Alex Power

Superherobox|
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Zero-G


caption=Zero-G, art by GuriHiru
real_name=Alexander Power
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut= "Power Pack" vol. 1 #1 (August 1984)
creators=Louise Simonson
June Brigman
alliances=Power Pack New Warriors
aliases=Gee, Destroyer, Mass Master, Powerpax, Powerhouse
powers=Controlling gravity.
Previously: Controlling gravity, Acceleration/Flight, Control over his own mass and size and Disintegrating, absorbing and releasing energy.|

Alex Power is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. He first appeared in "Power Pack" #1 and was created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman

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 and in the 2005-2006 Marvel Adventures mini-series, he's 15. Because his sister Julie was revealed to be a 17-year-old in "The Loners" #4, Alex's current age in the Marvel Universe is presumed to be 19.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Alex Power was born in Richmond, Virginia. Alex is a founding member of Power Pack. The oldest of the four Power siblings, Alex is twelve years old when he receives his powers from Aelfyre Whitemane, a dying Kymellian noble. He is the unofficial leader of the team throughout their entire history and later strikes out on his own to become a member of the New Warriors without his siblings. He eventually leaves the New Warriors and returns to Power Pack.

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. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #22] 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 Rival, 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.

Following an encounter with Hobgoblin and Spider-Man, Alex and Johnny buried their differences and became friends. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #29] This relationship was short-lived however: Johnny's older brother was a drug-addict and dealer who was killed by the police during a robbery to fuel his addiction. Alex had tried to prevent it and Johnny blamed his interference for his brother's death. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #30] This rejection prompted Alex to destroy a drug-house. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #31] Johnny was himself opposed to drugs; in one scene he is shown angrily ordering some boys away from a drug dealer who was goading them into buying heroin.

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 transference from his siblings in order to be a greater help to the Warriors without the need to involve the rest of the Power Pack. ["New Warriors" (vol. 1) #47-50]

Afterwards, he returned their abilities back to them and promised not to take them again, ["New Warriors" (vol. 1) #51] but was later forced to reclaim them again to aid in the Warriors' battle against the Soldiers of Misfortune. ["New Warriors"(vol. 1) #54-55] Eventually, Alex explained to Julie and Jack his reasons for taking the Pack's powers into himself, which angered his siblings, especially Jack. ["New Warriors" (vol. 1) #56]

Among Alex's tenure with the Warriors was 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. ["New Warriors" (vol. 1) #73-75]

Civil War/The Initiative

Alex's codename Powerhouse was previously mentioned by Hindsight. ["She-Hulk" vol. 4 #8] However, it is not known whether Alex is for or against the Registration Act, especially in light of the recent showing of some of the former Warriors. ["Civil War" #4]

Alex has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who are a part of the 50-State Initiative [ "" #1] . [ [http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.947 Avengers: The Initiative #1 Character Map] ]

Powers and paraphernalia

Alex's original power was control over gravity; his original codename was "Gee", as in Zero Gravity. He first used this power to make himself stick to Friday to avoid being pulled into the Snarks' starship and he quickly learned he could 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).

After having his gravity powers forcibly removed by Jakal, Alex received the energy powers previously held by Katie. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #25] He renamed himself Destroyer, but found himself struggling with the moral issues his new power's lethal potential raised. 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.

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. ["Power Pack" (vol. 1) #52] Alex was the first Power sibling to use the powers to turn himself into a liquid state and further developed the abilities so he could create a density blast of solidified air.

Alex underwent a transformation into an actual Kymellian, which started with mild hair loss. It was eventually revealed that Alex had learned of his parents kidnapping and had been kidnapped himself by Queen Maraud and a Kymellian Technocrat and was replaced by a clone which reverted to its original Kymellian form. 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 extra-dimensional space known as "Elsewhere" and could be summoned with voice commands. The costume was later modified to include a mask. ["Power Pack" (vol. 2) #1-4] ["Power Pack Holiday Special"]

During his first stint with his gravity powers, Alex also wore a set of wings which he designed himself after learning more about the effects of gravity and inertia 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.

Other versions

"Avengers and Power Pack Assemble!"

Within the third and fourth issues of "Avengers and Power Pack Assemble!" miniseries, the Power Pack were thrown ten years into the future and met older versions of themselves, including a 25 year old Alex Power. In those issues he shows greater control over his powers, (such as being able to deconstruct an enemy powered-armor suit), and now wields Captain America's shield.

House of M

Alex appears as a member of Wolfpack, based in the Bronx. ["House of M: Avengers" #3]

Millennial Visions

In the "Power Pack: Starting Over" story within Marvel's 2001 "Millennial Visions" alternate universe one-shot comic, Alex was depicted as a 32 year old construction foreman who had retired from superheroing to raise a family. ["Millennial Visions" Marvel, 2001]

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 Wars" 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)
*"Fantastic Four and Power Pack" (2007)
*"Hulk and Power Pack" #1-4 (2007)
*"Iron Man and Power Pack" #1-4 (2007-08)
*"Spider-Man and Power Pack" #1-4 (2006-07)
*"X-Men/Power Pack" #1-4 (2005-06)

Footnotes