Official Handbook Updates

[Flightpath07]

in what are really crowded X-books right now.

The X books are the new "Where's Waldo?" series. You have to squint and get real close to the pages to try to make out if you can see the tip of the left ear of your favourite character, and then weep for joy when you find it (because that means he/she/it is still alive, and somebody out there cares enough about them to include their ear-tip in this issue).

At some point, it stops being a comic and becomes an ink-blot test. As Rorschach says, "It's a pretty flower."

[HappyCanuck]

in what are really crowded X-books right now.

The X books are the new "Where's Waldo?" series. You have to squint and get real close to the pages to try to make out if you can see the tip of the left ear of your favourite character, and then weep for joy when you find it (because that means he/she/it is still alive, and somebody out there cares enough about them to include their ear-tip in this issue).

At some point, it stops being a comic and becomes an ink-blot test. As Rorschach says, "It's a pretty flower."

Okay, Flightpath, that has GOT to be the best description I've read so far...

[Flightpath07]

Too kind, Allan. (I like the name, by the way; I've been using it my whole life.)

[maniac mike]

I'm still waiting for a "Flashback" entry!

[Flightpath07]

I'm still waiting for a "Flashback" entry!

Is that a Vietnam flashback, a '60s acid trip flashback, or an Alpha Flight one?

[rplass]

I'm still waiting for a "Flashback" entry!

Well, yeah, if they're going to give Smart Alec an entry, they may as well round out the remaining original Alpha/Beta/Gamma Flights with a Flashback entry. Oh, and Marrina should get an entry too, who was in Alpha Flight, the Avengers and who married Namor, but somehow she doesn't get an entry in the HC version, that's puzzling.

Love,
rplass

[MistressMerr]

I can't tell you why, but the one I've been sitting on my hands waiting for for years is Mesmero. I've just always loved that guy. XD

Marrina not getting one is just weird.

[rplass]

Snap! Mesmero didn't get an entry? Harrumph! I hope the writers go back and add in new entries for characters like Marrina and Mesmero who didn't make it into this round.

Anyway, here's the deal for issue #11 of the Hardcover series:

Talisman is on the cover wearing her Omega Flight costume
Smart Alec has a 1/2 page entry, significant because it's a new entry, and there have hardly been any new entries in this series
Talisman has a 2pg entry, mostly the same as her entry in the Mystic Arcana Handbook. One of the illustrations, taken from the cover of Alpha Flight #19, has been expanded so you can now see tiny Snowbird and tiny Puck in the background, in addition to tiny Shaman and tiny Heather.

In the Talisman entry, it confirms that Omega Flight has been disbanded, and it says that the team was disbanded when most of the American team members left, in other words, when USAgent left in Mighty Avengers #23.

Love,
rplass

[maniac mike]

I'm still waiting for a "Flashback" entry!

Is that a Vietnam flashback, a '60s acid trip flashback, or an Alpha Flight one?

I was thinking the AF one... course the movie wasn't bad either with Dennis Hopper and Keifer Sutherland .

[-K-M-]

Also I never understood why Diamond Lil is listed as "normal" strength when she has shown multiple times superhuman strength. Ah well.

[Flightpath07]

I always felt that if somebody went back and told some "untold" stories of the original Alpha Flight team, that perhaps Smart Alec is one of those characters who would get some stories told about him. In one sense, he was such an interesting character. In another sense, you had to wonder why this genius with no superpowers and who didn't know how to lead people got to be on the team.

BTW, good to know Omega Flight is offically disbanded. Wonder if Arachne is home now or not?

Snap! Mesmero didn't get an entry? Harrumph! I hope the writers go back and add in new entries for characters like Marrina and Mesmero who didn't make it into this round.

Anyway, here's the deal for issue #11 of the Hardcover series:

Talisman is on the cover wearing her Omega Flight costume
Smart Alec has a 1/2 page entry, significant because it's a new entry, and there have hardly been any new entries in this series
Talisman has a 2pg entry, mostly the same as her entry in the Mystic Arcana Handbook. One of the illustrations, taken from the cover of Alpha Flight #19, has been expanded so you can now see tiny Snowbird and tiny Puck in the background, in addition to tiny Shaman and tiny Heather.

In the Talisman entry, it confirms that Omega Flight has been disbanded, and it says that the team was disbanded when most of the American team members left, in other words, when USAgent left in Mighty Avengers #23.

Love,
rplass

[Flightpath07]

I could be wrong, but was she not originally written as having super dense skin, and that was it? I know that later she was shown to have super-strenght, but was she meant to have that originally? Does anybody know the answer to this?

Also I never understood why Diamond Lil is listed as "normal" strength when she has shown multiple times superhuman strength. Ah well.

[Loki]

I'm still waiting for a "Flashback" entry!

Well, yeah, if they're going to give Smart Alec an entry, they may as well round out the remaining original Alpha/Beta/Gamma Flights with a Flashback entry. Oh, and Marrina should get an entry too, who was in Alpha Flight, the Avengers and who married Namor, but somehow she doesn't get an entry in the HC version, that's puzzling.

Love,
rplass

We hopefully will get round to giving all of them entries, given time. There's little by way of brand new entries in the HC - where we have done so is either to split off characters who share the same alias into separate entries instead of amalgamated ones, or to fill slots where we would otherwise have an odd number of half-pagers for a given letter. The latter is where Smart Alec got his break. The new handbooks next year should give some scope for covering some of the gaps, though obviously the missing Alphans both need to wait for a suitable handbook, and compete with the other worthies needing coverage.

[-K-M-]

I cant recall did ROM appear in the A-Z handbooks? I know there is the legal issues associated with the character

[rplass]

The Spaceknights had a 5page (!!) entry in the 10th volume of the Hardcovers. ROM didn't get his own entry. Like the previous entry in the Legacy 1980s handbook, he didn't even get an illustration in the Spaceknights entry, though he was mentioned in the text extensively.

Love,
rplass