What to do with the Originals?

[Richv1]

Wel I think James and Heather should be in semi retirement mainly just acting as consultants for the new team. Snowbird and Marrina should rejoin. Them with the new members is enough people for a team. Maybe Earthmover to. Of course the best thing would be if Uncanny Alpha Flight happened so all the characters could be used.
Puck would make a great trainer for new members. With his daughter there we don't really need two Pucks.

[Legerd]

I think Puck, Mac and Shaman should form a RUSH tribute band. Shaman as Geddy Lee That appeals to me.

I guess Mac would have to play drums then since Eugene's legs wouldn't reach the pedals.

I think Puck, Shaman and maybe even Mac should take on roles as instructors and experts (Mac for technology, Shaman for medicine and magic and Puck for everything else!). Heather should retire to take care of their daughter and to get out of that stupid, nonsensical, no-explanation-as-to-how-it-works green outfit! Snowbird and Marrina should rejoin as active members. Earthmover should change his name to Shaman and officially take over for Michael.

[bigbloo]

Heather should retire to take care of their daughter and to get out of that stupid, nonsensical, no-explanation-as-to-how-it-works green outfit!

The Geothermal suit! I think it looks cool and im loving the way Clayton Henry draws it. I think it would be a bit hard for Heather to just give up an active role and go back to motherhood. It just doesnt seem likely IMHO, i think Heather is the sort that would go nuts if she had to stay home.

Its would be pretty easy to modify the manipulation of the electro-magnetic field that the Guardian suit is capable of so that it can detect and channel magma from underground. The suit was originally designed for mining purposes (Roxxon Oil). Though you are right, it was never explained well in the comic.

[Major Mapleleaf Jr]

Does it really need explanation, though? It's a comic book, and that alone requires some suspension of belief. Besides, the geothermal battlesuit is cool, and it's different than Mac's, which I like. And the green and white (it should only have yellow/gold on the gauntlets and shoulderpads) color scheme complements Heather's hair and eyes very nicely.

[DelBubs]

I'm of the opinion that some more explanation of her geothermal suit is required. Once Marvel opened up the can of worms in regards as to how powers and suits worked (OHTTMU) then people were gonna require reasons why certain things did so and so. Logical explanations also give any series a grounding in reality.

I don't need to know the ins and outs of why Maddy can do so and so, but I would like to know why Bochs never got severely injured when the Hulk destroyed his Box Armour and things like that. Marvel opened the door, I just walked through it.

In regards to the suit, I normally like puzzlers like that, but I'll be ****ed if I can come up with an explanation as to how it actually works. I'm also with the majority (I think it's a majority) who prefers Heather in the Red and White. Keep the geothermal set up, but lose the green and yellow.

[Major Mapleleaf Jr]

I see your point about the desire to know how the geothermal suit works. It doesn't seem to be all that difficult a concept to grasp, though, at least for me. How was Mac able to use his suit to teleport, exactly? I know he was able to stop his own movement with the Earth's rotation (I think that's how it worked, anyway), but how exactly does one technological suit do that? It's all pseudoscience. And it's the same with Heather's suit. The suit works in much the same fashion as the mutant powers of Magma, one of the former New Mutants, although Magma's ability to manipulate tectonic plates to call forth volcanoes and earthquakes was psionic. Perhaps Heather merely does the same with her suit: she manipulates the Earth's tectonic plates to do what she does with the geothermal suit.

Did the second series ever offer an explanation as to WHY the suit was modified in the first place? If they did, I don't remember it.

Now, as to the colors... I like the colors not only because they complement her look, but also because they give Alpha Flight a little more color. Heather is setting herself apart from her husband, and I like that. But to each his own, I suppose.

As to why Roger Bochs wasn't severely injured because of the Hulk destroying the Box armor... well, Mantlo wrote that. Need I say more?

[Richv1]

Ok I like Heather in the geothermal suit and it being different in color from Mac's. It sets her apart showing that she is a super-hero in her own right and not just a copy cat. As to how the suit works I don't really care I want to know what it can do, what its powers are.
Like I know a lot of the abilities of Iron Man's armor but I have little idea how it works. Like driving a car I know how to drive it but exactly how it all works I don't know.

[HappyCanuck]

Since I am the one who opened this can of worms, I think it's time I take the advice I get, and start a new thread.

I am a bit different than most comic book readers in that in my mind I NEED to explain peoples powers and whatnot, for it to make sence of me. To most this concept would turn them away from science fiction, for me it draws me nearer (one shrink I had think it ties my analytical mind to my creative mind).

So here's the purpose of this thread: Explain how YOU think these things work, scientifically. You don't need to necessarily explain WHY something work, just HOW.

Let's start with Heather's geo suit:

How was Mac able to use his suit to teleport, exactly? I know he was able to stop his own movement with the Earth's rotation (I think that's how it worked, anyway), but how exactly does one technological suit do that?

Assuming that the technology in Mac's suit is as it is described, and obviously that it CAN do these things, I think I have a plausible explaination for Mac's 'teleportation'. Mac's suit is tied directly into the geomagnetic fields around him (scientific note*: ALL matter has an EM field. Larger the concentration of mass, larger the EM (or gravitational) field. That's why the moon orbits the earth, and the earth the sun). That being said, it's possible that Mac's suit is capable of generating a localised negating field to block out the other fields around him (basing this off of a report that NASA is working on similar models to beter space travel). If Mac can control EM fields to fly, fire concussive bolts and whatnot, it's easy to assume he has found a loophole on this to. Then, it's simple physics: with the gravitational field of Earth and the sun negated, gravity would have no effect on him (rendering him inert to his surroundings), and uneffected by the movement of the Earth. Then, the 'teleportation' effect comes into play (although I'm surprised, given the arcing nature of the world's orbit and it's rotation, that Mac hasn't been slammed into the earth).

It's all pseudoscience.

actually, from Mac's POV, it's pure science. Our problem is, we don't live there.

The suit works in much the same fashion as the mutant powers of Magma... although Magma's ability to manipulate tectonic plates to call forth volcanoes and earthquakes was psionic. Perhaps Heather merely does the same with her suit: she manipulates the Earth's tectonic plates to do what she does with the geothermal suit.

That makes sence, and it DOES work well with my theories, however that doesn't the fact that Heather can fly make sence.

Did the second series ever offer an explanation as to WHY the suit was modified in the first place? If they did, I don't remember it.

As in, why does it differ from Mac's? IIRC, it was because Dept H didn't have Mac's EM suit to build another one (remember, Vindicator III's powers came from the fact he was a synthoid, not really Mac, based off Mac's cybernetic self from Volume 1, and generated his OWN abilities). But they DID have access to Mac's old Geoforming suit, which the Green&Gold suit was based on.

As to why Roger Bochs wasn't severely injured because of the Hulk destroying the Box armor... well, Mantlo wrote that. Need I say more?

LOL, well for the point of this particular thread, it could be that, while Roger was technically POSSESSING the Box robot, he was for all intents and porpoises actually Box. But it ranks up there (using Marvel's history) with why when Xi'an (Shan) Coy Mahn ('Karma') psychically possesses someone, and that someone gets hurt, why doesn't SHE react similarly? I think that, mentally, for both Shan and Roger, the mind set up a safe-guard seperating them.
_______________________
*All Scientific Notes are meant for those who aren't aware. For many, this is common knowledge. I mean it for those who don't know.

[DelBubs]

Nicely put Alan, but in regards to Box, if he phases his physical form into Box, then either the robot allows him entry by having that good old fallback 'unstable molcules', which if memory serves is the premise Maddy used when designing that particular suit. However it would be nice to know if once phased, does Roger himself become incorporeal as an entity thus not feeling pain, or if his body remains solid, then why no pain as Hulks arm smashed through the shell and must therefore have hit flesh ?

[Richv1]

Well your theory for Mac's suit seems right on I believe that is how it was explained in the comics or close enough. So he doesn't actually teleport he just stops while the Earth keeps moving.
So how did Windshear's costume work? How do you generate hard air?

[Ben]

That is exactly how Mac's suit works indeed. As for Windshear, his suit didn't give him the power, he is a mutant or some such thing. In flashbacks he used his powers without a suit. The suit was designed to help him control his powers. I would assume he wouldn't have been able to be so exact with his powers without it. Kinda like what Cyclops's visor does for him.

Ben

[DelBubs]

Regarding Windshear, I remember him being very good with his powers without the suit, but as he worked for Roxxon, I assumed that the suit was just an adapted M.A.U.L.E.R model that maybe tightend his contol a little, but was mainly there as a disguise and to give him flight capability.

I know he may be able to fly just by using hard air, but can he project hard air with such control that he can manouver the way he can ?

[Richv1]

Ok how does Windshear's suit give him more control over his powers?

So how do those nano machines in Nemesis work? How can a little machine control a person's reactions?

[DelBubs]

Ok how does Windshear's suit give him more control over his powers?

I would guess that much like Turbo's suit, channels are set up within the gauntlets he wears, thus allowing him to concentrate hard air into an offensive beam ?

So how do those nano machines in Nemesis work? How can a little machine control a person's reactions?

That is a very good question , why do they stop her attacking Alphans but not enemies, give me a while and I'll see what kinda bull***t I can come up with :P

[Legerd]

[quoteSo how do those nano machines in Nemesis work? How can a little machine control a person's reactions?[/quote]

Since our brains and bodies work using electricity, it would be simple for nanotech machines to attach themselves to Nemesis' nervous system and mess with the signals as they travel along her spine. Other nano machines could go to the parts of her brain where visual input is analyzed (so as to know who it is she is about to attack) and the parts where her emotions and thoughts are generated. They can then detect the electrochemical signals being generated that they have previously been programmed to recognize as being hostile thoughts, and will then signal the machines in her spine to incapacitate her should the people she is looking at be members of AF.

Does that sound believable?