Power Pack 40 - Inferno

Power Pack team up with the New Mutants to rescue Rebecca from the Bogeyman.

Power Pack #40

Written with E.S.P. by Louise Simonson
Penciled A.S.A.P. by Sal Velluto
Inked in his R.V. by Gerry Talaoc
Lettered with H.P. by Joe Rosen
Colored with T.L.C. by Glynis Oliver
Edited in N.Y.C. by Carl Potts
S.W.A.K. by Tom DeFalco

(This issue has been included in the actual Inferno collections but the chronology of the New Mutants' appearances and a caption on the first page place it earlier in the sequence here.)

Following on from last issue the Pack sneak out to hunt for Rebecca but instead run into the New Mutants who are on the same quest. After a brief fight before each team realises who the others are they agree to work together and try an unusual tactic of flushing out Carmody the Bogeyman through sending fake photographs to the police and media. It's amazing how quickly the media accept the photographs as genuine and run them - especially J. Jonah Jameson who is seen receiving one who should know by now to think twice before rushing to print but the tactic works and the Bogeyman soon swoops in to carry off Katie.

The rest of Power Pack and the New Mutants follow to discover that a disgraced ex energy executive has set up his own villain's lair complete with multiple robots and a video screen with which he communicates with the demon N'astirh. Carmody is a bigot but also completely amoral and willing to abandon the Right at the first sign of problems for its leader and is instead seeking to sell Rebecca and Katie to N'astirh who also talks about Carmody's soul. It's an odd exchange unless one assumes Carmody is speaking metaphorically and not realising N'astirh is more literal. But Rebecca is deemed too old and so only Katie interests the demon. The others attack and Illyana eventually throws Carmody into Limbo.

It's surprising how the Bogeyman's fate is just brushed over with Illyana commenting how he's been put "where he deserves to be" without any discussion as to the ethics of the sorceress serving as a one girl judge, jury and executioner. The others return Rebecca to her family and discover how they intend to regain secrecy through moving and changing their name. Meanwhile the Pack decide that it would better to not tell their parents about their secret.

This is another action issue that seeks to step up the threat of the Bogeyman through the revelation of his greater resources and contacts with demons. But it feels slightly off that a man initially motivated solely by anti-mutant bigotry (never realising that the four Power children aren't mutants) is now going down the route of a mutant slave trader and has someone made contact with demons in another dimension. It feels too contrived just to bring Power Pack further into the orbit of the looming Inferno. It's also a bit of a continuity mess as we're introduced to N'astirh's involvement and part of his plan a little too early due to the placing of this issue in the New Mutants' chronology.

This was Louise Simonson's last issue on the series she co-created and she would not return to the Pack until a holiday special at the end of 1991 that sought to wrap things up in a better way than the last issues of the regular series left things. There's no grand conclusion beyond the conversation at the end to decide once and for all on the question of whether the children should tell their parents about their powers. Otherwise it's not the best point to bow out on.