Article: Avengers #10 Preview At CBR

[Legerd]

Right, thanks for the answers. But now I'd like to know why the Avengers are the team to go in and save OF instead of AF? I mean, considering this is in Canadian territory, shouldn't AF be the ones to save the day? Yes I know it's an Avengers story, but couldn't AF at least have teamed up with the Avengers? I will give Marvel kudos for at least recognizing Canada still exists as part of their shared universe, but they lose marks for the name "Validator". Why can't our heroes have cool names anymore?

Oh, and does anyone else get a "Roadside Picnic" vibe from this?

[Le Messor]

Also one of the bio-weapons landed in Perth. Maybe Alpha Flight is going to visit Australia instead and say "hello" to Le Messor?

That'd be awesome!
... but Perth is clear across the country (west coast - I'm east). Sengsteroony lives around there, though. Maybe they'll visit him?

~ Le Messor
"It's the opinion of some that crops could be grown on the moon. Which raises the fear that it may not be long before we're paying somebody not to."
~ Franklin P. Jones

[Legerd]

That'd be awesome!
... but Perth is clear across the country (west coast - I'm east).

Yeah, but I'd bet you'd put your underwear on the outside and head there to represent Queen and country.

[Le Messor]

It does get annoying when something happens to Canada, and that great Marvel superteam Anyone-But-Alpha-Flight flies to the rescue for no adequately explored reason.

Oh, and does anyone else get a "Roadside Picnic" vibe from this?

What's "Roadside Picnic"?

Yeah, but I'd bet you'd put your underwear on the outside and head there to represent Queen and country.

Well, more country than Queen. Canada has the same Queen I do, so I don't have to represent her to Alpha...
... unless you mean the band? Hmm... what should I play? ... anything but Another One Bites The Dust?

~ Le Messor
"Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none."
~ Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

[Legerd]

What's "Roadside Picnic"?

Roadside Picnic is a scifi novel by Russian brothers and authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in which an alien spacecraft comes to Earth and dumps "stuff" that creates zones in several areas around the world where alien technology, and warped physics threaten anyone who goes into them. One of "the Zones" is on the east coast of Canada (the setting for the story) into which the main character enters illegally to earn a living scavenging alien items for the black market. It's actually a pretty cool story. The title comes from some dialogue in which one character thinks the aliens who created the zones were just passing by Earth, and stopped to have a roadside picnic much like humans would while on vacation. And like humans (at that time) they just tossed their garbage out the car window as they drove away polluting the environment and thus creating the Zones.

Well, more country than Queen. Canada has the same Queen I do, so I don't have to represent her to Alpha...
... unless you mean the band? Hmm... what should I play? ... anything but Another One Bites The Dust?

Yes, perhaps stick with the usual, We Are The Champions, eh?

[Le Messor]

Roadside Picnic is a scifi novel by Russian brothers and authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in which an alien spacecraft comes to Earth and dumps "stuff" that creates zones in several areas around the world where alien technology...

Sounds interesting.

Yes, perhaps stick with the usual, We Are The Champions, eh?

Well, it was that or Sliver Salmon, but nobody's heard of that one.*

* But, yes, it is the real name of a real Queen song.

~ Le Messor
"Never buy a thing you don't want merely because it is dear."
~ Oscar Wilde

[Flightpath07]

I was thinking, "I Want To Ride My Bicycle", if that is the way you'd travel to Perth from your house.

[Le Messor]

Well, that is how I get to work.

[Phil]

I'd like to know why the Avengers are the team to go in and save OF instead of AF?

We don't actually know that there is an Alpha Flight after the events of Volume 4; they were outlaws, shut down by the government and had no official status. Although then that means the Hulk:Mayan Rule arc needs a bit of working.

Plus the Avengers have official SHIELD status as guardians of the entire world, not just America, and have experience with these particular enemies.

[Flightpath07]

Although then that means the Hulk:Mayan Rule arc needs a bit of working.

Phil, I hate to throw a bunch of blame on editorial staff, but...

...isn't this part of their job? And, IF these facts are supposed to be checked by 'junior editors' or such, are the Senior Editors not STILL responsible for making sure that the Juniors get all their facts correct?

[Phil]

But if it doesn't contradict any facts, there's nothing to get correct, which isn't a fault.
Does it actually say in the arc that AF are working for the government?
To my recollection it says something about Ross contacting them as per international protocols but that could have meant he went straight to Mac rather than through the government. Tenuous possibly but that's what I mean by a bit of working.

Besides, #10 will probably clear up as to why AF aren't about.

[Flightpath07]

Besides, #10 will probably clear up as to why AF aren't about.

That'd be nice. Usually with Alpha, things get more cluttered and confusing, not more clear.

[Legerd]

We don't actually know that there is an Alpha Flight after the events of Volume 4; they were outlaws, shut down by the government and had no official status. Although then that means the Hulk:Mayan Rule arc needs a bit of working.

Plus the Avengers have official SHIELD status as guardians of the entire world, not just America, and have experience with these particular enemies.

I thought at the end of Vol. 4 AF was vindicated (no pun intended) when they captured the Master. I mean they were standing around with a bunch of regular folks doing clean up at the end weren't they? No one was trying to arrest, or blow them up. And they were acting, it would seem, as Canada's official reps with the Mayan invasion. Has there been anything in or out of the comics to suggest they are still on the run?

I know the Avengers have worldwide jurisdiction (something that makes me question the intelligence of the UN since many of the heroes on the team have done some very shady things recently), but that still doesn't explain why AF isn't working alongside the Avengers on Canadian soil, assuming they aren't still wanted criminals. Of course if they are still wanted criminals then why haven't the Avengers been called in to apprehend them?

[Phil]

There's a difference between being wanted criminals and officially working for the Government, though.
It could well be like Vol.1 #1 where they've been disbanded.
Just because they're not on the run/wanted criminals, doesn't mean that th new Prme Minister has reinstated them as a paid, national team.

But as I say, it's all speculation till next month.

[Canucklehead]

It's a bit odd since there hasn't been a hero Omega Flight since Michael Porter. Even "Alpha Strike" MIGHT have made sense. I wish they'd have been called Beta Flight. That way we could assume AF was either "Out of the Country" or it was "NHL Trade Deadline Day" so they all called in sick or something. Hopefully this is just making up for the LAST time Alpha was in an Avengers book...