Alex Power

Alexander "Alex" Power (also known as Zero-G) is a fictional character in Marvel Comics.

Publication history

He first appeared in Power Pack #1 and was created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman.

When Alex was introduced in Power Pack #1, he took the name Gee after attaining gravity-manipulating powers. He swapped powers with his sister Katie in issue 25, after which Alex took the name Destroyer until issue 52, when he obtained his brother Jack's power to manipulate his own mass and took the name Mass Master from that point until Power Pack's cancellation with issue 62 (it is later established^[1] that Alex was replaced with a doppelgänger at some indeterminate point after becoming Mass Master). In the Power Pack Holiday Special, he regained his original gravity-manipulating powers and nickname, and presumably continued under this pseudonym until he resurfaced in New Warriors issues 47-51, in a storyline written by former Power Pack editor Fabian Nicieza which saw Alex steal his siblings' powers for himself and adopt the name Power Pax. Continuing as a periphery cast member of the New Warriors, he sporadically appeared in their adventures (see bibliography at bottom of page for relevant issues) and renamed himself Powerhouse before deciding - after blaming himself for the destruction of his family's sentient starship Friday - to rejoin Power Pack and return their powers to them. Resurfacing with the rest of his family in a 4-issue miniseries published in 2000, Alex had taken the name Zero-G at some point during the team's 4-year publishing hiatus, and also created a new costume. With the end of that miniseries, Alex was not seen again until he appeared on the cover of Avengers: The Initiative #1 (in his Zero-G costume) as one of 150 Marvel superheroes either involved with, or being considered as potential recruits by the Fifty State Initiative. He appeared in Civil War: Battle Damage Report as a potential recruit (named as Powerhouse, not Zero-G - possibly having changed his name once again). It is stated by his sister Julie that she was speaking to him on the phone during a scene in Loners #1, but he is not seen or heard. He appeared in Fantastic Four #574, where he was a guest of Franklin Richards' birthday party. He next appears as a member of the Future Foundation, which was created by Reed Richards.^[2]

Fictional character biography

Alex Power was born in Richmond, Virginia. When Alex is twelve, he and his siblings gain superpowers from a sentient spaceship named Friday and form the Power Pack.^[3] Alex acts as their leader, but his temper sometimes causes them trouble.^[4]

He later steals his siblings' powers and becomes a reserve member of the New Warriors as Powerhouse.^[5] He eventually leaves the New Warriors and returns to Power Pack.^[6]

After the superhuman civil war, Alex is one of the 142 registered superheroes who are a part of the Fifty State Initiative,^[7][8] and trains at Camp Hammond.^[9]

When Alex is 19, he joins Reed Richards' Future Foundation,^[10] a group of gifted children including Valeria Richards, Artie Maddicks, Bentley Whitman (a young clone of The Wizard), Dragon Man, and children from both the Moloids' Underground City and an older Atlantean City.^[11]

Powers and abilities

Alex's original power was control over gravity. His original codename was "Gee", as in G-Forces. He first used this power to make himself stick to Friday to avoid being pulled into the Snarks' starship,^[12] and he quickly learned he could use it to cancel his own gravity and that of other objects. Alex' 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.

After having his gravity powers forcibly removed by Jakal,^[13] Alex received the energy powers previously held by Katie.^[14] He renamed himself Destroyer,^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17] Alex was the first Power sibling to use the powers to turn himself into a liquid state.^[18]

Alex underwent a transformation into an actual Kymellian, which started with mild hair loss.^[19] 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 then escaped from captivity in Maraud's ship and rejoined his siblings.^[20]

Alex wears a costume of unstable molecules created by Friday. The costume exists in an extra-dimensional space known as "Elsewhere" until summoned by voice command (the wearer would say the words "costume on!"). The costume also houses a communicator which is used to communicate with Friday, and was later modified to include a mask.^[21] As with all the team's costumes, the pockets of the costume can be used as an access point to Elsewhere itself, where the cartoon-like creatures known simply as "The Tailors" reside in a colorful wonderland of talking dinosaurs, enchanted forests, mad monarchs, surreal architecture, and malleable physical laws.^[22]

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.^[23] 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 almost immediately, during Power Pack's subsequent encounter with the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre.^[24]

Other versions

All ages miniseries

Alex appears in the Power Pack all ages miniseries line. He is similar in age and appearance to the version of the character as seen in Power Pack Vol. 1, though he is portrayed as not needing to make physical contact with something to negate its gravity, often doing so from a distance - in the original Power Pack series, he can only affect objects by physical contact. His sometimes antagonistic relationship with younger sister Katie is also absent, with Alex pointedly nurturing his younger sister through her difficulties in hiding the family's powers from their parents.^[25]

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.^[26]

Marvel Zombies

Alex, alongside the rest of Power Pack, appear as zombies in the pages of Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness #3. They are attacked by Nextwave, whom the Pack murder off-panel in an allegedly graphic fashion.^[27]

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.^[28]

X-Force

A young girl called Francine Power appeared under the name PowerPax in X-Force Annual #1, as part of a story set years in the future of the Marvel Universe. This PowerPax not only utilized the collective powers of Power Pack, but wore the same costume Alex would be seen wearing when he took the collective powers of Power Pack for himself and operated as a superhero also called PowerPax. The X-Force Annual came several years before Alex' tenure as a featured cast member of the New Warriors, but both were written by Power Pack editor Fabian Nicieza.^[29]

Footnotes