"MEN in tights" may be the jokey nickname of its anachronistically dressed security team but the Commons did witness a gesture more usually associated with a cartoon superhero yesterday.

Michael Gove, the mild-mannered and bespectacled Tory frontbencher, may as well have had a speech bubble with the word "pow!" above his head as he punched the air in front of him at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs).

Interestingly, the (education) crusader's actions were not designed for the Labour opposition. They could not see him, sat as he was partially obscured by the Speaker's chair.

Instead, the punch was designed to show his own side what he thought of David Cameron's latest retort to their arch-enemies, the Two Eds.

David and Ed Miliband had been going at it (Thor) hammer and tongs to claim credit for the Scottish and Southern Energy price freeze announcement.

Strangely, neither was so keen to hail the loss of 500 jobs or of millions of pounds of investment in renewables.

But Ed had a nice line reminding the Prime Minister of his previous concern a price freeze was essentially a Communist plot. His backbenchers loved that line of attack. You could see them nodding to each other, "holy cow, Batman!".

It was not all plain sailing.

"Weak" was the roar throughout from both sides, though a casual observer could have been forgiven for wondering whether they were shouting at the opposition or their own leader. Especially when both leaders responded with attacks that started "I'll tell you what's weak...".

So loud was the noise in the chamber that MPs finally had a breakthrough in what cynics might suggest has been their evil plan for months now.

They broke John Bercow.

The Speaker let out a combination of a scream and a howl as he jumped on his feet to shout them down with "order, order!".

The message to the assembled MPs was simple - they would not like him when he was angry.

Remarkably it worked and, like the good owner of any double identity, the Speaker, whose black silk gown looks in some lights not unlike a cape, recovered his poise quickly.

The smallest shock was the Prime Minister's admission that he may not get agreement to push ahead with an easing of the hunting ban from the Tories' arch arch-enemies, the Liberal Democrats.

Proof that sometimes with great power comes really very little.