Power Pack before reading more than one issue, but that’s just how I roll people!

Final Thoughts:

This is for fans of Power Pack and going into it blind like I did, I was pretty confused for at least half the issue. However, by the time I finished the awesomely cute backup, I wanted to go read the Simonson/Brigman run. I would call that a mission accomplished moment if ever there was one.

7.0/10