Power Pack #46

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(Note: It makes mention of Julie visiting Aunt Opal with her mother in the beginning of the issue, and it footnotes Power Pack #42; but that’s the issue about Carmody becoming the Bogey Man from Limbo; and there’s no mention of an Aunt Opal anywhere in the issue)

The issue opens up with Alex and Jack, sick with a cold, while Katie watches her favorite show – the Goo Gams. Alex and Jack are complaining that Julie is off with their mother to visit Aunt Opal, and that Alex and Jack were supposed to go to the baseball game with their grandfather but came down with a cold instead.

During the television show, the news breaks that Goo-Gam creator, Jessie Wilcox Jones, has been arrested in the theft of $100,000 related to a promotion piece she had used for Goo-Gams. The news goes on to explain that the chest, which was buried, with clues left in episodes to it’s location was found by the Feghoot family of Honesdale, Pennsylvania – and all that was inside the chest were a bunch of her old, previous publications of Cody Davis: Space Ranger. The Publisher issued a check and said the only person who even knew of the chest’s location and the money, up until it was found by Fehoot’s family, was none other than Jessie Wilcox Jones herself.

Alex decides he’s going back to bed, while Jack writes a note for his parents, to say he’s going to Willy Batson’s house to play Monopoly or something. Katie gets it in her head to get this thing with Jessie Wilcox Jones looked into. She pulls out the business card from The Punisher (see Strange Tales #14 when Power Pack met the Punisher), then thumbs through the yellow pages and looks up private detectives until she finds one that sounds good.

Jack actually heads over to Dakota North, who does private investigations herself. He tells her that he will pay her all the money he has and all his future earnings as an Astronaut – he just wants Jessie Wilcox Jones’ name cleared before supper or else Katie is going to have a fit. She agrees to help him and gives him a motorcycle helmet and they ride off; with Jack thinking how much he adores Dakota North.

At the same time, Katie is pleading her case to the Punisher who says she has to go home; but when Katie shows her new speed powers, Punisher agrees to look into it if Katie swears to stay out of the way while Punisher is operating.

Back to Dakota North and Jack, they interview the two prisoners who had tried to steal from Jessie Wilcox Jones before (see Power Pack #21 for more details). One of the two lets it slip that they’re waiting for their brother; and that’s all Dakota North needs to go to her next lead; which is a brother named Sam, who bartenders at the Lazy Susan.

At that same time, at the Lazy Susan, Punisher is there, telling Sam to come along quietly. Katie comes in complaining about being left outside in the van, which gives Sam enough time to strike Punisher from behind. The other bar patrons immediately leap to Sam’s defense. Punisher takes care of them, but Sam pulls a shotgun on Punisher; but that’s immediately taken away by Katie using her powers. A shot rings out and Punisher sees Jack Power standing with a woman holding a gun (Dakota North). They team up and take Sam and leave the Lazy Susan, being chased by the patrons.

A short time later, Sam confesses that his brothers, Moses and Jerome were talking to their friend Larry about getting the money from the contest; when suddenly Jerome backed out, saying he wasn’t interested in anything crooked. But it turns out Jerome did the job with someone else; and Moe and Larry still think that Jerome is going to use some of the money to spring them from jail. Sam tells them where to find Jerome.

Dakota North dresses up in a revealing dress and shows up claiming to be the girlfriend to both Moe and Larry, and that she had been sent there to discuss a financial transaction. She sweet talks Jerome, flattering him (falsely) until he opens up to her how he had pulled off the switch. He took a job at the book company, and the day of the contest, picked the lock and took the money and filled it with the books, so it felt like the chest still had weight to it. Dakota flirts to say that she could be persuaded to be his girlfriend too; but he kicks her out and tells her nice try.

Punisher kicks down the door, guns blazing, firing several rounds and grabs Jerome, who says, with his money he has hired the best lawyers; and that he’d be happy to confess to the crime… but to know that a confession under such duress would immediately be thrown out. Punisher leaves, furious.

Katie comes up with the frequently used idea of doing the haunting thing (used on Larry and Moe, back in Power Pack #21 with the Goo-Gam costume; then again against Sunspot in Power Pack #33 with the ghost costume, then again on the three women who terrorized Julie in Power Pack #38 once more with the ghost costume). But this time, with a twist; when Jerome goes for a swim, he surfaces to find his pool full of Goo-Gam toys. He leaves and finds none of his lights work, but the cupboard is full of Goo-Gam toys that fall on him when he opens it. Next, one of the Goo-Gams appears life size holding a fridge (which is Jack in costume, using his power to lift the fridge). Another Goo Gam appears and picks him up and drops him on the roof (which is Katie dressed up). Another Goo Gam appears, smashing the roof (once again, Alex using his gravity powers). Jerome jumps down from the roof and onto Punisher’s car, begging him to take him to the authorities so he can confess his crime.

Dakota North parts ways and the kids visit Jessie Wilcox Jones, who gives Katie the new Goo-Gam Gang Meets Katie (with Katie drawn on the cover), and then she tells Jack that she has only one thing for him, unfortunately, which is just a kiss on the cheek. Katie teases Jack about the kiss, but it’s Dakota North’s hanky that he was given that he treasures from that night.