Alpha flight: True north #1

[Dreaded Porcupine]

Is Puck still considered a normal sized man who was reduced in size due to a curse of some sort. And while NorthStar is gay now, under Byrne I don't believe that he was written as gay at all. Quite the opposite. I didn't see Roger Bochs, but yes, if he shows up he'd be a welcome member to any team that I'd create. Only, I wouldn't give him the ability to merge with his constructs. I like the drone approach where he's remotely controlling whatever it is that he decides to create. Thinking of Box makes me want to go watch The Iron Giant for some reason. Love that movie.

Roger Boch’s Was my favorite Alphan. Hope he somehow shows up. I was so mad a Mantlo when he killed him off. Using Box as a drone is how Box started off. Roger remotely controlled him. Box was a drone before drones were mainstream.

[Sutekh]

Roger Boch’s Was my favorite Alphan. Hope he somehow shows up. I was so mad a Mantlo when he killed him off. Using Box as a drone is how Box started off. Roger remotely controlled him. Box was a drone before drones were mainstream.

I loved when he and Madison Jeffries were introduced, and the farther they were taken from their original appearances (Box as a cybernetically controlled drone robot, Madison as a somewhat fugly mutant who transmuted metal and plastic into machines that imitated parts of his own body, so that he could basically turn anything into a humanoid robot), the less I liked them.

With Madison, the change in artists and writers was so drastic. Suddenly he's super-handsome, dating Heather and able to create spaceships or giant spinny wheels-of-guns. I'm pretty familiar with my body, and I have no idea what part the giant spinny wheel-of-guns was imitating... Possibly my pancreas?

Then again, Heather went from a waifish person whom Byrne flat-out nixed in his issues ever taking up his husband's costume, only to see her a year after he leaves not only taking up the costume, but growing almost a foot taller and being suddenly built and going from flat-chested to having bosums the size of her head (and changing into a completely different person, character-wise). I knew she was supposed to be younger than Mac, but I guess she finally hit puberty or something... :/

(I'm sure there was some in-story rationale for everyone getting pretty-fied and cosmetically-enhanced, involving Madison's nutso flesh-shaping brother or something, but those years immediately after Byrne left I may have missed a few issues.)

[Dreaded Porcupine]

I loved when he and Madison Jeffries were introduced, and the farther they were taken from their original appearances (Box as a cybernetically controlled drone robot, Madison as a somewhat fugly mutant who transmuted metal and plastic into machines that imitated parts of his own body, so that he could basically turn anything into a humanoid robot), the less I liked them.

With Madison, the change in artists and writers was so drastic. Suddenly he's super-handsome, dating Heather and able to create spaceships or giant spinny wheels-of-guns. I'm pretty familiar with my body, and I have no idea what part the giant spinny wheel-of-guns was imitating... Possibly my pancreas?

Then again, Heather went from a waifish person whom Byrne flat-out nixed in his issues ever taking up his husband's costume, only to see her a year after he leaves not only taking up the costume, but growing almost a foot taller and being suddenly built and going from flat-chested to having bosums the size of her head (and changing into a completely different person, character-wise). I knew she was supposed to be younger than Mac, but I guess she finally hit puberty or something... :/

(I'm sure there was some in-story rationale for everyone getting pretty-fied and cosmetically-enhanced, involving Madison's nutso flesh-shaping brother or something, but those years immediately after Byrne left I may have missed a few issues.)

After Mantlo got done there wasn’t an Alpha Flight anymore. He ruined them. By issue 50 the twins were somewhere in Asgard. Boch’s was dead. Jeffries was Box. I stopped reading after #50 I was so disgusted. Would love to see them again as they were.

[Mackandal]

And while NorthStar is gay now, under Byrne I don't believe that he was written as gay at all. Quite the opposite.

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[Shadowcat]

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Deaddddddddd

[JudicatorPrime]

Yeah. Byrne straight-up says he intended Northstar to be gay from the jump in the AF team book. He included quite a bit of subtext in the book itself...

I stand corrected. I totally misread/missed all of those cues.

[Shadowcat]

I wonder who we’ll be getting, villain wise, in this story. My money’s on the Master or Omega Flight, but I could see the Great Beasts in this too.

[Sutekh]

I wonder who we’ll be getting, villain wise, in this story. My money’s on the Master or Omega Flight, but I could see the Great Beasts in this too.

I'd love the idea of someone running with the ideas generated by the existence of the Great Beasts, even if they don't actually have to appear all the time in person.

For instance, wicked sorcerers could use their names in classic Dr. Strange-style invocations, only instead of the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak or the Winds of Watoomb, they'd be calling up the Tinders of Tolomaq (fiery cinders that swerve through the air and chase targets) or the Shaping of Somon (calls up bone spears from the earth to stab at people, or to surround and imprison them).

Or said evil sorcerers could try to duplicate the 'accident' that led to Walter Langkowski embodying the power of the Great Beast Tanaraq, only travelling instead to the area where Tundra was summoned and defeated in Alpha Flight one, so that one of them can 'turn into Tundra' or the area where Snowbird faced down Kolomaq, so that another can embody the power of the Snow Beast. (Nobody in their right mind would choose to be bonded to Ranaq or Carriooq, I'd imagine...)

Like similar cosmic or god-like figures that have bedeviled other heroes, the Great Beasts don't have to personally appear every time Alpha Flight appears to have an effect on the storyline, lest they run the risk of becoming Alpha Flights version of Darkseid or Thanos, trotted out to fail yet again on an annual basis, and becoming sort of a running joke.

Some new villains, or some not traditionally associated with Alpha Flight, or Canada, like Dr. Demonicus or Attuma or the Leader could be interesting.

[Anduinel]

I wouldn't mind a delve back toward some of the darker, body-horror villains. Scrambler was the only thing I liked even a little about Mantlo's run and, save for the Plodex, I feel that aspect's been pretty sidelined for the last couple of decades. But yeah, the Great Beasts are a must.

[Digifiend]

I wonder who we’ll be getting, villain wise, in this story. My money’s on the Master or Omega Flight, but I could see the Great Beasts in this too.

That Master definitely looks likely. He was the villain in two arcs of Zub's Champions: Northern Lights and Weird War One.

[Devaishwarya]

I have to say...I'm not initially enthused by the premise of this book.
As huge an Alpha Flight fan as I am, I feel these classic characters' origin stories have already been told and told very well by Byrne.
Maybe if it was just a completely new "untold story", as with the New Mutants one shot, then I might have been more interested but as it stands...I'm waiting on the preview before I decide on it.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

I have to say...I'm not initially enthused by the premise of this book.
As huge an Alpha Flight fan as I am, I feel these classic characters' origin stories have already been told and told very well by Byrne.
Maybe if it was just a completely new "untold story", as with the New Mutants one shot, then I might have been more interested but as it stands...I'm waiting on the preview before I decide on it.

The Alpha Flight Special from years ago was an “untold story.” That was a nice prequel. When Wolverine was on the team and Guardian was a cop in a very prototype suit. It featured some old time villains like Egghead, Eel, Porcupine, Powerman, Swordsman, Rhino and Solarr. Plus it had a strange member called Stitch. I wonder whatever happened to her.

I would like to see the Great Beasts again. They would need a lot of Alphans to send them back to their dimension.

[Shadowcat]

The Great Beasts would be divine. If we ever get another ongoing, I’d like to see them delve into the First Nation mythology a bit more. I’d like to see Northstar return full time, because the chemistry just isn’t there with the X-Men. Bring back some of the kids for Beta and Gamma Flights. Make some new villains, retool some of the older heroes. There’s so much potential with this group.

[Anduinel]

The Great Beasts would be divine. If we ever get another ongoing, I’d like to see them delve into the First Nation mythology a bit more. I’d like to see Northstar return full time, because the chemistry just isn’t there with the X-Men. Bring back some of the kids for Beta and Gamma Flights. Make some new villains, retool some of the older heroes. There’s so much potential with this group.

I feel like there's always been more potential for Northstar with the X-Men, tbh. He never really liked Alpha Flight, and with very good reason, whereas the X-Men seem to suit his worldview a lot better. Plus I liked his time as a mentor (what little we saw of it). But yeah, there's an issue in that he had a defined role in AF as the iconoclast, the rebel, the outsider by choice. With the X-Men, there's a lot of competition for that role, from Wolverine to Quinten fucking Quire, so he mostly just got reduced to "the gay one". And now Bobby, who's better known and easier to write, has that role. So a trip back North might not be the worst thing.

[Shadowcat]

I feel like there's always been more potential for Northstar with the X-Men, tbh. He never really liked Alpha Flight, and with very good reason, whereas the X-Men seem to suit his worldview a lot better. Plus I liked his time as a mentor (what little we saw of it). But yeah, there's an issue in that he had a defined role in AF as the iconoclast, the rebel, the outsider by choice. With the X-Men, there's a lot of competition for that role, from Wolverine to Quinten fucking Quire, so he mostly just got reduced to "the gay one". And now Bobby, who's better known and easier to write, has that role. So a trip back North might not be the worst thing.

I hope they give Jean Paul a legitimate supporting cast, and let’s get a peak inside gay Canada. There’s a beautiful gay district in Montreal, which could serve as Jean and Kyle’s home outside of Alpha.