Thanks a million!! I have high hopes for Omega Flight(even though I miss the name Alpha!). This site is great.
Thanks a million!! I have high hopes for Omega Flight(even though I miss the name Alpha!). This site is great.
1. How long have you been collecting Alpha Flight?
about a year ago
2. What was your first memory of Alpha Flight? If recent, what was your first reaction?
when they were on the animated x-men show, they kicked total ass!!
3. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight character?
Sasquatch (walter), Guardian (james), and northtstar
4. Who is you least favorite Alpha Flight character?
major mapleleaf II
5. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight villain?
loki and the master
6. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight villain?
the collector
7. What do you think is the best issue / story-arch from Alpha Flight?
x-men and alpha flight vol. 1
8. What do you consider the Alpha Flight "Dream Team"?
the original
9. If you were to be stuck on a desert island with one member of Alpha Flight, Who would it be (powers can not get you off the island)
aurora
10. Who was/is/could be the best leader of Alpha Flight?
guardian (james)
11. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight writer?
john byrne
12. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight writer?
none they all rock
13. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight artist?
all of them :P
14. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight artist?
none
15. If you could undo one thing in Alpha Flight history, what would it be?
the way guardian died
1. How long have you been collecting Alpha Flight?
Since Vol.1 issue #1
2. What was your first memory of Alpha Flight? If recent, what was your first reaction?
Will always remember their debut in Uncanny X-Men #120 & 121. Totally kicked ass! Couldn't get enough of them & it seemed like forever waiting for the original series to come out. I mean, come on... Sasquatch? We finailly "find out" what Bigfoot is! Shaman? Never really seen anyone else like him, not even Dr. Strange. Northstar & Aurora? Nothing special on their own but they exhibited extra powers when they combine! Very intriguing (at the time). Guardian? Cool! Real Cool! Especially on his debut in Uncanny X-Men #109.
3. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight character?
Sasquatch (of course!), and Aurora (oo la la)
4. Who is you least favorite Alpha Flight character?
Major Mapleleaf II (What The?!?).
5. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight villain?
None were outstanding really. No real nemesis.
6. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight villain?
Pass.
7. What do you think is the best issue / story-arc from Alpha Flight?
X-men and alpha flight vol. 1 & Death of Guardian.
8. What do you consider the Alpha Flight "Dream Team"?
The original team undoubtedly.
9. If you were to be stuck on a desert island with one member of Alpha Flight, Who would it be (powers can not get you off the island)?
Aurora!
10. Who was/is/could be the best leader of Alpha Flight?
Guardian (James)
11. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight writer?
Byrne!
12. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight writer?
A few subsequent ones after Byrne.
13. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight artist?
John Byrne.
14. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight artist?
none
15. If you could undo one thing in Alpha Flight history, what would it be?
The way Guardian died & his subsequent ressurection. I wouldn't have killed him off - too good a character. But if I had to & did, would've left him dead. The impact & shock of his death was profound & deeply felt but bringing him back reduced everything into a farce. Unlike Jean Grey's Phoenix, which was totally devastating for me when it happened (actually felt depressed for weeks after Uncanny X-Men #137 because for once the X-Men had someone truly powerful & yet in of itself was her weakness... ingenius!) - the name itself implied she's return.
If Marvel revives the Alpha Flight series, please please please put a decent creative team on it! Otherwise, don't even bother.
Lastly, I'm happy to have stumbled onto this website - never knew there were so many Alpha Flight fans!
Comix 4ever,
Switchgearman
Hey, welcome! Glad to meet you, such as it is! With Omega Flight coming in April, one can only hope for the best!
Keep your stick on the ice.
Live it.
Hey Mokole - thanks!
I only saw the Omega Flight thread after posting this questionnaire. Can't wait to drop by my regular comics shop this evening & add this to my pull list (IF they're ready to take bookings).
I have mixed feelings about this - Beta Ray Bill & USAgent? Hmmm... I like those characters but unsure it belongs in Alpha/Gamma/Omega Flight. Sounds a bit hit-and-miss but I'm ready for any kind of Alpha Flight fix. Quite happy with the creative team though!
Anyway, let's see how it pans out... fingers, toes & eyes crossed!
Hiya and welcome Switchgearman. I see from your answers that your old school AF fan. Glad to have you aboard. Omega should be interesting, With Talisman, A Guardian (?) and possibly Sas, it does have a semblence of AF.
Enjoy the forum.
Del
Driftwood: Well, I got about a foot and a half. Now, it says, uh, "The party of the second part shall be known in this contract as the party of the second part."
Fiorello: Well, I don't know about that...
Driftwood: Now what's the matter?
Fiorello: I no like-a the second party, either.
Driftwood: Well, you should've come to the first party. We didn't get home 'til around four in the morning... I was blind for three days!
Hiya Delbubs!
Yes, very old school. Read comics in my early years but never really collected them (comics in Malaysia was a major no-no with most parents) until that fateful day I came across Uncanny X-Men #126 at a newsagent's when I was 12 (1979?) & that was it. Bam!! Never looked back. Started looking for back issues & found out about Alpha Flight from a friend who had Uncanny #120 & #121 at a toy shop (!) for about 50 sen (less than 10p!) in a back issue discount bin.
In later years, could not get hold of these 2 issues (back issue business was non-existent then, still not developed today) & when I did find them, couldn't really afford paying so much for a comic. Finally bought them in London a few years ago, a comics shop in Tottenham or Tottenham Street (something like that). Perhaps you know them. Thought I'd walked into comics heaven - all those early Spiderman, FF, Avengers & X-Men issues (those single digit, the tens & twenties ish), in excellent condition, in sequential series. Almost fainted. They're like urban legends - you read a lot about it & you hear a lot about it but you may never see it with your own eyes.
Aaaa...
Can't wait for the day I go to USA. Do they have tours to major comics shops?!?
Back to the main topic: ALPHA FLIGHT - what a name! Canadian superheroes! Superheroine with split personality & decidedly off her rockers! Twin superheroes! SASQUATCH! Ultra COOL! An Indian Shaman! Later on, Beta Flight! Gamma Flight!?! Had me scrambling for an encyclopedia looking for the Greek alphabets.
Between the X-Men issues & AF V1 #1, there seemed to be a major change in the feel of AF, perhaps due to it being just Byrne. I was always waiting for the series to explode like they did in UXM. Never did. Still, they felt different from anything around then & it was still very good.
Then Byrne quit. Then Bill Mantlo came along... The artwork was generally quite bad... it was never the same again. No one ever captured the feel again & some of it turned out to be such a farce.
Anyway, please forgive the rambling... years of pent-up AF frustration being released here.
Cheers,
Switchgearman
well, you're in the right place, then, Switchgearman!Originally Posted by Switchgearman
Welcome to our Little Asylum on the Prairie!
Allan 'HappyCanuck' Crocker
"Hey... Philosophers love wisdom, not mankind."
- Stephen Pastis, Pearls Before Swine
I think you prolly mean Totenham Court Road, in and around that area you had 'Forbidden Planet', 'Comocs Showcase' and a couple of others. Haven't been in that direction for a while. I think the last thing I did comics related there was go on a Millar World type piss up.Hiya Delbubs!
UXM 120-121...
In later years, could not get hold of these 2 issues (back issue business was non-existent then, still not developed today) & when I did find them, couldn't really afford paying so much for a comic. Finally bought them in London a few years ago, a comics shop in Tottenham or Tottenham Street (something like that). Perhaps you know them. Thought I'd walked into comics heaven - all those early Spiderman, FF, Avengers & X-Men issues (those single digit, the tens & twenties ish), in excellent condition, in sequential series. Almost fainted. They're like urban legends - you read a lot about it & you hear a lot about it but you may never see it with your own eyes.
Aaaa...
Anyway, please forgive the rambling... years of pent-up AF frustration being released here.
Cheers,
Switchgearman
In regards to UXM 120-121. I managed to pick up #120 late last year for about £20 or so. I hope to have #121 very soon if Santa's been good
Del
Driftwood: Well, I got about a foot and a half. Now, it says, uh, "The party of the second part shall be known in this contract as the party of the second part."
Fiorello: Well, I don't know about that...
Driftwood: Now what's the matter?
Fiorello: I no like-a the second party, either.
Driftwood: Well, you should've come to the first party. We didn't get home 'til around four in the morning... I was blind for three days!
Welcome
I feel your pain. Alpha Flight is different, despite some of my carping, as evidenced by the Hulk Annual, the Marvel-Two-in-One two-parter, the Marvel Team-up Annual, The Gift, and the first 28 issues. The lead story/back-up story structure was unique, and I liked most of the back-up stories better than the lead stories, but that's just me. When it's all said and done, the first 28 issues form a solid picture of AF, changes and evolutions and all, whereas what came after used the same names and the same likenesses but weren't the same characters.
To this day, I don't understand why a comic book company would go out of its way to so denigrate a popular group of characters in such a sloppy and implausible manner that it is, quite possibly, beyond repair.
Once upon a time, they exploded from the pages of The X-Men. For a moment, they were "Canada's answer to The Avengers."
They were ALPHA FLIGHT....
...once upon a time.
Question
Delbubs & Garry/Al-fan,
A question: How do you guys take excerpts out of a previous posting & putting it onto yours?
Delbubs,
I've been busily digging up my old stuff this past week & found a sticker label of the London comic shop I was talking about - it's Krypton Comics at High Road in Tottenham.
GBP20 for UXM #120!?! Sounds like a very good deal if it's in good condition.
New Clan Destine series? Where'd you get the news? Would love to know more. I think like many of you, I loved & collected the Alan Davis issues but gave up soon after his stint. (Don't know why but I have a feeling many AF fans collected Clan Destine). That series was a real breath of fresh air. But I do worry about series"es"
Dear Alphans & Omegans (& everything else in between),
Airing things here & seeing everyone's enthusiasm, I do wonder what makes Alpha Flight so addictive... I mean, it didn't have a good long run (turned to crap after about 30 issues) but yet, after over 20 years since their first appearance, we're still reminiscing about the Byrne run & praying for a good new Alpha Flight series. So, what is it that's keeping your fire burning for Alpha Flight?
For me personally, I believe I'm still on a high & haven't gotten over their debut in Uncanny X-Men #120/12 & to a slightly lesser extent, Guardian's sudden appearance in UXM #109 & the impact it had on me.
Re: Question
For me, seeing Guardian knock Wolverine out was just awesomely incredible when I first saw and read it. Crazy, homicidal, healing-factor Wolverine! It takes a lot of nerve (and probably a serious mad-on) to even think about going up against Logan. And Hudson had it.
Then, the full Flight was cohesive enough to go toe-to-toe with the X-Men! Alpha Flight was a legit superteam with an interesting bunch of characters...and adding Puck and Marrina in vol. 1, # 1 made the team even better!
What keeps my fire burning for Alpha Flight most of all is the notion that it wasn't considered a good/viable team because it wasn't created by Stan & Jack and that it was only formed to fight The X-Men. There are lots of interesting characters and teams that weren't created by Stan & Jack that are good concepts and well-liked, and Alpha Flight is one of them. They proved they deserved to be in existence, in some form (not necessarily as lap-dogs for dubious government administrations), primarily as competent protectors of Canada.
They were given short-shrift too often and unnecessarily, and the Mantlo error (should have wrote 'era', but more accurate as originally written) did not live up to any of the promises made when the switch was made at AF# 29: Alpha Flight did not become a more effective, cohesive team, even though everybody hung out together (lone villains from Scramble to the Auctioneer routinely gave the entire team a run for their money); Alpha Flight did not sell better on the newsstand (it became direct-sales-only around #50), and; the continuity had holes in it that a fleet of mack trucks could run through.
Alpha Flight deserved better because they are not a bunch of second-string characters.
Once upon a time, they exploded from the pages of The X-Men. For a moment, they were "Canada's answer to The Avengers."
They were ALPHA FLIGHT....
...once upon a time.
Switchgearman : To get other comments into your responses, just click on the Quote button instead of reply when answering a message.
As to the ClanDestine news, theirs a thread here which leads to other bits.
Del
Driftwood: Well, I got about a foot and a half. Now, it says, uh, "The party of the second part shall be known in this contract as the party of the second part."
Fiorello: Well, I don't know about that...
Driftwood: Now what's the matter?
Fiorello: I no like-a the second party, either.
Driftwood: Well, you should've come to the first party. We didn't get home 'til around four in the morning... I was blind for three days!
Delbubs - thanks lots! I didn't even notice that button - talk about tunnel vision.
Oooo...
Clandestine! With ALAN DAVIS!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
Woo hoo hoo!!!
Happy Days!
* Applause * * Applause *
Joe Q, if you're reading this, I could just kiss you!
Re: Alpha Flight Questionnaire
1. How long have you been collecting Alpha Flight?
Since ALPHA FLIGHT, vol. 1, #1.
2. What was your first memory of Alpha Flight? If recent, what was your first reaction?
My first memory of Alpha Flight was Guardian, Snowbird, and Shaman teaming up with Wolverine and Nightcrawler against the Wendigo in UNCANNY X-MEN #139-140.
3. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight character?
Guardian.
4. Who is you least favorite Alpha Flight character?
Major Mapleleaf II.
5. Who is you favorite Alpha Flight villain?
Omega Flight.
6. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight villain?
Major Mapleleaf I.
7. What do you think is the best issue / story arc from Alpha Flight?
Alpha Flight #11-12, the first confrontation with Omega Flight and the "death" of Guardian.
8. What do you consider the Alpha Flight "Dream Team"?
Guardian, Shaman, Snowbird, Sasquatch, Aurora, and Northstar with Heather Hudson acting as their government liaison and Puck training Beta Flight.
9. If you were to be stuck on a desert island with one member of Alpha Flight, who would it be (powers cannot get you off the island)?
Persuasion (Aurora's just too insane in the ol' membrane for yours truly!).
10. Who was/is/could be the best leader of Alpha Flight?
Guardian and Heather Hudson (sans battlesuit). Puck has potential, though.
11. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight writer?
John Byrne.
12. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight writer?
Bill Mantlo, mainly because he set the precedent of nothing being sacred as far as the original Alphans were concerned. By the time James Hudnall came on board, the train had already gone so far off the tracks that he and writers after him were hard-pressed to repair the damage, and in most cases, had no interest in doing so.
13. Who is your favorite Alpha Flight artist?
John Byrne.
14. Who is your least favorite Alpha Flight artist?
John Calimee.
15. If you could undo one thing in Alpha Flight history, what would it be?
The departure of John Byrne from the title. I think if he had stuck on the book it would have continued to be a success. I wish he had stayed on as writer even if someone else did the art. One thing I love about Byrne's ALPHA FLIGHT is that so many of his story ideas could have fit perfectly on an episode of THE X-FILES (The Master, the Plodex, the Great Beasts, Deadly Ernest, etc.).
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