Alexander Power (Earth-616)

The Boogeyman's headquarters is secret. We don't know where he's taken Rebecca... or how to find him or-- Hey, man oh man, I've got it! Am I a genius or what--? We'll fight fire with fire! If we can't go to the Bogeyman... we'll make him come to us!

—Alex Power^[src]

History

Power Pack[]

Alex Power was the oldest child of Dr. James Power, a physicist who worked for the United States government on a means of producing large quantities of energies cheaply through combining matter and anti-matter. (The subatomic particles composing anti-matter have opposite charges to those of the equivalent particles of matter itself. When matter contacts anti-matter, both are converted entirely into vast quantities of energies.)

An alien Kymellian named Aelfyre Whitemane (nicknamed "Whitey") learned of Power's discovery and intended to stop it. Whitemane knew that a device such as Power's would, despite Power's good intentions, trigger a chain reaction that would destroy the Earth. Moreover, he knew that Power's device was sought by alien Z^nrx, nicknamed "Snarks," who intended to use it to conquer inhabited worlds.

When Snarks captured Dr. Power and his wife Margaret, intending to force him to reveal the secret of his device, Whitemane saved the Powers' children, Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie, from being captured, but he himself was fatally wounded in the process. Dying, Whitemane transferred one of his superhuman powers into each of the four Power children, and asked them to use their new abilities to save their world.

Alex received the power to control gravity, and called himself Gee after the common scientific abbreviation for gravitational force ("G"). The four children called themselves the Power Pack. Power Pack thwarted the Snarks, rescued their parents, and destroyed Dr. Power's dangerous matter/anti-matter converter, thereby saving the Earth from destruction. The four children continued to have adventures as Power Pack, assisted by Whitey's Kymellian Smartship, Friday. The Power Pack has fought various villains, both on Earth and on outer space, with their major foe being Mother Queen Maraud of the Snarks and her clan.

Switching Abilities[]

Alex temporarily lost his power when Maraud stole it along with his siblings' powers and transferred them to her son Jakal. Jakal was unable to hold all these powers for long, and The Power Pack eventually got their powers back, but the four powers have switched hands and Alex received the ability over energy, previously possessed by his sister Katie.^[1] With this new ability he was able to absorb energy by either disintegrating matter he touches or by getting directly hit by some energy, and to fire bolts of the energy he absorbed. Adjusting to his new ability, he took the code-name Destroyer^{[citation needed]}. However, he had some hard time learning to control this power, and has disintegrated stuff by accident multiple times.^{[citation needed]}

Alex lost his ability once again when Maraud captured the Power Pack and blackmailed them into giving her their powers willingly, but they eventually found out that they can pull the powers back. This time Alex received the ability over mass, letting him condense or spread his body's molecules, and he took on the code-name Mass Master. Once again, Alex has harder time than the rest of the team learning to properly master his ability.^[2]

During a fight with a mad Frankie Raye, Alex somehow managed to link the powers of the four members of Power Pack together and use them to transport the alien Elan to safety.

Later, during a confront with Maraud and the Technocrat, the Power Pack realized they are able to pass their powers from one to another by will. They switched them a few times during the battle, and ended up with each having his or her original power, so Alex had regained his ability over gravity. They failed to switch again after the battle was over, for reasons they could only speculate about.^[3]

In truth, Alex himself was still able to pass his powers and even forcefully take the powers of the others to himself, because - as the Kymellians explained to him - he was older and his body was changing faster so the energies inside each of the others are changing along with him. The Kymellians told him to not tell his siblings because "Each must grow in his own time" and therefore they only became aware of it after Alex stole their powers for a mission with the New Warriors he was invited to.^[4]^[5]

Years later, Alex's sister Julie temporarily forcefully took his power temporarily, for a task that required both the gravity power and the speed power.^[6]

New Warriors[]

Some time later, Alex was contacted to help save the New Warriors from the Sphinx. For this adventure he was convinced to absorb the powers of his siblings and help the Warriors as Powerpax. After the adventure, he returned his siblings powers and promised not to steal them again. But soon after the Warriors needed his help again, and he broke his promise.^[7]

This time, however, he realized how dangerous it was for children to be super-heroes, and decided not to give his siblings their powers back, to his family's chagrin. Instead, Alex continued with the New Warriors, changing his code-name to Powerhouse out of guilt over the fate of Power Pack.^[8]^[9]

He shared many adventures with the Warriors, but after the team allowed the Smartship Friday to be severely damaged to stop Volx, he quit the Warriors and gave his family their powers back.^[10] Retaining the gravity-control power, Alex renamed himself Zero-G and returned to adventuring with his brother and sisters.^[11]

After a time, Alex and his siblings seemed to stop functioning as a team, most likely due to Lightspeed quitting and moving to California.^[12]

Initiative[]

After the Civil War, Zero-G was a recruit for the Initiative.^[13]

Future Foundation[]

He was invited by Reed Richards to join a think tank that would be based out of the Baxter Building and comprised of young geniuses. Although Alex was not the smartest of the team, he became a valued member.

He even stayed on when it became the Future Foundation following Johnny Storm's death, and, following Johnny Storm's resurrection and return to the team. When all of the original members of the Fantastic Four got a 4 on their costumes the rest got numbers as well, with Alex getting the number 7 on his costume.

At some point, Zero-G briefly rejoined the Power Pack and teamed-up with Devil Dinosaur, Gwenpool, and Moon Girl.^[14]

Attributes

Power Grid^[17]

Powers

Gravity Decrease: He can negate the force of gravity on himself and on other living beings and objects through Anti-Gravitons. Previously, in order to reduce the pull of gravity on an object or a living being other than himself, Zero-G needed to be in physical contact with that object or being. Now, Alex can project a gravity distortion field on an object that he is in close proximity to, but not necessarily in physical contact with.^{[citation needed]}

The limits of the amount of mass on which Gee can successfully use his power are unknown. However, he has succeeded in negating the force of gravity on his father's matter/anti-matter converter, an enormous object weighing many tons, enough to carry it many stories above the Earth's surface.^{[citation needed]}

When Zero-G uses his power small black rectangular marks often appear on his forearms and lower legs (or, if those portions of his body covered by clothing, on the parts of his clothing covering his forearms and lower legs) and sometimes on part of whatever object he is touching and using his power on. More recently, a black distortion field surrounds any person or object affected by his powers.^{[citation needed]}

Flight: Zero-G can control the extent to which he reduces the pull of gravity enough so that he can hover above the Earth's surface at the height he desires, and not simply keep on going upward into outer space. Previously, he had relied on his siblings to provide momentum in order to fly, and wore wings to propel himself along. He later got more control and now seems to be able to hover and fly in any direction at will.^{[citation needed]}

Gravity Increase: He can also increase the pull of gravity on himself through generating Gravitons. In his first clash with the Snarks, Zero-G thus successfully resisted the pull of a Snarl tractor beam that had a force equivalent to six times Earth's gravity. However, as yet Gee has seldom used this power to increase the pull of gravity, and it is unclear whether he can use this power to increase the force of gravity on living beings and objects he touches.^{[citation needed]}

Life Force Sharing: In addition, the members of the Power Pack can heal themselves by sharing their life forces with one another.^{[citation needed]}

Former Powers

Energy Manipulation (formerly): After he and his siblings switched powers for the first time, Alex gained the powers formerly held by his sister Katie, which allowed him to disintegrate objects and absorb energy from them before projecting if forward as "Power Balls" of incredible destructive force. Alex was, possibly due to his age, far more concerned with the lethal potential of these powers than Katie was. Alex was also the first to discover that absorbing excessive amounts of energy caused him great pain and made it harder for him to release it. Eventually, Alex lost these powers after trading with his siblings again, gaining the Density powers held by his brother Jack and his sister Julie.

Density Manipulation (formerly): After he and his siblings switched powers once more, Alex gained the Density Manipulation powers that were previously possessed by his brother Jack as Mass Master and his sister Julie as Molecula. He took the name Mass Master and utilized the same powers his brother and sister had, such as turning into a gaseous cloud form, shrinking while gaining strength and durability, creating density force fields, and growing to greater heights than he could achieve naturally. He also refined the power himself, being the first sibling to use the powers to become a liquid. He eventually switched powers with his siblings again, regaining his old gravity powers and becoming Zero-G.

Gravity Manipulation, Acceleration Manipulation, Density Manipulation, Energy Manipulation: (formerly): Upon taking all the three Kymellian powers from his siblings and retaining his own powers, Alex became Powerpax and later Powerhouse. With all four powers, he was quite a bit more powerful, and was able to utilize all of the talents, powers, and skills that the four siblings had created over the years, and manifested powers like Flight at faster than the speed of sound, shrinking and growing in size, transforming into a gaseous cloud form, utilizing his rainbow trail as a solid platform or binding apparatus, disintegrating objects and releasing energy, and manipulation of gravity. He also had a more powerful healing factor. All of these powers, except his share of the healing factor and his original Gravity powers were lost when he decided to return them to his siblings, becoming Zero-G once more.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Future Foundation Uniform:
Power Pack Uniforms: Alex wears a special costume made of Unstable molecules created by the Kymellian Smartship Friday. The costume can be invisible and intangible, but will materialize on Zero-G when he wills it to do so. When activated, these costumes were called from an extra-dimensional realm "Elsewhere" to replace their normal clothing. Zero G once wore artificial wings under his arms which enable him to glide on wind currents when he uses his anti-gravity power on himself.

Transportation

Friday, a Kymellian Smartship formerly partnered with Whitey.

Notes

Alex was, for a time, replaced by a duplicate, an agent of the Technocrat.

Trivia

Fantastic Four Vol 1 574 page 07 Alexander Power (Earth-616)

Reed Richards claims Alex is nineteen.^[15]

Links and References

References

[Power_Pack_Vol_1_25-1] Power Pack #25

[Power_Pack_Vol_1_51-52-2] Power Pack #51–52

[Power_Pack_Holiday_Special_Vol_1_1-3] Power Pack Holiday Special #1

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_48-4] New Warriors #48

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_51-5] New Warriors #51

[Future_Foundation_Vol_1_5-6] Future Foundation #5

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_48-51-7] New Warriors #48–51

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_55-56-8] New Warriors #55–56

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_64-9] New Warriors #64

[New_Warriors_Vol_1_75-10] New Warriors #75

[Power_Pack_Vol_2_1-11] Power Pack (Vol. 2) #1

[Runaways_Vol_2_1-12] Runaways (Vol. 2) #1

[Civil_War_Battle_Damage_Report_Vol_1_1-13] Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1

[Unbelievable_Gwenpool_Vol_1_25-14] Unbelievable Gwenpool #25

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_574-15] Fantastic Four #574

[16] FF: Fifty Fantastic Years #1

[17] FF: Fifty Fantastic Years Vol 1 1

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