I have fond memories of the scattershot issues of Power Pack that I picked up when I was younger, and I remember it being fairly unusual in that the heroes it featured were pre-teen, part of a functional family, and the whole thing had more of a young readers' adventure novel series than that of a comic. It's a great concept, and it's unique attributes make it probably a better candidate for resurrection than also-ran team books like New Warriors and Thunderbolts, however much my personal tastes might gravitate more toward those books. However, the same unique factors that make Power Pack so ripe for a return make it very difficult to write without landing in either syrupy, preachy (and thus boring) mode, and while Sumerak has some interesting notions here, he unfortunately lands right in that territory. Power Pack needs a mixture of real kids stuff and imaginative adventure, and this reads more like a Brady Bunch episode where the kids happen to have superpowers. It's not a failure, it's just only going to work for a very young audience, rather than the larger age range it could have worked for.
The crux of this issue's plot is whether or not Katie Power, the youngest of the Power Pack kids, will turn in her book report and blow the kids' secret identities. There are a couple of problems with this, the most obvious one being that this is a remarkably boring conflict, and the other being that we all know that unless Sumerak diverts wildly from established Power Pack history, Katie isn't going to do this. So the conflict is essentially a non-starter, providing no real tension or suspense. The action element introduced is likewise sort of dull, as a young Snark shows up and proves to be little real threat to the Power kids.
This leaves the effectiveness of the story solely in the hands of the character interaction, which, fortunately, is pretty good. Sumerak has a pretty good handle on the Power kids, capturing Alex's maturity beyond his years, Jack's spoiled brat obnoxiousness and especially Katie's adorable naivete. The latter is especially important, given that Katie is his lead character, and that he walks that tightrope between making her youthfully naive and yet still intelligent and curious, rather than just playing her off as naive and stupid, a combination that often goes hand in hand. Katie's frustration with her age and the way the other kids treat her as a result rings absolutely true, and the moment between her and her big brother Alex is easily the high point of the issue. Sumerak's plot here doesn't really engage me, as I found it predictable and a little saccharine, but his characterization is top notch.
I'm not sure if Gurihiru is a person or a studio. At any rate, their previous work was on Gus Beezer, another of Marvel's young readers projects, and while I wasn't sure if their anime-influenced style would work on Power Pack, it actually looks pretty good. Truthfully, because of the more grounded nature of the Power family and the sci-fi nature of their villains, I feel like a more realistic approach would serve the book better, but Gurihiru's art is nice to look at, bright and clear and fun. The exaggerated emotions that drive Katie's behavior are made perfectly clear, and that same youthful energy permeates most of the rest of the book. Where it falls down is on the action sequence, which is easy enough to read and follow but not terribly exciting. In fairness, Gurihiru only has the equivalent of one page to really do an action sequence, but it's a fairly bland sequence, which gets the job done but doesn't really engage the reader.
The backup feature is "Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius," a cute little strip that has all the fun and foibles of the lead story. Sumerak nails the level of kid humor with a Reed Richards booger joke, and it's always nice to see Chris Eliopoulos's artwork again, but it's such goofy, predictable stuff that anyone much beyond Katie Power's age probably won't get a great deal out of it. Which is to say, the new Power Pack miniseries should be lauded for aiming at an underserved youth audience, but criticized for failing to hit a wider spectrum of those younger readers the way the original Power Pack did. 5/10
