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The original members of the Power Pack are Alex, Jack, Julie, and Katie Power, four pre-adolescent children, who are siblings to each other, who were granted superhuman powers by a member of the alien Kn race.
The children’s father, Dr. James Power sought a new means of deriving large quantities of energy inexpensively for peaceful purposes. He discovered a method of converting matter to antimatter without impractically large expenditures of energy. Dr. Power designed a machine, which could open a small portal into another universe, which had different scientific laws than our own. The machine could then project a small amount of matter, held within a magnetic force field, into the other universe, where, through unknown processes, the charge and spin of the matter’s atoms would be changed, causing the matter to become antimatter. The machine would then withdraw the antimatter back into Power’s own universe, and remove the magnetic held, allowing the antimatter to contact matter under controlled conditions. Matter and antimatter annihilate each other upon contact, each being entirely converted into vast amounts of energy. Dr. Power called his machine, which was built under a government grant, a matter/antimatteverter.
Dr. Powers’s discovery came to the attention of Aelfyre Whitemane, who went by the nickname “Whitey,” and who was a Kymellian, a member of a non-humanoid alien race that lived elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy. Whitey was a scientist whose field was the study of alien races, and his first assortment was the observation of Earth’s humans. He carried out this assignment by monitoring Earth communications transmissions and by tapping into Earth computers from his sentient starship, called a “smartship.” Both Whitey and his smartship developed a deep affection for humanity through studying Earth’s literature; indeed, the smartship named itself “Friday” after a character in Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson.”
Upon learning of Dr. Power’s discovery through monitoring Earth computers, Whitey determined to do what he could to prevent its being used. In ages past the Kymellians had discovered the same process but they tested it without realizing that they had not yet mastered all of the physics that the process involved. As a result, they had unwittingly set off a chain reaction that destroyed their planet, killing all the Kymellians living upon it. However, there were still many Kymellians living on space stations and on planets they had colonized, so the race continued to survive. The Kymellians have since completely mastered this matter/antimatter conversion process, which is their main source of energy, but because of its danger and destructive potential, they keep the process a closely guarded secret from other races. Whitey feared that the testing of Power’s matter/antimatter converter might similarly destroy the Earth, and he sent a message to the Kymellians telling them of Power’s discovery and asking permission to warn Power of the conversion process’s dangers despite Kymellian laws against interference wit races.
The message was intercepted by the Z’nrx, a reptilian race from another galaxy whom Whitey called “Snarks” after the monster in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. The Sharks intended to use the matter/antimatter conversion process that Power had discovered as a weapon against their own galaxy. Therefore, they jammed Whitey’s message, preventing it from reaching the Kymellians, and shot down Whitey’s smartship. The Snarks thought that they had destroyed it, but actually they had only damaged the smartship, and it landed on Earth near Dr. Power’s home. The Snarks then kidnapped Dr. Power and his wife Margaret, intending to force them to reveal the formula for the matter/antimatter converocess.
Dr. Power’s four children found Whitey’s smartship and two of them, Alex and Katie, met Whitey himself. Aelfyre Whitemane was a Kymellian “sorcerer.” He did not have any actual magical abilities, but all Kymallians are born with the potential for powers for absorbing and projecting energy, for altering the molecular density of matter, for moving themselves at superhuman speed either through teleportation or flight, and for varying or revering gravitational attraction. Whitey could exercise these powers to certain extents, but he had devoted his past life to science and therefore had not spent the years of contiunual training necessary for fully developing his powers. Whitey used his powers to rescue the two other children, Jack and Julie, from the Snarks, but in the process of doing so, Whitey was wounded by a blast from a Snark laser gun. Whitey took the children back to rtship.
Alex told Whitey that Dr. Power’s lab intended to test the matter/antimatter converter the very next day. Later that night the Snarks captured the smartship in a tractor beam. Whitey, who was dying from his wound, decided that there might be only one way now to prevent Earth’s destruction. A Kymellian can transfer his powers to another Kymellian. Whitey realized that Earth humans have highly adaptable structures capable of acquiring superhuman powers. Therefore, Whitey decided to try to divide his powers among the four children, so that they could the Snarks and stop the converter from being activated. Aelfyre Whitemane initiated the transfer of power to the children and then died, vanishing from sight. The children soon discovered that they each now had one of Whitey’s superhuman powers, although the powers did not function in exactly the same way that they did for Whitey. Using their powers and their own wits, the Power children escaped the Sharks, destroyed the converter, and rescued their parents. Alex called the four children the Pack.
The Power Pack are too young to act as professional adventurers, but they continue have exploits requiring the use of their superhuman powers when the nsarise
Alex took, the name “Gee” due to his power over gravity (“G-power”), Jack called himself “Mass Master” because he could take gaseous form or compress his mass to as to become tiny, Julie called herself Lightspeed became she could fly fast, leaving a trail of colored light behind her, and Katie became the Energizer, due to her ability to store energy and fire iter body
Later, Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four, became a member of Power Pack without his parents’ knowledge. Franklin took the name Tattletale because he can foresee possible future events though visions he experiences. Kofi, a young Kymellian related to Whitey, became an ally of Power Pack and is an unofficial member r team.
The superhuman abilities of the Power children were transferred into the “Super-Snark” Jakal by Snark technology. Jakal smashed the transfer machine and lost the powers, which returned to the Power children. However, now Alex possessed Katie’s Energizer power, Jack had Alex’s Gee power, Julie had Jack’s Mass Master powers, and Katie had Julie’s Lightspeed power. With the change in power ownership the children aquired new code names, Alex was called the Destroyer, Julie was Molecula, Mistress of Density, Jack was Counterweight, and Katie wstreak.
After several more adventures, Power Pack returned to the Kymellian world, as Queen Mother Maraud of the Snarks tried again to destroy the Kymellians. The Pack narrowly escaped the Snarks and end up getting their powers switched once again. Alex became Mass Master, Julie became Lightspeed again (often returning to the codename Starstreak) Jack became Energizer, and Katie became Counterweight. Before they could return to Earth, the cosmic entity Numinous appeared before the group. The entity convinced the team to return to the space station, which housed the planet’s survivors. Power Pack arrived at the space station in time to save the Kymellians from an attack by Maraud, and the Kymellians were ultimately relocated to anotnet.
Later still, Power Pack began experiencing more changes. They encountered and sheltered an alien Elan (whether with was the same alien as the Infant Terrible or another member of that race remains unknown) and Alex, in particular, thought he was going bald. After becoming embroiled in fight between the alien Star-Stalker and the planet devouring Galactus’ Herald, Nova, the Pack returned to Earth and Alex discovered that his baldness was the beginning of a transformation into a Kymellian. The Power Pack’s father, calling himself “Mister Power,” joins the Pack to defeat an attack of the criminal Red Ghost, but was revealed to be the Elan in disguise. During this time, the Pack’s mother, began experiencing mental breakdowns due to her knowledge of her children as superheroes. Ultimately, the Power Pack left in Smartship Friday to travel the Earth in order to find cures for Alex and the Pother.
Later, Julie begins to figure out that there is no logical reason for Alex to turn into a Kymellian, any more than it was logical for her parents to behave the way they did. This realization is bad news for the Technocrat, the Kymellian responsible for creating that species’ artificial homeworld that they were originally inhabiting at the time of the Pack’s creation. After the Pack’s contact with Numinus, the Kymellians were returned to a normal world so the Technocrat could no longer co them.
In order to regain control; the Technocrat planned to destroy the Kymellians’ new world and put them all back aboard a satellite. The most efficient way to do this was the matter/anti-matter converter. With the Whitemane clan the last custodians of the formula, the Technocrat’s best bet was to try to take the formula from Jim Power’s mind. So he kidnapped both parents very shortly after the Pack’s return to Earth, using “pseudoplasm replacements” for the Power parents, a controllable lifeform that replicates a creature onto the molecular level. Later, when Alex began to realize his parents were acting so abnormally, the Technocrat replaced Alex as well. In Alex’s case, however, the pseudoplasm began to break down, and reverting to the original Kymellian form that the Technocrat had selected for his pseudoplervants.
Upon this discovery, the Power Pack fought against the Technocrat and Queen Mother Maraud, discovering that they can switch powers anytime they want to. Ultimately, the Power family is reunited, Technocrat and Maraud are defeated, and the Powers return to Earth, albeit apparently unable to switch powelonger.
Power Pack as a whole dropped out of sight for a while, and eventually Alex Power was contacted by the young superhero team New Warriors, during a time when the regular Warriors were scattered across time. Alex stole the powers from his siblings for himself (now that he was older and able to affect a power transfer by himself), believing that continued super-heroics would be too dangerous for his brother and sisters. Calling himself Powerhouse, Alex joined other young heroes in a new New Warriors team and served with them e time.
Alex later left the New Warriors, giving the powers back to his siblings and vowing to never steal them again. However, Alex did just that when the New Warriors called upon him again, and even allowed the New Warriors to use the Smartship Friday. Moreover, Alex believed that he stole the powers permanently, causing a rift between him and his siblings, who thought they could no longer trust their elder brother. During Alex’s last adventure with the Warriors, the Smartship Friday was stolen, recovered, and nearly destroyed in the process of saving humanity from the threat of the alien Dire Wraiths. Friday barely survived, and the ordeal led Alex to think that, if it were Power Pack in action instead of just Alex, that team probably could have found a way to save Friday. None of the New Warrior seemed to care for Friday as much as Alex. The Dire Wraith Queen Volx and the Neo-Neutralizer weapon almost cancelled all of the Warriors’ powers (including Alex’s), which caused Alex to inadvertently return the powers back to the Pack, and he retained his gravity powers. After this adventure, Alex left therriors.
The Power family have just recently moved to Bainbridge Island, approximately ten miles away from the city of Seattle, Washington, due to Dr. James Power getting a new job. (At this point, both parents seem to know of their children’s dual identities and are comfortable with them.) Almost immediately, the Power Pack were taken to Snark World to help stoil war.
First Appearance: POWER PACK #1
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