The
original members of the Power Pack are Alex, Jack, Julie, and Katie Power, four
pre-adolescent children, who are siblings to each other, who were granted superhuman
powers by a member of the alien Kn race.
The
children's father, Dr. James Power
sought a new means of deriving large quantities of energy inexpensively for peaceful
purposes. He discovered a method of converting matter to antimatter without impractically
large expenditures of energy. Dr. Power designed a machine, which could open a
small portal into another universe, which had different scientific laws than our
own. The machine could then project a small amount of matter, held within a magnetic
force field, into the other universe, where, through unknown processes, the charge
and spin of the matter's atoms would be changed, causing the matter to become
antimatter. The machine would then withdraw the antimatter back into Power's own
universe, and remove the magnetic held, allowing the antimatter to contact matter
under controlled conditions. Matter and antimatter annihilate each other upon
contact, each being entirely converted into vast amounts of energy. Dr. Power
called his machine, which was built under a government grant, a matter/antimatteverter. Dr.
Powers's discovery came to the attention of Aelfyre
Whitemane, who went by the nickname "Whitey," and who was a Kymellian,
a member of a non-humanoid alien race that lived elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Whitey was a scientist whose field was the study of alien races, and his first
assortment was the observation of Earth's humans. He carried out this assignment
by monitoring Earth communications transmissions and by tapping into Earth computers
from his sentient starship, called a "smartship." Both Whitey and his
smartship developed a deep affection for humanity through studying Earth's literature;
indeed, the smartship named itself "Friday" after a character in Daniel
Defoe's "Robinson." Upon
learning of Dr. Power's discovery through monitoring Earth computers, Whitey determined
to do what he could to prevent its being used. In ages past the Kymellians had
discovered the same process but they tested it without realizing that they had
not yet mastered all of the physics that the process involved. As a result, they
had unwittingly set off a chain reaction that destroyed their planet, killing
all the Kymellians living upon it. However, there were still many Kymellians living
on space stations and on planets they had colonized, so the race continued to
survive. The Kymellians have since completely mastered this matter/antimatter
conversion process, which is their main source of energy, but because of its danger
and destructive potential, they keep the process a closely guarded secret from
other races. Whitey feared that the testing of Power's matter/antimatter converter
might similarly destroy the Earth, and he sent a message to the Kymellians telling
them of Power's discovery and asking permission to warn Power of the conversion
process's dangers despite Kymellian laws against interference wit races. The
message was intercepted by the Z'nrx, a reptilian race from another galaxy whom
Whitey called "Snarks" after the monster in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting
of the Snark. The Sharks intended to use the matter/antimatter conversion process
that Power had discovered as a weapon against their own galaxy. Therefore, they
jammed Whitey's message, preventing it from reaching the Kymellians, and shot
down Whitey's smartship. The Snarks thought that they had destroyed it, but actually
they had only damaged the smartship, and it landed on Earth near Dr. Power's home.
The Snarks then kidnapped Dr. Power and his wife Margaret, intending to force
them to reveal the formula for the matter/antimatter converocess. Dr.
Power's four children found Whitey's smartship and two of them, Alex and Katie,
met Whitey himself. Aelfyre Whitemane was a Kymellian "sorcerer." He
did not have any actual magical abilities, but all Kymallians are born with the
potential for powers for absorbing and projecting energy, for altering the molecular
density of matter, for moving themselves at superhuman speed either through teleportation
or flight, and for varying or revering gravitational attraction. Whitey could
exercise these powers to certain extents, but he had devoted his past life to
science and therefore had not spent the years of contiunual training necessary
for fully developing his powers. Whitey used his powers to rescue the two other
children, Jack and Julie, from the Snarks, but in the process of doing so, Whitey
was wounded by a blast from a Snark laser gun. Whitey took the children back to
rtship. Alex
told Whitey that Dr. Power's lab intended to test the matter/antimatter converter
the very next day. Later that night the Snarks captured the smartship in a tractor
beam. Whitey, who was dying from his wound, decided that there might be only one
way now to prevent Earth's destruction. A Kymellian can transfer his powers to
another Kymellian. Whitey realized that Earth humans have highly adaptable structures
capable of acquiring superhuman powers. Therefore, Whitey decided to try to divide
his powers among the four children, so that they could the Snarks and stop the
converter from being activated. Aelfyre Whitemane initiated the transfer of power
to the children and then died, vanishing from sight. The children soon discovered
that they each now had one of Whitey's superhuman powers, although the powers
did not function in exactly the same way that they did for Whitey. Using their
powers and their own wits, the Power children escaped the Sharks, destroyed the
converter, and rescued their parents. Alex called the four children the
Pack. The
Power Pack are too young to act as professional adventurers, but they continue
have exploits requiring the use of their superhuman powers when the nsarise Alex
took, the name "Gee" due to his power over gravity ("G-power"),
Jack called himself "Mass Master" because he could take gaseous form
or compress his mass to as to become tiny, Julie called herself Lightspeed became
she could fly fast, leaving a trail of colored light behind her, and Katie became
the Energizer, due to her ability to store energy and fire iter body Later,
Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four, became
a member of Power Pack without his parents' knowledge. Franklin took the name
Tattletale because he can foresee possible future events though visions he experiences.
Kofi, a young Kymellian related to Whitey, became an ally of Power Pack and is
an unofficial member r team. The
superhuman abilities of the Power children were transferred into the "Super-Snark"
Jakal by Snark technology. Jakal smashed the transfer machine and lost the powers,
which returned to the Power children. However, now Alex possessed Katie's Energizer
power, Jack had Alex's Gee power, Julie had Jack's Mass Master powers, and Katie
had Julie's Lightspeed power. With the change in power ownership the children
aquired new code names, Alex was called the Destroyer, Julie was Molecula, Mistress
of Density, Jack was Counterweight, and Katie wstreak. After
several more adventures, Power Pack returned to the Kymellian world, as Queen
Mother Maraud of the Snarks tried again to destroy the Kymellians. The Pack narrowly
escaped the Snarks and end up getting their powers switched once again. Alex became
Mass Master, Julie became Lightspeed again (often returning to the codename Starstreak)
Jack became Energizer, and Katie became Counterweight. Before they could return
to Earth, the cosmic entity Numinous appeared before the group. The entity convinced
the team to return to the space station, which housed the planet's survivors.
Power Pack arrived at the space station in time to save the Kymellians from an
attack by Maraud, and the Kymellians were ultimately relocated to anotnet.
Later
still, Power Pack began experiencing more changes. They encountered and sheltered
an alien Elan (whether with was the same alien as the Infant Terrible or another
member of that race remains unknown) and Alex, in particular, thought he was going
bald. After becoming embroiled in fight between the alien Star-Stalker and the
planet devouring Galactus' Herald, Nova, the Pack returned to Earth and Alex discovered
that his baldness was the beginning of a transformation into a Kymellian. The
Power Pack's father, calling himself "Mister Power," joins the Pack
to defeat an attack of the criminal Red Ghost, but was revealed to be the Elan
in disguise. During this time, the Pack's mother, began experiencing mental breakdowns
due to her knowledge of her children as superheroes. Ultimately, the Power Pack
left in Smartship Friday to travel the Earth in order to find cures for Alex and
the Pother. Later,
Julie begins to figure out that there is no logical reason for Alex to turn into
a Kymellian, any more than it was logical for her parents to behave the way they
did. This realization is bad news for the Technocrat, the Kymellian responsible
for creating that species' artificial homeworld that they were originally inhabiting
at the time of the Pack's creation. After the Pack's contact with Numinus, the
Kymellians were returned to a normal world so the Technocrat could no longer co
them. In
order to regain control; the Technocrat planned to destroy the Kymellians' new
world and put them all back aboard a satellite. The most efficient way to do this
was the matter/anti-matter converter. With the Whitemane clan the last custodians
of the formula, the Technocrat's best bet was to try to take the formula from
Jim Power's mind. So he kidnapped both parents very shortly after the Pack's return
to Earth, using "pseudoplasm replacements" for the Power parents, a
controllable lifeform that replicates a creature onto the molecular level. Later,
when Alex began to realize his parents were acting so abnormally, the Technocrat
replaced Alex as well. In Alex's case, however, the pseudoplasm began to break
down, and reverting to the original Kymellian form that the Technocrat had selected
for his pseudoplervants. Upon
this discovery, the Power Pack fought against the Technocrat and Queen Mother
Maraud, discovering that they can switch powers anytime they want to. Ultimately,
the Power family is reunited, Technocrat and Maraud are defeated, and the Powers
return to Earth, albeit apparently unable to switch powelonger. Power
Pack as a whole dropped out of sight for a while, and eventually Alex Power was
contacted by the young superhero team New Warriors, during a time when the regular
Warriors were scattered across time. Alex stole the powers from his siblings for
himself (now that he was older and able to affect a power transfer by himself),
believing that continued super-heroics would be too dangerous for his brother
and sisters. Calling himself Powerhouse, Alex joined other young heroes in a new
New Warriors team and served with them e time. Alex
later left the New Warriors, giving the powers back to his siblings and vowing
to never steal them again. However, Alex did just that when the New Warriors called
upon him again, and even allowed the New Warriors to use the Smartship Friday.
Moreover, Alex believed that he stole the powers permanently, causing a rift between
him and his siblings, who thought they could no longer trust their elder brother.
During Alex's last adventure with the Warriors, the Smartship Friday was stolen,
recovered, and nearly destroyed in the process of saving humanity from the threat
of the alien Dire Wraiths. Friday barely survived, and the ordeal led Alex to
think that, if it were Power Pack in action instead of just Alex, that team probably
could have found a way to save Friday. None of the New Warrior seemed to care
for Friday as much as Alex. The Dire Wraith Queen Volx and the Neo-Neutralizer
weapon almost cancelled all of the Warriors' powers (including Alex's), which
caused Alex to inadvertently return the powers back to the Pack, and he retained
his gravity powers. After this adventure, Alex left therriors. The
Power family have just recently moved to Bainbridge Island, approximately ten
miles away from the city of Seattle, Washington, due to Dr. James Power getting
a new job. (At this point, both parents seem to know of their children's dual
identities and are comfortable with them.) Almost immediately, the Power Pack
were taken to Snark World to help stoil war.
First Appearance: POWER PACK #1
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