Power Pack #1-4: w/ guest Brian Hines

Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About Comics

It's Christmas and that means all three Hines brothers are under one roof and that means all three Hines brothers (Will, Kevin and Brian) are on the podcast. We decide to talk about Power Pack -- a superhero group of siblings that was first published in 1984. We three brothers all loved the series when it came out and it was fun to revisit it.

Power Pack was more revolutionary than it might have seemed. In an era of increasing violence and grittiness in mainstream comics, Power Pack remained focused on gentler powers and feelings. The siblings, although they do squabble, care for each other. The villains -- although dangers -- are of the "fantasy" realm, not crime/gritty/pulpy variety. It was one of the first big writing forays for Louise Simonson, who had previously mostly been an editor. And it was one of the few -- perhaps the first? -- major Marvel title to be written and drawn by female creators (Louise and artist June Brigman).

Power Pack originally ran for 62 issues -- a more than respectable run. They had excellent crossovers with both The Fantastic Four and X-Men (as former editor of X-Men, Louise had worked with FF writer/artist John Byrner and X-Writer Chris Claremont). To this day, the Power Pack will show up in Marvel comics, much to our delight.

For Loose Screws we discuss: UK comedian Daniel Kitson, the quality of Santa sleigh in the film Elf and the new Superman movie trailer.