Power Pack 43 - Inferno

The Bogeyman has captured the Pack's parents and seemingly destroyed the family forever.

Power Pack #43

Jon Bogdanove wrote without distraction
Jon Bogdanove, Sal Velluto penciled to good reaction
Stan Drake, Al Williamson and Company inked in fractions
Joe Rosen lettered-in the captions
Glynis Oliver colored this attraction
Carl Potts can't get no satisfaction
Tom DeFalco Chief of Hoo-Haa Action

Carmody the Bogeyman has captured the Pack's parents and forced the children to reveal their secret powers. He takes off across New York with the four Powers in pursuit but anger and an inability to wait to work together works against them. They come across demons attacking people and pause to deal with them. Meanwhile in space Kofi learns the Kymellians have rebuilt Friday the living smartship but the ship's essence is fading away and nobody can understand why. The Bogeyman climbs the Chrysler Building and taunts Power Pack as they approach and attack. They save their parents but are left uncertain what to do with the Bogeyman who will just keep coming back. In anger Alex determines to kill him but the parents talk the children down and tell them they love them still. The Bogeyman is outraged at this display of familial affection and charges at them but goes over the edge, falling into a raging fire. The children take their parents home as the city seems to be returning to normal.

This issue starts with one of the biggest moments in the entire series - the Powers' parents discovering their children have powers and are using them. Much debated both in the series itself and on the letters page the matter has been forced by the intervention of their revenge seeking archenemy, raising the stakes. Inferno supplies the backdrop to the changes in Carmody and also demons who provide a distraction in the chase but this is a highly personal tale focused on their true worst nightmare.

It's a story of discovery with both Alex and Julie finding new ways to use their powers - Alex can now fire multiple smaller powerballs at the same time and Julie can generate a molecular density field of condensed air - along with the family as a whole discovering about each other. At first Jim and Maggie react in disbelief but when they see their children acting to defend the family they remind them they are still their children and loved no matter what with Maggie even reminding Julie of a past conversation when she said she'd love her even if she could fly. Jim and Maggie have been put through quite a bit over the course of the series without knowing why things keep happening to their family so it makes sense they can understand what's happening and not much of a further stretch that they can accept it. However some will find it far too lubby dubby and can sympathise with the outrage of Carmody as he reacts in disgust, recalls his own harsh childhood and then cannot come to terms with the monster he has become.

However the very end of the issue suggests a different track as the children head out to help with the clear-up operation and the final panel shows their parents in total shock. Was a change forced upon this story that we'll see in the next issue? The cover to this one has a scrap of paper on it with "An introduction to Xavier's Sch... Gifted You..." and the cover to the next issue previewed at the end here shows the four children flying away from their parents with a suitcase and crying with some of the New Mutants in the background. Was there a plan to send them off to Xavier's school and overlap with the New Mutants more often?

At its heart Power Pack is a series about family and this issue challenges the dynamic like nothing before it. The dark world around them is as nothing to the darkness that has invaded their family and it's understandable how the children react in fury rather than thinking calmly, whether it's Katie charging off without the others or Alex determining to kill Carmody. And this is that rare issue that truly changes everything, doing so in spectacular style.