I walked into my LCS today, and picked "Avengers Power Pack Assembled" #1 of 4 off the shelf.
The owner of the LCS was disappointed, called me a paedophile and told me the comic was ****y (it's okay, it's Britain, he was being quite polite).
Here's the thing... I enjoy this series more than the Ultimate ongoings. More than Squadron Supreme, and Justice. This is a series I love to read.
It's not deep. It's not profound. It's not clever. It's not even original.
But it's fun. It's light. And most importantly, it is completely honest. It is what it is.
It's a saturday morning cartoon in a comic.
It's got a group of superhero kids with secret identites doing the things kids do, meeting up with a big important superhero, fighting a proper supervillain, and a lesson being learned at the end.
It's funny in places, and no one ever gets hurt.
It's the sweetist thing.
In this issue, the kids go to the library whilst the eldest goes to volunteer at a retired generals home, but he's sent home early because they've got an old war buddy coming to see them. Which turns out to be Captain America who is fighting Taskmaster because he stole something from Stark Industries. Taskmaster is cocky and obviously very powerful, and spends most of the issue being offended that he's forced to fight children in 90s costumes. He gets even more upset when he's forced to fight the retired generals. Annoyed that he's not being paid enough, he just takes what he stole and leaves. Captain America throughout doesn't want the Power Pack or the generals to help because they're too old and too young, but they point out everyone is useful, despite their age.
It's a bit bland, sure, but it is what it is.
It's a lullaby in this age of superhero comics where everyone sits in dark alleyways trying to stop rapists, *****ing on and on about how they don't have a secret identity, while secret government manipulators orchestrate every aspect of society in a bizarre conspiracy, before ending in a stupid, big cliched fight, it's nice that in this age, there is a comic telling me superhero stories which are played purely for light fun.
To be honest - I'm analysing it's effect on me more than I should, because there just isn't much to analyse. It doesn't pretend there is anymore to it. It doesn't pretend to be something deeply relevant to my life while actually just being an excuse to have two people who should be fantastic, beat the crap out of each other like drunken pub brawlers. It just wants to put a smile on my face.
I read it and I like it more than most of the stuff I'm continually being told by the industry is "the greatest comic out at the moment".
I'm enjoying the series, even if there isn't much about it to discuss.
