Spider-Man/Power Pack #4 (Story 1)

Background

After a fashion designer made the blunder of using the Venom symbiote to make a new line of thought-controlled fashion, Spidey and the Power Pack had to clean- up the mess when the symbiotes took over the models. However, no one notices at the end of the battle that a small sliver of the symbiote had attached itself to Energizer's costume...

Story 'I Was a Pre-Teen Super-Villain'

Spidey's taking on the Sinister Six one night and finds himself horribly outnumbered. Spotting the silhouette of Energizer up on the rooftops, he swings up glad for the assist. However, he finds himself at the receiving end of one of her blasts. When his vision clears, he finds himself face-to-face with Energizer in the Venom symbiote!

Katie Power awakens from her nightmare where she dreamt she hurt Spider- Man. Julie, woken up by her scream, assures her it was just a dream and to go back to sleep. Reluctantly, Katie does. The next day, she tells her brothers about the constant nightmares she's had since their fight at the fashion show. Her siblings try to comfort her worries, but get interrupted by the rampage of the Rhino!

The Pack suits up, except for Katie who can't seem to access her costume. That's a concern for later, at the moment the rest of the Pack leap into battle to try and take Rhino down. But, the powerhouse easily stops them, but not before hinting that something's happened to Spidey. Katie ties to use her power on Rhino, but he just brushes it off and acts like they're allies before rushing off, leaving Katie behind and very confused.

That night, Jack fixes himself a late night snack when he sees Katie come into the kitchen. Only, it's not Katie...it's the Symbiote! The other two look for their siblings only to have Jack run past them with Katie in pursuit. Jack tricks her out the window and she swings off into the night. The Pack suit up and follow her to a warehouse where they get ambushed by the Sinister Six, with whom Katie has allied herself with!

The Pack do their best but get tossed around but good. Lightspeed gets knocked away only to end up finding Spidey as their prisoner. She frees him and he joins the fight, Spidey and the Pack taking down all the villains they had once before...including the symbiote! Later, Guardsmen arrive to round up the villains while Spidey consoles Katie that it wasn't her fault what happened, just the costume making it happen. Just to show there's no hard feelings, Spidey and the Pack head out for one last spin around the city before calling it a night.

General Comments

A neat wrap to the story and the series. Katie's Venom modifications were nicely done, keeping the traditional look while mixing in some personal touches for her. It was also nice to see a return of all the villains looking for payback from earlier in the series. Fun and funny, this was a great read overall.

Overall Rating

5 Webs. This has been a great reinvention of the Power Pack.