Vol. 2 vs. Vol. 3

[Julesville]

Both the "New" teams inveriably failed, neither posessing the qualities that made the original Alpha Flight so potent. However, they still had their charms.

V2 was about the mutant aspect of the Marvel world, with appealing characters like Flex, Murmur, Radius, Ghost Girl. It also showcased the original members that I really liked; Puck, by far the coolest mutha facka outta Canada ever, and Heather "Vindicator" Hudson, the heart of Alpha Flight, as well as a little bit of Madison Jefferies. The story line was pretty much about the evil of Department H, and I think it came to a good resolution with Huxley (Bad Man!!) gettin the hell outta dodge, Gentry (Good Man) taking over Department H, and the two teams workign together to stop the evil fruition of H's machinations, the third WEAPON X!!!!

V3 was... well, not nearly as thought out. It ended before any sort of REAL resolution could be established, all they did was hit the reset button and bring the old team back, and maed no sense at the same time. There were some appealing characters; Puck 2, Major Mappleleaf, Cenntennial, most created for comedic value, but with potential for crossovers.

In the end, my favorite was V2, it was just plain shinier. How about you?

[Mokole]

v2 stories were written better, story ideas for v3 were better.

Art in v3 was better, although early v2 was very good.

Characters for v3 were better, with MML, Zuzha, Nemesis, Centennial, and Sasquatch being better than Puck, Flex, Radius, and Ghost Girl. :P

[varo]

volume 2 by far.


volume 3 was a joke and a insult to alpha flight fans.


sorry i feel so strongly but i do.


the only good thing that came out of volume 3 was clayton henry.

[PWalk]

V. 3

I enjoyed the change of pace it offered and simply found it refreshing.

[MistressMerr]

I have to say Volume 3. Volume 2 wasn't horrible, but I kinda had to trudge through every issue. Looking back, I enjoyed it overall, but reading it almost felt like a chore. Volume 3 on the other hand, actually had me looking forward to each issue. It was lighthearted and dorky. I would have preferred a semi-serious title, but I still really dug it. It also holds up to rereads, doesn't lose it's appeal. The plots left dangling due to Volume 2's cancellation make it somewhat frustrating to reread.

Then, of course, there's the art. Volume 2 was sheer fug straight through with maybe a panel or two an issue that wasn't painful to look at, and I freaking love anything Clayton Henry puts out.

[Barnacle13]

The art hand down goes to V3. Clayton's work was beautiful. I just didn't care for Duncan's style. I'll just leave it at that!

As for stories, I personally enjoyed the V2 stories much more. Yeah they were dark and conspiratorial, but at least the team wasn't being wasted fighting wax dummies. The V3 stroies never really grabbed me. I wasn't waiting to see how the wax dummies would be defeated. I figured a well placed match would do the trick. In V3 there was also never any doubt that the real Alpha Flight would never show up. They were jettisoned into space so we didn't need to worry about them. In V2 they were always in the back story somewhere.

Characterwise I liked the V2 characters alright, though there was a bit too much angst written into their characters. The V3 characters were much more fun. And I liked them visually! That's what initially got me hooked on Alpha Flight with Puck and Sasquatch back in 1984.

So in summation Volume 1 was my favorite! Take Seagle's storytelling with V3 characters and Clayton's art and it'd run a close second. But to answer the question directly I like V2 much better than V3, because it wasn't obvious from issue 2 that the book was destined to fail.

[cmdrkoenig67]

My favorite was Vol 1...the first 28 issues...it had an alien-ness to it, that I found fascinating. The characters were like me in some aspects, but yet they were different...not from my neck of the woods. Was it that John Byrne made the book feel like it actually took place in Canada? I'm not Canadian....so I really can't comment on whether it was more Canadian than any other book, but it had something.....something that no other book had.

Vol 2 VS Vol 3....I'm with Jules and Varo. I have to go with Vol 2. It (at least) had a direction and momentum. I didn't mind the Vol 2 Shadow Gov storyline...it was something...it was a meaty story, that I could sink my teeth into...Vol 3 had nothing but air, when I bit into it. Vol. 2 was going somewhere and I wanted to see where it ended up and hearing Seagal's inevitable plan for the team and the originals...I felt satisfied that it would have rocked(if it had arrived where it was headed).

Vol 3 also felt like it was constantly trying to find it's way, but failing miserably. Vol 2 lasted longer and even included more of the original team: Heather, Puck, Mac(A younger cloned version) and even Sasquatch(at least that's what we were lead to believe, at first). I like the stories better in vol 2....and it wasn't camp. I want AF to stand for Alpha Flight, not Amusing Fools....I need Alpha Flight, not Laugh-A Flight, thanks.

Dana

[varo]

does anyone know the sales figures of volume 2? as far as i remember it got cancelled at a time when marvel was going through bankruptcy and was trying to streamline their publishing load.

i could have swore the series had healthy numbers it's just that the cut-off number was pretty high. it would have done well if it was released now.


and if clayton was drawing it.

[Mokole]

Over 30,000 at cancellation.

[Julesville]

Do you think they'd put out one of those nice big graphic novel thingies for the Vol. 2 comics? How would they break it up?

That's how I read all of Vol. 3, sitting in boarders for a few hours, flipping through the graphic novels.

[birdygirl]

Volume 3 had the edge for me, because of Clayton Henry's glorious artwork, and Yukon Jack, (who was fairly --but only fairly-- interesting).

[Mystic]

I have to go with Vol.2

The stories were far better. Like someone said, those stories had meat. And although I liked Clayton Henry's art, Vol.3 was just a waste of of a year. The stories were horrible...so horrible in fact that to this day, I have yet to buy #s 11 & 12 and highly doubt I will ever buy them.

No matter how much I might like Nemesis, I would just prefer to think that vol.3 never happened at all.

MHO,
-Mystic

[Garry/Al-Fan]

Volume 2's Alpha Flight couldn't even put up a decent fight in Department H; Puck and "Mac" spent more energy making threats to each other than actually coming up with a plan that stopped Zodiac from stealing the Nth Projector.

Vol. 2 is about Dept. H; Alpha Flight is just a side-show.

Vol. 3: good art, bad direction; good plot, lousy climax; fun but it was trying to be funny.

Neither the 2nd or the 3rd volumes measure up, really.

[Legerd]

I hated both volumes! Neither one really featured AF nor were the heroes presented (IMO) all that interesting. Vol. 2's characters were ineffective heroes, being unable to even hold their own against Wolverine or the Zodiac. The whole "evil" Dept. H storyline was awful, not to mention the whole Hull House idea and the Mac clone stupidity!
Vol. 3 was just a bad idea, period.
I was sadly disappointed by both and feel they damaged the chances of any future AF series succeeding.

[Le Messor]

I agree with most of what Legerd said, except the following: 'v2 were ineffectual heroes' and not having a preference.
I don't think v2 were heroes at all. They never helped anybody, they never tried.
And, while I understand not having a preference, v3 all the way for me. I can't even look at the v2 covers without feeling a painful revulsion; they live in my 'Marvel Misc' section, not 'Alpha Flight'. For all its bad points (and I agree that it had less meat than v2), I -enjoyed- v3. I'd never have dropped the title; but in the end, the only reason I didn't drop v2 (ME? Drop Alpha Flight? You don't know how low things have to get for that to happen!!!) was because I knew it'd be cancelled shortly. (I could handle only three more issues.)

- Le Messor
"In politics, you should discuss the issues."
"Yeah, great centrefold in the July issue, eh?"
- B.C.