Alpha Flight Fans: Gather

[Adam-X]

Yeah, most of Mantlo's run was pretty rough. But I actually liked Lobdell and later Furman.

Agreed - later, it definitely got better. But Mantlo did a lot of "damage" by taking out some characters in the way that he did (killing them off).

Although, while issue #12 was great - I think the killing of Mac was the first nail in that coffin. You now had a team with no clear, strong, leader. Granted, Heather took up the mantle nicely - but to me, that always felt a little forced.

I'm talking about the 8 issue limited series that was upgraded to an ongoing, then downgraded back to a mini; it spun out of the otherwise unremarkable "Fear Itself" event.

Yeah, I never figured out why Marvel went to making ongoing, then backtracked on that. Were sales not that good, that they had doubts? Because it seemed like it was a pretty solid "restart" of the team and had potential. First time it truly felt like an "Alpha Flight" book, despite the many attempts and volumes post Volume 1.

Mantlo was never a great fit for Alpha Flight. It always felt he was more into telling horror stories than he was into a superhero team. Then they followed him up with James Hudnall who also was not a great fit for the book either.

I did an interview with James Hudnall (and I naturally brought up Alpha Flight), on our podcast: http://comicreliefpodcast.com/archives/1375
He had some interesting things to say. Things between him and Camilee (the artist) were apparently not the best.
His own health, sadly, has gone south. He's wheelchair bound, with loss to his legs.

I thought the book started turning around with Fabian Nicieza and then Scott Lobdell, but they were both trying to repair all the weird changes done to the team by Mantlo and Hudnall. I think they did a good job in the 20 issues they did, and set things up really well for Simon Furman who finished out the series

I think Hudnall wanted to "fix" things - but, he did create Llan the Sorcerer and that was one of the worse things in Alpha Flight. It did not help that Camilee's art was beyond atrocious and that the Llan the Sorcerer design was a joke, so it was hard to take him serious as a threat.

And how Fabian and Furman recovered from all of that is pretty amazing... They were definitely working with quite a mess.

And honestly besides Jim Lee's short run Alpha Flight always seemed to have a problem getting good artists after Byrne left. I think out of the whole series the only ones I really enjoyed on art were Byrne, Lee, and finally Pat Broderick who had a great run towards the end of the series.

Why - WHY do so many people draw Sasquatch's face wrong?

While I can see why he wasn't considered to be a good fit, I actually enjoyed Mantlo's run because it was so different from the other books I was reading at the time. I don't recall reading any AF post Mantlo as by the time he was wrapping up his run the team had gone under many drastic changes and it just wasn't the AF characters I fell in love with at the start so I quit the book.

So I will hand it to you - if you had come into Alpha Flight, new, during Mantlo's run - it was probably good. I actually enjoyed the concept of Laura/Goblyn. But he did too many weird things - constantly - that made it hard for me to get into, especially once he killed off Snowbird (one of my all time favorite heroes). It was pretty much a downward spiral. (And then having her rip out Sasquatch's heart, right before she gets killed?) Literally knocked off two main stay characters within an issue...

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Alpha Flight #1 Aug 1983
"Tundra!"

Exploding from the pages of the X-Men comes Canada's premier super-team - Alpha Flight!
The monstrous Sasquatch, the mystical Shaman, the twins, Aurora and Northstar, the divine Snowbird,
the tumbling Puck (1st appearance), the aquatic beauty, Marrina (1st appearance), and their leader, Vindicator,
must reunite to stop the destructive elemental force known as Tundra.
NOTE: Also 1st appearance of Omega Flight (Diamond Lil, Wild Child, Flashback,& Smart Alec).

The Prime Minister of Canada informs James MacDonald Hudson that Department H is shutting down their national super-hero team, Alpha Flight.
Mac reflects upon what will become of the various team members, notably the rising stars from the back-up groups, Beta Flight and Gamma Flight.

Donning his Vindicator armor, he flies home to Ontario to tell his wife, Heather.

Meanwhile, in the Northwest Territories, a man named Richard Easton conducts an ancient ritual in which he summons one of the power Great Beasts – an entity known as Tundra.

In Quebec, Jean-Paul Beaubier visits his sister, Jeanne-Marie at Madame DuPont's School for Girls.
He tries to get his sister to shed her modest Jeanne-Marie personality in favour of her more free-spirited persona, Aurora.
Jeanne-Marie detests this side of her nature and openly rejects Aurora, as if she were an entirely separate person.

Later at the Hudson residence, Mac receives a call from Alpha Flight's former government liaison, Gary Cody.
Cody tells him about a bizarre phenomena taking place at Resolute Bay. Vindicator flies off to respond to the emergency.
Heather, fearing for her husband's safety, activates a signal beacon that goes out to all former members of Alpha Flight, including upcoming recruits Puck and Marrina.

Puck is working as a bouncer at Corky's Tavern in Toronto when he receives the call. Exuberance overtakes him and he rushes out to track down Hudson.

In Newfoundland, Marrina carries on a conversation with her adoptive brother, Dan Smallwood, when she too receives the signal.
She dives into the sea and begins swimming towards Vindicator’s coordinates.

In British Columbia, Professor Walter Langkowski perceives the summons as well, and is surprised to find that there is still a need for Alpha Flight.
He transforms into Sasquatch and races to aid his old allies.

Meanwhile, Snowbird arrives at the scene where Tundra has risen from the Earth.
Standing several stories high, he commands the very power of the environment, assaulting Snowbird with a barrage of rock and debris.
The rest of Alpha Flight finally arrives including Snowbird’s close friend, Michael Twoyoungmen – also known as Shaman.

Vindicator begins attacking Tundra with a steady stream of electromagnetic energy, but Snowbird warns him that such an assault would adversely affect the environment.
As Vindicator scales back his attack, a Canadian Armed Forces helicopter air-drops Sasquatch on top of the behemoth.
Sasquatch begins tearing into Tundra’s side, until the Great Beast swats him away like a fly.

Snowbird tells Shaman that only the forces of nature can successfully stop Tundra.
He uses his magic to summon a great deluge, which greatly wears away large portions of Tundra's form.

Marrina arrives, riding on top of a traveling waterspout. Shaman uses the excess water that she has brought to finish Tundra off for good.
His body erodes away, until there is nothing left but a bed of silt and a large salt lake.

Realizing how effectively everyone worked together, Vindicator offers to re-establish Alpha Flight as an independent super-hero team.


Story and art by John Byrne.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The John Byrne writing and art is to me magnificent.

[Adam-X]

See, this was Alpha Flight to me.

[Shadowcat]

I never quite understood who/what Manbot was supposed to be.




Yes. IMHO, it was one of the things that prevented to book from catching on. The other were the lackluster new characters. The whole cloak and dagger intrigue was very intresting, though.

Peace

He was supposed to be a Roger Bochs program built out of the old Box armor. At least that’s what Steven T. Seagle told me at a con in 2000 or 2001, after the book was cancelled.

[Nomads1]

He was supposed to be a Roger Bochs program built out of the old Box armor. At least that’s what Steven T. Seagle told me at a con in 2000 or 2001, after the book was cancelled.

Thanks.

Peace

[Shadowcat]

I’ve got this story I’ve been working out in my head to relaunch Alpha, involving the Master, Persuasion, Murmur, Madison Jeffries and a slew of Box robots, Wild Child’s resurrection, a new Omega Flight, and eventually a war with the Great Beasts. Maybe someday I’ll post it for everyone to read and see what they think of it.

[Adam-X]

He was supposed to be a Roger Bochs program built out of the old Box armor. At least that’s what Steven T. Seagle told me at a con in 2000 or 2001, after the book was cancelled.

Why didn't he allude to this MUCH sooner? See, this would have made Manbot _way_ more interesting. Knowing it was the persona of Roger Bochs in it.

Instead he made an odd looking, super generic personality (as in none) robot.

[Adam-X]

I’ve got this story I’ve been working out in my head to relaunch Alpha, involving the Master, Persuasion, Murmur, Madison Jeffries and a slew of Box robots, Wild Child’s resurrection, a new Omega Flight, and eventually a war with the Great Beasts. Maybe someday I’ll post it for everyone to read and see what they think of it.

I'd say post it.

[Nomads1]

Why didn't he allude to this MUCH sooner? See, this would have made Manbot _way_ more interesting. Knowing it was the persona of Roger Bochs in it.

Instead he made an odd looking, super generic personality (as in none) robot.

I agree.

Peace

[Shadowcat]

Why didn't he allude to this MUCH sooner? See, this would have made Manbot _way_ more interesting. Knowing it was the persona of Roger Bochs in it.

Instead he made an odd looking, super generic personality (as in none) robot.

He was planning on it, and made an odd comment in a couple early issues, but was given the chop after Heroes Return came in, and Marvel wanted to return focus on the Avengers and the Ff.

[brer rabbit]

I’ve got this story I’ve been working out in my head to relaunch Alpha, involving the Master, Persuasion, Murmur, Madison Jeffries and a slew of Box robots, Wild Child’s resurrection, a new Omega Flight, and eventually a war with the Great Beasts. Maybe someday I’ll post it for everyone to read and see what they think of it.

I actually had my own idea of a relaunch Alpha Flight with Laura Dean/Pathway recruiting Kara Killgrave AKA Purple Girl/Persuasion, Madison Jeffries/Box, Ananym/Witchfire, Nemesis(the second one Jane), Whitman Knapp/Manikin, Lilli Stephens/Ghost Girl, Colin Ashworth Hume/Chinook/Windshear, Wyre, and the Dei Guan/Jade Dragon.

Now the plot is that one of Alpha old enemies (either the DreamQueen or Llan the Sorcerer) is slowly building up an army by conquering other dimensions and increasing their power, but the villain is smart enough to go after minor dimensions far from earth's plane of existence to avoid attention until the time is right.

However Laura Dean AKA Pathway who has forsaken Earth (she and Kara had a BAD falling out due something horrible Laura did) and is traveling from dimension to dimension finds out about this due to some stragglers escaping, they ask for her help in bringing Alpha Flight to stop the villain, but Laura Dean HATES Alpha Flight and has no interested in returning to "Deadworld" ... until they tell her who is responsible for the terror.

Once she finds out who it is she agrees to help but under one condition: she will pick who gets join her and will be the leader of the group who has the final say.

Now the main reasons why the other former members Alpha Flight join Laura varied:

Kara: The reason she joined... she's very suicidal and depressed and want to die, but claims she's just bored with nothing else to do.
Jeffies: He join because he knows Kara is suicidal and wants to prevent her from giving up on life but say his reason are he wants to make up the pain he help cause in Neverland.
Ananym: See an opportunity for her to take over Limbo.
Nemesis: Wants to be freed of her dead end life and become a superhero again.
Dei Guan: Laura broke him out of a Chinese prison and he owes her one.
Wyre: Laura's paying him.
Ghost Girl: Same as Nemesis
Colin Ashworth Hume: Dying of leukemia and wants to do some good before his time is up.
Whitman: Manikin reason of joining is a mystery.

but the underlining one (especially for Laura) is they all want to snub the original members of the team by not including them.

[brer rabbit]

Huh According to Kelly Thompson, Kara Killgrave the Purple Man daughter is going to show up in the next arc of Jessica Jones.
https://amp.newsarama.com/42015-jess...mpression=true

[Husk]

It'd be remiss to title a Purple Man story "Purple Daughter" and not include Kara, even if it primarily about Dani Cage. I'm glad she's being brought back and I hope its for redemption after the last appearance in Alpha Flight.

[Hypestyle]

I'd like to see a series, at least a mini-series, by a Canadian writer.

The characters have been killed/comatose/resurrected however many times now (and what's the latest with Sasquatch?) I can't keep track anymore, and I'd be at a loss to justify their reappearance other than, "they're just back".

Ideally, I'd have several of the 80s era characters, with a couple of new heroes.