A Reason For Alpha Flight

[Le Messor]

Alpha Rider,

I'd put Puck as 'badass normal' (do not look that up on TV Tropes; you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...), but otherwise, nice summary.
Your other points were made, but nobody's going to tell you that, because none of us is that rude.

'patritizum'? I'm not... familiar with that term.

- Le Messor
"Have you lived in this village all your life?"
"No, not yet."

[Alpha Rider]

'patritizum'? I'm not... familiar with that term. Typing and answering a 4yearolds "Why" questions at the same time. Or just bad spelling/ grammer. What I ment to say was Overly Patriotic.

[Le Messor]

Oh.

Why?

[Alpha Rider]

[Le Messor]

Now you're really on Alpha Waves...

[kinghorsey]

I believe there has to be some degree of reinvention, as well. Some of the new characters that were introduced in and for Alpha Flight were just awful.

The key will be a decisive direction and good writing. Unfortunately, without disrespecting any writer that's been on board with the book, we haven't really had that in a long time. Problem is I don't know if anyone really knows what to do with Alpha Flight.

I think for starters you can pretty much forget about having either one of the McKenzies in any kind of active role in the team - other than mentor, maybe.

I have to say, though, I liked the design/concept behind the Ultimate X-Men Snowbird over Byrne's original. Somehow the idea of an Inuit demi-goddess that looks like a poster child for Norwegian repopulation campaigns never sat right with me (i.e. white and very very blonde).

[cmdrkoenig67]

Julia Carpenter (formerly known as Arachne) is now apparently back in the States...

Spoliers:
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After the Spider-Man event: The Grim Hunt, Julia somehow inherited the late Madame Web's abilities and has also taken her name...She's the new Madame Web.

Dana

[-K-M-]

Well this is old news, but some may not have heard yet.




SPOILER




USAgent during Seige had his arm and leg cut off by Nuke using Odin's spear and is now bound to a wheelchair.




END SPOILER

[cmdrkoenig67]

Well this is old news, but some may not have heard yet.




SPOILER




USAgent during Seige had his arm and leg cut off by Nuke using Odin's spear and is now bound to a wheelchair.




END SPOILER

Yeah, I had heard he was maimed somehow, but I didn't know the specifics of his injuries.

They'll probably stick a cybernetic arm and leg on him at some point...Who doesn't have cybernetic parts these days?...LOL! Ugh!

Dana

[Le Messor]

I think for starters you can pretty much forget about having either one of the McKenzies in any kind of active role in the team - other than mentor, maybe.

It's spelled 'McKenzie', but I take it it's pronounced 'Hudson'?

- Le Messor
"He looks like a horse in a man costume!"
~ Bernard Black

[Flightpath07]

I think a good way to start the new book is kind of how it started in the first place - in other series. Give them enough guest appearances to intrigue the readers of those series; and write them in a way that portrays them as interesting and sympathetic. (Note to prospective writers: the 'sym' part of that last word is very important.)

Get readers used to them before the series starts, rather than just throwing it out there and hoping people notice.

- Le Messor
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half."
~ John Wanamaker

Completely agree with this. It is, to one varying degree or another, what i was suggesting earlier, after all.

Oh, by the way, it is nice to be back! Been offlin,e without a pc, for the last three months or so. Missed you all terribly; found out you cannot post to this site from a Blackberry.
So...have I missed much in the time I have been gone?

Sorry, but I gotta put these lyrics here, as being without you all for these past months has nearly driven me around the bend!

Alice Cooper - The Quiet Room

The California air
Your nightgown on the stairs
I remember every night
Scenes from home in the Quiet Room

How long have I been gone
Did winter kill the lawn
And all those polaroids you sent
Are on the wall in the Quiet Room

They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I can't get my wrists to bleed
Just don't know why
Suicide appeals to me

The Quiet Room
Is sterilized and white
It's like a tomb
With just a moth stained naked light

Plastic forks and spoons
No laces in my shoes
They all know what I tried to do
Outside the Quiet Room

This quiet place
It ain't so new to me
It's haunted atmosphere
Has heard so many scream
My home from home
My twilight zone
My strangest dream

My confidant
I have confessed my life
The Quiet Room
Knows more about me than my wife

They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I just can't
I just can't get these damn wrists to bleed

A mattress on the floor
No handles on the door
I really need nothing more
I'm alone

[Flightpath07]

If the new Heroic Age does what it sounds like it's meant to do, yes. It'll solve one of the problems I've had with a lot (but not all, not really even most) of comics lately - that the heroes aren't.
Comics, ideally, for me, should be a battle of good vs. evil; these days, a lot are evil vs. slightly less evil. I'm tired of being expected to sympathise with heroes I can't tell apart from villains. I'm tired of having to hold my 'heroes' to lower standards than I do real people - I should be able to hold them much, much higher.
The Heroic Age should, let's hope, solve that.

Will it solve the 'they never get the chance to be people problem'? Maybe, maybe not. There's nothing in the premise to say it should, but wouldn't it be cool if it did?
That might be a good time for a new Alpha Flight series.

- Le Messor
Hartley's Second Law: Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.

So, as somebody who has been out of the loop for a bit - how is this new Age stacking up so far?

[Flightpath07]

I believe there has to be some degree of reinvention, as well. Some of the new characters that were introduced in and for Alpha Flight were just awful.

The key will be a decisive direction and good writing. Unfortunately, without disrespecting any writer that's been on board with the book, we haven't really had that in a long time. Problem is I don't know if anyone really knows what to do with Alpha Flight.

I think for starters you can pretty much forget about having either one of the McKenzies in any kind of active role in the team - other than mentor, maybe.

I have to say, though, I liked the design/concept behind the Ultimate X-Men Snowbird over Byrne's original. Somehow the idea of an Inuit demi-goddess that looks like a poster child for Norwegian repopulation campaigns never sat right with me (i.e. white and very very blonde).

I both agree and disagree.

Some of the characters introduced into Alpha Flight were just not rigth for the book - as characters, they were fine, just not for Alpha Flight, or that version of Alpha Flight. There are no bad characters, just bad writers.

Decisive direction and good writing - agreed. Somebody who understands comics in general, somebody who understands how to write intriguing and 'real' characters, and somebody who is a bit of a visionary (no, not somebody who bringsa back Vision and Scarlet Witch either, lol); that is what AF needs.

As has already been said here, i think the most imprtant thing for a re-launch would have to be guest appearances. The team has to be imposing, mysterious, heroic, and leave people wanting more. Thta, IMHO, is far more important than whether the team members are original members or not. When Byrnbe first started this crazy trip we call Alpha Flight, how many of the members were established heroes with back stories?

Right - none.

He introduced them in X-men appearances, and the people loved them. They didn't know who they were, but they desperately wanted to. And that is the sort fo writing we need again. Not Byrne, but somebody who can do that in the modern age.

[Le Messor]

So, as somebody who has been out of the loop for a bit - how is this new Age stacking up so far?

I don't think we've discussed it much.
Personally? Disappointed.
I was hoping to going back to hopeful, heroic stories with bright colours (I know those aren't the look now, but they really help me to enjoy a comic, it turns out, whatever Scott McCloud says)m focus on character (notably, people with secret identies - lives outside of being superheroes, so I have something to identify with); but I haven't seen much that isn't more of the same hard sci-fi 'tude that's been leaving me cold for a while now. One of the new relaunches was Secret Avengers, which is dark stuff again; as was Avengers Academy.
Not saying that stuff doesn't exist. Spider-Man springs to a wall, sticks there for a while, then springs to mind.

Been enjoying all one issues so far of Young Allies, but it needs to get its head out of 00s' fashion.

BTW... I didn't read the lyrics you posted. Why? Alice is my second-favourite artist (after Queen), and I know that song well. Love it.
But it's disturbing that you'd post it...

- Mik
"He that speaks ill of the Mare will buy her."
~ Benjamin Franklin

[Flightpath07]

Mik, it would have been disturbing if I had SANG it...

[Le Messor]

How do I know you didn't?
Come to think of it, how do I know you're not Mel Tormé?

- Le Messor
"He was a tall as a six foot three inch tree."

[Flightpath07]

Previous evidence suggests that if I had sang it, my mutant power to butcher good songs would have materialized and Professor X would have shown up on my door and had Wolverine gut me. As my guts are currently still intact, I didn't sing it.

[Le Messor]

Re-read those lyrics - wouldn't have happened this time.

- LM
"He who believes the past cannot be changed has not yet written his memoirs."

[Duane V]

That is an extremely sensible approach. One that would work....but the problem comes down to this; Who would buy a superhero book about Canadians? Who would care about it? In the mind of Marvel as a company, they likely assume Alpha Flight has no market. People have to be encouraged to care about these characters, as you said, by exposure to them, but IMO it needs to be about the individual characters first, so people don't go "Oh that Canadian team, who cares?" The nationality in most cases should come later. It shouldn't matter at all, but it does.

People bought John Byrne's version. I say, bring him back. He knows the characters intimately, he's known for (ahem) retro - fitting Classic characters from both Marvel and DC, and he'd do a great job, simply because he loves the Marvel Universe. I know for a fact that the problem isn't the characters, it's a simple matter of uninspired writing. The writer needs to love the characters as much as the fans at this website. That should be the Only pre requisite for handling the characters..

[cmdrkoenig67]

If loving the characters is a prerequisite for doing the book, then there's the first problem....John Byrne does not love Alpha Flight.