Punch Up: “To Me My ❌-Men”
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
1985
December 1984, January & February 1985 Uncanny X-Men 194 by Romita Jr, Leialoha, Green, Glynis, Orzechowksi, Claremont + Nocenti
March & April, 1985 Power Pack 11-12 by J. Brigman, Wiacek, C. Scheele, Rosen, Glynis, Loiuse + C. Potts & P. Blevins
April, 1985 Uncanny X-Men 195 by Romita Jr, Sienkiewicz, Green, Glynis, Orzechowksi, Claremont + Nocenti
Mixtape tracks: Death Valley ‘69 by Sonic Youth; Metal Heart by Accept; Bounded by Blood by Exodus; & Voices Carry by 'Til Tuesday
Chapter 35 of “to me my ❌-Men,” Juggernaut V Nimrod presses the plot forward into Power Pack who turns from innocent adventure into loss of innocence in the pages of The ❌-Men.
Previously on “to me my ❌-Men,” ANNALEE’S children were shot and killed, we spend time in Legions mind, Kurt & Logan watched Piotr in a bar fight with Juggernaut, his date Selene has joined the Hellfire Club, and Nimrod is renting a room in a families house, as he preps to take down Juggernaut and ❌-Men. Power Pack were on swashbuckling adventure with a member of Alpha Flight. Kitty was almost a child bride to Caliban. Kitty was kidnapped and turned into a ninja assassin in Japan, so Logan who has his own path in this space, brings her back, anew. Ororo, the Morlocks leader is in Kenya, back to being worshipped like a goddess, despite zero superpowers. Also, Magneto and Lee are dating…OH AND Rachel is a girl out of time, struggling no to assimilate to her new timeline.
The cover may be a spoiler…and I can tell Steve, not Dan takes leads on inkling. Oh well.
At least Dan starts us off on the interior. I sware I can tell.
Cain approaches from down the street in NYC in five longshot panels, perfectly paced. Reminds me of European comics pacing. Which I suspect was beginning to influence at a high level. I know personally it was some of Romita’s contemporaries.
The page turn to a massive Cain in a splash panel is highly effective…that’s a Marvel comics flex.
Cain asking what’s up and the cop not knowing who he is talking to: “Juggernaut’s Back in Town” is such enjoyable lettering title and art integration.
TV reporter is talking about him. Mick Travis is on the Juggernaut beat and has caught us up on the past 20 years.
At the school Kurt wakes up to the news. As does Kitty, who cuts off NPR’s Bob Edwards on Morning Edition by phasing into her radio and jumbling the electronics inside. SPARRRKZ! Bob’s coworker Neal Conan will be featured prominently, and either him or one of his colleagues in those issues I believe are friends with Claremont or the Simonsons…don’t quote me on that. Either way, I also feature an NPR reporter in one of my comics. It’s apparently a thing we do.
And Steve has taken over inks. Oh well.
Piotr is groggy too! But when he hears the news he is ready to get back to it…
Rachel wakes up and the mention of Fantastic Four not taking the call to help, just has her thinking about Franklin and other dead friends from her future.
Rogue is sane! She is listening to early 60’s rock n roll…ulp…Avengers News is ruining her shower and plans to take the day off from superheroing.
Logan is running barefoot in the snow…he has a history of this and is Canadian. Vermonters aren’t to far off from this.
He’s running, so reflective. One point he thinks about is Kurt’s leadership. So that’s still an unnatural struggle.
Kitty has potential, but is to young…okay. Way down the road, I already know I am going to reverse my self and cherry pick some issue (I think I know which one) with Kitty as head is Jean Grey School. It’s something I have been considering. We will see…
Kurt request coffee…Logan is all “up n atum”
And we have our Fenris debut. Spoiler we are skipping their big bad rant moment (No. 200), in part, because them being grounded in a reality is preferable to them having a moment to villainous soliloquy. Sensationalizing Naziism into a fantasy has a tendency to become counter productive. They are actual threats, not a fantasy.
Look, if you really need your 1%er Nazi Blonde Twins you love to hate in your comics. Fine. And absolutely they are the ones who are big game hunting. Well, Andreas is here. This is Wolfgang Strucker’s twin kids we are talking about. They have both been in Agents of SHIELD and what was that terrible ❌-Men show?! So twice they have made the TV. But if you expect me to spend more time then I have to with this type, you aren’t understanding my position on Nazis in comics. I don’t like it. Especially when they are in Africa and putting their hands on a someone they don’t see equitably while that person is simply trying to kindly do their job.
Enters Ororo to make my feelings be known.
She gets the upper hand…and we are in Kenya, so of course the person doing her work, is now star struck, seeing Ororo. Kinda annoying all around after all.
Back in NYC.
❌-Men are stalking Cain. Who is simply trying do some normal banking.
Kitty in a whispered tone: “This is silly”
Preach!!!
Rachel is like use our psychic DM!…only it’s not…it is a group chat. Or probably not…Rachel and Kitty are great together. Also Piotr and Logan. I think this issue is trying to seek me on Rogue and Kurt…and honestly they’re siblings and just don’t know it.
I love Watchman as much as the next person, so these bottom three pink panels give me fuzzy 9 panel grid feels. I also love maps and pink.
This introduction of Nimrod however is classically comics tropé horrific. I can’t blame Steve for this. A-team effort+/- Steve.
The ZAM! was fun though.
While Nimrod looks better at times going forward, his roommate humanoid form is better in Romita Jr hands.
This right here looks dumb! Bring back the Nazis.
Cain is basically, you ruined my banking, and I don’t know what your beef is…but ok…
Kitty saves Rachel by dropping through a floor. I miss Dan’s inks.
WHAMMO! panel is kinda awesome in a fun probably Dan inked couple fight pages. Juggernaut v Nimrod looks nice here.
Rogue toss Logan fastball special and. ❌-Men are in it full tilt.
I guess, Kitty’s electrical powers don’t work on Nimrod. Oops.
Rachel’s suit attire works!
Rouge piles up X-bodies…touches a bunch of them, and like the cover said, she turns into like all of the ❌-Men and comes to Juggernaut’s aid v Nimrod. And BOOM! shatters him.
Who regenerates and then becomes light?!
Cain walks off, to try another bank?! This one is rubble. Rogue thinks he is being a jerk for not thanking her. Southern hospitality is not universal. This is New York.
w❌-Men are carrying ❌-Men home I guess.
Epilogue is some KGB jerks.
I use to do a lecture on women in comics. June Brigman and Louise Jones Simonson, were part of the story of massive contributions women cartoonist have made to field, and of course we spend time talking about how they have been there all along. While absolutely still a topic I cover a lot, it is made easier by the reality that the audience and the creators are now significantly women. In the case of the audience equitably, as it was back in the middle of the 20th Century. We got there again in 2012. But back in 1985, Brigman and Jones Simonson were swimming upstream (despite ironically support in the X and Daredevil offices). No shrinking violets they decided to create a comic for kids, in universe, as the trend was going dark and mature. This was aligned as you will see with Star Comics launching, and specifically Misty, buy feminist icon/underground comics pioneer/Bay Area legend/Women in Comics Historian Trina Robbins. To me these are a HUGE deal. But at the time, I was as dismissive as anyone.
I have had the full run of Power Pack for about a decade. I take them out and read a few at a time while camping. But I do so randomly. This is actually my first proper reading of 11 & 12.
Which is shocking, because I read the ❌-Men issues that tie-in about a year after these were published…and they definitely affected me at the time. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
June is simply solid. So the cover is that. I am partial to the graphic nature of Julie’s rainbow power. Alex’s works for me, as I do love The Specials. I am a fan of other cloud based characters, so why not Jack. Katie is really great and probably my fav of the four as far as a character goes, but I think her powers kinda bore me. We will see.
They are obviously in the tunnels under NYC. Let’s look inside the comic.
Alex is using aerosol dust off to blow himself around the room, as he has reduced his gravity. I am sure this relevant narratively. While there definitely was some concern about ozone and climate, and absolutely environmentalism was a significant thing, the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole was unfortunately the same year as this comic came out. Mending wouldn’t even begin until 1986.
As you can see, as I turn the pages, as I pick up or leap to issues, as my mind informs the transition from panel to panel in the gutter, as I translate juxtaposed panels and cartooning elements on pages, I get lost in thought.
There is a lot of hate speech about Talmudic approaches to life. And I don’t study the Talmud. I am a product of the culture it informed. It is actually my heritage, as a Cohen, to remember, study, interpret, discuss, and inform. As an Honky American from “The West,” and as a byproduct of the Southern Plains and the Great Lakes, it is my nature and heritage to have a wandering pace. The wondering Jew and the Cowboy cultures are my way. I show up on time, I have work ethic, I am there for you in a pinch, I show up in struggle, but when left to my own, I meander and flow through a process of the day, that is practiced and professional to the point that I just do my thing, from before the sun rises, until after it sets.
To me this life is Talmudic and Cowboy. To me I do all my ancestors proud. Because it’s not mindless and it’s not idle, as I flow doing unselfish work and balance this with interest which investigates.
To me this is how to read a comic. This is why I reference it as Jewishness to read and discuss comics. The main reasons is, because to me this acknowledges Talmudic cultural habits to informing the process, while centering the central part of Talmud. To allow for everyone Jew and gentile equitable space to see themselves here and take ownership of it, but sharing as a community and understanding that this is not simple. It’s complicated and imperfect (like our unions), it our individual space and like all great paradox, absolutely also communal space.
I am sharing this here, as example, of my individual experience…meandering and trusting in process, while you as individuals are on your own journey…and together we build community brick by brick, panel by panel.
There is no gate keeper who can keep you out. And so we press on.
The siblings are being just that, as they explore their powers in their home.
Sometimes I get wry smile when I see, “Whitey came from space and gave us our powers.”
Walt Disney’s Micky Mouse
“…so we could save the world, not clean the house!”
Oh Jack.
Julie steals every scene with her rainbow flying.
Julie is like, we have to clean and then do homework.
Katie uses her light energy power to simply make the trash disappear. Okay, so Katie has the power to clean up the environment. She contains it as energy. Now she just needs a safe and practical way to release it. If only she had Calvin and Hobbes landline. Unfortunately this is March of 1985, and Calvin doesn’t start his environmentalist campaign to save the planet till November.
The girls have done their part and the boys are on the roof goofing off. What else is new in this binary heteronormative world?
Alex is now using the apartments hall fire extinguisher to propel himself. Julie’s expression tells us all we need to know.
The kids float into their bedroom through the window. Alex shakes his R2-D2 bank, as Jack enters his (in his smoke form) Hulk bank. Jack just spent all his, save a quarter (two packs of Now ‘n Laters + a tootsie roll), and Alex bought a book titled “Underground” (foreshadowing where we already know we are heading…but also showing he is somewhat informed about the tunnels beneath the city).
Julie and Katie’s are a polka dotted pig (the only one not promoting current Marvel comics) and a Miss Piggy…oops…those two dropped and smashed on the ground. Guess there is no legally obtained fire extinguisher propulsion system in their future.
“The Next Day After School…”
While absolutely kids all over America walk home on city streets (or frankly any road, dirt or paved), my impression is not every community full understands what it is to be a kid or kids walking home. Especially the way we Latch Key generation was doing this. I am also of the Bussing Generation (1970-1987, which is a distinction from the homogenized experience outside these years). Some like our rural community have door to door services. Many parents pick up and drop off from school their child’s entire life. But for many (absolutely outside of 1970-1987), experience the education of the streets and the dirt roads. To me this reads a specific and very relevant way here.
Random friend: “Bye Jack! Bye, Alex! See you tomorrow.”
Julie is being introspective and apologetic on this walk. Good egg.
A cat that looks like my cat (at this time) Gizmo…
…runs by and the chase is on.
…goes right in the gutter…
The girls are trying to “help” the cat.
Jack (whose future is a troll online): “Bossy Witch (Julie) is still at it…”
Can’t help himself, but to say whatever is in his head and then get with the program by volunteering to be the “knight in shining armor” to “help” kitty…who is an innocent. As are these children.
Down the drain Jack the puff of smoke goes.
No luck. I guess that’s one of New Yorkers finest talking to them: “…been washed into the city storm drains! It’s nothing but a tasty snack…”
Just noticed the Bonkers ad on the apposing page. That gum was fun.
Ok, so obviously we are talking alligators in sewer system. We didn’t have the internet, but every kid in America knew about the alligators in NYC’s sewer system.
Alex is a non believer. The three kids, minus Jack walk off, because of the Po Po.
Jack is back and is like, it’s sick down there just like your book said, Alex. And Alex was already thinking they got to go back, ‘cause cat.
Oh…there is a secret room…HELLA!
Katie is thinking she can disintegrate the manhole cover. Julie! Let the lil’ one do it!!!
It’s dark down there…but Katie can disintegrate the water and turn into a source of light. Lil’ Ben thinks that is sooo ICEY RAD!
Oh…she did this for the first time in the our swashbuckling issue…so glad we read that. Folks got to understand, we were watching shows like Voyagers! and 3, 2, 1 Contact, films like Cloak & Dagger …and Goonies was going to release in June.
We were on the streets and we were one step away from horror and adventure every step we took.
“Later”
“We’re lost!”
MEOOW
…
HISSSEERRRRRRRRR
Alex and Katie get separated from Jack and Julie. Conveniently for interpersonal relationships and plotting.
Alex and Katie are above ground. Their siblings have discovered the rumors are true…
It’s stealing, but
So they return, leaving the apartment building vulnerable to fire.
“While blocks away”
Julie and Jack save the cat
But the manhole cover has a car stopped on it, and only Jack can get through as a cloud.
And here comes the
Katie: “get away from sister!”
Shigeru Miyamoto’s Mario
Gosh these older siblings are always in Katie’s ear. They are the worst parents ever.
Finally they can move the manhole cover and they are out.
Ack
Cleaning costumes.
They have a 🐈 now and learned all they care to know of the underground…only Katie is like: “Except that we have to!”
We left our books!📚
So of course they were found by a mysterious (Morlock) and Katie’s address is: 12 W. 71st ST…as it says in the book.
The gators name is: Rudolph!
No. 12’a cover does nothing to try and hide what comes next…so Stan Lee and Marvel comics presents Power Pack, featuring The ❌-Men and The Morlocks…cue…
Literally playing as I am reading and typing.
Staring:
Alex Powers
Julie Powers
Jack Powers
Katie Powers
Kurt Wagner
Kitty Pryde
Lockheed
Annalee (debut, but mentioned as a catalyst for the primary plot already).
Piper Erg (debut)
Ape (debut)
Beautiful Dreamer (debut, an icon IMHO)
Tar Baby (Debut. I absolutely saw and read; had copies of the read along tape and book for Song of the South…still have I think…and yes, it’s racist!…this Tar Baby is unrelated, but we still make the connection in our minds eye)
Masque
Leech (debuted back in Uncanny 179, but we skipped that, so this is our introduction to this central character)
Callisto
Caliban
Kitty’s costume…I don’t understand the communication happening here. June pencils something that harkens back to when Kitty was…well a year younger. Louise and Glynis are absolutely aware that this is not the way. Kitty has gone through a transformation and her costume should be specific and on point. I am a bit shocked at this.
SubTitle: “Underground”
Jack starts us off: “I can’t believe we left our dumb books down in the storm drain today after we rescued the kitten!”
Oh Julie is Nancy Drew
“I heard music…and some of the alligators were wearing collars!”
Wait…they brought the cat! Mom might be allergic…seems kinda lame logic. So all five, cat included are right back where they were last issue.
And here are their greeting party: Erg (I JUST LOVE ERG’s design), Piper (I do not love Piper’s), Tar Baby (also big a fan), and Ape (who ages well to me; there is an entire study of the effects of gorillas on sales of comics in the middle of the century…there is also so racist coding going back hundreds of years…are they linked?! Here?!)
The Powers Kids are living that kidnapped life too!!! So here we go. Taken.
“Meanwhile”
Kitty and Kurt traverse trash (I love the explanation of it as a deterrent to outsiders)…it’s a bit odd that Kurt, who’s power is to teleport through a foul smelling dimension, leaving a lingering odder, AND Kitty who phases through this place all the time now, are even taking the time to notice…but thanks for thinking of the reader.
Weird catch up conversation that misleads and then corrects…
Anyway they are there to thank them for saving another kidnappers life, Chuck, and deliver gifts for kidnappers Callisto and Caliban.
Callisto gets a postcard from Kenya from her leader/rival Ororo. And Caliban gets a sleeveless sweater from Japan; “Shushi!” I feel like (and perhaps we will see) this becomes a core part of his costume and I don’t realize this is its origin…a present from his once child bride to be now “FRIEND!” Kitty Pryde.
As odd as this is, I really love this moment a lot.
Down a tunnel or so, the kidnappers are finding some resistance from the children.
Ape turns into a Jar. That’s kinda a proto Glob Herman look.
He gets Julie and Jack in him and the other two kids are in sacks.
The plot, which was kinda obvious, but no less important, is revealed.
Annalee’s children were shot and killed (see my Previously notes going back a couple chapters; Twenty-Six)…because this is really important to keep in mind) by surface folk, so to make things equitable and balanced karmically is to kidnap some surface kids who found their way into the underground, and deliver Annalee her replacement children.
As a kid, the only thing I was actually afraid of was Kidnapping. It remains the context of the most horrific scenarios I can image. To be taken, trafficked, incarcerated, enslaved, inaccessibility and equity…what happens in these contexts have a spectrum off banality and horrors, but to not be free by will is what kept me up at night and is what drives my empathy.
And so…as the kindness of Kurt and Kitty are set to exit, enters the horrors of choice by Piper, Zerg, Tar Baby and Ape.
Kurt gets an inkling, but somehow dismisses this, despite their personal experience informing possibility…thankfully Lookheed is present and the best X-Man!
“Grrr-humph!”
Caliban, who’s instinct is to be helpful when loves desires aren’t getting twisted, explains these four “the Drain Dwellers” and Leech spend their time with Annalee as they are instructed by Callisto to keep Annalee’s powers from going out of control. “But you must be mistaken about the children! Annalee’s kids were murdered by surface dwellers!”
Only now the door has been slammed behind them. Like that can keep a Kurt or Kitty out.
The Power kids are fighting for their life on the other side down a tunnel.
Presented to Annalee, who addresses Katie by name (which irks Alex, after two issues ago being so concerned over secret identities, because of events in an issue we skipped).
Beautiful Dreamer will give them better secret identities, Annalee scarily suggests.
Beautiful Dreamer is resisting the plan, as Callisto forbids it…but Piper has a loophole in the rules…they are found in the underground, not on the surface. Masque will change their faces and Beautiful Dreams smoke will erase their memories.
Annalee will have her children back.
Levels above (still underground), Caliban says goodbye to his X-friends. Kitty is kvetching about being mature, having to navigate “love.” And Kurt is sarcastic in his response, which reveals or confirms Kitty is 16. Having grown three years in about six, but she might turn 16 a few more times in the pages of ❌-Men…and don’t expect her to be any older by the end of “to me my -Men.” In part because of time traveling…
The kids plot while their new family warms their mitts around a fireplace trash drum. Leech stands by, cuddling with the kitten. Our first exposure captures how we should feel. Love. We LOVE LEECH! He is a child, and he is as caught up in this as the Power Kids, actually far more so.
His mutant power is to dampen other mutant powers. This affects all those in the room, including Power Pack.
The kids by Annalee’s direction are not bound very efficiently.
The kids think they must and can deal with Leech.
Near by, Kitty is finding the effect of Leech on her. She is unable to phase through a closed door. Reasonable to assume Kurt will have the same luck.
Kitty speaks to what we all wonder, what power does Annalee have that requires Leech to be by her side like this.
Masque has arrived and is reaching for Katie…but I question what can happen as Leech is there.
Julie knocks down Leech. Grabs the cat and runs. Leech runs after her, leaving Power Pack, the rest of the Morlocks, and Kitty and Kurt with their powers working.
Kitty phases/falls through the closed door.
Powers Kids cause havoc.
Annalee is in distress.
Oh…that’s right! She causes those rounder her to fall into misery as she has…perhaps it is whatever emotion, but her current life is despair and grief. Which is why the drain dwellers and Leech are dispatched to her side…and why they are all motived to enable the kidnapping. Perhaps they too feel unfree with this context.
Ape is PacMan! This books is absolutely from 1985!
Oh right Erg shoots zig zag lasers from their good eye. ZAP!
Kitty and Kurt show up, and Power pack thinks they are more Morlocks.
Jack: “Yeah! And this one (Kurt) smalls worse than the others!”
Matt Groening’s The Simpsons
To much talking, plot explanations!
Julie is fast enough to grab kitty from Leech, before his powers work on her.
A common lesson in my PreK class is basic Jr. year physics. Light is white. If you are looking at a screen reading this you are seeing refracted or non-refracted light. If you have a prism (like we have hanging in my window filled classroom) or have some rain and sun, you are experiencing visually the refraction of white light and it is turning into other colors. A rainbow or whatever. In fact the world is black, but light hits it and is refracted by density of objects and the color reflected off the surface is light that is unable to be absorbed into that object. So what is being project at you is filtered light representing the IRL reflected lights in our world. So she is moving really fast and we can see a rainbow as she passes.
But not so fast that she doesn’t hear…
Leech: “Alone. Like poor Annalee.”
Julie: Humph! What’s so poor about Annalee?”
“Meanwhile…” Kurt V PacMan
Etc…
Julie and Leech show.
Julie: “Everybody…STOP!”
Annalee: “Little Angel! You’ve come home to Mama!” Julie: You’re NOT my Momma!”
Julie and Leech make clear that this is kidnapping and that it is against their rules and that it is the same kinda thing that happened to her children and her (Annalee).
And Annalee takes the sympathy and tosses it out, when it is suggested she take Leech in as her child. She calls him “ugly.” She wants her “pretty darlings.”
They make clear that’s not happening. Leech gives them the cat.
Piper is like, her mystery infects us and drives us made…you understand. Sure buddy.
Kurt and Kitty see an issue to figure out. They plan on writing Ororo to have her decide the fate of the kidnappers.
They escort the kids home.
They fall asleep, but Annalee is outside.
Uncanny X-Men No. 195 is the last of my Boulder, CO 25¢ bin finds (I believe), and for some reason I also cut out a couple of Rogue panels in this one too! Was I doing a collage project?! Weirdo!
Logan has Katie on the cover and this is absolutely totally bull. Logan has a code and it is that he will destroy an army to save a lil’ girl! So I guess he is possessed or worse…Bill Sienkiewicz is a sicko! Hint: Bill is NO SICKO! *Bill does the cover…and you need his signature to tell.
Having seen that, let’s see how the Powers family looks in Romita Jr and Mr. Green’s hands.
Now this only works because Romita Jr. is on model enough with Brigman. The Powers family looks like the Powers family. On the cover Sienkiewicz rains it in and has the adaptability to do the same.
In 1944 & 1945, Ruth Atkinson’s Patsy Walker and Millie Collins respective debuts, the on model had not yet been refined. Dan DeCarlo defined Millie, with his signature style that eventually merged with Bob Montana’s and became the universally understood Archie look. At the same time development of Patsy’s look was in the hands of Al Jaffee, who then passed the torch to Al Hartley. Patsy is relevant to us here because of her role as a Defender. Millie is tied in through an issue there two. We have already mentioned Trina Robbins’ Misty (1985-1986’s Misty Six Issue Limited Series by T. Robbins, M. Severin, Rosen, Novak, Parker + Nocenti), , who is a relation to Millie and pages revive Millie’s character in 1985. Of course Marie Severin is there as creator, as her role through the decades creatively and in terms of office management is central to Marvels story. Misty is also on model, but in an update to reflect Barbie’s iconic look of the 80’s. Trina is not the most versatile or refined cartoonist, but this was absolutely in her wheelhouse. It works!
We of course included our own chapter that featured links to this world building; Chapter Thirteen.
We don’t spend nearly enough time thinking and conversing about the dynamics at play here.
The company has a brand that is reliant on the on model look. The audience is compelled to buy predictably by this look, but is also driven to be grown by taking a risk of artistic innovations in the visual lexicon. The individual cartoonists can be made to feel comfortable in producing a product that is refined and predictable. This eases their process, and for a time sustains their pay. The individual cartoonist is also partial to self expression and disruption of norms, by opportunity to use their art to communicate and to utilize their power to gain equities. The collaborative realities also create clicks of support to evolve or sustain. These dynamics are always at play.
Kirby was refined and working in a verity of genres in the 50’s. But by the time he was creating FF and certainly by the time he left for DC less than a decade later, he had defined his look. That look was influential, but not a contributor to an on model look, like Romita Sr. Same for Ditko.
And here we are in another era, where Sienkiewicz, Miller, and Mazzucchelli can work on model, but are working in an entirely different direction. This will join folks like Art Adams and Marc Silvestri to help facilitate the McFarlane and friends to complete disrupt the on model predictability of the marketplace, and Marvel itself. And somehow as this is unfolding we have the son of the man who defined the on model look for Spider-Man, and at times took over that characters visual lexicon, being able to thread the needle that balances Kirby and Romita Sr…while making not his own and make it work in Brigman’s sandbox. An essential aspect, because Masque the character’s powers require audience fluency in what Katie Powers face looks like now…
The three panel tiered first page sets us up so nicely. We have successfully made the transition from children’s story to adolescent horrors.
Splash page of the family startled works on all cylinders.
BA- BOOM!
Jim and Margaret the Powers parents are here. Lots of Marvel staff have Jim’s look. This is basically prototypical Marvel office looks for the parents in this story.
All the kids stuff is gone as the storm and explosion has awoke the family. The kids are confused, but not as much as the unaware parents. As these are not their children. They have no children. Jack makes the kitchen turn to fog, as the parents see their children disappear. I don’t know how many times they actually witnessed this in Power Pack’s first year, but it is not nearly as often as it actually happens to them.
Introducing Mr. Ortiz, their sleepy neighbor. I am immediately transported back to my childhood neighborhood and the nonsense we kids placed at folks doors and how awesome they were as community leaders.
Oh…Mr Ortiz been memory wiped.
The three adults are out in the rain, confused and unable to figure out what is happening. As all three don’t recognize these children at all.
Referencing Katie’s tooth from back PP No. 4
Which I almost included. Oops.
The kids are on the run, but this time is towards the trap they know they must face to fix their lives.
Hero stuff.
Right into the hands of the drain gang…and an iconic panel of Masque’s fingers pulling skin off Katie’s face.
She makes a run for it. Subway runs by…scary AF. Police hand reaches for her, she blasts him, because of the experience with Masque.
Katie is captured and treated as a mutant Morlock by the authorities and hospital. Kitty sees her new face on the news. And this is unfolding iconically. Kitty in the right mindset and costume. Katie has been rescued by Kitty. Rogue in the right digs, Rachel dressed down from last time, Logan in the brown costume…
Katie has little kid thoughts and Kitty a kid herself is there with appropriate empathy and hutzpah.
Katie finds Logan scary and Rachel speaks the truth we have learned in this here story: “He sure is, but there’s none better to have on your side when you’re in trouble.”
She asked permission and provides context before connecting this group together to experience the events through Katie’s perspective. Hmmm…what a novel approach to protecting agency.
Logan believes in Callisto as trustworthy. It must be her sent and code of conduct,
Team phasing around. I LOVE THIS POWER!
They track all the way to the room Annalee has set up with their stuff in the tunnels. The other three Powers kids have been changed by Beautiful Dreamer and Masque.
Lots of Morlocks have their backs. And Leech is not around.
WHAMMO!
Rogue punches and exit.
And in perhaps my favorite page of entire chapter, Leech grabs her face from behind…but it is skin to skin…so the kid passes out and she becomes a power damper. Which apparently is fine with her. The ethics of this is complex, because the ❌-Men have to pull punches as these are all their allies. Which to me is how superhero comics should be. This is the moral dilemma I am actually about.
Hah…just as I say that…Logan and Kitty make it to the tunnels and Logan is like, I have to use my claws…no choice and Kitty is like…okay. Have fun.
Katie is with Annalee and her brainwashed sibs. Katie is telling Annalee she sucks. And at the last second Kitty and then Callisto show to stop Beautiful Dreamer, Masque and Annalee. I still feel this page like it was the 80’s.
Postmortem is a return to normal and empathic understanding. Annalee has a real tragedy and everyone in the room gets that. Hugs goodbye.
And just then, Rachel received an alert from the school…by MAGNETO?!!?
Next: Mutants Vol 1 No. 29-31
