Comic Book Resources have an interview with new Amazing X-Men writers Craig Kyle & Chris Yost regarding the current World War Wendigo arc that features Alpha Flight, along with some preview art from #9 by new artist Carlo Barberi - one page of which includes Northstar.
One of the questions is definitely of interest to AF fans :-
Your first issue of "Amazing X-Men" had a lot going on, along with the challenge of starting amidst a pretty good number of happenings in the X-Men's corner of the Marvel Universe. What was the experience like in crafting an arc that would mesh with all these other moving pieces?
Yost: It's tricky. You always want to be relevant with everything else that's going on in the universe, but at the same time, you really want it excel as an evergreen story -- something you can pick up without knowing much about the X-Men beyond who they are and what their general mission statement is. This is like a big blockbuster movie of an X-Men story. It really doesn't rely on what's going on in the moment in what's going on in the vast tapestry of the Marvel Universe. This is really just a bare-bones natural disaster story with the X-Men right in the heat of it.
Kyle: Chris and I always have an eye to the stuff that he and I grew up with. To be fair, he had a very clean kick-off to this project, which was, "What if the Wendigo plague was spread very rapidly in an ingenious kind of way?" I loved it. I thought it was a great hook. It gave us a chance to take these guys that we loved so much, and put them under a tremendous amount of pressure. Our hope is that every time there seems to be a solid avenue for success or containment, it's immediately shut down due to the extraordinary nature of the threat.
Yost: The other selling point for us was the inclusion of Alpha Flight, as well. Alpha Flight is always a team that's been close to our hearts. I know Craig's been talking about doing an Alpha Flight story forever, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to really bring back those classic Alpha Flight characters and reintroduce them to current audiences.
A lot of Alpha Flight fans were very excited to see some of the team appear in your first issue. What kind of plans might you have for them moving forward beyond "World War Wendigo?"
Kyle: That's a tough one, huh, Chris?
Yost: Yeah, because you don't want to spoil any upcoming deaths or anything like that. I would say -- look, the market kind of decides some of these things. Alpha Flight, as much as we love them, has never sustained beyond that initial 120 issue run. An "Alpha Flight" book a lot of times seems to be easy cannon fodder. Obviously, they're in a tough situation here, but they're going to be instrumental in the story to come. I would say keep reading and hopefully it'll reveal what our plans are for them.
Kyle: Yeah, it always comes down to who gets a hold of 'em. We're really happy we get to tell some stories with Northstar, because he's already built in to the current team. Any character, any team, any storyline -- it just takes the right mix of creators behind it to tell an exciting story. If Blade can be made into something special like it has in the features, then teams like Alpha Flight that definitely have their fan base -- if they're handled well and you can find why they're unique, and make them shine in a story, there's lots of great opportunities to be had with these characters just like anybody else's various teams and universes. Hopefully, the people who care about this team will think we've done a nice job with the characters that we're bringing it. We hope.
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