Back in the mid-to-late 2000s, Marvel did a bunch of 4-issue mini-series starring Power Pack, mostly aimed at younger readers, mostly involving the 4 Power kids teaming up with some other hero or group of Marvel heroes. Most of the ones I've seen take the approach of each issue being its own, done-in-one thing, which makes sense if you're aiming at younger kids. Give them a whole story, to make it worth the money.
That's the case here, as each issue involves the Power kids running into a different X-Man, although they already know them in each case. Wolverine tracks Sabretooth down in a forest near a Halloween costume party the kids are attending. Meaning Sabretooth gets to lose to the Power kids a second time (counting Mutant Massacre, which is not referenced here, for obvious reasons). Mystique steals a device of Hank McCoy's at a big conference the kids' dad is attending. Mystique can't exactly slit people's throats, so she tries to win by shapeshifting into a giant purple monster, while retaining the same mass as always. That doesn't work great.
Issue 3, Nightcrawler returns to his old circus to find it under the control of the Ringmaster. Kurt gets hypnotized and the kids have to deal with all that, despite Katie's fear of clown and Julie's fear of snakes. In the last issue, Cyclops gets captured by Mr. Sinister and the quartet save his butt. Which is especially amusing after Cyclops dismissed them (and Alex especially) rather coldly after their first attempt to help went badly.
I'm a little surprised there wasn't a Shadowcat issue. I feel like, other than Wolverine, she's the X-Man who interacted with the Power kids the most back in the day. Plus, the Wolverine and Power Pack mini-series established Jack's got a crush on her. Don't know what the hook would have been, though.
There are a few things that seem to carry from one mini-series to the next. Jack torments his little sister. Alex has his awkward teen crush thing on Caitlin, and Julie's seeing a guy named Greg, who had an internship working for Mr. Sinister. But apparently he's not a clone of Madison Jeffries or something, just an actual teenager with a part-time job. Bizarre.
The GuriHiru art team's work is suitably clean and bright for the tone of the stories. Logan might pop his claws against Sabretooth, but nobody is drawing blood. Mustique shapeshifts into a suitably punchable monster, rather than trying to assume a harmless appearance to escape and/or murder people. They do have some fun with the costume contest, as Jack finds Wolverine is a very popular costume that year, and the kids have pulled out almost every variation possible, up to and including Dark Claw from the Amalgam universe. Real deep cut there, Ba-dum-tssh.
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