Wednesday, March 06, 2024

What I Bought 2/29/2024

I might be going to a comic convention this weekend. Alex is trying to work something out, which means a 50-50 shot at best, but we'll see.

Power Pack: Into the Storm #2, by Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (artist), Roy Richardson (inker), Nolan Woodard (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Scourge of the Space Jellyfish!

Djinna, Kofi and the Pack try to escape from Djinna's angry relative Mayhem. They only manage it because an angry Brood Queen shows up, also after the Power kids, and attacks Mayhem. So when the X-Men defeated the Brood that one time, did they free all those giant space whales the Brood used as ships? Because B'rute (great name) has got a ship that looks like a fish (maybe one of those Devonian fish with the heavy bone plating over their heads), but it's made of metal.

The kids flee to a planet with heavy atmospheric storms to hide in while Franklin's dream self uses Friday to reach the X-Men and ask for help. It's a little goofy in that Storm meets him, but he asks her to get ahold of Wolverine and Kitty, and she goes to do that, rather than just rounding up whatever X-Men are at hand. By the time Franklin returns to his body, the ship is under attack by giant space jellyfish. The ship blows up, seemingly with Franklin still inside. Oops.

I'm sure it's a fakeout - the Brood caught up so I imagine they're involved - but it's a little weird Franklin's talking to everyone in his dream self, saying he'll wake himself up and jump out of the ship, rather than having simply done it.

Most of the issue is the kids talking about their parents and their expectations. Kofi's dad expects him to follow the rules, which Kofi seems to have trouble doing. Djinna's a disappointment to her mother because she's not a good fighter, so she suspects she was only allowed to attend the academy on the chance she might learn how to make some decent weapons. The Power kids are keeping it a secret from their parents, with the aid of a spell that makes their parents not notice weird stuff, although their mom still freaks out, which seems troubling. And Franklin's parents tried to lock his powers away (so he doesn't rewrite reality in a fit of pique, but still.)

All of them are trying to meet expectations, but also be themselves. Which requires doing stuff on the sly, as in this mini-series. Which means there's no safety net when things go wrong. Having the Fantastic Four around to help deal with space jellyfish probably would have been handy.

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