Wolverine/Power Pack #1 (Story 2)

Background

As anyone who has been following these silly, goofy Mini Marvel stories cartoons of Chris Giarrusso (and my reviews of the same) already know, I love this stuff. The comics have been appearing at the back of Marvel comics for years. These shorts tend to be one-page adventures of the Marvel superheroes done up as if they were little superhero kids in costume. They are, as a rule, always falling-down funny this one is actually four pages in length and no exception in the funny department.

Story Details

Captain America is wandering through the training room when he is approached by the ever-cocky Hawkeye. The nimble archer wants to borrow Cap's shield to show off his prowess. At first Cap balks, but then relents, and hands the shield over to his teammate. Hawkeye tosses the shield and banks it off several things and easily catches it, impressing Cap, who allows his fellow Avenger to walk off with it. Unbeknownst to Cap, Hawkeye then uses the shield as a cereal bowl (because all the dishes are dirty, and is his turn to wash the dishes, which is why he borrowed the shield).

Still trying to prove his worth, Hawkeye then tries to borrow Wolverine's, glove, only he doesn't understand why he can't activate the claws in the glove. As Wolverine strings Hawkeye along, Spider-Man and Cap observe. Cap observes that Wolverine's claws come out of his hand not his gloves. Spidey agrees but he points out that Hawkeye doesn't know that.

Next up, Hawkeye tries to borrow Giant-Man's growth formula so that he can prove that he is just as good as Giant-Man in growing. Needless to say, Giant-Man won't give it to him, which Hawkeye simply doesn't get. Finally, he borrows Spidey's Web shooters just to prove that he can swing on webs as well as Spidey does, only he can't seem to shoot the webs out, and requires Spidey's help, as he is now rapidly falling to his certain death.

General Comments

As usual, this is quite entertaining, as it retains the core personalities of each character, even as it casts them in the silliest of situations (especially when you remember that at the end of Civil War Iron Man attempted to persuade Clint Barton to take up the mantel of Cap, and back during the '70s for a time Clint did take over as Goliath for a bit, before reverting back to his bow-slinging ways).

Overall Rating

With all of the doom and gloom in both the real world as well s the world of comics, it is great to see someone having fun with our heroes without demeaning them. This is something that Chris does so well, and obviously enjoys doing.

Footnote

If you loved this story you really should head over to Chris' website at www.chrisgcomics.com and check out all the cool stuff (especially the Wolverine song and other stuff) that he has there. You'll be glad that you did.

You should also check out Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper Scissors, Marvel's latest compilation of Chris's work.