Alpha Flight Fans: Gather

[brer rabbit]

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.

Oh yes Greg Pak decision to turn Kara Killgrave into a villain in the 2011 miniseries was terrible as it was clear he really really didn't understand who Kara is as a character. It's the fact that she's a is good, kind person even with a heritage and powers that should be evil that makes the core of the character.



Hopefully Kelly will revert Kara back to her old self.

[Digifiend]

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.

The team needs a new home. It looks like they won't be in Captain Marvel any more.

[Factor]

The last issue of Immortal Hulk was pretty fun. I love what Ewing is doing with Sasquatch, I hope he sticks around.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Alpha Flight #2 Sep 1983
"Shadows of the Past" Part 1 of 3.
The members of Alpha Flight gather at an old Canadian military proving ground near the Albany River.
Vindicator runs them through a series of combat training exercises in order to hone their skills.
Despite a few mishaps, and the inevitable brawl between Puck and Sasquatch,
the team enjoys their time together and Mac feels confident that Alpha Flight
could one day become as nationally recognized as the Avengers.

Shaman, ever acting the part of Vindicator's conscience, reminds him that while he wears the flag of Canada,
perhaps he should also embody the country’s spirit. He compares him to his American counterpart, Captain America.

Suddenly, Puck notices that Marrina is acting strangely.
He approaches her out of concern, but Marrina turns feral, lashing out at him with her razor-sharp claws.

As Puck falls over, nearly disemboweled, Marrina dives into the river and swims away.
Northstar and Aurora attempt to follow her, but she is already too far away.

Vindicator and Shaman rush Puck to the hospital.
Shaman uses his Sarcee magic powders to stabilize his condition, but it is his skills as a surgeon that ultimately saves his life.

While Shaman labors to save Puck, Vindicator ruminates over the circumstances that brought Marrina into Alpha Flight's fold.

Flashback:
Eighteen years ago, fisherman Tom Smallwood fell from the deck of his trawler during a massive rainstorm.
Mired down by his fishing nets, he began to sink to the bottom of the sea. However, his attention caught sight
of a glowing green egg and he was able to snatch it up and use it to buoy himself to the water’s surface.
Taking the egg home with him, he showed it to his wife, Gladys. The egg hatched, bringing forth an infant aquatic life form.
Naming her, Marrina, the Smallwoods took the child into their home and raised her as one of their own.

By age sixteen, Marrina's aquatic super-powers fully developed. The Smallwoods found that she could not only survive
indefinitely underwater, but could swim at speeds in excess of 800 knots per hour. Within a short time, the administrators
of Department H discovered Marrina's existence and James Hudson personally recruited her into the Beta Flight program.
Marrina excelled as a member of Beta Flight and within a span of four months was ready to become a full-fledged Alphan.

The rest of Alpha Flight gathers together aboard the Omnijet and begins tracking Marrina's path via the signal device located in her locket.
She swims to the North Pole where she arrives at a frozen glacier facility.

Rising up out of the water, Marrina finds herself in the presence of a costumed man who calls himself the Master.

Story and art by John Byrne.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Back-up feature: The Origins of Alpha Flight. "In the Beginning...!" Starring Guardian.
James Macdonald Hudson is a young scientist working for the Am-Cam Corporation.
He has designed a cybernetic suit of armour for purposes of development, excavation and exploration.
However, his project team leader, Jerry Jaxon, comes into his office one day and tells Mac that he is taking the project away from him.
Jaxon is handing the cyber-suit over to the American military, one of Am-Cam's largest defense contractors.
Hudson is furious that his work is being used for the American war machine and quits his job.

As he storms out of the building, he bumps into Jaxon's secretary, Heather McNeil.
McNeil tells Mac that she heard about what had happened, and had tendered her resignation when she discovered how the company had treated him.
Although Hudson doesn’t know it yet, Heather and he will be married to one another in less than a year.

Later that evening, Mac schemes against his former employers. He returns to Am-Cam and steals the cyber-suit.

He then uses it to break into the company's security vault, so that he can destroy all blueprints relating to the machine's design.

He is happy to discover that the blueprints remain in a sealed envelope, so he knows that nobody could have copied them.
Using the apparatus’ gauntlets, he incinerates all of the classified documents.

Mac then takes the suit out of the building and parks it on a nearby hill.
He recognizes that the armour-suit is technically Am-Cam property,
but he designed the cybernetic helmet prior to working for the corporation.
The armour will not function without the cybernetic helmet, so Mac takes it with him.

Story and art by John Byrne.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

IMO John Byrne was on fire in those days.

[Digifiend]

Ah yes, The Master. Currently appearing in Champions (issues 19-21, 25-27).

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Alpha Flight #14 Sep 1998
Reflection
The new director arrives and starts making changes at Department H;

Alpha Flight hold a funeral for their fallen teammate, Sasquatch;

Heather, Mac and Puck each remember him as Walter Langkowski and the hero Sasquatch;
Meanwhile the new director is informed that the Sasquatch that died was not the Sasquatch that was Walter Langkowski.

Script by Steve Seagle, pencils by Duncan Rouleau, inks by Troy Hubbs and Christy Stack (Asst. Inker)

[brer rabbit]

God what a horrifying villain, he was so dangerous Alpha Flight leader Heather (who usually had a non-kill rule... up until this point) actually said: STOP HIM BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE, KILL HIM IF YOU MUST!!! Which they did.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Alpha Flight #3 Oct 1983
"Yesterday Man!" Part 2 of 3.
Snowbird, having received a mystic communiqué from Shaman, flies across the Northern Territories, in search of her friends in Alpha Flight.
She finds the crashed remains of the Omnijet, and uses her post-cognitive perception powers to replay the events that led to the ship's landing.
In the vision, she sees a red laser beam originating from beyond the plains striking the ship and sending it down into the snow.
Her friends survived the crash and left the ship, briskly walking northward. Snowbird begins following Sasquatch's footprints towards their destination.

Meanwhile, the rest of Alpha Flight has found an entranceway into the technologically advanced lair of the Master.
In the hopes of expediting their search for the missing Alphan, Marrina, they split up into two teams.
Vindicator and Sasquatch head off in one direction, while Northstar and Aurora fly down an alternate tunnel.

The teams get cut off from one another, and Aurora begins to grow scared.
Northstar and she lock hands, generating a blinding glow of light, which illuminates the entire tunnel.
As they explore further, large metal poles protrude from the walls. One of them strikes Northstar, rendering him unconscious.
Aurora grows even more scared and slips into her meek Jeanne-Marie personality.
Vindicator and Sasquatch manage to smash through several yards of thick wall in order to find them.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed Master of the World has captured Marrina and strapped her to a large torture device.
He alludes to the fact that Marrina's heritage is alien in origin and that both of their destinies are intertwined with one another.
While Marrina screams in torment, the Master amuses himself by relating his own origin.

Flashback:
The Master was once a member of a tribe of humans known as the Eshu that thrived in the Northern wastelands over 40,000 years ago.
The Eshu maintained a strict code against the taking of human life, and discovered that the Master had in fact violated this stringent law.
Exiled from the community, he wandered south until he felt an instinctive need to change course and head farther north.
An unidentifiable summons drew him closer and closer to the North Pole until he discovered the ruins of an enormous spaceship.
Entering the vessel, the Master found himself at the whims of this seemingly living ship.
The ship captured him and used his body for excessive experimentation.
It slowly stripped away all of his biological matter for study, and then progressively replaced it with renewed tissue.
The sheer pain and torture of the experience ultimately drew him insane, and he remained a prisoner of the ship’s controls for years.
Eventually, he regained his sanity, and his consciousness evolved to the point, that he was able to wrest control of the ship and free himself.

The Master concludes his story and tells Marrina that the egg that birthed her originated with this ship,
and that she belongs to a race of extra-terrestrials that came to Earth millennia ago.
Before he begins his ultimate takeover of the world, the Master is determined to eliminate all traces of the original alien race.

Suddenly, the Sub-Mariner and the Invisible Girl appear in the doorway of the Master's torture chamber.

Neither hero is prepared to allow the Master continue with his mad plans.

Story and art by John Byrne.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Back-up feature: The Origins of Alpha Flight. "Purpose!" Starring Guardian.
10 years ago
James MacDonald Hudson sits in his apartment in Edmonton.
He ruminates over the events that led him to break into the Am-Cam building to steal their cybernetic super-suit.
Former Am-Cam secretary, Heather McNeil, stops by the house armed with a fresh supply of groceries.
She sees the helmet to the cyber-suit sitting on the coffee table and realizes that Mac is the one who broke into Am-Cam the previous evening.
Heather spontaneously declares her love for Mac, but Hudson is reluctant to reciprocate as she is only seventeen-years-old.

James and Heather travel to the Parliament building in Ottawa and consult with an official named Frank Hulme.
James tells him everything that he had done at the Am-Cam Corporation and further reveals that he legally owns the helmet that powers the cyber-suit.
Hulme consults with the Prime Minister, and they realize that Hudson is just the sort of man they need in the Ministry of Defense.
Hulme arranges to retroactively place Hudson on the government payroll, and makes restitution with Am-Cam.

Parliament creates a research and development program under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defense called Department H,
and they select Hudson to act as the department's administrator. During this time he meets the Canadian secret agent known as Wolverine.

One day, Hudson reads a newspaper article about a new American super-hero team known as the Fantastic Four.
Inspired by the article, he decides to create his own Canadian defensive response team called Alpha Flight.

Story and art by John Byrne.

[Hypestyle]

So is there room for a non-government based Canadian super hero team that is not Alpha Flight (nor Beta, Gamma, etc.)...

[Sutekh]

So is there room for a non-government based Canadian super hero team that is not Alpha Flight (nor Beta, Gamma, etc.)...

It's an enormous country. If the population density of various types of metahumans (science accidents, tech-users, vigilantes, mutants, inhumans, mystics, magical beasties/sub-races, etc.) was anything like it is in the US (particularly New York), there should be different teams in the maritime provinces, Vancouver, Nanavut, etc.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Alpha Flight #15 Oct 1998
Congregation
Alpha Flight investigates reports of missing people in a town including the Canadian Prime Minister's wife;

They find the women and children gathered in a church but, even though they appear alive, Manbot detects no life signs;

Alpha Flight later finds the missing men in the process of building the Tower of Babel for the Brass Bishop;
Meanwhile Walter Langkowski has caught up with Shaman and Northstar has found his sister, Aurora, at the North Pole.

Script by Steve Seagle, pencils by Duncan Rouleau, inks by Rob Hunter

[SJNeal]

Good Lord, Rouleau's art gets worse with age...