CBR Live! Archive
Snark Free Corner for 7/23
Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!
Enjoy!
FUN RUN
This week's fun run is Louise Simonson's run on Power Pack.
Simonson worked on Power Pack for about 40 issues, with two main artists, June Brigman and Jon Bogdanove.
With the Power family, a group of four young siblings who gain superpowers via a visiting alien, Simonson created such three-dimensional characters that the characters almost seemed to write themselves.
Simonson tried to make the characters as realistic as possible, but without sacrificing engaging stories (as might be the danger if you strive for realism).
As the series went on, although it did well critically, sales was never a strong suit of the book. Luckily, in one of the nicest shows of support you will see, other Marvel creators began to guest-star Power Pack in their comics, including one particularly good issue of Uncanny X-Men where Katie Power "teams up" with Wolverine in a brilliant match-up, as Katie needs Wolverine's help to survive a brutal attack by the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike, but at the same time, Wolverine needs KATIE to help survive the attack with his psyche intact, as his animal instincts were beginning to overpower him. A nice job by Claremont, but the fact that Katie worked so well in the role is a nod to a job well done by Louise Simonson.
As additional sales were reached for, guest stars began to proliferate the book, but Simonson still managed for the most part to make the guest-appearances appear natural, and a bit off-beat (like the Powers inviting Wolverine, Kitty Pryde and Beta Ray Bill to Thanksgiving supper).
The original artist, June Brigman, was masterful with facial expressions (she is now doing a bang-up job on the Brena Starr comic strip). She was followed by Jon Bogdanove, who had a bit more of an action style, but still had a good feel for the characters (he followed Simonson as the book's writer).
Together they worked on the most action-packed Power Pack arc, as they got caught up in a battle on an alien world, facing off against the bad guy aliens (I would tell you the name of their race, but I'm afraid this installment is free of them 
) who they initially fought in the first issue, where a good guy alien gave them their powers (and their own talking robot ship, Friday!!).
At the end of the storyline, Simonson had the clever idea of switching everyone's powers, and really, the switch made a lot more sense than the original mix of powers (although the original mix has a great nostalgic tug for me - and it's the one they use in Power Pack comics today).
Alex (the oldest) originally had gravity powers.
Julie (the second-oldest) originally had flight powers (when she flew at high speeds, she had a rainbow effect behind her)
Jack (the second-youngest) originally had the power to control his mass (he count turn into mist, etc).
Katie (the youngest) originally had energy powers, and she could disintegrate matter and then turn that matter into energy blasts
The oddity of having a cute little girl have such destructive powers was a clever idea, but when the switch happened, Alex got the powers, and it probably made more sense to have such destructive powers in the hands of an older child.
Katie got the fun rainbow flying powers.
Jack got Alex's old gravity powers and Julie got Jack's old mass-control powers.
In any event, Simonson left the book soon after (after about ten issues or so where she'd write one, then there would be a fill-in, etc.), and she left behind a legacy of a great group of characters.
A legacy that Marc Sumerak and Fred Van Lente are living up to today with their work on the series of Power Pack mini-series that Marvel has been putting out the last year or so.
COVER THEME GAME
As always, here is the game. I show three covers. They all have something in common, whether it be a character, a trait all three characters share, locale, creator, SOMEthing. And it isn't something obvious like "They all have prices!" "They all have logos!" "They all feature a man!" etc.
In addition, please note that you must have some familiarity with comic book history to correctly guess these comics. You cannot guess the connective theme just by looking at the covers solely, you must have some knowledge beyond just the covers.
Good luck! A cool point to the first person to figure it out!
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SNARK FREE CHALLENGE
Which of the four Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim and Stephanie) was the worst?
THE COVER GAME
This week's game is as follows...
Find me a cover from either Superman (either volumes), Action Comics, Adventures of Superman or Superman: Man of Steel that features both Superman AND Clark Kent on it!
It doesn't count if Clark and/or Superman are floating heads (or in the corner box), and just to be difficult, it also doesn't count if the cover is a shot of Superman changing from/into Clark Kent.
For example (and you can't use this one!), this Superman cover is the type I'm looking for...
Remember, only one cover per commenter!
Good luck!
WHO IS IT?
Remember, tell me who it is and what number clue gave it away!
1. This character is an alien.
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2. This character is from Baaltar IV.
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3. This character died in one of the lead ups to Infinite Crisis.
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4. This character debuted in the pages of Valor.
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5. This character was a Darkstar.
Who is it?
Well, that's it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.
Hope you had fun!
- Posted on July 23, 2007 @ 09:24 PM
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24 Comments
J.C.
July 24, 2007 at 3:29 am
Hellboy, Maxx, Archie...Right Hands of Doom?
Rusty Priske
July 24, 2007 at 5:40 am
Doesn't a question about 'who is the worst' violate the spirit of a snark-free zone?
It was Jason Todd, by the way. Easily. (Though Stephanie was better as Spoiler than Robin.)
acespot
July 24, 2007 at 5:48 am
Hah. I was thinking that too. Archie's is more figurative than literal, since he's strapped into the polygraph, specifically the model created by William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman.
Jason was definitely the worst Robin. He was an asshole, had no desirable traits other than street smarts to warrant his choice as Robin, and consistently failed to take direction. He was often way too brutal on foes, whice runs contrary to one of the main purposes of Robin which is to temper Batman's darker impulses.
Stephanie was my favorite. Thank god for Bill Willingham for giving her that brief moment of glory before the powers that be enacted her awful death. Where's her trophy case in the Batcave?
Chaser Bron. Clue #2. He's the only comics character I know of to have been from Baaltar IV (or any other planet in the Baaltar system, for that matter).
I don't remember his death in the lead up to infinite crisis. When did that happen?
His first appearance I do remember, though, it was in Valor #9.
Glenn Simpson
July 24, 2007 at 6:12 am
I think you have to split Jason Todd into pre-Crisis "nice" Jason and post-Crisis "jerk' Jason.
Obviously post-Crisis "jerk" Jason was the worst.
On Power Pack - there was a great scene in the issue where the powers get switched. Jack, the second-youngest, was always ill-tempered and impatient. He was the "dark" one on the team, always ready to try to kick someone's ass.
So the way the powers got re-distributed was that, for example, Katie was falling, so she got the flying power to save her. The evil alien-not-to-be-named queen watches as Alex, Katie, and Julie exhibit their new powers while she meanwhile has been cornered by Jack. There's this great caption where evil alien queen realizes that by process of elimination, Jack has gotten the disintegration power - and he's the one person who would actually use it on another living creature...she basically pees herself.
GarBut
July 24, 2007 at 8:23 am
Here's another SNARK FREE CHALLENGE, hot on the heels of the COVER GAME:
What's Archie's answer to Veronica on that cover?
yo go re
July 24, 2007 at 9:04 am
even if you split Jason Todd into pre- and post-Crisis incarnations, he's still the worst. Yes, after they changed his story he was a dark jerk who pushed things too far, but originally he was just a blatant clone of Dick Grayson in not only personality, but origin as well. How very unnecessary!
I liked what became of Alex Power in New Warriors, years ago: having grown up, the kids found that they could swap powers at will and Alex, being the oldest, had the most control over it. So he'd borrow everyone's powers at once and go help the Wariors - hope the other kids didn't get in any scrapes while he was doing that, though...
yo go re
July 24, 2007 at 9:26 am
and the only thing I can think of for the cover theme is that they all had cartoons, but that "theme" could work for almost any of the cover games...
Adam Jones
July 24, 2007 at 9:43 am
Jason Todd.
Nuff said...
Matt D
July 24, 2007 at 10:00 am
Characters aren't really better than other characters. They're just handled better.
And every Robin except for maybe Tim has been handled horribly at one point or another.
Stephanie was probably handled the worst.
I think Jason is actually starting to turn around, FINALLY. Sardonic Jason Todd is a whole lot better than evil killer Jason Todd.
Birmy
July 24, 2007 at 10:13 am
I'm going to join the chorus in saying "Jason Todd." Annoying from the very beginning, he wasn't even good at his job; I was continually baffled by Batman's assertion for years after that he was a "good soldier." NO, HE WASN'T. He might have lived had he actually been a "good soldier." Plus, we now have to endure "Superboy Punch" Jason Todd, a plot development just behind "Norman Osborn impregnated Gwen Stacy" and "Nightcrawler's dad is a demon" in awfulness.
Hmm, that wasn't snark-free at all, was it? Okay... ummmm: comics sure are neat!
Ian
July 24, 2007 at 11:14 am
The worst Robin would have to be the one that was barely a Robin at all. The Spoiler girl (that has been very prominent here these last couple days) seems to be the most pointless and least interesting Robin.
The Mad Monkey
July 24, 2007 at 1:02 pm
The Cover Game...Part 1
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=36717&zoom=4
The Mad Monkey
July 24, 2007 at 1:06 pm
The Cover Game...Part 2
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=39747&zoom=4
The Mad Monkey
July 24, 2007 at 1:09 pm
aww crap...why didn't you include DC Comics Presents?
well...I did...so there...nyah
lol
Crooow
July 24, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Not counting issue 16 (May/June 1942) where we had Clark and a Superman statue, the first Superman cover to show both Clark and Supes was Superman #30, September/October 1944.
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=3811&zoom=4
Jeff Albertson
July 24, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Pre-crisis Jason Todd actually had a reason to be "Robin" - his parents died helping Batman and Robin on a case,so Bruce Wayne had a reason for feeling responsible for him. Furthermore, since he had the same upbringing/background as Dick Grayson, Batman actually had a reason for thinking he'd do OK as a sidekick. The story of him becoming Robin was established over a long time - it wasn't something that Batman or Dick Grayson allowed lightly. In short, everything was done right to set him up as the logical and rightful successor.
I can't talk about post-Crisis (more properly, post-Max Collins/Denny O'Neil) Jason Todd without violating the snark free requirement. Let's just say that there did not appear to be nearly as much thought put into either his or Batman's motivations for the revamped story.
Power Pack by Simonson was quite good. I thought it fit nicely with the X-Men/New Mutants books of the same vintage. I like the new series by Sumerak and Gurihiru, but it's not the same.
Brian Cronin
July 24, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Snark-free just means that there isn't any snark. You can still criticize a book or character without snark. In fact, I think that's sometimes a fun challenge to do (which is why I include them occasionally), to see if you can criticize something without using snark, which has become such a critical crutch.
John Seavey
July 24, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I really want an 'Essential Power Pack'.
And yes, I know I said this about 'ROM', too. Doesn't make it any less true.
Mike M
July 24, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I rank as one of the few people who LIKE pre-death, post-crisis Jason Todd BECAUSE he was an asshole, annoying, and a fuckup, he was generally an interesting character, and one i found endearing and different. He might have been the worst at his job (dunno, Steph might be worse, I never read anything with her in it, besides her death) but he's second only to Dick in terms of my favorites. Although I don't like the direction or the explanation for Red Hood, I do hope that him being back might give a chance for Jason Todd stories down the line that I might enjoy
Cove West
July 24, 2007 at 11:07 pm
POWER PACK was all sorts of effervescent fun. And yeah, props to the other writers of the time for using them. One of my faves was in THOR (Walt was her husband, he HAD to use them!) when the Power family runs into the Warriors Three and Hogun scares the Hela out of Alex. Also the Secret Wars II THOR issue, a team-up with Beta Ray Bill (who, as Katie rightly points out, isn't a human bean); Thor shows up and is really sweet to the kids. And of course the UNCANNY appearances, especially #205 (the Wolverine/Katie issue), and their cool assist of X-Factor during Fall of the Mutants. The Pack was one of the instrumental pieces of Marvel's '80s cohesion.
Jason was the worst character to be Robin, but Stephanie had the worst tenure. Jason (post-Crisis, anyway) I could see, since he eventually became an example that not just any orphaned kid could do what Bruce and Dick did, that Bruce and Dick were extraordinary individuals. And then Tim comes along and has to prove his way into the job, in some ways even surpassing Dick. So naturally, someone had the bright idea to give Tim his own Jason, despite the fact that Dixon had already proven that Stephanie couldn't do the job that well anyway. But what the hell, she's just a kid; no one will care if she's tortured and killed and forgotten. Not like she's in Power Pack or anything (sorry Brian! Sometimes snark IS the kindest thing I can say!)
Derek B. Haas
July 25, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hellboy, the Maxx, and Archie have all been adapted into cartoon animation.
DanCJ
July 25, 2007 at 10:07 am
It's no judgement of his competence at the job, but Dick is easily my least favourite Robin.
Theme game... Superman 410
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=40293&zoom=4
DanCJ
July 25, 2007 at 10:08 am
And by the way - I liked Jason Todd as well
Rob M
July 26, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Cover game: Action #409 http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=24845&zoom=4