Avengers/Power Pack Assemble #4

Background

Visiting New York, Power Pack gets involved in an Avengers fight with the prototype armor AIM tried to steal from Iron Man. The mastermind behind them is revealed to be none-other than the time-hopping Kang, who easily traps the Avengers and sends the Power Pack into the future where Kang rules supreme. Now the Pack finds themselves rescued by their older selves, and get a full debriefing about how that loss in the past led to Kang's victory in the future, his attack too swift and brutal for the other heroes to stop.

Story 'Conquered!'

The older Pack tells the younger their story, but naturally there's some hesitance to believe them on Jack's part, claiming they could be a distraction from the real fight. He confronts his future self who hasn't removed the Iron Man armor he wears since they arrived, saying it's because he's too imperfect a copy. Older Jack walks away upset, older Kate informing him that a Kang weapon left Jack stuck in mist form permanently and the armor was the only thing keeping him together. The Packs deduce they can exist at the same time because there's a chance to fix it all, and young Katie is the key.

Older Julie and young Katie and Alex head off to run some tests just as an alert sounds, older Alex saying their spy had found their target and they're ready to launch a mission to rescue the Avengers. The young Pack eagerly volunteers to help. Meanwhile in the lab area, older Julie deduces that young Katie had absorbed chronal energy during their trip. However, Katie doesn't possess the control to use it to send them home yet...not without one of Kang's harnesses, one of which the older Pack managed to procure.

Elsewhere, the Packs infiltrate Kang's base and find the Avengers still in stasis like trophies. Older Jack releases them using his armor, only to trigger the alarms. The Avengers quickly orient themselves as Jack tells Iron Man he and older Kate have to go back to their base for the fate of the world. Just then, all hell breaks loose as Kang's armored warriors converge on the alarms.

Iron Man, older Kate and young Jack and Julie return to the base where they deduce they need to go back in time in order to effectively defeat Kang. Iron Man says he doesn't have what he needs to make a time platform, until older Julie emerges with young Katie and Alex, with her wearing Kang's harness. She concentrates and opens a temporal portal, seeing themselves fighting in the past. Iron Man gives young Jack one of his gauntlets and the Pack enters the portal.

Back in the present, Kang had just banished the Pack to the future as they re- emerge from a portal behind him. Kang, not fearing them, sends his armored cronies to attack. Jack uses Iron Man's gauntlet to initiate their overrides and make them harmless. Kang is down to himself, and blasts Katie with his gun. But instead of taking care of her, he energizes her more and she sends him back through one of his own portals.

The Pack gets their thanks, but need to take off for the hotel before their parents return. They make it just in time to see them going in, and use their future gifts one last time to make it to the room ahead of them and avoid being grounded. All in a day's work for pre-teen superheroes.

General Comments

Time travel stories can usually get pretty confusing, but fortunately the limited cast in this one made such confusions a non-issue. Not much is shown of the future world, but rather the focus is the story itself and the rescue of the Avengers, which is just fine. Nice and simple, and as fun as the previous issue. A nice wrap-up to the story that earned the Power Pack the street cred Jack so desired.

Overall Rating

5 webs. Fun, concise, and enjoyable. Everything you could ever want in a comic that, I dare say, harkens back to Marvel's early days when things were simple yet good.