Alpha Flight

[Philip Ayres]

Alpha Flight's back! Again.

www.newsarama.com/comics/chaos-war-alpha-flight-100817.html

[Philip Ayres]

Just give us Alpha Flight classic v2 to support this and I'll be happy.

[The Doctor]

Yes. I too am still waiting.

Planet fucking Terry is in print! Give us Alpha Flight.

-ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Have you ever read AF 11 & 12? I believe up to the end of #10 was published in Secret Wars in the UK.

[The Doctor]

I'd need to check an issue guide.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

We love Alpha Flight.

and so does this site: Alpha Flight Collector

[Philip Ayres]

www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35761

[Philip Ayres]

You can't really look at Alpha Flight Classic Volume 2 without reminding ourselves of Volume 1 as both volumes have issues from the first 12 of the title and they form a whole.

Issue 1 is there to solve a problem: how was Alpha Flight dissolved at the end of X-Men 140 yet still together in Marvel Two In One 84. Job done.

Issues 2-4 tell a current story, in the process revealing Marrina's Origin. At the same time Byrne starts a series of back up features with origins for the team. Issues 2 & 3 are Guardian, 5 & 6 are Shaman, 7 & 8 are Snowbird & Shaman (in the process revealing the identity of the man who resurrects Tundra in issue 1), 9 is Aurora, 10 is Northstar and 11 is Sasquatch. All have been reprinted in the UK Secret Wars title. The only member of the team not to get an origin is Puck, but instead he prominently features in issue 5 starting a run of solo stories. Issue 6 is Snowbird fighting a great beast featuring the famous "Assistant Editor's Month" fight in a snowstorm while 7 & 8 are Aurora & Northstar ending in an argument that breaks up their partnership and introduces Nemesis, a character who's identity Byrne leaves hanging.

That covers book 1, all of which was printed as back up in Marvel UK's Secret Wars title.

The rest goes in a new post cos there be spoilers....

[Philip Ayres]

Issues 9 & 10 give Sasquatch a solo story fighting the Super Skrull, introducing the theme of Sasquatch's problems controlling his rage and his romance with Aurora. Plus we get the aforementioned Aurora origin (guest starring Wolverine) in 8 and Northstar's origin in 9 which, together with a hint in 7's story, provides evidence that Byrne intended for Northstar to be gay all along. It was a BIG revelation when it came out but the hints are there already back in 1983 when this was published it would have been HUGE. Byrne's laying the basis for something here that he knows, given the climate of the time, that he won't be able to pay off. Issue 10 was the last issue of Alpha Flight reprinted in the UK's Secret Wars title.

11 is Guardian's solo story (Shaman misses out on a solo spotlight but he guested in Puck's story in issue 5). We know the Guardian's been unemployed since the government disbanded Alpha Flight: here he's taking a job offer and he & Heather are moving to New York Through the preceding three issues a strange woman had been busy recruiting members of the training teams Beta & Gamma flight and now we find out why..... Go back to the third page of issue 1: there they are all are Box & Timeshadow in Beta Flight, Smart Alec, Diamond Lil & Wild Child in Gamma Flight with another as yet unrevealed character. Guardian's comments there, worrying what will happen to them, are taken up during the course of 11 as Delphine Courtney exploits their feelings of abandonment to use them in her master's Jerome Jaxon's plan..... And that links in to Guardian's origin in issues 2 & 3 showing the value of publishing that material then. Here Heather Hudson, a bit player in UXM 140, issue 1 here and Guardian & Shaman's origins, starts to come into her own as a character.

11's origin, Sasquatch, is another example of Byrne slipping a bit of forward planning in. Look at Snowbird's comments as she finds the damaged lab facility and watch Byrne pay them off 13 issues later, beyond the scope of this TPB.

The cover to this issue, with Guardian confronting his foes in silhouette later gets mirrored on the cover of Alpha Flight 25 showing the team with their foe in silhouette.

And then, at the end of the issue This Advert, reproduced in AF Classic 2.

Issue 12 if the first time since the first four issues that the team has been together. Even now one is missing, Marrina, romancing the Sub Mariner. This means the supposed classic Alpha Flight line up: Guardian, Shaman, Snowbird, Aurora, Northstar, Sasquatch, Marrina & Puck never all go into battle together. The cover of 12 is recoloured for the book's title looking an awful lot better in it's new colour scheme (I'd have used the advert but ...) We've more Sasquatch loosing his temper and a major squabble within the group before the battle against Omega Flight where Snowbird's weakness is exposed before the battle between the Jaxon controlled Box and Guardian ends with the destruction of the Box robot, Jaxon's death and Hudson's inability to shut down the power on the Guardian suit leading to the suit's destruction, killing the wearer in front of his wife.

Nowadays with comic characters dying and coming back to life we think nothing of it. But Guardian's death was a big thing then. Wolverine's reaction to loosing his friend was for many years hard to find but it's recently been reprinted: You're looking for Kitty Pryde & Wolverine issue 4, in the Hardcover trade of the same limited series.

Issue 13 is partially a nightmare dream sequence showing Mac's funeral (apparently pages from which were shown to retailers before issue 12 was released) that appears to owe a debt to the GI Joe Silent issue (21) which was released three months earlier. The rest of the issue essentially recaps the story that leads to the death of Guardian and reveals the Shaman is now carrying the comatose Smart Alec around with him in his medicine pouch.

Issues 14-16, the second, third & fourth of the second year of the title, are a sequel to the second, third & fourth of the first year: The Master's back in a story starring Marrina, her beloved Sub-Mariner and Puck, injured by Marrina during issue 2 the previous year. This year it's Heather's turn to get injured, this time at the hands of a different member of Marrina's race, and that puts her in hospital for a few issues where (finally) in issue 16 her old friend Wolverine shows up to offer his condolences and in turn leads to issue 17, another issue promoted with it's own advert this time giving the impression that Wolverine's coming north to lead Alpha Flight (also reprinted in this book along with a subscription ad featuring the cast of Alpha Flight)

Issue 17 has Heather & Logan reminiscing about old times and Mac's first battle with the X-Men giving Byrne an opportunity to reinterpret X-Men 109. Aurora's struggle between her Aurora & Jennie-Marie personalities comes to the fore here as hints to something being wrong with Snowbird emerge while she reveals her identity to a long term friend.

14 was one of the issues my dad brought me home at the time

16 removes Marrina from the ongoing narrative by her exiling herself from mankind due to what she's discovered about her alien nature. I always thought the character was a little useless anyway, a sort of poor man's female Sub Mariner and pairing her with him during nearly all her appearances thus far underlines that. But the same issue brings back Roger Bochs, the inventor of the Box robot that was used to kill Guardian. And he's summoned Madison Jeffries, the last member of Gamma Flight shown in issue 1 and the one not called to Omega Flight. The reasoning is obvious: his command over metal makes him an obvious threat to the robotic Delphine Courtney and may possibly have allowed him to detect her.

The 14-16 ark also reintroduces us to Elizabeth Twoyoungman, previously seen rejecting her father Michael, Shaman, in issue 5 on her Mother's death and ending up being raised by the MacNeills, Heather Hudson's family. Elizabeth's introduction gives us a new hero, Talisman, and brings the Great Beasts storyline back into focus in issues 18 & 19, for the first time since issues 1 & 6, and positioning itself for pay off that will end Alpha Flight's second year.

Having spent the first year defining the characters for the team the opening half of the second year centers events around Heather & Puck and it's from here that the team gets rebuilt. The Great Beasts story is back, Aurora's mental state is running as a theme in the background, which has led to a dramatic change in her appearance and Walter having altered her powers. There's hints at an illness and a romance for Snowbird. Plus Jeffries & Box are rebuilding the Box armour and all of these will pay off in the next volume. You can't help but admire the plotting here, it's so tight with the running themes developed and paid off. The artwork throughout is superb: Byrne couldn't draw a bad panel at this stage in his career.

If you read Alpha Flight in UK Secret Wars you need this volume to find out what happened next. If you're an Alpha Flight or Byrne fan you'll buy it anyway. If you've not read Alpha Flight before buy volume 1 at the same time as this.

Trade of the year for me.

[Philip Ayres]

I've decided to push on with reading Byrne Alpha Flight in the floppies.

20 & 21 is a 2 part story with Sasquatch & Aurora scouting out a property owned by the Langkowski family as a potential Alpha Flight headquarters & encountering Diablo's widow telling the tale of her bizarre revenge plan. Nice full page reveal of Aurora's new look and we get Snowbird struck down in mid flight further emphasising SOMETHING isn't right with her and giving a huge hint as to what it it.

22 pairs Northstar & Aurora together as Aurora lapses into her Jennie Marie personality and seaks out her brother in the process revealing a plot to kill the prime minister of Canada & US President and Northstar's past. Heather & Elizabeth go shopping .... and see Mac on the street which shocks Heather! The same issue debuts the redesigned Box, which I think looks far better in red than blue as Roger embarks on the revenge trail against Guardian's murderers.

I'd argue that after 22 is the point that X-Men Alpha Flight occurs, with the Heather/Elizabeth/Mac? scene happening after that just before 23....

23 pays off Snowbird's Illness and Sasquatch's origin in one swoop: Sasquatch is one of the Great Beasts which has slowly been gaining control over Walter's Sasquatch form. The illness & Weakness is punishment from her god family (why didn't they just tell her) and when she finds out the reasoning she sets about her task assuming Sasquatch's own form to slay the beast after a battle with super villain Caliber in Vancouver.....

24 is a trip to the real of the Great Beasts to retrieve Walter's soul. Talisman mystically summons her Father but gets more than she bargained for when Northstar shows up too. The Great Beast's realm is wonderfully presented in black & white with Alpha Flight and the beasts the only thing in colour. Heather guards Walter's body in our world, joined by Box who also felt Taslisman's summons. However the body crumbles away and Shaman is forced to store Walter's soul in Box. A little mystical for my tastes but the art is fabulous.

My Father brought me 20 & 21 home from work years ago, a rare occurance of me getting consecutive issues of a title ..... 22, 23, 24 & 25 were the first US comics I ever bought myself. I can't remember why I didn't get 26 - it either sold out too quickly or I didn't have enough money cos I was by that point buying Secret Wars II. But those last few missing Byrne issues were amongst the first I bought a year later.....

25-28 later

[Philip Ayres]

Actually thinking about it there's another place X-Men/Alpha Flight could have appeared....

We're limited by the cast and costumes: Aurora has her new costume, Talisman is there and so is Sasquatch. So as well as post 22/pre 23 it could also happen post 19/pre(or early) in 20.

Both have problems:

If we go for the earlier time frame then Northstar is wrong about not having seen Aurora since the business with the Collector (Marvel Team Up Annual 7)

If we go for the later one Aurora isn't that miffed with Northstar like she is at the end of 22.

A common problem aflicts both: Talisman & Northstar appear not to have met before 24. Yet there's no way X-Men Alpha Flight can occur after this.

CONTINUIITY !! Grrrrr.

[Philip Ayres]

Last set of issues:

25 is Guardian's shock resurection, with a cover that's a homage to #11 making Guardian the sihlouette and replacing Omega Flight with Alpha Flight. The outlandish tale of his survival, later taken to task in the letters pages isn't bad but although the text says it's set on Gannymede what's shown would be more suitable for Europa.

26 has Byrne's first little Transformers nod with a combining robot made of smaller robots that Alpha Flight trains against before travelling to Edmonton where they face the remainder of Omega Flight and the "shock" revalation that Guardian isn't Guardian.

27 is where Omega Flight's plan goes wrong as they attempt to rescue Smart Alec from Shaman's pouch and accidentally turn it inside out unleashing the interior dimensions on this universe which end with Talisman being lost in the void within the bag.

Between these issues she's rescued by the Beyonder in Secret Wars II #4

In 28 (marked as a Secret Wars II crossover issue: was any of this reprinted in the UK?) Omega Flight attempts to escape running into Maddison Jeffries who transforms a car into a robot killing the Delphine Courtney robot that's been impersonating Guardian. Talisman, in a fit of rage, sends the rest of Alpha Flight home where Bochs is trying to summon a new body from Langkowski from another dimension...... unfortunately what they end up with is the near mindless Hulk......

These four issues are a self contained sequel to the story of issues 11 & 12. Byrne knew he was done some way in advance of this, there's hints he's leaving as far back as 24, and I suspect he was asked to stay on just to write this coda to the run. It's decent enough but somehow lacks the spark of the earlier issues. Years later Fabian Nicieza would use the story narated by "Guardian" in issue 25 as the basis for the actual Guardian's resurrection.

And that's Byrne's Alpha Flight run, the defining work on the book. It's decent enough under Bill Mantlo, even if the art takes a while to become decent following the brisk departure of Mike Mignola, Byrne's drawing replacement. Beyond that the only point the book really works is the first four issues of Fabian Nicieza's run (87-90) which resurects Guardian for a second time and redefines the team.

[legios]

Interesting to read thy thoughts there. I really do need to pick up more of the back end of Byrne's original run, it sounds like it remains fairly solid all the way through.

It strikes me that arguably Northstar as a character did get the short end of the stick - Byrne was never able to actually say that he was intended to be gay (although he did make it fairly obvious), and one of the later writers was told to pull back from that storyline. In honesty by the time they made it a "reveal" I remember it felt a bit like "yes, we know".

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

When I read issues 40-50 I had no idea Northstar was gay. I aught to read on through Mantlo and see if that affects my perception of the "Northstar gets ill" storyline with it's insinuation, once you're aware of Northstar's sexual preferance, that it's aids he's suffering from.

The problem is the next few issues to read 29-32ish did't read well last time I looked at them..... which is probably more of a reason to rearead them.

AF back issues can be had in lots cheap as chips so sourcing missing issues shouldn't be a problem.

[legios]

Oct 10, 2011 19:38:56 GMT Philip Ayres said:

AF back issues can be had in lots cheap as chips so sourcing missing issues shouldn't be a problem.

Indeed, I made a start on that at the last Oxfam comics sale and I think it will probably be a continuing process.

Karl

[Jaymz]

Oct 10, 2011 19:38:56 GMT Philip Ayres said:

When I read issues 40-50 I had no idea Northstar was gay. I aught to read on through Mantlo and see if that affects my perception of the "Northstar gets ill" storyline with it's insinuation, once you're aware of Northstar's sexual preferance, that it's aids he's suffering from.

But mutants can't get AIDS! Archangel said so...

[Philip Ayres]

Read 29-40 last night.

Deary me, Gerry Taloc's inks are dreadful. Sucks all life from the art and isn't helped by the colouring either. It makes all the art , no matter if it's Mike Mignola, Sal Buscema or Dave Ross look so similar. Any hope Mantlo had of being as successful as Byrne writing the book is dashed at the start no matter what he wrote. The difference when Whilce Portacio takes over inking Dave Ross is noticable, producing a much crisper cleaner style.

These issues are the longest Alpha Flight spends operating as a team, loosing the individual character issues that made the Byrne run of the book. Almost imeadiately Mantlo gives Heather the Guardian Battlesuit (interestingly one of new editor Carl Potts other books, New Defenders, also had a non super powered female leader and I'm wondering if this is an edict from on high to differentiate them). This leads to issues 33 & 34, well known as the first hints of Wolverine's origin *EVER* told. Yup, that's right, Wolverine's origins, or at least how the feral version met Mac & Heather, are Mantlotainment.

These issues mark the start of the book getting it's act together: Dave Ross comes on board as an artist and makes it look a little better, although initially still subject to Taloc's inks, and the tales of Shaman's new direction, Snowbird's pregnancy, Pestilence and the Atlantis Invasion "feel" better than the issues imeadiately following Byrne's departure.

[Philip Ayres]

41-47: Mantlo's hit his stride here introducing the Purple Girl and bringing back Scramble, the mixed up man. 41 is superb (odd cos I really didn't like it as a child) containing a pile of "Northstar is gay" references that just passed me by as a kid. It's a return to the more solo character issues that Byrne did. The Purple Girl gets integrated into the team during the next few issues which bring Madison Jeffries to prominance and wrap up Snowbird's story. Mantlo also does "child of super powered individual has powers" long before Bendis used it as a theme in Secret Warriors. 45 is a fab issue using Smart Alec's brainless body to bring back Walter Langkowski who then inhabits first the Box armour and then Snowbird's reanimated Sasquatch body before finishing with the revelation that Walter can only turn that body into a woman! Madness claims Bochs in 46, leading to Jeffries taking charge of the Box armour. Interestingly the same issue also hints that Northstar might have fancied Walter! Another reference that went over my 13 years old head when I first read the issue. 47's a Heather solo tale. Hated it as a kid, think it's great now. How times & tastes change!

Top work from Mantlo throughout and the Ross/Portacio team is working well until it's broken up when Ross leaves to go travelling.

[Philip Ayres]

I forgot to mention the mistakes....

First we claim Box has the Bends due to an incident in Alpha Flight 39..... except that it doesn't happen in 39 or as far as I can see any of the other 2 issues in the crossover.

Then in, I think, Isse 43 Northstar claims the disease in him is getting worse since Pestilance kissed him in battle.... except that doesn't happen till 44. D'oh

Finally there's issue 48's cover which shows the new Box armour..... which debuts in issue 49. What was Carl Potts doiijng when he should have been spotting these things from the Editor's chair?

[Philip Ayres]

48 & 49: Bochs & Scramble merge to form Omega a metamorphosising super villain while Jeffries becomes the new transforming box and kills them. Throw in the new hero, Manikin, Aurora going off the deep end and Northstar admiting he's ill and it's a not bad couple of issues.

50 really should have been reprinted by now. X-Men: Asgardian Wars always has X-Men Alpha Flight, New Mutants SE1 & X-Men Annual 9 but this is Loki's revenge on Alpha Flight. Aurora & Northstar's "true orgin" felt odd at the time and let's face it who can expect to trust something revealed to you by the god of lies? So that's retconned away at some point in the future. I'm not sure it's ever explained how Aurora transfers the light powers to Northstar but we close with an amnaesiac & healed Aurora left at a convent, Northstar in the realm of the light elves and Puck, separated from the demon that's inhabited him & kept him small, left in tibet. 3 Alpha Flight members left: Vindicator, Box & Sasquatch.

I do worry about Alpha Flight's new recruits in this issue: Whitman Knapp, Doctor & former intern to Scramble. Described previously as a "brilliant surgeon". Let's say, given a guess at the length of medical school, he's 25. So what's he doing snuggling up to the Purple Girl who's THIRTEEN ? ? ?

Northstar: Yes the illness reads totally differently now you know he's gay. And all but saying he fancied Sasquatch too. That's quite ground breaking stuff for 1986/7, even if it is in the background. One extra piece of information, that older or more aware readers might have cottoned onto, opens the story up. It's almost a shame they didn't run with the idea and have Aurora & Northstar after the same character!

[Philip Ayres]

Finished the Mantlo Alpha Flight run. It tails off somewhat towards the end. Jim Lee is there nearly to the end, but unfortunately his later pencils are inked by Al Milgrom. And we all know what that means. The hints of China Force that we see together with their full reveal under the next artist convince me he'd done the full design work on them. They look like Image characters albeit, when we see them, drawn by a poorer artist.

So Mantlo's run. No it's not as good as Byrne's Alpha Flight. But - with the possible exception of their X-Men appearances and Fabian Nicieza's first four issues - this is the best that anyone other than Byrne will ever write Alpha Flight.

[The Doctor]

Nowt wrong with Al Milgrom.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Indeed. His inking on Cosmic Jim, Larry Stroman and Joe Q is spiffy.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

His
X-Factor over Paul Smith
Alpha Flight over Jim Lee
stands against that.

[The Doctor]

Milgrim is far better than Jim Lee.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Wild Child and thus Wyre get mentioned on this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed

The bad memories are back again. Make them stop, make them go away!

[The Doctor]

Alas, proper Alpha Flight not available digitally yet.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Wyre is not proper Alpha Flight. It's Furman Flight.

[The Doctor]

But I am thrall to The Furman forever!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Alpha Flight will break you. Especially Wyre. Not a Cable KO oh no. (Wyre->Wire->Cable) not in the least