Exactly! I'd also add, not for the Canadian location, either.Originally Posted by cmdrkoenig67
If you're going to bring out an Alpha Flight book, put the Alpha Flight characters in it. Contrariwise, if you're going to bring out a book with all-new characters, don't call it Alpha Flight.
- Le Messor
"Being your age is hard enough without having to act it."
- P.K. Shaw
But why did they get rid of all the original charaters by #50 in volI ? Sure they brought them all back and added new ones and soforth. I can only think of X-Men that went through the same thing. Out with the old in with the new. Avengers and the others all seem to have there core intact. AF dosen't seem to have that by getting rid of everyone. If the charaters were so intersting in the first place, then why did they get rid of them? Now don't go writting and say that I'm blastfamist or something, cause I love the original guys too. I believe there is something true to my statement. Why get rid of them in the first place? Was AF outselling all other Marvel books and they thought "We can't have a Canadian book out sell Captain America!" (That's always been one of my favoret conspiracy theories) and doomed it to fail? Did Bill Mantlo just write from notes that Byrne had left, and could not thinkof anything new?
The location may not be the factor on why we've bought the book, but it dose have something do with it's creation. They've always treated the book with a somekind of "Isolation" factor. Not enough bad guys in Canada. Not enough people with super powers in Canada. Canada has the population of Rhoad Island type of thing. Always stucked to the goverment, and had inquisitions. When AF made apperances in other books they've made it a point to say "We're Canadian." I don't know about my fellow Canucks, but I don't go walking down the street with a big red maple leaf on my back, and saying "I am Canadain" (like the beer add). To me when Marvel did things like this, they were putting the location before the charaters. Only Guardian (Mac & Heather) wore the Canadian emblom, no one else, not untill they got those new uniforms back in # 103 or 104.
Okay, I told you before the Canadian setting wasn't why I bought it. To be honest, though, the location did factor in for me - but it had more to do with the fact that it wasn't set in the USA.
To the best of my knowledge, yes. I believe the story I heard was, Mantlo wanted to write his own original team; he wasn't given the chance, so when he got a team book, he replaced them with his own creations. And as soon as somebody else took over, they started bringing back the originals.
- Le Messor
Xander: "He can come along any minute."
Buffy: "Yeah, and the minute after that, I can terrify him with my alarming strength and remarkable self-involvement."
"Okay, I told you before the Canadian setting wasn't why I bought it. To be honest, though, the location did factor in for me - but it had more to do with the fact that it wasn't set in the USA.
"
But I wasn't refering to why we bought the book, but it's creation. In the 70's Marvel was expanding outside on New York, they put some guys out in San Fransico and L.A. and had additional stories that included some their bigger charters to travelle outside N.Y.C. Spider Man went to France, the Hulk went to Canada, and soforth. This also led to the creation on AF and an on going series. But like said before they've treated this book with an "Isolation" factor. They never were involved in anything big with the other charaters, and the lack of "Big Time" villans were not even there.
"To the best of my knowledge, yes. I believe the story I heard was, Mantlo wanted to write his own original team; he wasn't given the chance, so when he got a team book, he replaced them with his own creations. And as soon as somebody else took over, they started bringing back the originals."
That's a good point. I never thought of that, but how much control did he have on the book? I was always under the impresion that he just wrote the charaters from what Byrne left behind and wrote them til they were no more notes to go on. But I understand that people like the original charaters, but why is evryone so afraid of change? Don't you get tired of reading the same charaters on the same team, over and over, and over again? These are some of the reasons I stopped reading X-Men and Avengers. It got so boaring. at least with AF they had new charaters to learn about. Sure I missed the originals, but I kind of moved on.
Nearly every volume's writer has had to bring back the originals either due to demand or to boost sales and "save" the series, in every case...It was too late.
We (and Marvel execs) have no clue how well or badly an Alpha Flight series will sell with the original Alphans as the stars....Our only example is Byrne's (which sold huge), but nobody has tried it since then. The market being the way it is, AF will never have those numbers again. Omega Flight sold very well, but Marvel execs didn't or wouldn't go for it.
Dana
Last edited by cmdrkoenig67; 06-27-2010 at 01:37 PM.
ALPHA FLIGHT IS RESURRECTED, LONG LIVE ALPHA FLIGHT!
Then you're in the small minority that feels that way...I'm not Canadian, neither is Le Messor...yet we don't have a problem with that aspect of Alpha Flight. The writers can't please everybody.
I've already answered those questions.
Dana
ALPHA FLIGHT IS RESURRECTED, LONG LIVE ALPHA FLIGHT!
I was trying to use a quote from Le Messor. As for me it was cool to have a book set in Canada. But did you ever feel that when they were writting the book they were being too pushy with the fact they were from Canada? or I the only one who has notice this?
I don't think it was pushy; they referred to Canadian places et al but it's like saying Captain Britain was pushy about it being in Britain.
The Canadian aspect got me to read it but not keep reading, it had to be more than just Canadian. I liked a lot of the characters (Box, Windshear, Nemesis, Feedback,....) and have liked more since.
Keep your stick on the ice.
Live it.
Kyle? Oh, you didn't get the memo... Kyle was killed by Omega Red, not available for the team.
Love,
rplass
I apologize, Alpha Rider...I misread the quote (apologies also to Mik). No, I don't think I've ever felt a writer pushed the "Canada-ness" too far...The worst offender I can think of, was the person who wrote the solicits for Volume 3.
Dana
ALPHA FLIGHT IS RESURRECTED, LONG LIVE ALPHA FLIGHT!
Whoops. I guess there is no hope for Alpha then.
Thers always hope.Maybe bring them from one of the worlds that they were on in the Exiles series.
No probs.
- Le Messor
"He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River."
~ Brian Broadus, bad novel openings competition
The interpretation of the Alpha Flight characters during the Mantlo era was much different from the way they were originally presented. Puck's protrayal is a prime example of the misinterpretation, although what was done to Michael, Narya, and Elizabeth was a travesty, too. I've mentioned this before, but AF was conveyed as STUPID, for no one in their right mind would have considered Lionel Jeffries their only hope, especially when there were other (better) doctors they could've gone to [like Doc Sampson].
I doubt that one person was the cause of the radical, forced re-envisioning of AF during the Mantlo era.
Once upon a time, they exploded from the pages of The X-Men. For a moment, they were "Canada's answer to The Avengers."
They were ALPHA FLIGHT....
...once upon a time.
Not even Bill Mantlo?
- Le Messor
"He laughed at every joke three times - when he heard it, when it was explained to him, and when he understood it."
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