Alpha Flight has sucked me back in.

Little story:

I'm in my late 20's nowadays. Growing up as a kid, among other things, I was a superhero fan. Mainly Marvel stuff. I grew up reading some comic books and of course had all the Toybiz toys. I loved Captain America, the X-Men and of course, Alpha Flight.

Well I got older and moved away from that stuff. Then about 6 years ago, on a lark, I wandered into the local comic store and looked around. Found some books and characters that I read as a kid and was hooked again. Picked up all the back issues of the 1st volume of AF that I didn't have anymore and picked up some new/recent series. It started with just a handful of books a month, but after four years I was hitting the store every week and was spending way too much money. ;) Spending 30-50 dollars a week on books, I was probably amassing a grand total of lets say, at least $1,500 a year (probably more) on comics. Plus Marvel Legends were out and they were cool, so money went to that too.

But after 4 years of hitting the comics and some toys hard, I just lost interest and got burned out I guess. Picking up way too many titles, feeling like I had to keep up with all the "events" that Marvel was fond of coming out with. I just got tired of it, even though there were some excellent titles, like Capt. Am, I just lost interest. About 2 1/2 years ago, I was still going into the LCS every week, but I would by my books, take them home, but they would sit in the corner unread for months. Then about 2 years ago, I just quit reading the comics all together, stopped by the toys and didn't go into LCS at all.

I haven't been to the LCS in nearly 2 years, hadn't read a single unread book. I still occasionally (maybe every 3 or 4 months), I would cruise some of the bigger comic book websites, just outta shear boredom. But still had no interest in going back into comics. Then early this year I saw that AF had "come back" because of the Chaos War thing. And that there was going to be a new limited series (and hopefully full ongoing series) coming out of it all. I thought cool, but nothing more. Then I heard that the .1 issue came out last month. Forgot about it. But then #1 came out this month and I checked in here (before last night, I hadn't logged on to the site since March of 2009). Decided what the Hell and went to my LCS this week and picked up a copy of the #1 issue. I couldn't find the the Chaos War one shot or the .1 issue here locally, so I ordered them from Midtown (thanks to rplass' excellent article).

Haven't read the #1 issue yet, because I waiting for the CH. War issue and the .1 issue, but it seems pretty cool from what little I've read here and from flipping through the #1 issue.

It's cool that much of the classic team is back and together again. And I'm hoping that the series will become a regular and long running one.

I may pick up the back issues of Captain America from the last 2 years, but there's no way in Hell that I'm going back to my "old" spending ways. That was ridiculous. :p

It's good to be back in the AF fold.

It's funny how strong of a pull Alpha Flight has on people. The only comic I was reading before Chaos War:Alpha Flight came out was Buffy Season 8. I had stopped reading comics for years (other than Omega Flight when it came out). I'm still not getting anything but Alpha Flight now but you better believe when I heard they were getting a one-shot and then a maxi-series, I have been visiting the local comics store again.

It seems to me that everyone gose through these periods of buying, not buying and back again. It happened to me I started buying comics when I was 4 (1975) and I stopped in 1985 after Byrne left Alpha Flight. I had been buying AF more than any other book at the time. I got back into comics about 3 years later when I was at a garage sale and saw some old Ghost Riders, and I bought them. I didn't start buying Alpha until #74 and then I filled in the holes. I was buying 15 titles a month, it cost so much that I had to cut it down to 2 titles Alpha Flight and Ghost Rider. So when both series were canned I picked up odds and ends, but never tried to get to involeved just incase one of the two would come back. Now I'm really happy because they are both back.

Welcome back, Guardian!

This is similar to my experience as well. In the past 5 years, the only comics I buy when they come out are AF appearances, and only then if they have a significant role. Otherwise, I wait for them to hit the bargain bin. This VanLente/Pak/Eaglesham combo is spectacular and I'm really happy with what they are doing. And yes, I can relate to the ridiculous spending as well. Glad that's over with. :)