Spider-Man and Power Pack #2 Review

by Lindsay Young, CMRO Contributing Writer

Spider-Man and Power Pack

Issue #1

Written by Marc Sumerak, Art by Gurihiru

Published: February 2007

Despite my lacklustre review, I decided to check out the second issue, because I am a little curious to read about teeny tiny Peter Parker. As much as I’m not a fan of cutesy shenanigans, I’m still a sucker for pretty much any story revolving around Spider-man.

This issue actually starts out asking the exact same questions that I asked in my previous review–why on earth would Spider-man go to the Power Pack and not any of his science buddies? The answer? He’s embarrassed. Uh. Okay. Well, I guess we have to justify this team-up somehow, but I’m still not sure why he contacted them at all if he feels like he has to handle this one “his own way.”

He also immediately trusts them–but why? He’s only met them briefly in a fight. It’s not that I think the PP are sinister–they’re cute kids–but the level of intimacy between them and Spidey, and the amount of trust he has for them, just feels contrived and forced.

Part of the reason why I don’t buy the Power Pack is that I don’t buy that supervillains would fixate on them. If they take down a villain alongside Spiderman, I firmly believe that they’d focus on Spiderman–the adult, the established hero. The Power Pack are just a bunch of kids with superpowers. It feels a bit contrived that the Sandman is after them now. They just don’t feel like true threats–they’re so obviously new to this. Maybe I could buy it after they’ve had a few solo victories under their belt, but as-is their victory over Sandman was really Spider-man’s. They helped, sure, but in the end he was the one to pull out the “flush” pun that saved the day.

The issue does end on a pretty funny gag, but it’s a gag that’s necessitated by a really cheap ploy to reverse the plot twist of the previous issue. Overall, still not buying the Power Pack. This will probably be my last adventure with them for a while.