Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Yojimbo]

Julie is actually a playable character in the LEGO Avengers game. It took me a while to realize that, because so many of the characters in that game are from books I never read or cared about. I had no idea Julie Power grew up, for example.

Poor Franklin Richards is still in grade school, isn't he?

[Jabroniville]

JACK POWER (aka Mass Master, Counterweight, Destroyer)
Created By: Louise Simonson & June Brigman
First Appearance: Power Pack #1 (June 1984)
Role: The Wild Child, The Arguer
Group Affiliations: Power Pack
PL 10 (96)
STRENGTH -3/6 STAMINA 0 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Deception 5 (+5)
Intimidation 3 (+3, +0 Size)
Stealth +0 (+3, +6 Size)

Advantages: 
Benefit (Kymellian Smartship- Friday), Equipment 3 (Friday), Set-Up, Taunt, Teamwork

Powers:
"Child-Size" Shrinking 3 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [4]
(-3 Strength, -1 Movement, +1 Dodge/Parry, -1 Intimidation)
"Kymellian Healing Factor" Regeneration 2 [2]

"Density Control"
"Dense Form" (53) -- [55]

• AE: Cloud Form (13)
• AE: Force Field 8 (Feats: Reach 2) (Extras: Affects Others) (16)

"Cloud Form" Alternate Form 14 points (Quirk: Move Action to Activiate) (13)
Flight 2 (4)
Insubstantial 2 (10)

"Dense Form" Alternate Form 54 points (Quirk: Move Action to Activate) (53)
Enhanced Strength 9 (18)
Enhanced Strength 2 (Flaws: Limited to Resisting Movement) (2)
Shrinking 9 (12 inches) (Extras: Normal Strength) (18)
Protection 8 (Extras: Impervious) (16)

"Power Pack Costume" 5 points (Flaws: Removable) [4]
Movement (Dimension- Elsewhere) (2)
Senses (Communication Link- Friday) (1)
Morph 1 (Clothes to Costume) (1)
Protection 1 (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (-3 Damage, DC 12)
Dense Form +5 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (+6 Size, +12 Shrinking) (DC 15), Parry +5 (+6 Size, +11 Shrinking) (DC 19), Toughness +0 (+1 Costume, +8 Dense Form/Force Field), Fortitude +1, Will +4

Complications: 
Reputation (Angry)- Jack is rather petulant and taunting, rubbing people the wrong way.
Prejudice (Child)- Jack is much too young to be overly trusted or believed by most adults.
Relationship (Parents)- The Power Pack kids are devoted to their parents, but try to hide their powers nonetheless, believing it'd worry them. 
Power Loss (Flight)- Julie can only stay aloft so long as she is perpetually moving- attempts to "hover" or stop in mid-flight will simply send her falling. 

Total: Abilities: 12 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 65 / Defenses: 7 (96)

-Jack is the brattiest member of the team, a rather petulant, angry kid- the Queen of the Snarks feared him the most, because he was the one most likely to use lethal force (in one Mutant Massacre issue, he punches out ARCLIGHT). Nonetheless, he was the bravest and most original thinker of the group, and frequently came up with new uses for the siblings' powers whenever they got theirs switched around. In the original series, he was eight years old, and he was aged to twelve in the 2000-era mini-series. Since Julie was aged up, Jack would probably be fifteen by now.

-Oh goody, a Dense/Protected AND Shrunken character. This basically makes Jack a full-on uber-powerful (for this crew) PL 10 defensively. I actually had to shrink back the Parry/Dodge bonus by four ranks just to make it fit PL standards (there's no way any member of Power Pack is breaking PL 10). Super-small AND dense guys is just one of those things that M&M/DCA was never really meant to reproduce "fairly", as they shatter the Power Level concept in their defenses, being hard to hit AND super-tough. So it's a damn good thing there's only a tiny handful of them in comics! He's also got a Cloud Form, or a Force Field. As "Zero-G", Jack had Alex's Gravity Powers, plus a "G-Punch" Damage 10 shot, powerful enough to knock out ARCLIGHT of the Marauders in one go! OK, so it was a Hero Point Stunt or something, but still...

As "Zero-G", Jack's powers were:
"Gravity Powers" Move Object 8 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range, Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Limited to Up or Down) (25) -- [31]

• Dynamic AE: Deflect 8 (8)
• Dynamic AE: Environment 8 (Impede Movement 2) (16)
• Dynamic AE: "Super-G Punch" Strength-Damage +10 (10)

"Limited Flight" Flight 5 (Flaws: Limited to Up or Down) [5]

Gaining Katie's powers, Jack's powers were:
"Energizing"
"Explosive Ball of Energy" Blast 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Unreliable) (Quirk: Activation -2) (28) -- [29]

• AE: "Power Balls" Blast 8 Linked to Weaken Toughness 6 (Extras: Ranged) (28)

[HalloweenJack]

Julie is actually a playable character in the LEGO Avengers game. It took me a while to realize that, because so many of the characters in that game are from books I never read or cared about. I had no idea Julie Power grew up, for example.

Poor Franklin Richards is still in grade school, isn't he?

yeah. Pretty sure.

He at least got the aged to adulthood and then de-aged thing (kinda. sorta.) in FF just prior to Onslaught

[scc]

And with the Celestials & the Hawk-God, I'm officially done the "Gods & God-Like Beings" set! Now we're finally going back to "regular old super-heroes"! Thanks for all the attention you've all been paying my thread- this past batch of comments has proven yet again that Echoes is doing great (it might actually be BUSIER than my thread was on RA!), which is great to see on this, the anniversary of when we founded our NEW forum! With beer! And hookers!

Wait how did I miss all this.....

DEBAUCHERY!!

[Jabroniville]

For a very long time I was in the same camp as Jab, the idea of pre-teen superheroes breezing through most horrific moments without a problem felt so very wrong and yet it somehow made sense: we all dreamed about being superheroes at some point growing up and, I guess, Power Pack was an attempt to capitalize on that feeling.

The funny thing is, with me, I always wanted to be a GROWN-UP superhero- I never wanted to be a little kid with powers.

Even so the big problem was how the Pack interacted with the rest of the MU at large, most heroes seemed not to take issue with the fact that a bunch of pre-teens were going along for the ride. As a stand alone book Power Pack worked because it was, for all intent and purposes, almost a pure kid fantasy adventure superhero style, but when paired with other character they crumbled, with very few exceptions (Thor and the Warriors Four being the most noticeable in recent memory). Funny, enough I have pretty much similar issues with the Runaways, although in that case is because every character appearing alongside them seem to take a massive dose of idiot ball.

It tends to be an issue with kid-focused books. Personally, I find the idea of CHILD superheroes to be so absurdly stupid that I'll never get into the idea. It works in like, a Powerpuff Girls Universe Of Silliness, but definitely not in Marvel Comics continuity. Power Pack, to me, is best left as a "Johnny DC"-like property that exists in its own world, like Marvel's sort of tried from time to time. Because no adult hero should ever look at a six-year-old in a superhero outfit facing down mass-murderers and be like "... no, this is okay". At LEAST they'd be telling their parents.

One unrelated note, I can't shake the feeling that Louise Simonson was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when she created the Powers. The personalities and roles of the Powers and the Pevensie siblings are almost an exact match: Alex/Peter the ultra-responsible big brother and leader, Julie/Susan the smart and somehow skeptic big sister, Jack/Edmund the bratty younger brother with a heart of gold, Katie/Lucy the younger sister with incredible potential

Interesting! I remember none of that movie, aside from JesusLion.

[Jabroniville]

KATIE POWER (aka Energizer, Starstreak, Counterweight)
Created By: Louise Simonson & June Brigman
First Appearance: Power Pack #1 (June 1984)
Role: The Innocent Child
Group Affiliations: Power Pack
PL 10 (66)
STRENGTH -4 STAMINA -1 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 0 DEXTERITY 1
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Deception 4 (+4)
Persuasion 4 (+4)
Stealth 4 (+5, +9 Size)

Advantages:
Benefit (Kymellian Smartship- Friday), Equipment 3 (Friday), Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Child-Size" Shrinking 4 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [5]
(-4 Strength, -2 Movement, +2 Dodge/Parry, -2 Intimidation)
"Kymellian Healing Factor" Regeneration 2 [2]

"Energizing"
"Explosive Ball of Energy" Blast 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Unreliable) (Quirk: Activation -2) (28) -- [29]
AE: "Disintegration" Blast 8 Linked to Weaken Toughness 6 (Extras: Ranged) (28)

"Power Pack Costume" 5 points (Flaws: Removable) [4]
Movement (Dimension- Elsewhere) (2)
Senses (Communication Link- Friday) (1)
Morph 1 (Clothes to Costume) (1)
Protection 1 (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +0 (-4 Damage, DC 11)
Disintegration +1 (+8 Damage & +6 Weaken, DC 23 & 16)
Explosive Ball +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (+9 Size) (DC 15), Parry +6 (+8 Size) (DC 19), Toughness -1 (+0 Costume), Fortitude +0, Will +4

Complications:
Prejudice (Child)- Katie is practically a baby, and will not be overly trusted or believed by most adults.
Relationship (Parents)- The Power Pack kids are devoted to their parents, but try to hide their powers nonetheless, believing it'd worry them.

Total: Abilities: -4 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 40 / Defenses: 16 (66)

-Katie is the youngest Power sibling, and has the most devastating power- a huge Explosive Ball of energy that she gets from first disintegrating matter (could be anything- even water or air works!). Her initial characterization had her being easily-led by others, as her young age led to her looking to others for guidance- however, she rebels against Alex, who's pushy, aggressive form of leadership frustrates her. She slowly learns that her powers are dangerous, and often feels badly for using them... ultimately losing them and gaining Julie's Flight-based power-set instead. As "Starstreak", she grew up even further, and was once used in an X-Men tale as the sole aide of an injured Wolverine, who was being hunted by Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. The years since Power Pack was cancelled were unkind to her, however... well, not UNKIND so much as "uneventful"- while Julie turned into a lesbian and acted out and Alex joined the Future Foundation... Katie has kind of vanished.

-Like Jack, Katie is extremely high in PL compared to the others (PL 10), with a HUGE Area-Effect Explosive Blast that has wiped out entire buildings in the past (Extra Effort-ing, y'know). The only problem is her terrible aim- something that's easily fixed with an un-aiming Area. With +0 Toughness, she's the ultimate Glass Cannon, but still.

As "Starstreak", Katie's powers were:
"Lightspeed, But Not Really" Flight 10 [20]
"Flying Ram" Damage 4 [4]
"Kymellian Healing Factor" Regeneration 2 [2]

As "Counterweight", Katie's powers were:

"Density Control"
"Dense Form" (53) -- [55]

• AE: Cloud Form (13)
• AE: Force Field 8 (Feats: Reach 2) (Extras: Affects Others) (16)

"Cloud Form" Alternate Form 14 points (Quirk: Move Action to Activiate) (13)
Flight 2 (4)
Insubstantial 2 (10)

"Dense Form" Alternate Form 54 points (Quirk: Move Action to Activate) (53)
Enhanced Strength 9 (18)
Enhanced Strength 2 (Flaws: Limited to Resisting Movement) (2)
Shrinking 9 (12 inches) (Extras: Normal Strength) (18)
Protection 8 (Extras: Impervious) (16)

[greycrusader]

Honestly? Power Pack should have remained forever in its own little corner of Marvel history; attempts to "age-up" the characters and re-introduce them into the modern, on-going MU are almost guaranteed to fail. Their fan-base (and I honestly liked Power Pack, way back in the day) only cares about the classic version of the team, where they're all kids and dealing with the issues of childhood and early adolescence; but not only is the whole tone of the current Marvel Universe mostly wrong for that right now (with the exception of Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Marvel has NO idea how to push youth-market, light-hearted titles), but it would require "rewinding" a chunk of continuity.

Of course, in the case of the latter problem, depicting the Pack kids as teenagers and tweens ALSO completely disrupts the time line-Franklin is somehow still in grade school (and yet Valeria is already nearly her brother's age), Kitty Pryde is only in her late teens (or is she? Cripes, editorial just went AWOL at some point regarding how their titles fit together), none of the other major characters ever gets any older, but the Powers children are somehow growing up. The only real hope for Power Pack fans is for Marvel to just re-boot it in another iteration entirely, taking place in a separate, parallel world, just like with Spider-Gwen, because otherwise they're just another group of super-teenagers who aren't the New Mutants.

(The whole issue of "marvel time" and how it relates to kids especially always brings up the whole Franklin Richards fan theory-that he was just manipulating reality and kept changing the world around him so he got to stay a kid-up and until Wanda Maximoff and David Haller came into their full powers, and the MU suddenly was much more about the Avengers and X-Men than the FF. Heh.)

Of course, DC has the same problem ever since their last reboot, where somehow within a 5-7 year time frame Batman had four versions of Robin (one his twelve year old son), along with inspiring a horde of imitators, there have been four Earth-based GLs, etc, etc.

All my best

[Davies]

Honestly? Power Pack should have remained forever in its own little corner of Marvel history;

The Gurihiru version of the kids, for all intents and purposes, is just this.

[Jabroniville]

More "Look-back" stuff:

Way, WAY back in July of 2010 is when I last posted these characters! More than seven years ago! I really forgot that 3rd Edition has been out this long, especially since it was comparatively not supported like 2nd Edition was, thanks to changes in the gaming industry and at GR, where they got a lot more conservative with their releases.

http://atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.ph ... 70#p706497 (the original post where MisterO requested Power Pack as an add-in. It quickly gathered steam)

http://atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.ph ... 70#p709069 (Poor FuzzyBoots catches me twice in a row making Template Fail, largely because I didn't care about Power Pack and was thus getting lazy. Then I give him hell for it . BLAME POWER PACK, FUZZY!!!)

It's clear to me that you don't dig power pack. And yet you stated em up anyway. Very cool of you. And they look like good builds.

I have no recollection of "Sunbear", but I will always remember this post. I didn't think my snark was TOO excessive back then, but he pretty quickly picked up on my anti-Pack stance.

Because I didn't care for the Pack, I didn't re-post them on the Ronin Army forum- it wasn't until I hit the "K" names that I put in Katie Power (and first built their friend Kofi). And by the time I hit "J" and "A", I wasn't doing characters belonging to teams- I wanted to post them all out at once. Hence the longer wait than normal- these are BY FAR my oldest non-Echoes builds from 3rd Edition.

[Jabroniville]

JAMES & MARGARET POWER
Created By: Louise Simonson & June Brigman
First Appearance: Power Pack #1 (June 1984)
Role: Dumbass Parents

-The conceit of the Power Pack book is that the kids had to act normal during the day, but snuck out at night to do super-hero stuff. This means that their parents, by definition, had to be giant idiots who apparently never checked on their children. Margaret was a freelance illustrator and painter, while Dr. Power was a genius scientist who was targetted by the Snarks (who wanted his technology), thus setting off the story. The Power family moved to Manhattan, thus letting Power Pack interact with other Marvel superheroes. Once, Margaret was injured by Kurse during Secret Wars II, necessitating Dani Moonstar fighting off Death in order to prevent Margaret shuffling the mortal coil.

-Both Power parents went completely mad when James's old boss, Carmody (aka The Bogeyman) revealed the fact that Power Pack were their children- the New Mutants had to produce some illusions in order to return them to sanity. It was later revealed that a head Kymellian had put "mental blocks" on both parents that DELIBERATELY kept them stupid, open to suggestions, and willing to deny any evidence of the existence of Power Pack, thus "justifying" their terrible parenting. They were also replaced with protoplasm duplicates at one point, but were eventually rescued (along with Alex, who had also been replaced).

-In the 2000 miniseries, Margaret was seen in poor health, though the nature of her illness was never explained. By this point, both Powers parents seem to be aware of their children's superhero career.

[M4C8]

One of the major issues I have with modern Marvel is concerning established characters and their behaviour towards underage heroes, not long ago every adult hero would have gone out of their way to stop child/young teen characters from crime fighting, the Avengers kicked Rage off of the team for being underage despite his huge size and power level and took action to break up teen teams such as the Young Avengers and Runaways. Now though since the reboot, not only do they all seem perfectly fine with underage kids operating as heroes (Which goes against everything they previously believed) even allowing on the main Avengers team, some have sought out and pushed teens to take up a costumed identity (Such as with Tony Stark and Riri Williams)

[Jack of Spades]

Yeah, Cap did a 180 between Bucky and Patriot, then I gather has reversed himself again. On the other hand, examples like Johnny Storm, the original X-Men, and Spider-Man might tend to convince one that teenagers are at least capable of being superheroes in their own right – never mind Bucky and Toro back in the day.

[Jabroniville]

AELFYRE WHITEMANE
Created By: Louise Simonson & June Brigman
First Appearance: Power Pack #1 (June 1984)
Role: Origin-Giver

-Aelfyre Whiteman was a Kymellian "xenologist" who loved Earth culture and books- when he found out that the Snarks were ready to kidnap or kill Dr. James Power and steal his technology, Aelfyre interceded, and was killed saving the Powers children from the Snarks. To aide the children, he gave each of them one of his four powers, turning them into Power Pack.

[Jabroniville]

KOFI WHITEMANE
Created By: Louise Simonson & Others
First Appearance: Marvel Age Annual #1 (July 1985)
Role: Team Aide
Group Affiliations: Power Pack
PL 8 (90)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+5)
Expertise (Sorcery) 2 (+5)
Expertise (Kymellian Royalty) 3 (+6)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 4, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Low-End Kymellian Sorcery"
"Gravity Manipulation" Move Object 5 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (15) -- [20]

• AE: Teleport 6 (12)
• AE: Energy Blast 6 (12)
• AE: Force Field 5 (5)
• AE: Healing 5 (10)
• AE: Flight 5 (60 mph) (10)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Energy Blast 6 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +4 (+9 Force Field), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Relationship (Power Pack)- Kofi finds the attention and affection in Power Pack that he never got from his parents.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 8--6 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 20 / Defenses: 8 (90)

-Kofi Whitemane is the nephew of Aelfyre, the horse-like Kymellian alien who both saved the Power family's children, then gave them his super-powers as he died. He is the son of the royal family and Prince of their people, and his mother is apparently the Kymellian who became married to Black Bolt in Hickman's Fantastic Four run (that side part ended up going absolutely nowhere, as Marvel has ignored it during the current Inhumans push). When the Snarks tried to kidnap Power Pack, Kofi overheard and decided to stop it. An unloved child (his parents were usually too busy to interact with him), he found the attention he craved from the Power kids. His appearances are few, and the last was in 2000. As Power Pack is largely on the backburner, so is any semblance of their side-characters.

-Kofi is a minor-league fighter from what I've read, and his powers are largely in the "untested" phase, though numerous in number. He was primarily of interest due to his ability to Teleport.

[HalloweenJack]

AELFYRE WHITEMANE
Created By: Louise Simonson & June Brigman
First Appearance: Power Pack #1 (June 1984)
Role: Origin-Giver

-Aelfyre Whiteman was a Kymellian "xenologist" who loved Earth culture and books- when he found out that the Snarks were ready to kidnap or kill Dr. James Power and steal his technology, Aelfyre interceded, and was killed saving the Powers children from the Snarks. To aide the children, he gave each of them one of his four powers, turning them into Power Pack.

oh Nobleheart, what are you doing here?