Power Pack (2020-) #1 by Ryan North
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, this was wonderful.
As a long time Power Pack fan I was a little concerned that this would be a total reset, ignoring Alex’s time with the Future Foundation and Julie’s coming out as gay, but was pleasantly surprised that these are both covered. Sure, it doesn’t cover every minute detail in Power Pack history, but I’m a great believer that continuity exists to serve the story and not the other way around. You take what you need and what works from a character or team’s history and you can just quietly forget the rest…don’t contradict it if you can avoid that, so future writers are free to pick up on it…but don’t limit the story you’re trying to tell by slavishly staying true to an obscure comic from twenty years ago that hardly anyone read or remembers.
Anyway, the kids get back together for their parents’ wedding anniversary, when the Boogeyman attacks an orphanage because he just wants to eat some orphans…but this is all ultimately a pretext for getting the Power kids caught up in the whole Outlawed storyline, and they all wind up getting arrested at the end. Because of course they do.
This is charmingly written, with Ryan North perfectly capturing the spirit of the original book, and the characters are spot on. What please me most, however, is the art, which is superb, and while not really like June Brigman’s art from the classic series, seems to capture the same feel. I was concerned going in because the cover art very much does not do that, but thankfully Nico Leon’s internal art is a much better fit for the book.
All in all a great return for what are, for me at least, some much loved characters.
Random Ramblings Of A Ragamuffin 