Less than a month ago, a rumor emerged that 20th Century Fox would attempt to further mine the film rights to Marvel Comics’ ‘Fantastic Four’ but not with a sequel to the failed 2015 reboot or a new take, but rather a film based on the Richards kids, Franklin and Valeria. Now, it seems that Marvel Studios may be going the kiddie route, with a feature film based on ‘Power Pack’, the comic book series starring four preteen superhero siblings. The project is said to currently be in development but has not been officially greenlit.
The idea of a ‘Power Pack’ movie has surfaced at various times and it seems Marvel is interested in the possibility once again. Jonathan Schwartz has been given executive oversight on the project. Schwartz served as assistant to MS president Kevin Feige while working on ‘Iron Man 2’, ‘Thor’ and ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ before moving up as a co-producer on ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and executive producer on its sequel and the upcoming ‘Captain Marvel’.
The fact that he worked on the ‘Guardians’ movies is promising. Just a few years ago, the idea of a space opera starring a walking tree and talking raccoon would have seemed like madness, but we all saw how that turned out. Making a movie about a bunch of super kids could just as well prove to be a potential surprise hit. Reportedly, Marvel is looking for a ‘Spy Kids’ feel for this film.
The ‘Power Pack’ comic book was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman and ran for 62 issues beginning in 1984. The book starred Alex, Julie, Jack and Katie Power, the children of physicist James Power and his wife Margaret. James’ experiments with antimatter attracted the attention of extraterrestrials, both benevolent and evil. As a dying gesture, one of the kindly aliens, Aelfyre “Whitey” Whitemane of the Kymellian race, gave the children powers to oppose the evil Snarks, who sought to weaponize Dr. Power’s discoveries.
Alex, the oldest Power kid at 12 years of age, became Gee (later Zero-G) with the ability to– what else?– control gravity. Though he could make himself weightless, he couldn’t propel himself forward, so he wore bat-like wings to achieve flight. Ten year-old Julie could fly at super speed, leaving behind a rainbow-like trail and went by the codename Lightspeed. Jack, eight years-old, became Mass Master, capable of dispersing his density to become a cloud-like form. He later learned to become more dense, shrinking but becoming harder. Six year-old Katie adopted the name Energizer and could convert matter into energy bursts. Over time, the children have swapped and lent each other their powers.
During their original comic book run, they teamed up with Spider-Man, Cloak & Dagger, the X-Men, and the New Mutants, as well as partaking in various crossover events with other heroes. Franklin Richards joined their team, using the name Tattletale. The ‘Power Pack’ comic tackled issues especially pertinent to kids, like child abuse, drugs, runaways, kidnapping, bullying and homelessness.
Now that Marvel Studios has done several variations of super heroics, from fantastic technology in the ‘Iron Man’ films to mythology in ‘Thor’, war and espionage in ‘Captain America’, mysticism in ‘Doctor Strange’ and straight-up sci-fi in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, why not try family fare? Although it wasn’t technically a Marvel Studios film, ‘Big Hero 6‘ was a hit with viewers of all ages. And plenty of adults turned out for the geek-friendly ‘LEGO’ movies. ‘Power Pack’ could certainly work in the right hands.
What do you think? Are you curious to see how a ‘Power Pack’ movie might turn out? Or is this a huge mistake on Marvel’s part?
Source: The Hashtag Show
