The Mystery of the Ambiguous Mac

Wolverine, Punisher & Ghost Rider: Official Index to the Marvel Universe #5
Feb 2012

Note: Despite being clearly printed on the cover, “Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Wolverine, Punisher & Ghost Rider” is not the actual title of this series. The indicia reveals it reversed as above.

The Official Index to the Marvel Universe, or OITTMU, continues in its third incarnation by covering various Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider series. The first two incarnations covered Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, Thor, and Captain America. The index contains detailed synopses of individual comics, including all of the relevant data pertaining to the comic as well as a thumbnail of the cover art, 2 issues per page (roughly). Alpha Flight appears in this issue in reprinted art from the covers of Wolverine #142 and #143 (Sep and Oct 1999).

Click to see full-size version of the solicited cover

Originally, the solicits for this issue indicated it would start at issue #142 for the Wolverine section of the book, but the writers only got so far as issue #133 last issue. The solicits are based on estimated page counts, so it’s typical to be off by a few issues. Since the usual arrangement is for the first indexed issue of the section to be shown on the cover in thumbnail, we would have had Alpha Flight on the cover of this issue had the estimate been accurate! Instead, the cover for Wolverine #134 (not an Alpha Flight appearance) made it to the big show. It’s the second time we were robbed of this distinction, as the same situation happened with issue #3 of this index as well.

The section on the Wolverine titles covers issues #134 through #169 with a few special issues published during that portion of the run. Alpha Flight members appear in issues #142-#145 and the Wolverine & Cable special, also known as “Guts & Glory”.

Cover to Wolverine #142

The covers for #142 and #143 feature some of the team just after Alpha Flight volume 2 ended, with Puck, Northstar, Heather (as team liaison) and one of the two James MacDonald Hudsons. At the time, there were two Macs running around; one being the original Mac who had returned at the end of volume 2 (who at this time took the codename Guardian) and the other being “Synth Mac”, his younger clone (who at this time took the codename Vindicator). Because of similarities in their costumes and the fact that neither one was costumed in those issues, we can’t tell who is who on the cover of Wolverine #142 nor #143. There is also a small flashback panel in Wolverine #145 with a similar ambiguity: an unnamed Mac is shown wearing a cowl with a red stripe but we can’t tell which Mac it is, especially since the flashback is to events in issues #142 and #143 when neither Mac was wearing a costume. The index positively identifies the Mac in that small flashback panel as Guardian but also notes the error of showing him in costume at all.

Cover to Wolverine #143

Why so confusing? For those of you who keep track of these sorts of things: as of Alpha Flight v2 #20, “Real Mac” was wearing an all-white cowl and “Synth Mac” was wearing a cowl with a red stripe down the middle. The next chronological appearance of either of them is Wolverine #142, but again, neither of them are shown in costume in that issue (except in flashback). “Synth Mac” dies in issue #143 (oh sorry, uh, spoiler alert!) and the next appearance of “Real Mac” after this arc is in Generation X #58, where he is wearing an all-white cowl. The confusion starts when we next see “Real Mac” again in Wolverine #171, where he is wearing a cowl with a red stripe, continuing to wear this through several other appearances.

The actual images printed in this index are thumbnailed so here are the insets, magnified to clearly show the red stripe on ambiguous Mac’s cowl, as well as Heather in her “Team Liaison to Department H” costume holding an awesome looking gun.

Unfortunately, the information about the issues in the index doesn’t address the mystery of ambiguous Macs on these covers; perhaps it was too subtle even for the usually insanely detailed writers of the OITTMU series. It’s not too subtle for Alpha Flight Collector to still be worrying about this 13 years later, though. My personal opinion is that “Synth Mac” is on the cover of both of those issues based on the supposition that if he were costumed at the time, he would be wearing a cowl with a red stripe.

The index also helps out with positively identifying Ghost Girl (Lilli Stephens) for the first time in a small flashback panel in Wolverine #142 showing the reorganization of the Beta Flight team after volume 2. This places Wolverine #142 as Ghost Girl’s last chronological appearance, not Alpha Flight v2 #20 as previously thought.

Two known continuity errors in Wolverine #143 are pointed out and sort of explained. The first is when Vindicator (“Synth Mac”), while not wearing his EM suit nor cybernetic helmet, blasts Weapon X (Garrison Kane), which should have been impossible. The index explains this by suggesting, “his synthoid nature may have granted him additional, previously unrevealed powers.”

The second is in the 2nd story of Wolverine #143 when Walter Langkowski tries to explain where A.I.M. could possibly have obtained Snowbird’s body to reincarnate. At the time Walter was in Snowbird’s body but he suggested they obtained the body from her grave. The index notes, “Sasquatch’s explanation here that Snowbird’s body regenerated while in its grave cannot be accurate. [Wolverine #172 (2002)] implies that the Inuit gods had a hand in resurrecting Snowbird, but the exact mechanics of her return are unexplained.”

There was a chance for these continuity errors to be resolved with the publication of this index… but if the information doesn’t exist, the writers don’t have much to give us.

Jeffries and Northstar still refuse to speak to each other

X-Men Legacy #259
Jan 2012

The schedule of events among the X-titles fouled up a bit with the timing of this issue. Fans who were expecting a Regenesis story (the cover of this issue does have the Regenesis banner logo on the cover) were happily surprised to read yet one more pre-Regenesis story arc from Mike Carey, the long-term writer of X-Men Legacy since issue #188. The Schism event, in which the X-Men divided into two camps: one staying at Utopia with Cyclops and the other returning to Westchester with Wolverine, had ended in October 2011. Regenesis had begun four weeks previously in November 2011 with the release of Uncanny X-Men #1 on 11/2/2011. So by the time this issue was released on 11/30/2011, the hub-bub of who would stay on Utopia and who would leave for Westchester had settled down, already hashed over on countless websites, and even listed by Marvel with in-house ads in various X-books. Both Madison Jeffries and Northstar appear as regular members of the post-Schism, pre-Regenesis X-Men, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #505 and #508.

Ultimately, Mister Jeffries would stay on Utopia with Cyclops as a member of the X-Men Science Team, and Northstar would leave for New York, later taking a prominent role in the Astonishing X-Men title. In this issue, Jeffries and Northstar assist in a rescue attempt organized by Rogue of… someone… from another dimension. Jeffries can be seen standing around with the X-Men on Utopia while the rescue attempt is discussed and organized, during which the Science Team is tasked by Cyclops to build a barrier to contain the rescued entity.

One interesting scene shows a wide-angle of the containment chamber assembly. Jeffries can be seen off to the left, apparently levitating or otherwise guiding a very large piece of equipment into place. What’s interesting about it is the tremendous size of the thingamabob that he’s levitating. We know he can manipulate fine machinery and small pieces of equipment but it’s rare to see him handling something so large. It calls into question a bit of overlap between his powers and Magneto’s powers. We know Magneto would easily be able to lift such a large metallic object, but can Jeffries do this?

Northstar appears in two panels, one without a face, and one holding a failsafe switch. Dr. Nemesis has quite a high opinion of Northstar’s fast reflexes

His super-speed gives him the quickest reaction time of us, and pico-seconds may count.

There have been many scenes over the years where Northstar has been shown with phenomenal reflexes, and some scenes where he’s easily taken out by a clearly slower opponent. Even the record is muddled on this point because Byrne’s footnote from Alpha Flight #12 indicates he doesn’t have proportionately fast reflexes but the OHOTMU Master Edition #13 entry disagrees, saying he has superhuman reflexes. Mike Carey, like he did with Jeffries’ intelligence level, errs on the side of awesome when it comes to Northstar’s power set and and chooses to show them at their finest.

This book is yet another X-book that has both Jeffries and Northstar yet doesn’t show them interacting in the way we’d expect. They were, after all, teammates in Alpha Flight and presumably knew each other even from Jeffries’ time in Gamma Flight. Although Northstar did show up at Diamond Lil’s funeral (we think), the two haven’t made any reference to serving in Alpha Flight together. With the two mutants on opposite coasts now and the X-editors sequestering Jeffries even from Fred van Lente and Greg Pak, it’s unlikely there will be any future issues of this type where we’ll get the chance to see it happen at all.

Note: this issue has a Marvel 50th Anniversary cover by David Yardin and a Regenesis Gold variant by Nick Bradshaw and Morry Jay Hollowell

	X-Men Legacy #259 – 50th Anniversary variant
	X-Men Legacy #259 – Regenesis Gold variant

It’s about TIME

TIME Magazine Vol. 179 No. 23
June 11, 2012

Note: The actual publication date precedes the cover date by a week. I do not own a time travel machine to go into the future to purchase magazines.

Published weekly since 1923, TIME (The International Magazine of Events) is the world’s largest circulation weekly news magazine, ranked 10th overall with a current (latest data from 2011) circulation of approximately 3.2 million subscribers, making this one of the most widespread appearances of Alpha Flight, ever. It even outranks the paltry 2 million subscribers for the ESPN The Magazine. TIME ran a blurb today about Northstar and Kyle’s wedding, featuring a cameo appearance of the lucky couple.

If you can put the morbid and depressing cover page behind you, flip to the section titled, “The Culture”, to find a small blurb in the article “Pop Chart” on page 56, along with a thumbnailed reproduction of the now famous proposal splash page by Mike Perkins.

The accompanying text is rather short, and disappointingly diminished from the full article, “X-Man Northstar to Get Marvel-ous Gay Wedding” published on their website a few weeks ago when the engagement was announced. But, since this magazine has a circulation larger than the population of 6 Canadian Provinces and 21 American States, a little blurb goes a long way.

Alpha Flight in History of the Marvel Universe #1

History of the Marvel Universe #1
Jan 2012

There’s just no way to condense the entire history of the Marvel Universe into a single 48pg book, but this attempt is actually a pretty good try. Narrated by The Watcher, events from the Golden Age (1940s) up to Spider Island (2011) are summarized into short descriptive paragraphs, approximately three per page, accompanied by iconic images to bring life to just about every corner of the Marvel Universe that can fit into a single volume. Despite the movie-centric characters depicted on the cover which hints at a fairly mainstream theme, the writers made some unusual choices in this book, as noted in this good review of the issue. The inside back cover of the book has an useful and extensive reference guide to link the narrative paragraphs to trade paperbacks and hardcover collections so readers can find the full story. In reprinted artwork from various issues, several Alpha Flight members appear.

Because there’s so much information to fit in to such little space, the writers just didn’t have the luxury of including everything. The most notable omission is that which was so notably included in Marvel Saga #1 (Dec 1985) – the origin of Alpha Flight as an idea germinated in Mac’s head after reading about the Fantastic Four in the newspaper. It really would have been nice to include that but Alpha Flight Collector can’t complain – we got a full reproduction of the first on-panel appearance of Alpha Flight in Uncanny X-Men #121!

Founded by the Canadian government’s Department H and led by Vindicator (later Guardian), Alpha Flight included the massive Sasquatch, mystic Shaman, Inuit goddess Snowbird, and super-speedster twins Aurora and Northstar. The team’s first contact with the X-Men occurred when Alpha Flight was ordered to bring Wolverine back to Canada; after hostilities ended, the two squads became allies. Despite soon being disbanded, Alpha Flight continued as an independent group and became allies of other worldwide heroes.

Other appearances in this book include:

• A splash page from Contest of Champions #1 featuring Sasquatch as a member of The Grandmaster’s team
• A cropped version of the trifold cover of Infinity War #4, featuring Sasquatch’s doppelgänger and Sasquatch, who is unfortunately obscured by an overlapping semi-transparent text box
• A splash page from Infinity Crusade #1 featuring Windshear, Sasquatch, Puck and Talisman answering The Goddess’ call to service, without the word “YES!”, a bizarre omission
• Art taken from the cover of X-Men: Alpha (Note: the original cover for X-Men: Alpha is foil stamped; the artwork reproduced in this issue is flat like the 2nd printing cover) featuring Age of Apocalypse Wild Child
• A panel taken from Avengers Forever #12 featuring Sasquatch from an alternate timeline in which he was a member of the Avengers

Overall, a fairly good showing for Alpha Flight and just about what was expected, but for fans who really want to learn about the history of the Marvel Universe, consider the Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1 handbook instead, which has full pages of extensively detailed text instead of quick blurby descriptions.

Coverage of Northstar’s wedding in the New York Daily News

New York Daily News Vol.93 -Number 333
Wednesday May 23, 2012

Marvel’s big announcement yesterday on The View that Northstar and his boyfriend Kyle were to be married in a nigh-unprecedented same-sex interracial wedding was picked up by various international news periodicals, the largest of which in New York City is the venerable New York Daily News, which has been continually published since 1919. It’s actually the fourth-largest newspaper by circulation in New York City, but none of the other large New York City papers picked up on the news, including USA Today, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, nor Newsday. The New York Daily News gave nearly a full page of coverage, the most extensive of any of the national or international papers covering this event. Guardian (Mac), Sasquatch, Snowbird, Shaman, Aurora, Puck and Marrina appear in preview art to the cover of Astonishing X-Men #51, and of course Northstar and Kyle appear as well, including images from Astonishing X-Men #50, released on the same day as this issue.

click to enlarge

The article, titled “Gay wedding for ‘X-Men’” is nearly identical to the on-line article published the day before, with a few minor wording changes. The amazing wrap-around cover to Astonishing X-Men #51 by Dustin Weaver and colored by Rachelle Rosenberg is the main illustration modified with an overlaid caption that unfortunately obscures part of Snowbird but otherwise reproduced well in newsprint. Other images in the article are a modified version of the soon-to-be famous proposal splash page by Mike Perkins which has the speech bubble thankfully enlarged, and in the lower left corner, a great image of Northstar snipped from the cover art of Astonshing X-Men #50.

It should be noted that both Reuters and AP picked up the story, so in addition to Ethan Sacks’ story above, dozens and dozens of other newspapers (in more than one language!) published an article, some with an accompanying image, some in color! Here is an abridged list of major newspapers from around the world who I have confirm to have joined The New York Daily News in correctly identifying the newsworthiness of Northstar’s wedding (all in English except where noted) by publishing the story in their print version:

Cape Breton Post, Canada
Cebu Daily, Philippines
Daily Telegraph, UK
Edmonton Journal, Canada
El Universal, Mexico (Spanish)
Hindustan Times (Delhi), India
Hindustan Times (Kolkata), India
Hindustan Times (Mumbai), India
Il Giornale, Italy (Italian)
Journal Pioneer, Canada
Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada
Los Angeles Times
Nanaimo Daily News, Canada
National Post, Canada
Northern Territory News, Australia
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
San Jose Mercury News
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
The Amherst Daily News, Canada
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Dominion Post, New Zealand
The News, New Glasgow, Canada
The Press, New Zealand
The Southland Times, New Zealand
The Sun Times, Canada
The Timaru Herald, New Zealand
The Trentonian
Times Colonist, Canada
Toronto Star, Canada
Toronto Sun, Canada
Truro Daily News, Canada
Washington Times Daily
Winnipeg Free Press, Canada
… and more!

Nearly all of these contained at least one image, so globally the number of people who saw this Alpha Flight appearance today was likely in the tens of millions. The circulation for the New York Daily News alone is around 700,000 and is easily eclipsed by the Los Angeles Times (800,000), Daily Telegraph (900,000) and Hindustan Times (1MM+), so I’m fairly certain of this estimation.

Note: Yes, that’s Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli nude on the cover of the New York Daily News today. Sigh. Something about this blog just can’t keep the sexy away…

Northstar cameo in Vampires: The Marvel Undead #1

Vampires: The Marvel Undead #1
Dec 2011

Marvel has had no shortage whatsoever of vampire characters and stories dating back at least forty years, including the late Gene Colan’s Tomb of Dracula series and the Blade series which spun out three very successful movies. The recent Curse of the Mutants Saga (2010-2011) brought vampires right back into the mainstream Marvel universe, so to tie all that together while capitalizing on popular culture’s vampire craze, Marvel published another Official Handbook! Containing reprinted entries from previous handbooks, new entries, new illustrations and some updates for major characters, this book has everything you’ve always wanted to know about Marvel’s vampires. Northstar appears in Jubilee’s entry in an inset to the main illustration.

At the very beginning of the Curse of the Mutants Saga, Jubilee became infected with a vampire pathogen, and has been a vampire ever since. Her entry is a single page character update and has a new illustration by Steve Kurth. Another image of her is inset into the upper right – taken from the cover of Nation X #2 which features Northstar in the background.

This cover art was originally published in the first issue of the Nation X anthology series as a preview, where we first saw the white belt version of Northstar’s costume. Nation X #2 contains an 8pp story by Tim Fish featuring Northstar and his then-boyfriend Kyle. At the time, that issue was framed as a light-hearted and playful look into Northstar’s relationship with Kyle but would later turn out to be a significant building block of an important narrative leading up to their eventual engagement (announced today, in fact!) and marriage in the Astonishing X-Men title.

Unfortunately, all you can see of Northstar in the little inset is his jaw and his shoulder blade, so here is a much better view taken from the original cover art of Nation X #2.

Alpha Flight’s last entry (for now) in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z TPB #1

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z TPB #1
2011

Note: no month of publication is indicated, with the exception of manufacturing date range of 8/25/11 to 9/13/11. The issue was released on 9/28/11. Other issues released on that date carry a publication date of Nov 2011.

The first volume of the amazing fourteen volume Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Premiere Hardcover series is reprinted in trade paperback with all 240 original pages reproduced and, true to the principle of releasing timely information, sixteen additional pages of updates for selected entries. Some minor corrections and additions are found, but for the most part the original 240 pages are reprinted in their entirety. The first issue of this series has every single Alpha Flight member featured in a 3pg entry for the team, Aurora (who appears on the cover) has a 2pg entry and Marrina appears in the Avengers entry. Additionally, Alpha Flight has an extensive update in the appendix, again featuring every single Alpha Flight member. Aurora has a small update as well and there’s also a tiny Northstar appearance in Angel (Worthington)’s update.

Since this book reprints a great deal of material already printed, only the changes and updates are noted.

In the Alpha Flight team entry, the major change is that the three Nemeses are distinguished from one another. The first Nemesis from Alpha Flight v1 #8, who was never a member of the team, is identified as Ernest St. Ives’ daughter, Isabel St. Ives. The second Nemesis from Alpha Flight #76, who started out in the Canadian Government-sponsored Gamma Flight team is given the name Jane Thorne (no relation to Alec Thorne / Smart Alec of Gamma Flight). The third Nemesis from Alpha Flight volume 3 we already knew to be Amelia Weatherly. It had been a question for many years whether or not the first two Nemeses were the same, and the third Nemesis only made it more confusing, so this clarification puts a very old controversy to rest. This is technically a contradiction to previous handbooks, but can be resolved if one perceives Nemesis to be an embodiment that can be passed from one successor to another.

There are a few changes in the text:

In the “Members:” section, Nemesis (Jane Thorne) is added to the list of members. Also, the awful typographical error in that section misspelling Langkowski has been corrected.

In the body of the entry, it now notes that Wild Child was a member of First Flight, as seen when Wolverine had to break up the encounter with Stitch as depicted in the flashback in Alpha Flight #127. The chronology of that flashback had never been pinned down, and was somewhat confusing because Wild Child didn’t appear in the Alpha Flight Special with First Flight. The text regarding the early formation of Gamma Flight is changed from saying that Diamond Lil, Madison Jeffries and Wild Child joined Smart Alec in Gamma Flight to indicate Diamond Lil and Jeffries joined Wild Child and Smart Alec (who were both already in Gamma Flight).

A very good correction: the word “ironically” has been removed from the description of Pestilence’s attack in Alpha Flight #37. The previous sentence bizarrely read:

Crozier possessed the newborn demigod, became Pestilence and ironically stripped Elizabeth of the Talisman coronet…

Alanis Morissette does not approve.
It is ironic. Isn’t it?

And there are some very minor changes: the spelling of Quwrlln has been corrected from Qwrlln and the Hudson’s daughter has been properly identified as Claire, who had been named recently. When the hardcover version was originally published in 2008, she had been unnamed. This tpb was published during the 2011-2012 Alpha Flight volume 4 run, where her name had been revealed.

The illustrations in the Alpha Flight team entry are the same as in the hardcover, but the volume 3 team illustration now identifies the v3 Nemesis as “Nemesis (Weatherly)” in the caption.

The Aurora entry is reproduced in its entirety from the original, with a very good correction to properly credit the artwork of the twins from the X-Men Annual #1 (2007) to Mark Brooks, not Clayton Henry. Unfortunately, the notation of Aurora’s membership in the X-Men which was included in the 2010 Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Handbook, which was also a reprint of the same hardcover entry, was not included but clearly should have been.

The massive Avengers entry, with respect to Marrina’s inclusion in the montage of headshots and a reprinted George Pérez poster is unchanged from the hardcover version.

In the update section, Alpha Flight gets nearly a full page of update, which is fairly significant seeing as how there are only 16 pages to update all of the other 240 pages worth of entries! The main entry ended just at the formation of Omega Flight, and the update fills in with an excellent brief recap of events since, up to and including issue #4 of Alpha Flight volume 4. Included is a small reproduction of the cover art by Tom Grummett for issue #6 with the caption “Current Roster”, which interestingly, does not include Vindicator (Heather). That image had recently been released as the solicited cover, and wouldn’t be printed until November 23rd, 2011.

There is also a giant grid of headshots of everyone in Alpha Flight. In the main entry, the v1, v2 and v3 teams each had a large illustration with small headshot insets but in the update, everyone gets a headshot. With the exception of a few members (Auric, Earthmover, Ouija, and Flinch), all of the images are updated and/or better versions of the ones shown in the main entry, but even for the guys who didn’t get an updated image, the size is increased so overall the image is improved from the original. The only criticism is that the headshot for Northstar is taken from the cover art of Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1, where Salva Espin drew Northstar with rounded ears. Interestingly, they are arranged in join order, and there’s a massive caption below indexing the issues when each member joined which Flight – an incredibly dense info dump that shows an insane level of detail.

Following that is a paragraph of text and an illustration for Alpha Prime, the Savage Land superhero team from Alpha Flight Annual #2. There was a minor comment and an illustration for Alpha Prime in the Savage Land entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Premiere Hardcover #10, but these expanded remarks are much more substantial and now properly placed with Alpha Flight team information.

Aurora has a small update as well, just a paragraph with no illustration, describing her activities following the events mentioned in the main entry which ended at her restoration to sanity in X-Men Annual #1 (2007). This includes the little appearance in Uncanny X-Men #508 as COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Team Northstar Extreme Snowsports (the update indicates she had been promoted sometime off-panel to joint CEO – Chief Executive Officer), joining up with the X-Men in X-Men: Secret Invasion #2, rejecting Osborn’s offer in Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3, re-joining the team in Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1 and subsequent events in Alpha Flight volume 4.

In Angel (Worthington)’s update, Northstar can be seen very tiny in a small illustration from Uncanny X-Men #533 just after the de facto X-Men team defeated Lobe’s squad of baddies on the rooftop. Here is a much larger image taken from the original issue.

Note: the cover for this issue is identical to the hardcover, with a slightly different spine and a small note on the back cover that updates are included. Tom Grummett’s Aurora on the cover is very tiny and has a minor error in her costume. In a highly magnified image we see that he drew the asymmetrical starburst over her right boob instead of her left hip.

Jesus, can you go ONE post without mentioning Aurora’s boobs?

Unfortunately, Marvel has canceled the remainder of the trade paperback reprints at issue #5. Sadly, we won’t see updates for all of the original fourteen volumes. Also, since no new OHOTMU books are scheduled for any time in the future, this could be the last printed entry for Alpha Flight we see for a very long time. It was already an excellent entry, and with the corrections, changes and updates, it’s simply the perfect ending to a great run.

orthstar and urora on X-Men: Schism #3 variants

X-Men: Schism #3 – Cho variant
Oct 2011

Northstar and Aurora appear on the variant cover by Frank Cho, the third part of a five-part interlocking image released for the five-issue X-Men: Schism series, and then re-released later as a set of “X-Print” variants, which were uncolored sketch variants of the same. They appear as regular members of the X-Men, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #508 (Northstar) and X-Men: Secret Invasion #2 (Aurora).

It’s really a shame that they didn’t appear inside, as this was the best of the five books in X-Men: Schism, and one of the best comics released by Marvel in 2011 without “Alpha Flight” in the title. Daniel Acuña’s detailed painted style was just so perfect in this issue – so much so that I actually read the entire thing even though no one from Alpha Flight was in it.

The original pencils for this five-part poster was released as promotional image in early April 2011. Not everyone fell in love with the image, which does have its flaws. It does show the twins with pointy ears, so that’s a big plus, but I doubt Frank Cho got the memo that Northstar and Aurora are related as brother and sister because that pose is just wrong.

If you click on the image, you can see the full-sized pencils, which have tick marks along the top and bottom edges to show the breaks between the issues, and unfortunately, Northstar and Aurora are bisected by one of the breaks.

Here is what you’d expect to see if the tick marks were used strictly as a guide, with issue #2 shaded in dark red and issue #3 unshaded. At the time, fans didn’t know where the actual borders would be between the two issues, and just fraction of an inch (that’s 1-2 millimeters for you metric folk) would make a difference.

The official Marvel solicit for this issue offered in May 2011 (for August 2011) was accompanied by an image of the central panel offset to the right so as to include Northstar and Aurora completely.

It was a strange offering in the first place because we knew it would not be the regular cover. Daniel Acuña had been announced as the artist for this issue long back and we knew this was the variant cover and not the actual cover. It was also strange because it’s very clear that Frank Cho intended for Colossus to be in the dead center, so whoever put out this asymmetrical image purposefully shifted it to include the twins. It’s not uncommon for the images released with solicits to differ from the actual cover art so we just had to wait. An inset from the asymmetrical solicit shows almost both of them with the exception of Northstar’s right shoulder, but just about a complete image.

This is the image we were hoping would be found on the left edge of the variant cover.

Unfortunately, when the Cho variant for X-Men: Schism #2 was released in July 2011, we only got Northstar’s right arm, part of his head (including his ear) and Aurora’s right forearm on the extreme right edge as predicted by those tick marks on the original pencils, so we knew the variant for issue #3 would show the bisected remainder.

X-Men: Schism #3 – X Printing variant

When the X-Print variants were released in November of 2011, we got a bit of a break. The cover images were letterboxed, compressing the image vertically with black borders on top and bottom. This new aspect ratio was just enough to sneak more of Northstar’s face onto the very left edge. A side-by side comparison of insets taken from the Cho variant (left) and the X-Printing (right) shows this a bit better.

But look closer. You know where to look. If you still can’t see it, try comparing the original pencils of Aurora (left) to the X-Print version of Aurora (right) and you’ll see the difference.

Can you spot the difference?

The bizarre gigantic nipple on Jeanne-Marie’s right boob has been removed. Call it an improvement or not, whichever you prefer, but in any case, these things do not go unnoticed on Alpha Flight Collector!

Four star review of Alpha Flight v4 #1 in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1682

Comics Buyer’s Guide #1682
Oct 2011

The venerable Comics Buyer’s Guide is one of the first and one of the last printed magazines covering comics, fandom and conventions. Starting in 1971, it claims to be “the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry.” It ran as a weekly (!) for many years before returning to its current monthly format. In an era where comic fans are easily connected to comic book industry info via the Internet, it’s hard to believe there’s still a printed magazine covering convention listings and fanzines and running tiny classified ads, yet it endures. Alpha Flight v4 #1 was reviewed in this issue, featuring appearances of the entire team on the cover and some interior panels.

Although this issue carries a cover date of Oct 2011, it was actually published on 8/17/11, fully two months after the Alpha Flight v4 #1 was released on 6/15/11. In fact, issue #3 had already been published the previous week. The production cycle of periodicals just can’t keep up the way online reviews can – in comparison, issue #1 had over a dozen reviews posted online within just a few days.

Click on the page above to zoom onto the review.

In the section, “Comics Reviews!”, subsection, “Mainstream Comics Reviews”, the very first comic reviewed is Alpha Flight v4 #1. A full reproduction of the cover is shown, along with a few panels featuring Marrina and Guardian battling Attuma in Vancouver. The review is written by the reviewer’s reviewer, Martin Gray, and is quite positive, even ending with the unknowingly woeful call “Can anyone say ‘ongoing’?”

Click to enlarge

In the section, “Auction News and Market Trends”, a full column by comic shop owner John Tinkess of Another Dimension in Calgary, AB also shows the cover of Alpha Flight v4 #1 as his main illustration. He mentions in his article a general summary of June sales and points out:

Alpha Flight #1 also enjoyed a spectacular debut, although it looks as if it might be selling better here in Canada than it is in the U.S. Some of our customers see it as a point of national pride to support Canada’s only super-team.

He also includes a section “Top comics for June” and Alpha Flight v4 #1 is listed! One can’t help but read this and fly back in time to when the Byrne/Mantlo-era Alpha Flight was a top ten book in the Direct Market and boy, is it amazing to see this kind of thing again. For one brief moment, we had all the glory again in the pages of Comics Buyer’s Guide – which I’m sure will still be around to publish a review of the first issue of Alpha Flight volume 5!

Tastes like chicken

Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine #3
Oct 2011

This four-issue mini is a prequel to the 2010 series, Marvel Universe vs. Punisher, an alternate reality series where the entire world is infected with a pathogen that turns everyone into primitive-yet-intelligent cannibals. It could just as easily have been a zombie story, and if you didn’t read the captions nor introductory text, one could think it were a zombie story from the art alone. My guess is that either Marvel felt they had enough zombie action with their fifth(!) Marvel Zombies series concurrently published with that series in 2010, or that someone, somewhere decided that they had just about enough zombie and it was changed it to cannibals. Zombie Northstar, uh, I mean Cannibal Predator Northstar appears in a few panels as a member of The Thing’s tribe.

After the anti-cannibal lab in the Baxter Building is destroyed by the Punisher’s grenades in a battle with The Thing, who has been infected with the pathogen, Mr. Fantastic, Black Panther and Wolverine decide to rebuild the anti-cannibal lab in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, Reed Richards has a warehouse with equipment and T’Challa hopes to reunite with his sister at a staging ground for refugees. They gather up a couple of dozen scientists, some uninfected heroes and a wooden wagon filled with doohickeys and attempt to cross the Goethals Bridge.

For all the historic landmarks, famous buildings and architectural marvels in New York City recognized instantly worldwide and visited by billions of tourists, let’s just say the Goethals Bridge ranks somewhere near the very bottom. For New Yorkers, it’s one of two bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey and is the main route to get to Newark International Airport and of course, the IKEA in Elizabeth.

The only problem is that it’s really very far away from the Baxter Building. Click on the map above to see the shortest route possible (in purple) taken by the science caravan. The Baxter Building is in the upper right and Elizabeth, New Jersey is in the lower left. In the comic book, it seems as if it’s one of the bridges one can take to get off Manhattan Island… but in reality, you have to take at least one bridge or tunnel to leave Manhattan, enter either Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx or New Jersey and then take another bridge to get onto Staten Island in order to cross it. The shortest driving route from the Baxter Building to the Goethals Bridge is about 21 miles long (34 kilometers for you metric people), and by foot it’s at least a 7 hour walk.

Meanwhile, The Thing’s infected friends, a tribe consisting of Thundra, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike and Northstar, among others, have joined up with the infected Hulk to engage in a final showdown with the superheroes and scientists. Northstar is (mis?)colored green, shown standing around with the rest of the infected. The green shade is either an effect of the infection or just a murky coloring job in a book filled with appropriately murky art.

It's not easy being green.

The two sides meet up at the Goethals bridge, and Northstar can be seen again standing behind the Hulk in a few panels. As the science caravan rolls into New Jersey, several heroes protecting the caravan stay behind to give them enough time to escape.

The Human torch firebombs the bridge, killing quite a few of the infected standing behind the Hulk, possibly killing Northstar. The survivors of that attack fight a massive battle in a raging inferno, then abruptly, the scene shifts to just the Hulk and Wolverine in a classic on-on-one. The Human Torch massively firebombs the Goethals bridge again, destroying it, and if Northstar weren’t killed in the first firebomb, or by the Punisher, or by anyone else, the second firebomb surely done him in. Note that Northstar isn’t seen in issue #4 and was not in the Marvel Universe vs. Punisher series for which this series serves as prequel, so it’s very likely he was killed, and even though the poor guy was a green-skinned infected cannibal predator anyway, Alpha Flight fans really don’t need another Northstar death to add to our collection.