Alpha Flight 80 - Acts of Vengeance

This issue is a combination of one big battle between three different factions and a massive infodump about Llan the Sorcerer and how he's been manipulating a lot of recent events in order to produce the necessary violence to generate a spell to open the "Eye of the World", also known as the "Gateway of Night", in order to access dark power.

Alpha Flight #80

Writer: James D. Hudnall
Penciler: John Calimee
Inker: Mike Manley
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Managing Editor: Marc McLaurin
Editor: Danny Fingeroth
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The first problem is that the magic used in the story is not made terribly clear in all circumstances. So whilst it's explained that the participants in the fight were all manipulated in order to produce the violence, it's not clear why this has to be done in Winnipeg, a city barely a hundred kilometres from the Canadian-US border and nowhere near the Eye's location way up in the north. If it's because somehow the violence has to be generated on Canadian soil, as the previous issue and Talisman's insistence that the villains be thrown out of the country implies, then it becomes especially silly as the idea ancient magics are tied to modern political entities within artificial boundaries (and it's hard to think of a bigger artificial boundary than the Canadian-US border) is just risible.

Quite a chunk of the story is taken up with the origin of Llan, but it feels a waste as he doesn't directly interact with the fight in Winnipeg. Instead this feels like preparation for future issues of the series which is great for regular readers but there's been nothing in these two issues to encourage people picking them up because of the crossover to hang around. The connection to events elsewhere is tangential to say the least and the choice of villains shows another sign of poor communication as the Owl has been used elsewhere in Fantastic Four and there's no explanation given for him being here as well. The battle itself is intense yet feels strangely inconsequential, with Talisman continuing to manipulate the other members of Alpha Flight to bring a conclusion.

Overall these issues feel very much like they were written parts of a regular ongoing saga then suddenly realised they had to take part in the crossover and so hastily pulled in a few villains from other series with a contrived explanation. The result is another extremely disappointing chapter that just doesn't feel a real part of "Acts of Vengeance" but rather a terrible advert for the current series.

Alpha Flight #80 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Alpha Flight 79 - Acts of Vengeance

We come now to the first issue of "Acts of Vengeance" featuring Canada's superhero team, Alpha Flight. Or maybe not quite, as this issue comes during a period when the team has been ordered to disband by the Canadian government and replaced by Gamma Flight. However the Alphas are still operating independently out of a new headquarters in Edmonton.

Alpha Flight #79

Writer: James D. Hudnall
Penciler: John Calimee
Inker: Mike Manley
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Managing Editor: Marc McLaurin
Editors: Carl Potts and Danny Fingeroth
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The problem is that this issue, written by James Hudnall and drawn by John Calimee, isn't very good at explaining the current status quo, with most of the key details coming on the penultimate page. And more generally there's not a great deal to introduce the team and explain who the current members are. Alpha Flight does not interact that much with the rest of the Marvel Universe due to their location and so prior knowledge cannot be assumed. Especially as this story implicitly suggests they have been forgotten by the alliance of supervillains since they aren't specifically targeted. Rather the main focus of this issue is about a load of nasty things coming into Canada from the United States, whether villains fleeing the Super-Powers Registration Act or pollution that's destroying the fish and wheat.

Unfortunately these elements seem awfully contrived. The pollution scenes feel especially tacked on - one is the opening page of the story, featuring characters not seen elsewhere, the other is in a field as Vindicator flies over. Both scenes just push the point of greater pollution being created by Canada's neighbour to the south, in an era when there was a sudden explosion in concern about the environment, but it feels overtly preachy. The villains coming as well isn't convincing either. As seen elsewhere, the Act is only draft legislation before the US Congress and most of the villains are high on wanted lists anyway. The story may be trying to evoke the Vietnam War draft dodgers who fled by moving to Canada but again feels odd. And the reaction from Talisman may be focused on the potential for the villains to become agents of some foe called the Sorcerer (another ongoing plot point that isn't explained for crossover readers) but the response is simply "we have to deport them" in an issue called "Outsiders". This attempt at Canadian eco-nationalist propaganda, written by someone from California, feels very awkward and stilted.

The villains in question are Nekra, the Scorpion, the Owl and the Asp, though the last two are only shown arriving on the final page. All are converging on Winnipeg and so Alpha Flight's Talisman starts transporting individual team members to pick the villains off one by one before they can unite. The fights soon attract the attention of Gamma Flight.

This is one of the weakest issues in the whole "Acts of Vengeance" crossover. There's no real attempt to introduce the current situation for readers brought in for the event (most of whom probably won't have stayed around), some terrible attempts at analogies, excessive preachy points in scenes that serve no other purpose and a rather random use of the cast. The result is a rather tedious slog.

Alpha Flight #79 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Alpha Flight Classic volume 1

Continuing the occasional look at series that haven't been given an Essential volume, it's time to turn to Alpha Flight.

Alpha Flight Classic volume 1 reprints the first eight issues of the original series. All issues are both written and drawn by John Byrne.

Alpha Flight had previously appeared in the pages of X-Men as a team of Canadian superheroes sent to retrieve Wolverine for the government agency Department H, before being disbanded due to budget cuts. Up to this point they had largely been a plot device, though occasionally individual members appeared elsewhere but now comes a full series to flesh out and develop the team. The first issue adds a couple of extra members and establishes the former existence of "Beta Flight" and "Gamma Flight" which allows for a pool of further potential recruits. (Though it's lucky the programme stopped there - imagine having an emergency and calling for help only to have "Psi Flight" arrive. That'd be on a par with getting the Great Lakes Avengers or Justice League Antarctica.) But amazingly there's no point in this run when all eight team members go into action together. The nearest comes in the first issue as the original six tackle the beast Tundra with the aid of Marrina, a member of Beta Flight summoned due to misunderstanding the cards. However due to the military not believing him and supply transport, Puck doesn't make it to the party until after the battle. There's one further adventure that brings most of the team together when they go from a training session to investigating a strange alien ship that contains the Master of the World, but Snowbird is absent from the training due to duties in her other identity, Puck is incapacitated before the team even gets to the ship and Shaman stays behind to give him medical treatment. Beyond that the issues explore the individual members, making for a distinctive change from the normal approach of team books.

What's also unusual is to find a US based publisher printing a team of non-US based superheroes, though as John Byrne is himself Canadian there's a degree of authenticity to the series and it avoids the typical US stereotypes of Canada as a land of frozen forests populated by French speaking, beer drinking, ice hockey playing lumberjacks all going "Eh?" while dodging moose and beavers. Instead we get a portrayal of a sophisticated modern diverse country. And the team is drawn from across the whole of Canada with two members living in Ontario (Guardian and Puck), two from Quebec (Aurora and Northstar), one from British Colombia (Sasquatch), one from Alberta (Shaman), one from (as it was then called) Newfoundland (Marrina) and one from the Northwest Territories (Snowbird). A few provinces and territories have been left out for now but there are hints of more to come as shown in a subplot when Smart Alec, late of Gamma Flight, is recruited by Delphine Courtney in Manitoba.

That's not to say there aren't some questionable bits. Marrina's home on the coast of Newfoundland is described as "a closed, frequently inbred community... [where] freaks and sports are not uncommon". In fact it's unclear if "that tiny island" refers to a small offshore settlement or to the whole of Newfoundland. But whichever is the case it feels all too clearly like a stereotype of the province that matches British stereotypes of Norfolk. Shaman calls himself a "Sarcee" but I don't know if that term had been objected to at the time by the Tsuu T'ina people. However Puck does challenge head on casual terms like "midget", pointing out it's now "little people" and he is in fact a dwarf. I also find the references to the "Ministry of Defense" sticking out like a sore thumb as that's a British term not used by its Canadian counterpart and also the spelling is American not Canadian.

There's a strong emphasis on building up the characters, helped by both the solo stories and several issues carrying a back-up strip entitled "The Origins of Alpha Flight", showing the individual origins of Guardian, Shaman and Snowbird and the common ties that bind them, mainly Guardian's wife Heather. With the exception of Sasquatch all of the team get some individual attention in this volume but it's also clear that the series and team are still a work in progress. The team's leader adopts his third name, ditching "Vindicator" in favour of "Guardian", reportedly because of a line in the National Anthem but this is not made explicit on panel. His look may be that of a Canadian Captain America, literally wearing the flag but James MacDonald Hudson is shown as a complex and doubting figure who has found leadership thrust upon him rather than seeking it. Snowbird's origin and nature is a mystery slowly unravelled here and we see her troubles as she struggles to maintain a cover identity as a corporal on a military base when she's often absent. Shaman is the team's First Nations member, a man who initially rejected his family traditions in favour of a career in medicine but after the death of both his wife and grandfather he came to accept his heritage and learnt magic. Puck is a tough, feisty man who is the only character to say "Eh?" a lot but shows both a softer sensitive side and skill at detective work as he uncovers a drugs ring operating out of a hospital. Marrina is the focus of the first extended storyline as both she and we learn how she is an alien adapted to life on Earth; however she also appears to be the first team member to be dropped when she accepts an invitation to stay in Atlantis with Namor the Sub-Mariner to find out more about herself.

The most underexplored member at this stage is Sasquatch but that may just be because of where this volume stops at. Otherwise he clearly fills both the brute strength and scientist roles on the team whilst also having a relationship with Aurora. Or one half of her. Aurora is quickly established as having a split personality with the two halves almost unaware of each other. Her "Aurora" side is relaxed, liberated and free; her "Jeanne-Marie" side is a heavily restrained prim and proper teacher in a convent school. This is a cause of concern for her brother Northstar, who is the team's main jerk, at times putting his foot in it and being unrepentant about using his mutant powers to build his champion skiing career but also displaying a strong degree of loyalty to his sister. With hindsight it's surprising how blatant the hints about his sexuality are, especially in issue #7 as he dwells upon the death of Raymonde Belmonde who took Jean-Paul "scarcely more than a boy, alone and frightened. Frightened of what he thought he was, and what he feared he might become. And Raymonde had led him out of that dark fear, into the bright clear light of self-acceptance, teaching him not to fear his mutant powers, or any other thing." For 1983 this was probably as close to openly saying it as one could get.

Issue #6 was part of "Assistant Editors' Month" when most of the Marvel line got up to some wacky stuff. Here we get a famous five-page sequence as Snowbird battles the ancient demon Kolomaq in a blizzard, representing by blank panels and lettering. These must be the quickest drawn pages in Marvel history but rather than an original joke it feels like a shortcut. Although Snowbird's beast forms are primarily all white, her human form and costume incorporate other colours. Kolomaq is also not depicted as an all white being but instead his face, chest and arms are a distinct yellow. So the joke falls apart as the elements just don't add up. It's also unoriginal as the same joke had been done with more visually appropriate characters in What If? #34, which was broadly the forerunner of "Assistant Editors' Month". It's hard to resist charges of laziness. Elsewhere there are a lot of panels with no background drawn and instead the colourists has resorted to filling them with bright but different colours. The 1980s may have been a bright and multi-coloured era but the effect is distracting.

The villains encountered in these issues are a mix of the big scale and the small. As well as the drug dealing ring Puck deals with there's also Deadly Ernest, a Montreal based crime boss seeking to expand his empire with the help of a death touch. At the grander scale there are the wilderness beasts Tundra and Kolomaq, but it seems the big recurring foe will be the Master of the World, a caveman who encountered an alien spaceship that kept him alive for study but he adapted, eventually turned the tables and is now set on world conquest. Would-be world conquerors are by their nature invariably limited in their aims but the origin shows a good sign of originality.

This series is to be praised for doing things differently from the norm and for the willingness of John Byrne to develop a group who had been intended as a limited use plot device. The need to build up and establish the characters probably explains why there's so much emphasis on them rather than action and although this may not be to everyone's tastes it's a pleasant alternative from the norm. It's just a pity that the art at times slips into lazy shortcuts.

Essential X-Men volume 5

Essential X-Men volume 5 initially contained X-Men #180 to #198 and Annuals #7 & #8. Later editions have transferred Annual #7 to volume 4 and added the mini-series X-Men and Alpha Flight. Everything is written by Chris Claremont with the art mainly by John Romita Jr and a couple of fill-in issues drawn & co-plotted by Barry Windsor-Smith. Annual #7 is drawn by Michael Golden and Bret Blevins and #8 by Steve Leialoha. The mini-series is drawn by Paul Smith.

Unfortunately this volume represents the start of a period where the series begins to rather complicated and confusing, with a mixture of long running subplots and the curse of crossovers and tie-in titles. But this series alone can't be solely blamed for a worrying trend that began at Marvel in the mid 1980s whereby it becomes increasingly hard to follow an individual series without having to pick up multiple additional titles. The first obvious sign is when most of the X-Men are taken away to fight in Secret Wars and come back with new costumes that generally don't last very long and accompanied by a female dragon who grows in size. And the X-Men's account of their experience with the dragon on the alien world isn't exactly what gets shown in Secret Wars itself; a sign of the problem in creating a gap in the narrative and only filling it in afterwards. Meanwhile Kitty comes to grief whilst investigating the Massachusetts Academy but this storyline is told in the pages of the New Mutants and subsequent issues see various New Mutants appear without the greatest of introductions; it's not even clear if Rachel's arrival is partially told in that series. Later on a two part tale ties in with the battle against the Dire Wraiths but if you're not familiar with the premise from the pages of Rom then it's not too clear what's going on. At around the same time two of the team members are briefly absent from the main series because they're co-starring in the mini-series Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, which isn't included here. Then there's a crossover with Power Pack, although the X-Men only appear in the issue from their own series and it's structured as such that it can be read without the Power Pack ones. Towards the end of the volume comes the first crossover with Secret Wars II and Magneto is suddenly hanging around with the X-Men. And to top it all off there are references to adventures in issues to come of Marvel Fanfare. Amidst all this the references to the graphic novel Dazzler: The Movie are easy to follow without that book itself. For what it's worth Panini's pocketbook reprints of this era, which are currently only up to issue #194, have included several of the New Mutants issues, so both Kitty's mission and some of the characters are more familiar when they pass through the Uncanny X-Men issues, but none of the others.

The Power Pack and Secret Wars II crossovers are adjacent to each other and show two extreme approaches to how to handle the concept. Issue #195 could almost be an issue of Power Pack with the X-Men guest starring, and indeed none of the title team actually appears before the tenth page. A non-completist reprint series could quite easily leave this issue out without it being too noticeable. By contrast issue #196 just sees the Beyonder, in his earliest days on Earth, wandering through the events of the issue and observing, with few noticing his presence and none of the events are driven by his presence.

Also somewhat surplus to requirements are issues #190-191, which feature what is ultimately a brief alternate universe until the reset switch is hit. A decade later this approach would consume the entire franchise across twice as many months, but here we get a two part sequel to an old issue of Marvel Team-Up as Kulan Gath returns and transforms Manhattan into a Hyborian Age city. There are guest appearances by the New Mutants, the Avengers, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, but at times it's less than clear just who the primary stars are. The climax sees many familiar characters killed off in the final battle but then Doctor Strange and Illyana combine their magic to undo the whole thing, rendering it non-consequential and not even the few characters who retain their memories mention it again in the volume. This story would probably have been better placed as a mini-series or one-shot that could have been more broad ranged in its cast. Here it feels like another intruder on the general flow of events, even if in the reset timeline Gath's transformation is stopped by the arrival of new X-Men foe Nimrod.

The other major side-shows are the two annuals. Annual #7 is a particularly oddball issue but the final page reveals all - it came out during Assistant Editor's Month, when the regular editors were away at a convention, leaving the assistants in charge. In the regular title the month was marked solely by a one page story in place of the letters page, and this wasn't included in Essential X-Men volume 4 so it was easy to mix. However the annual more than makes up for it, putting the X-Men through a bizarre adventure as the Impossible Man goes rampaging through the Marvel universe, stealing a bizarre collection of items for a scavenger hunt and the X-Men seek to stop him, with the chase even going through the Marvel Bullpen. It's a pity that the cover doesn't explicitly warn the readers that it's part of the event, but it falls perfectly into the spirit of it. The Impossible Man is one of those creatures that it's very easy to get wrong, but when done in the right context the result can be good tongue in cheek fun. Unfortunately Annual #8 is one of the worst issues in the whole series. It's a science fiction fairy tale told by Illyana to the X-Men and New Mutants around a campfire, with Lockheed and Kitty in starring roles. Presumably Kitty's earlier fairy tale had proved popular at the time and so led to this follow-up, but the story is weak, inconsequential and has ridiculously cartoony art. It just hits all the wrong buttons and simply doesn't work.

 A much more serious side comes in the regular issues. Although there have been signs of it in individual stories in recent volumes, it's here that the theme of anti-mutant hatred becomes ever more prevalent, starting with the introduction in Congress of a Mutant Affairs Control Bill. Fear and hostility are widespread throughout the story, with bigots everywhere, ranging from the students who try to kill Professor X to the government agents commissioning and deploying weapons designed to strip a mutant of their powers. It's an ever more hostile world where casual fear and racism is rampant, to the point that even mugging victims are scared to be saved by the X-Men. The shadow of the dark world seen in Days of Future Past returns with the arrival in the present day of Rachel Summers and later Nimrod. Rachel may have landed in an alternate timeline from her own, but that doesn't make the danger any less real. Nor does it negate her memories of just what she did in her past.

We soon see the horror of Rachel's past through flashbacks to her days as a "hound", drugged and manipulated by the authorities who used her to track down other mutants. It's a chilling idea but fortunately it's established fairly quickly. By contrast there's an increasing presence of characters with mysterious backgrounds - not only do we have Wolverine but Rogue's past is coming through in dribs and drabs with the complication of Carol Danvers's memories confusing her and those around her. And then there's Nimrod, a robotic mutant hunter from the future that carves out a reputation in the present day as a popular vigilante.

Some characters go through journeys, with Professor X suffering a major assault by bigots, including some of the students on the university course he now teaches, and struggling to regain full control of his telepathic powers. Meanwhile Magneto's path to redemption continues as Xavier brings him in to help the X-Men, leading to the amazing but understated moment when a bullet is sent the way of a murderous bigot and it's only the master of magnetism who prevents it reaching its target. Storm goes through her own hell when in trying to save Rogue she's hit by a blast that strips her of her powers. As she recovers she falls for her rescuer Forge, a mutant Native American inventor, only to discover that he created the weapon. Subsequently she drifts through the world, slowly coming to terms with how everything has changed - even basics as adapting to the temperature around her are new. However her non-mutant skills are shown to the fore and she eventually returns to Kenya where she discovers her purpose in life in bridging the divide between cultures, in a quite philosophical issue that rounds out the volume. Storm's absence creates a vacuum of leadership, with Professor X's attempts at more fieldwork falling away and Nightcrawler finding himself a worried leader also facing religious conflict as he struggles to reconcile the existence of the Beyonder with his faith. In his temporary absence it's Kitty who comes to the fore as the best strategist. Her relationship with Colossus ends when she discovers he found another whilst away on the Beyonder's planet, and other X-Men such as Wolverine and Nightcrawler feel that Peter has been a jerk (another slight discontinuity with Wolverine's conclusions in Secret Wars itself that Colossus's feelings for the healer Zsaji were a by-product of how her alien power worked). Eventually he and Kitty settle as just friends.

The conflicts themselves are getting a bit repetitive with multiple encounters with the Juggernaut, even if the second involves Nimrod, the Hellfire Club and the Morlocks, even if some individual characters are being added such as Selene. There's also yet another return of Arcade, again in seeming conflict with Doctor Doom. There are some foes brought in from other series, such as the Dire Wraiths from Rom, Magus, the father of Warlock in the New Mutants (nothing to do with Adam Warlock or the Magus) or the Hellions from the New Mutants, including the revenge seeking younger brother of the original Thunderbird. That team now also include the first appearance in comics of Firestar, with her appearance ending in a sign that she's on the road to becoming a fully fledged hero.

The most recent editions of this volume have added the mini-series X-Men and Alpha Flight. Consisting of two giant sized issues they tell the story of "The Gift" as Loki seeks favour with Asgardian deities by giving humanity an amazing fountain that can grant them powers and transform them into perfect beings, offering the prospect of creating a utopia on Earth and ending all the problems. But it comes at a price as magical beings are slowly killed by it whilst the transformed humans are denied imagination. The X-Men and Alpha Flight jointly investigate the area and discover the stark choice of whether to accept such a solution or whether to retain what it is to be human; a question that divides the teams amongst themselves. Eventually they reject the gift but it's a painful outcome. This is doubly so for Rachel who would give anything to prevent the dark future she comes from, yet at the same time she discovers her own future is ever less likely to come to pass as her mother is already dead and her father's wife is pregnant but with a boy, not the only child she is. The story sees her first encounter with Cyclops, but it's ambiguous as to whether he's guessed that he is her father. The story is suitably epic for this kind of mini-series but without too much familiarity with the current status quo of Alpha Flight it can at times be confusing to follow some of their own troubles and dilemmas. Still it's good to see the story has at last been included here.

But overall this volume represents a series that is getting too complex for its own good and spawning too much of a franchise. It's a little hard to fault X-Men for the reproduction problems that have reported prevented any Essential New Mutants volumes, or the volumes for not carrying numerous limited series and crossovers that only have a partial bearing on the series. But for the contemporary reader it was necessary to purchase an ever increasing number of additional comics to stay abreast of everything, whilst at the same time continuity was getting over burdensome, with repetition and subplots dragging on forever. This volume represents the series taking a decisive turn for the worse.