Alpha Flight has sucked me back in.

[Guardian]

Little story:

I'm in my late 20's nowadays. Growing up as a kid, among other things, I was a superhero fan. Mainly Marvel stuff. I grew up reading some comic books and of course had all the Toybiz toys. I loved Captain America, the X-Men and of course, Alpha Flight.

Well I got older and moved away from that stuff. Then about 6 years ago, on a lark, I wandered into the local comic store and looked around. Found some books and characters that I read as a kid and was hooked again. Picked up all the back issues of the 1st volume of AF that I didn't have anymore and picked up some new/recent series. It started with just a handful of books a month, but after four years I was hitting the store every week and was spending way too much money. Spending 30-50 dollars a week on books, I was probably amassing a grand total of lets say, at least $1,500 a year (probably more) on comics. Plus Marvel Legends were out and they were cool, so money went to that too.

But after 4 years of hitting the comics and some toys hard, I just lost interest and got burned out I guess. Picking up way too many titles, feeling like I had to keep up with all the "events" that Marvel was fond of coming out with. I just got tired of it, even though there were some excellent titles, like Capt. Am, I just lost interest. About 2 1/2 years ago, I was still going into the LCS every week, but I would by my books, take them home, but they would sit in the corner unread for months. Then about 2 years ago, I just quit reading the comics all together, stopped by the toys and didn't go into LCS at all.

I haven't been to the LCS in nearly 2 years, hadn't read a single unread book. I still occasionally (maybe every 3 or 4 months), I would cruise some of the bigger comic book websites, just outta shear boredom. But still had no interest in going back into comics. Then early this year I saw that AF had "come back" because of the Chaos War thing. And that there was going to be a new limited series (and hopefully full ongoing series) coming out of it all. I thought cool, but nothing more. Then I heard that the .1 issue came out last month. Forgot about it. But then #1 came out this month and I checked in here (before last night, I hadn't logged on to the site since March of 2009). Decided what the Hell and went to my LCS this week and picked up a copy of the #1 issue. I couldn't find the the Chaos War one shot or the .1 issue here locally, so I ordered them from Midtown (thanks to rplass' excellent article).

Haven't read the #1 issue yet, because I waiting for the CH. War issue and the .1 issue, but it seems pretty cool from what little I've read here and from flipping through the #1 issue.

It's cool that much of the classic team is back and together again. And I'm hoping that the series will become a regular and long running one.

I may pick up the back issues of Captain America from the last 2 years, but there's no way in Hell that I'm going back to my "old" spending ways. That was ridiculous.

It's good to be back in the AF fold.

[Ahab]

It's funny how strong of a pull Alpha Flight has on people. The only comic I was reading before Chaos War:Alpha Flight came out was Buffy Season 8. I had stopped reading comics for years (other than Omega Flight when it came out). I'm still not getting anything but Alpha Flight now but you better believe when I heard they were getting a one-shot and then a maxi-series, I have been visiting the local comics store again.

[Alpha Rider]

It seems to me that everyone gose through these periods of buying, not buying and back again. It happened to me I started buying comics when I was 4 (1975) and I stopped in 1985 after Byrne left Alpha Flight. I had been buying AF more than any other book at the time. I got back into comics about 3 years later when I was at a garage sale and saw some old Ghost Riders, and I bought them. I didn't start buying Alpha until #74 and then I filled in the holes. I was buying 15 titles a month, it cost so much that I had to cut it down to 2 titles Alpha Flight and Ghost Rider. So when both series were canned I picked up odds and ends, but never tried to get to involeved just incase one of the two would come back. Now I'm really happy because they are both back.

[bigbloo]

Welcome back, Guardian!

This is similar to my experience as well. In the past 5 years, the only comics I buy when they come out are AF appearances, and only then if they have a significant role. Otherwise, I wait for them to hit the bargain bin. This VanLente/Pak/Eaglesham combo is spectacular and I'm really happy with what they are doing. And yes, I can relate to the ridiculous spending as well. Glad that's over with.