Van Lente’s mini was pretty good, too. There’s a priceless scene in the last issue where Katie blows up. . . ah, but that would be telling.

Thing was: while I enjoyed the slick art, the stories were trite. It was like reading an adaptation of an afternoon cartoon series from the ’80s. Lots of little stories that require no set-up and so can be resolved in a page. And not very memorable. The only thing that sticks is that there was a Halloween episode and Jack dressed as Wolverine along with tons of other people. A cute moment, but not enough to make the series a win.

Simonson had these kids and their lives nailed. She created interesting stories and evolved their lives and personalities through those stories. Sumerak’s version seems to be pandering to a vision of young readers who I just don’t see out there.

I did end up giving the two volumes to the class. And they read them very quickly and instead of saying whether they liked the books, they asked when volume 21 of Usagi Yojimbo would be coming out. These are fifth graders and in the end, it turns out that they found Sumerak’s Power Pack to be a book “for kids.”

I’m just not sure which kids.

So has Iron Man tried to draft the Power Pack yet, or sicced the Thunderbolts on them?