Ben's Bit - Alpha Flight #10 Review

[Mokole]

Allan has a good point. IF Byrne AF returns then Aurora should be in a mental hospice first to try and get 'fixed' while AF leaves her alone. Only Sasquatch and Shaman have any medical experience that could help her. From my experience with mental disorders (autism, MPD, schizoid, sociopath, psychopath) I found MPD and psychotics the hardest to help, so much is biological and retraining to cope can't be done without years of intense training. No reason Aurora would be easier, she'd be harder.

In an Ultimate AF setting she could start out healthy but slowly turn MPD as the pressures of being a hero get to her, with the resultant running from battle, Northstar going after her etc. problems.

[Northcott]

Given that Walt's doctorate isn't in a medical science field, nevermind psychology, he's probably not the man to help Aurora. Hell, he had a fling with her. If he were an MD he'd have lost his license and possibly be doing prison time.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Talking about Aurora/Jeanne Marie just makes me think of another reason I disliked this new series(funny that)....Walter never once mentioned (or gave a thought to)Aurora...does he just believe she's still in that mental institution? Does he never visit her? What the-?

Dana

[HappyCanuck]

BTW, did he ever find out about Aurora? And has he gotten his hands on Sabertooth yet? Ooooh, lordy. Imagine if JP and Walt managed to corner that psycho. Ew. Messy.

Actually, no, JP pummelled Sabretooth into unconsciousness before Vic could actually answer any questions, and next issue, Wolverine splattered him all over the country-side, so it's going to take a while for Vic to recover from that (a little short-sighted, doncha think).

[HappyCanuck]

Given that Walt's doctorate isn't in a medical science field, nevermind psychology, he's probably not the man to help Aurora. Hell, he had a fling with her. If he were an MD he'd have lost his license and possibly be doing prison time.

Walt is a biophysicist, so his medical expertise is pretty limited to the energy patterns in biological systems.

[kozzi24]

Given that Walt's doctorate isn't in a medical science field, nevermind psychology, he's probably not the man to help Aurora. Hell, he had a fling with her. If he were an MD he'd have lost his license and possibly be doing prison time.

I always considered it more than a fling. They were together for a while, Marvel Time, and the main relationship ended with Walt's apparent death in AF #28/Hulk #313. He was no sooner back, as Wanda, when Aurora went into Mantlo-limbo. Simon Furman established that Walt would have liked to rekindle the romance...some of the Wolverine appearances seemed to imply that they had indeed done so off-panel.

While there were many, Scott Lobdell's oversight of Walt's concern for Jeanne-Marie is to me the biggest failing of Volume 3. When she was captured by Weapon X, Walt had been accompanying her to the shrinkjoint, until he needed to respond to the disappearance of Mac and Heather. His concern for her and continued ignorance of her whereabouts could have at least been mentioned by Scott, at least once.

[HappyCanuck]

(Walter's) concern for her and continued ignorance of her whereabouts could have at least been mentioned by Scott, at least once.

Sounds like the amount of 'concern' shown by her 'overprotective' brother. She was in WX for what, two years?! The only hint of concern we got out of Jean-Paul was after Sabretooth used it to taunt him with before JP pointlessly pummelled the snot out of him...

[Northcott]

I always considered it more than a fling.

Yeah, you caught me there. I was just maintaining a light-hearted tone. It was far more than a simple fling, though.

And I completely agree about the utter vaccuum of consequence we see with the characters; especially Walt and JP.

[kozzi24]

JP's lack of APPARENT concern is more understandable...the siblings were not as close as they both sometimes wished to be. Walt is actually closer to her. Anytime he has known something has happened to his sister, JP has responded and followed thru. Most of the time he is unaware.
Some assorted examples...
When Aurora turned up in X-Man, Nate spoke of finding her brother...incidating Aurora did not know where he was.
In the NS limited, the only Alpha who dared break the clampdown to help JP was not his sister, but Heather.
Aurora is supportive of JP's "lifestyle"...Jeanne-Marie is NOT due to her beliefs and dogmas...this could make day to day relations between the twins bery tenuous, and very hurtful to JP, who is a defensive person to begin with, and JM's opposition would only be increased by JP's successful book "Born Normal".
Is JP to be alarmed every time his sister disapears? Aurora is neither stable nor consistent, and she probably has taken impulsive vacations many times, disappearing for a length of time and returning to say, "What's the big deal? I was sunning myself on the Riviera." Perhaps the taunting by Sabretooth was the first indication he had gotten that Aurora was wuthin the Weapon X program, rather than just speculations (and speculation-only would explain JP's brief appearance in Weapon X.)
At the time of her capture, Aurora was headed for the shrink joint, and it is very possible to JP's mind, and even Walt's, that one of the personalities emerged and was opposed to being insitutionalized.