Power Pack #53

Chinks in the Armor by Terry Austin and Ernie Colon is Power Pack's Acts of Vengeance chapter and has Typhoid Mary attempting to turn Alex Power against his father and thus break apart the Power Pack.

Power Pack are just too darn adorable to dislike. While I will admit that Power Pack tie-ins to previous crossovers like Inferno have been somewhat tiresome to read (I think there was like 5 Power Pack issues in succession in that one), I've remained unable to really express negativity towards Power Pack because they are just the cutest and most lovely bunch of kids ever! Power Pack is a special book because it's probably the only Marvel book, in a period of Frank Miller-style moodiness, that retained it's optimistic and incredibly endearing tone. It's just impossible to not smile at the innocence and loveliness that the Power Pack book often encapsulates.

But, the absolutely last thing you expect from Power Pack is to deliver one of the most startlingly brilliant and intricate portrayals of Typhoid Mary not written by her creator Ann Nocenti. Mary is a character who in almost every other writer's hands has been absolutely misunderstood and made to be a completely generic Elektra-lite. This story, again weirdly enough for Power Pack, makes Mary into the star and the narrator of the piece and, honestly, it's just a great Typhoid Mary tale. The highlight of course being the ending, again surprising for Power Pack, where Mary gains the psychological advantage on Doctor Doom and tricks the good doctor into sharing the truth about how he became the man he is today.

Amidst Mary's mind-games and the cuteness of the Power Pack (and Alex having a crush on Mary which is just too "awwww" inducing), it's just a good issue. It combines all the cutesypoo and feel good charms of Power Pack with a surprisingly well written and complex villain. This is just an issue that did everything for me. It made me smile and feel good to see the Power kids cuddle up with their father and be told how proud they make him and then engaged me intellectually with a very good appearance from one of Marvel's best and rarely ever well written femme fatales. Just legitimately good.