Toronto Con

[cmdrkoenig67]

Technically, Jean has been back among the living since the Phoenix mini-series (End Song?...I forget what it was called.)...So, she isn't currently dead, but still...Why must death hold so tightly onto Alpha Flight members, yet let everyone else and their brother get by her? There's truly no valid reason these characters should remain dead.

Truthfully....I just want Heather and Puck back (if not resurrected, maybe they were just comatose for months...Hence Walter's statement about being the "only survivor") more than anyone (Shaman could always guest star as a spirit)..Mac's come back more than anybody, anyway (and every time Marvel brings him back, they do nothing with him and then just kill him off again). I mean, can't we have at least three (including Sassy) of the originals survive the Collective massacre? And yes...I have always considered Heather and important part of the original team (if not always a member).

I hope Varo is right about this being a lead up to a pay-off, but I am not going to expect anything (not even a morsel) from Marvel...They've let me down far too often.

BTW: I haven't bought a Marvel book since Bug's last appearance in the Annihilation: Star Lord series (a few months back)...They are really offering nothing I have any interest in.

Dana

[Mokole]

I haven't bought a single Marvel comic since Omega Flight, and my boys read anything but Marvel, except Ultimate Spider-Man. And I haven't bought a Marvel comic in 2 years otherwise. They don't want my money, after all. Bad for business.

Friday they didn't give anything about AF but show a pic of them being dead in Avengers, same thing Saturday.

The Marvel Universe panel on Saturday is rarely anything but a Q & A session, and with Marvel only announcing 3 mini comics at Toronto, you know a lot of con goers are a bit more than cheesed off with them. I heard the pic of AF being dead got a huge groan from the audience.

While I hold out little hope for a positive from Sunday, I still think there'll be some announcement before Christmas. No, I"m not betting on it, I know AF-hater Joe Q is still in charge. But they did say Friday, "Wait and See" after all.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Saturday's blog was more of the same....Disrespect for Alpha Flight and it's fans (especially from the jerk going by the name Twyst).

Dana

[Legerd]

No AF. However OF is still around... not that there's a book or anything coming.

EDIT: Okay, they changed their minds, now they're saying there are plans for AF and OF. I don't know what exactly or when, but the live blogger passed on that bit of info.

[Trewqp]

[Mokole]

Here's the relevant stuff:

3:58
Twyst - Arune says that Snowbird is alive
3:58
Twyst - There are plans for Omega and Alpha Flight
3:58
Twyst - there will be news at the beginning of 2009
3:58
[Comment From Sam]
marvel really needs to stop with the alternate covers...this is the 90s all over again...nightmare
3:59
Twyst - Snowbird and Herc, and (someone, know who agent m?) is in X MEn

and later...

Twyst - And re AF and OF, yes they said in all seriousness there are plans

"Plans" may mean showing up in X-Men or Avengers, but it had better mean ongoing. I'm picky. So no Alpha Flight news until January. But better than nothing.

Two AF characters in X-Men Infernus (Northstar and Snowbird, it seems, not Aurora), and plans for Omega/Alpha Flight, no news until January.

[Captain Primate]

FYI - I was on the liveblog and I specifically asked whether they were talking about individual characters or an entire team. The person who was live blogging said "entire team" in response to my question.

[cmdrkoenig67]

At least they were a bit more respectable to the AF fans this time.

The talk of "no more magic" is making me nervous...Joe Q can't seem to make up his mind. He lets writers use magic to screw up and kill several Avengers (via Scarlet Witch) and create a craptacular mutant storyline (because the world really needs more X-Men stories...Ugh), then he allows another writer to use magic to "Fix" (or F%$@-up, depending on your viewpoint) Spider-Man, but he doesn't like that magic is so limitless, so he wants to do something about it?

So....My question is: Who's next to die, so magic can fade away? Doctor Strange, Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, Talisman, Snowbird, Captain Britain, Blade?

Marvel is being destroyed bit by bit.

Dana

[Trewqp]

Well dana, maybe its time you embrace change, i did, and the skrulls are really cool.

[Dfense75]

I sympathize with Dana. Removing magic from the Marvel U landscape is idiotic at best. Magic in all its many forms can bring so much imagination and immersion to a story. Is it magics fault that for years it was used as a deus ex machina? Used correctly magic and magic characters can contribute alot to a story. Sadly Joe Q will continue to ride the coat tails of the success of the movies and turn his comics into entertainment for the lowest common denominator. Fantasy stories in all their forms should make you think and wonder. Free thought is born from fantasy.

[Mokole]

I think the point is to just define what magic can and can't do; right now, a person who can use magic can do most anything if they want to. Trying to make it so mystics can't, say, move planets or rewrite DNA/RNA would be a start. AS of now, what can't a mystic do?

- teleport (yup)
- change DNA (yup)
- time and space travel instantly (yup)
- defeat entire armies instantly (yup)
- create any weapon out of thin air (yes)

and so on...

[Flightpath07]

If you ask me...my thoughts run along these lines...

...the AF plans Marvel has, may very well be a mini-series telling the story of their trip to the Plodex homeworld and their subsequent return.

Well, if they do this, i hope at least ythey get a decent writer and artist for it.

And, if they do this, and we (the fans) spend a s&*%load of money, PERHAPS they will then reconsider the death of AF and bring some of the characters back.

At this point, however, I cannot see them launching an AF series. Not yet. I think Marvel is pessimistic and gun-shy when it comes to Flight still (and with no good reason, IMHO).

As far as OF goes...no idea. Maybe another mini. Maybe more stories in MCP. Maybe guest appearances somehwere, who knows?

Any thoughts?

[varo]

i really think we may see a mixture of some classic af and some omega flight in some form. not sure which.

i think mac, heather, puck and michael are going to stay dead.

but we may see a new flight team with:

guardian

agent

arachne

sasquatch

wildchild

jeffires

diamond lil

talisman


something along those lines. i think omega's sales where strong enough to warrant a series, marvel probably thought that mcp would get more readers to continue the story. but it has been a sales flop.

i really have to say, i really like usagent now, i think mcp did a great job of establishing him as a great teammate, and i love the dynamic between him/arachne and her daughter.

we'll see. but there are plenty of alphans/omegans to put something together.

[maniac mike]

This was posted over at comicbookresources.com MUG O' C.B....

After that, the Cebulski again teased a new “Alpha Flight” series before again showing artwork of the bloodied superteam from Steve McNiven’s “New Avengers” with the caption, “Alpha Flight…is really still dead.” However, once the Q&A got underway, discussion swung to the serious possibility of Marvel publishing Canadian-exclusive comics as they have in the past in the UK, India and Italy. When a fan asked whether or not Marvel would consider such a program in the Great White North, Cebulski said that it was possible but not without help.

“The thing [with those other initiatives] is that we have a publishing partner or a partner in the business community that helps contribute to the distribution, getting the artists and the financing of the project,” Cebulski explained. “So it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Marvel could do something like that [in Canada], but what is necessary is to find a Canadian partner up here be it a distributor or a financial or business partner.”

[Mokole]

MCP is more about seeing how nw writers and artists do, can they meet schedules, write well, not sales. It is easily the cheapest book Marvel produces, and you can't expect high sales with your main charcters being Pointer, Swamp Thing, and Hellcat.