Alpha Flight Fans: Gather

[Adam-X]

Just like in the last thread! I love Alpha Flight! <3

All right - so let's get some discussion, Chia Head! What do you like about Alpha Flight? Who is your favorite? What's some of your favorite stories?

[Adam-X]

i want these.
Right now.

Right? They're on ebay for about 20 bucks for the whole set, usually, which isn't bad. I just don't have room in my current office.

[SJNeal]

Aurora redesign by Santiago Ramos

I wanna see Jean-Paul in his matching version!

[Cold Water]

Right? They're on ebay for about 20 bucks for the whole set, usually, which isn't bad. I just don't have room in my current office.

I wouldn't either, unfortunately.
But if I can find the entire set for $20, that's a steal, and I'd pick them up and just put out my absolute faves (not that is an easy thing to pick).

[From The Shadows]

All right - so let's get some discussion, Chia Head! What do you like about Alpha Flight? Who is your favorite? What's some of your favorite stories?

My favorite characters are Northstar, Snowbird, Talisman and Puck.

I cant pinpoint a favorite story as of now but I love Byrnes whole run. I actually liked "Wrath of the Dream Queen" from the creators that followed but not much else from that team.

And I actually enjoyed the reboot with Radius and company and though it wasn't Byrne level, I thought it was underrated.

[Adam-X]

My favorite characters are Northstar, Snowbird, Talisman and Puck.
I cant pinpoint a favorite story as of now but I love Byrnes whole run. I actually liked "Wrath of the Dream Queen" from the creators that followed but not much else from that team.
And I actually enjoyed the reboot with Radius and company and though it wasn't Byrne level, I thought it was underrated.

You have good taste for favorites!

And the DreamQueen saga was very well done. I wish they would do more with her. I thought the concept, and her general appearance, was just so well done.

As for the reboot - I recalled enjoying it too. I just recently tried to re-read it, and couldn't do it. The story seemed a little weak, but the art (especially how they drew Vindicator - his anatomy seemed very, very odd).

[From The Shadows]

You have good taste for favorites!

And the DreamQueen saga was very well done. I wish they would do more with her. I thought the concept, and her general appearance, was just so well done.

As for the reboot - I recalled enjoying it too. I just recently tried to re-read it, and couldn't do it. The story seemed a little weak, but the art (especially how they drew Vindicator - his anatomy seemed very, very odd).

Thanks!

Agree about the Dream Queen. Hell, I think it would be cool if the X-men faced her. With Northstar around now, why not?

To be honest I haven't read the reboot in years and am not sure how id view it. I remember even then thinking the 90s art was wonky but still enjoyed it. I still have that run, maybe I'll reread it and see if I changed my mind.

[Cold Water]

What is this reboot you both speak of?

[Cold Water]

Aurora redesign by Santiago Ramos

I keep meaning to reply to this:
I LOVE IT.
The only thing I don't care for is the collar.
But I'm kind of anti-collar like that.

[Nomads1]

And I actually enjoyed the reboot with Radius and company and though it wasn't Byrne level, I thought it was underrated.

As for the reboot - I recalled enjoying it too. I just recently tried to re-read it, and couldn't do it. The story seemed a little weak, but the art (especially how they drew Vindicator - his anatomy seemed very, very odd).

I hated that "reboot" or that simply version of AF. The intrigue and manipulation loaded premise was kind of interesting, but they really didn't have the chops to live up to the potential. First off, they took out one of my favorites Alphans (Jeffries) right off the bat, leaving very little of interest to me in the team. Teen Mac brought back ugly memories of Teen Tony - Iron Man -, I found it interesting that they tried to give Heather some different abilities than from Mac, but the new suit was never properly explained (who made it? How did it work? Why did they give it to Heather, and not to someone else, or even someones elses?), Sasquatch was not Sasquatch, Puck seemed back to being an athletic dwarf and all around useless perpetual victim (ignoring the power boost that he recieved in Nicieza's run, which made him into something like almost invulnerable compressed rubber). And the New Members were, IMHO, awfful. Murmur was a second rate Purple Girl, Radius was kind of interesting, but hardly as powerful and as useful as he seemed to think himself to be, Flex had lame powers and a lame personality, and what the hell was Manbot?
And the art, OMG, the art! I liked Scott Clark when he started out at Image's Stormwatch, but his AF just seemed plain lazy and phoned in. Such a lack of background detail, such carelessness when it came to anatomy. Stiff, uninspired. All around terrible. I actually was HAPPY when Duncan Roleau came on board, wierd ugly faces aand all. So, IMHO, a book that had a lot of potential, but that the execution left a lot to be desired.

Peace

[Anduinel]

What is this reboot you both speak of?

They're talking about Alpha Flight vol 2. It was sort of Alpha Flight meets X-Files...lots of conspiracies and shadowy government plot stuff. Not that well executed and most of the established Alphans were relegated to parts that were little better than guest walk-ons.

[Trident]

This might be a silly question but.....whats the deal with Madison Jefferies, A.k.A The Box? I have always wonder about him and why his powers wouldn't make him more powerful than Magneto? From my understanding the guy can control metal, plastics, and glass, wouldn't that make him one of the most powerful and most dangerous mutants on the planet? Or his abilities just extremely limited for some reason?

Was hoping someone in here had some insight on this character.

[Nomads1]

This might be a silly question but.....whats the deal with Madison Jefferies, A.k.A The Box? I have always wonder about him and why his powers wouldn't make him more powerful than Magneto? From my understanding the guy can control metal, plastics, and glass, wouldn't that make him one of the most powerful and most dangerous mutants on the planet? Or his abilities just extremely limited for some reason?

Was hoping someone in here had some insight on this character.

From what I understand, Magneto generates and controls magnetic fields, giving him power over metals, and a whole lot more. Jeffries is able to change the shape of metal, plastic and glass. It's still quite an impressive power, specially when he is able to overcome some self-imposed psycological blocks he has the habit of placing on his powers. When fused with the Box armor, Madison was one of Alphas heaviest hitters, and able to take on many of the MU's biggest guns. For some reason, ever since joining the X-Men, Madison has been far from showing his ture potential and his extense combat experience. He NEEDS to get back with Alpha.

Peace

[Trident]

So your sorta saying Jeffries is more like a "bender" on the cartoon show Avatar?

[Ravyn]

It's also worth pointing out that Bill Mantlo wrote both Heather's rape joke and Mac's privacy invasions. My opinion of his time on Alpha Flight has always been that he never really got the team and ultimately didn't do very well by them.

Yeah, I hated what Mantlo did to the team; the book really suffered after Byrne left.

Though I wasn't really a huge fan of the book's tone under Byrne either, really. So much melodrama and angst. I think I loved Alpha Flight more for the concept, the characters and John Byrne's awesome art than the actual story lines.