• Alpha Flight To Return In 2015?

    In this week's Axel-In-Charge column at Comic Book Resources, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso gets asked the following question regarding Alpha Flight:

    Let's wrap the week with a few questions from the CBR Community: macroblaster1999 has taken note on some perceived lower-tier characters getting a spotlight recently at Marvel, and asks, "Are there plans for less-known teams like the Great Lakes Avengers or Alpha Flight?"
    Great Lakes Avengers…?

    "Cannot predict now."
    Alpha Flight…?
    "Signs point to yes."

    Whilst we've had similar sort of hints previously this does look to be a bit more solid and encouraging, although whether it just means guest appearances remains to be seen. However this close to the end of the World war Wendigo arc of Amazing X-Men it sounds like something more could be in the works, possibly as a result of the Secret Wars event?

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    This article was originally published in forum thread: Did anybody see this? started by maniac mike View original post
    Comments 109 Comments
    1. Bill P's Avatar
      Bill P -
      Any news is good news!
    1. Alphan East's Avatar
      Alphan East -
      I've been coming back to this thread ever since it began, going over in my head as to what I'd like to see from a new Alpha Flight series... and I think I've found it.
      Let me know what you think of the following:
      Attachment 4554
      Having Mac and Heather running Department H would allow them to raise Claire in a somewhat normal environment, and still let them join in on missions from time to time. BTW - the Department H logo shows the colours of the Canadian flag. The "arme" in white lettering is the French Canadian translation for "Weapon". Thought it was a nice touch.
      I think this incarnation of Alpha Flight could take on anything in the Marvel Universe and make for some entertaining stories. Plus, I've always liked Aurora in her yellow suit.
      Beta Flight would be their Covert / Black Ops team. Always thought Diamond Lil's death was a waste, and since no one stays dead forever in Marvel, I've decided to bring her back. Now that Windshear is back and calling himself Chinook (Death of Wolverine - The Logan Legacy) he should join back up as well. I'd really like someone to develop a backstory for Kingdom... he has potential And finally, Feedback was a character that really didn't get a chance in the original series. I thought his power was a good mix for the group... and he's from Atlantic Canada.
      There you have it. Please comment and critique to your heart's content.
    1. rplass's Avatar
      rplass -
      Hey that's a really cool graphic. I like the team line-ups too. But I would add in the kids into Gamma Flight, too. In their own spin-off title, of course, kind of like Young Avengers, New Mutants, etc.
    1. Alphan East's Avatar
      Alphan East -
      Quote Originally Posted by rplass View Post
      But I would add in the kids into Gamma Flight, too. In their own spin-off title, of course, kind of like Young Avengers, New Mutants, etc.
      I thought about doing a Gamma Flight training team, but I didn't know if there would be any of the originals left to train.
      Persuasion has now grown up and become Purple Woman, who I would really like to see turn into more of an anti-hero type... fighting for her own causes whether it puts her on the right side of the law or not, more along the lines of Nemesis.
      Witchfire has grown up, gone back to Limbo, and become more demonic.
      And if these two are now adults, I'm guessing Manikin is as well.
      I'd like to see a Gamma Flight team made up of Ghost Girl & Flinch (both from the Hull House story arc in Volume 2), Pathway & Goblyn, and maybe a couple brand new younger heroes... maybe even bring back Wyre to train them.
    1. varo's Avatar
      varo -
      with the rumor of a possible mu reset after secret wars it would be cool to see the team with a fresh start, no deaths, rebirths, etc.......also, might be a good opportunity to have a team with wolverine on it, which would undoubtedly increase the sales and hopefully keep a book around for a little while.
    1. Mokole's Avatar
      Mokole -
      I like your ideas, Alphan East.
    1. Calbretto's Avatar
      Calbretto -
      I would love a new ongoing. I really wish the last series had taken off. I think them tying it into a crappy Marvel Event is what "ruined" the book for most people. I actually loved the artwork and enjoyed the story. I think the writers had a lot of love for the characters and could have done a nice second arc for the book.

      And the last book was supposed to be an ongoing. I was there at Fan Expo sitting in the Alpha Flight panel when they made the announcement that the book was so well-received that it was being promoted to an ongoing series. Then a month later Marvel says it's just a mini and they never planned to make it into an ongoing. Very disappointing.
    1. Phil's Avatar
      Phil -
      The event actually helped it sales wise.
      As soon as they took "Fear Itself" off the cover sales plummeted.
      That was unfortunately why the ongoing was reversed.
      Marvel didn't deny they had announced it as an ongoing, they just admitted they were wrong and that the preliminary sales figures weren't a good representation and thus skewed the decision.
      From the start we were expecting a mini so while we were prematurely celebrating it being upgraded, we never really lost out from the original launch.

      But yeah, I wish it'd have been an ongoing too...
    1. Tawmis's Avatar
      Tawmis -
      Wasn't there a whole discussion about whether or not Marvel was going to "reboot" their universe somewhere around here?

      I am all for it - if they do it right.

      Although, the current standing of their Marvel Universe is horrible.

      So really, wouldn't take much to improve from where they're currently at....

      I had just texted my wife, earlier today, "I collect too much [comics] - I think it's time to start selling them off."

      I have over 60 short boxes of comics.
    1. Mokole's Avatar
      Mokole -
      Agreed, Tawmis, the current MU is a huge mess. FF can make whole, entire planets, travel in time with no repercussions, create robots out of cotton batting, create portals in space and dimensions, travel faster than the speed of light, and yet can be outsmarted easily. Stark can travel faster than light speed in his suit, destroy whole battleships with his suit, lift unimaginable weights, create nano tech and microbes that can rewrite DNA in a flash, make stealth suits, has an indefatigable power source, and so much more super-incredibly brilliant things, yet has trouble with other industrialists. Avengers meet 'gods' who can remake the universes and beat them, they make a robot that is invincible but vincinble for the moment.

      The comics are so, so far from reality that they make no sense. They're all so incredibly brilliant but can't stop world hunger, identify IEDs before they are used, common people still fly United, ocean liners still sink, planes still crash, bad guys still cause havoc. It's as if the writers just go and say, "Iron Man and the FF don't have the time to spend saving lives or improving lives, they're too elitist". Who isn't so brilliant as to not be so elitist? Spider-Man is 100x smarter than Einstein, Banner even smarter, FF and Stark smarter still. I can't read such drivel, it's so far removed from reality. Such geniuses and they can't do anything at all to make the world better??? A reboot is the only thing that'll bring back readers, end the idiocy.
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      Quote Originally Posted by Tawmis View Post
      Wasn't there a whole discussion about whether or not Marvel was going to "reboot" their universe somewhere around here?

      I am all for it - if they do it right.

      Although, the current standing of their Marvel Universe is horrible.
      The problem, as I see it, is that the same people who are in charge of the current standing would also be in charge of the reboot.

      ~ LM
      "Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions."
      ~ Henry Longfellow
    1. Phil's Avatar
      Phil -
      Quote Originally Posted by Tawmis View Post
      Although, the current standing of their Marvel Universe is horrible.
      One man's horrible is another man's amazing though.
    1. Phil's Avatar
      Phil -
      Quote Originally Posted by Mokole View Post
      The comics are so, so far from reality that they make no sense.
      Are you saying that gaining super-powers from a radioactive spider bite isn't far from reality?
      I'd say the exact opposite and that today's comics are nearer reality than ever. And maybe that's the problem.

      Such geniuses and they can't do anything at all to make the world better???

      If the world was better there'd be no stories to tell.
      The whole point of superhero comics is good vs evil. There has to be an imperfect world that resembles the readers.
      The whole point of the MU being set in actual cities such as NY etc. rather than DC's Metropolis etc. is so that readers can identify with things.
      If you create a world cured of hunger and disease and terrorism that detracts from that initial point. There has to be some reality to it.

      A reboot is the only thing that'll bring back readers, end the idiocy.

      Yet DC's reboot didn't bring back readers.
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
      Are you saying that gaining super-powers from a radioactive spider bite isn't far from reality?
      I'd say the exact opposite and that today's comics are nearer reality than ever. And maybe that's the problem.
      Agreed!!!!!!!

      Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
      The whole point of superhero comics is good vs evil. There has to be an imperfect world that resembles the readers.
      But I'd also say that's part of the problem; the creators are trying so hard for imperfect for so long, it's no longer good vs. evil; it's 'good' vs 'good'.

      Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
      Yet DC's reboot didn't bring back readers.
      To be fair, Tawmis asked for a well-done reboot. DC's felt more like a cash grab than a genuine attempt to tell good stories.
      And they brought 90s sensibilities back.

      ~ Le Messor
      "The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time."
      ~ Abraham Lincoln
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      They're certainly talking in a way that'd make sense if they reset the universe.
      But also if they didn't.

      Is it just me, or is the Alex Ross painting all Avengers? (I don't necessarily recognise all of them.)

      ~ Le Messor
      "A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it runs."
      ~ Henry W. Beecher
    1. Mokole's Avatar
      Mokole -
      I stand by what I said before. So what if Parker gained powers from a radioactive spider bite? It's a comic. But then they go and do all this "real-world" stuff (more ethnicity, more use of real-life stories, more trying to make heroes like your neighbour), then try and show how wonderful their main characters are, so ultra-brilliant, then turn around and say how rich Stark is, how smart, yet he always loses money, loses his company, and can't use his knowledge to build cheap iron man suits for bomb detonators, miners, volcano divers, whatever. I can't buy a book that makes the FF and Stark out to be so smart, so powerful, so rich, but shows they can't make anything to make money from the masses, they can't make smart cars to save lives, and so on. Sure, Parker got bit and is Spider-Man but he has powers, he uses powers from the bite, it is fluid though you have to suspend reality. But it's a comic. But asking me to believe your stories are routed in the real world, these are real people who are fantastic, then have them be so incredibly smart and unable to do anything useful??? That is why I don't read anymore and my boys have given up. They want stories, action, fluidity, humour, not uber-smart god-like people running around talking honour and valour yet being outsmarted by kids with iPods blowing up reality. Marvel is basically about two worlds mostly, an uber-ultra-reality where anything is possible and everyone is smart and beautiful but gullible, and a 100% ignorant world the rest of Marvel lives in, completely unaware of the possibilities.
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      Mokole, when you put it that way, I completely agree with you.

      Any disagreement I had stems from my disillusionment with the current push for realism - where people reading comics (or fantasy books, or any such thing) seem to have the attitude 'so, you want stories about dragons, about guys who fly under their own power, about guys who can punch holes in mountains by looking at them, about alien fish-women... Clearly, the A-#1 priority, the one thing you must absolutely want above all else, is REALISM!!!'.

      Honestly, I embraced that trend at first - it was such a relief after the Dark Disney style of the 90s (where everything was drawn all cartoonish, then coloured black) - but it got real old real fast.

      It's worse when people define 'realism' to mean 'cynical, depressing, unpleasant, mean-spirited, nasty, unheroic, only two colours and those dark and dull', etc...
      Sure, most of those things happen - but so do the opposites. And that's what I'd rather read about (or read stories based in).

      ~ Le Messor
      "A half truth is a whole lie."
      ~ Yiddish Proverb
    1. Canucklehead's Avatar
      Canucklehead -
      Extremely wishful thinking but it would be cool if, while the Avengers are off in Secret Wars, some Alpha Flight members would help make up a new Avengers team, hyping them up for a while before getting a new book. I know. It'll never happen...

      Attachment 4647
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      Quote Originally Posted by Canucklehead View Post
      Extremely wishful thinking but it would be cool if, while the Avengers are off in Secret Wars, some Alpha Flight members would help make up a new Avengers team, hyping them up for a while before getting a new book. I know. It'll never happen...
      That would be cool... but then I remember what they did the last time all the Avengers disappeared, during Heroes Reborn.

      ~ Le Messor
      "Only those who dare to fall greatly can ever achieve greatly."
      ~ Robert F. Kennedy