Alex Power
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Alex Power is a fictional character in Marvel Comics' universe. He first appeared in Power Pack #1 and was created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman
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[edit] Publication history
Alex aged from 12 to 13 during the original Power Pack series and from 14 to 15 during his time with the New Warriors. In the 2000 mini-series, he was 16; in the 2005-2006 alter-verse mini-series, he's 15. Because his sister Julie was depicted as somewhere between 15 and 16 during her time as a member of Excelsior, Alex's current age in the Marvel Universe is presumed to be 17 or 18.
Recently announced by Joe Quesada is the news about the New Warriors returning in a fourth series. And although he had cryptically mentioned about one of the Warriors will be a member of the newest incarnation; it is unknown as to whether or not Alex will be involved in the series, especially with the latest announcement about the return of the Pack within the regular (616) Marvel Universe's continuity.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origin
Alex Power was born in Richmond, Virginia. Alex was a founding member of Power Pack. The oldest of the four Power siblings, Alex was twelve years old when he received his powers from Aelfyre Whitemane, a dying Kymellian noble. He was the unofficial leader of the team throughout their entire history and later struck out on his own to become a member of the New Warriors without his siblings. He eventually left the New Warriors and returned to Power Pack.
[edit] Power Pack
As the eldest of the four Power children, Alex quickly became the de facto leader of the group. His bright and inquisitive nature was perhaps partially responsible for the creation of the team: the Powers first spotted Friday when they were camped out on their back porch with Alex's telescope, stargazing.
Alex proved to be a strong and insightful leader for Power Pack, rallying them to win several important battles. However, he also occasionally exhibited an explosive temper; it was sometimes unleashed upon his siblings to disastrous results. Alex's outburst resulted in the entire team being located and kidnapped by the Snarks.[1] When his youngest sister, Katie, was Energizer, he bullied her to such an extent that she compared him to the team's archenemy, Queen Maraud, and voluntarily gave up her powers to the Snarks.
The oldest Power sibling by several years, Alex often expressed a desire to cultivate friendships outside of the Pack. He had an on-and-off relationship with a girl in his class, Alison (sometimes spelled 'Allison') McCourt; this friendship would last throughout most of the series. Like his sister Julie, Alex also occasionally clashed with bullies at school. One of these, Johnny, would prove to be a serious threat: he suspected Alex's powers, believed he was a mutant, and brought a gun to school to attempt to kill him.
[edit] New Warriors
Alex's time with the New Warriors began when he was recruited by both Bandit and Hindsight (Lad); in order to help stop the Sphinx and rescued the time displaced Warriors. However, he initiated a power transferance from his siblings in order to be a greater help to the Warrior without the need to involve Power Pack.[2] Afterwards, he returned their Kymellian abilities back to them and promised not to take them again;[3] but was later forced to reclaim them again to aid in the Warriors' battle against the Soldiers of Misfortune.[4] Eventually, Alex explained to Julie and Jack his reasons for taking the Pack's powers into himself; which angered his siblings, especially Jack.[5]
Among Alex's mission with the Warriors were the encounters against Spidercide, a brief fight against Psionex {with then Night Thrasher and Rage on said team at the time}, Protocol and the Soldiers of Misfortune, and both the Sphinx and Advent.
Alex's final mission with the Warriors was when they fought the Dire Wraith Queen Mother Volx (who had already stolen the Torpedo suit from Mickey Musashi, Power Pack's Smartship Friday, and Rom's Neo-neutralizer). The team succeeded in destroying her plans {along with the Dire Wraith as well}, but at the cost of nearly destroying Friday.[6]
Alex's codename Powerhouse was previously mentioned by Hindsight.[7] However, it's unknown whether Alex is either Pro- or Anti-Registeration; especially in lieu of the recent showing of some of the former Warriors.[8]
[edit] Powers and paraphernalia
Alex's original power was control of gravity; his original codename was "Gee", as in Zero-G. He first used this power to make himself stick to Friday to avoid being pulled into the Snarks' starship; he quickly learned he could also use it to cancel his own gravity and that of other objects. Alex's ability to cancel gravity was unlimited; however, he also had to deal with the inertia of the objects he lifted. Though Alex could float by negating gravity, he had no means of self-propulsion, and thus could not truly fly; he initially depended on his sister Julie to push him along before developing an alternate method (see below).
In Power Pack #25, after having his gravity powers forcibly removed by Jakal, Alex received the energy powers previously held by Katie. He renamed himself the "Destroyer," but found himself struggling with the moral issues his power's lethal potential raised. While Alex's ability to fire multiple power balls was considered an "innovation", in fact, Katie had exhibited this ability as early as the first issue of the series. Alex also pushed the upper limits of the energy power's capacity for absorption; in a battle with the Sentinel Master Mold, he disintegrated almost the entire bulk of the multi-story robot's body, causing his body to swell with stored energy. In the process, Alex found that exceeding his normal absorption limits generated intense pain, impaired his ability to think clearly, and made it difficult to release the stored energy; in a later adventure, he was also shown to be highly volatile in this state, prone to random releases of energy on physical impact.
In Power Pack #52, after a third power switch, he received the density powers previously held by Jack and Julie and took on Jack's former identity as "Mass Master". He was the first Power sibling to use the power to turn to liquid, and further developed the power's force field into a "density blast" of solidified air.
During the Power Pack Holiday Special, he briefly gained the acceleration ability before regaining his original gravity powers. In both the 2000 and 2005-2006 miniseries, Alex appeared as Zero-G.
In the final storyline of the original series, Alex seemed to transform into a Kymellian. The change was gradual, and stretched out across several issues; beginning with mild hair loss and ending with a complete transformation. However, in the Power Pack Holiday Special that followed the series' end, it was revealed that Alex had not transformed at all. Instead, he had learned of his parents' kidnappings, had been kidnapped himself by Queen Maraud and a Kymellian Technocrat, and replaced by a protoplasm double as his parents had been. It was this double, which carried Alex's personality, that had reverted to its original Kymellian shape. The real Alex eventually escaped from captivity in Maraud's ship and rejoined his siblings.
Along with his siblings, Alex possessed Kymellian healing powers. Usually, he was required to work with his siblings to generate and use this ability, however, he occasionally accessed it on his own.
With his siblings, Alex owned a Kymellian smartship, Friday. The ship acted as an unofficial team advisor and accompanied the Pack on several missions.
Alex wore a costume of unstable molecules created by Friday. The costume existed in an extradimensional space known as "Elsewhere" and could be summoned with voice commands. In the 2000 mini-series (and a back-up story in the Holiday Special), this outfit included a mask; in the original series, it did not. During his first stint as Gee, Alex also wore a set of wings, which he designed himself after learning more about the effects of gravity and intertia in school. The wings, which were sewn by Julie and attached to his costume with straps, allowed him to propel himself and "fly" through clever manipulation of gravity and occasional use of air currents, instead of relying on Lightspeed to carry him. Alex passed the wings on when Jack acquired the gravity power, but they were destroyed during Power Pack's encounter with the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Avengers and Power Pack Assembled
Within the third and fourth issues of Avengers and Power Pack Assembled miniseries; an 25 year old Alex Power was introduced to the time-displaced super youths, in which he has shown greater control over the gravity powers--able to deconstruct an enemy powered-armor suit--as well as for wielding Captain America's shield.
[edit] Trivia
- Alex's use of the codename Destroyer (for the energy manipaluting abilities previously used by his sister Katie) ironically came from an enemy of Thor, and later his codename Mass Master was formerly used by his brother Jack.
- During his time within the New Warriors; Alex was known as the third person to use the codename Powerhouse. The first one was an Xandarian Alien named Rieg Davan, who was a Member of the Nova Corps., and first encountered Richard Rider, also known as Nova. The second was an unnamed mutant that first appeared in Spider-Man #15.
- Alex is the only member of Power Pack to have used all four of the Kymellian powers, acceleration, mass, energy and gravity. His siblings have each only used three.
[edit] Bibliography
- Power Pack #1-55 (1984)
- Power Pack Holiday Special (1992)
- Power Pack Mini-series #1-4 (2000)
- Power Pack: Shelter from the Storm Graphic Novel (1989)
- Power Pack and Spider-Man (2006)
- New Warriors v1, #47-51, 55-57, 59-65, 67-75 (1994-6)
- New Warriors v2, #1 (1999)
- Fantastic Four v1, #282, 337
- Fantastic Four Annual #23
- Green Goblin #2
- Marvel Fanfare #55 (1982)
- Marvel Universe #10
- Nova v2, #7 (1994)
- Secret War II #6 (1985)
- Spectacular Spider-Man #227-228
- Strange Tales v2, #12-14
- Thor #357, #363
- Uncanny X-Men #195
- Web of Scarlet Spider #3-4
- Web of Spider-Man #129
- Power Pack #1-4 (2005)
- Avengers and Power Pack Assembled #1-4 (2006)
- Spider-man and Power Pack #1-4 (2006-07)
- X-Men/Power Pack #1-4 (2005-06)
[edit] Footnotes
Alex Deal invented Alex Power, he was the smartest person alive!
