Northstar uncut in Fear Itself Poster Book #1

This magazine-sized book contains extra large versions of various covers to Fear Itself and related issues, with the titles and business elements removed. The posters are nestled inside of each other so you’d have to remove the central staples to get to them, and you get a folded-in-half poster as a result. Unfortunately, they are double-sided, so you have to buy two copies if you want to hang all of them on your wall. Northstar appears on the cover of Uncanny X-Men #541.

The strange part about this particular poster book is that many of the posters are taken from cover art that was largely obscured or otherwise truncated by the very large Fear Itself trade dress that occupied so much of the cover real estate. The result is that many of the covers are letterboxed – printed with black borders on the top and bottom. Also, many of those are even further cropped on their left and right sides to help with the aspect ratio as well. There is an unusual amount of landscape orientation pieces as well, as many of the covers had an additional Fear Itself border beneath (see the cover shown above for an example), and many others had a giant stripe going across which resulted in two landscape oriented pieces, and those are similarly letterboxed.

The huge Fear Itself trade dress has a particular importance for Alpha Flight fans because it was slathered all over the first four issues of volume 4. Of course, without the crossover, likely the fourth series wouldn’t even exist, so no complaints! Luckily, for the first four issues of the series, we also got full page variant covers that were free of the giant ugly block taking up nearly half the page.

In the poster where Northstar appears, both the black letterboxing and truncation had to be used to get the poster to fit onto the page. Fortunately, Northstar, who was near the bottom right corner on the original cover, wasn’t truncated. Just to show how much of the image was removed, here are the Poster Book (sans UPC bar-code) and original versions for comparison, with the truncated portions shown in dark red.

For the truly insane: the Poster Book version also reveals that there was a small area of art that extends further down than the original to the extent shown also shaded in dark red on the original.

The original pencil tracing by Greg Land shown below (in high contrast) gives the overall picture of how much the top portion of the page ended up covered by the Fear Itself logo. It’s practically half a page!

Here is an inset from the original pencils so you can see Northstar fully to the left, right, up and down without anything being snipped off the guy.

Northstar cameo in Fear Itself: The Worthy #1

Fear Itself: The Worthy #1
Sep 2011

Originally published as a series of free, four-page digital features back in March 2011 just as Marvel started to reveal the Fear Itself storyline, this one-shot tells the “Secret Origins of the Hammer-Wielders”, eight heroes and villains who form “The Worthy”. Each of the eight chapters is rendered by a different artist, so if you’re a fan who likes to read these anthology type books with wildly varying styles, it’s really quite a fun book. Northstar appears in one panel in a generic flashback to his early membership in the X-Men.

The success of this book is that the origin stories, which we’re all familiar with, are told from a softened, introspective point of view. The characters reveal their inner fears, doubts and anxieties about their powers and what they’ve done with them and it’s really far more sophisticated from what you’d expect from a normal four page origin story. I’m glad the theme of Fear Itself is so ready in the writing and I congratulate this group for pulling it off!

Northstar appears in the Juggernaut’s chapter (for those of you who keep track of these sorts of things, it was the 2nd chapter when released digitally on 3/4/11), written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Declan Shalvey. It’s not clear if he or the colorist Matthew Wilson decided to use a smattering of the halftone coloring method to indicate the flashback effect, but it works and looks great. He appears in a single panel showing the general membership of the X-Men around Chuck Austen’s run on Uncanny X-Men in 2002-2004.

Northstar had joined up with the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #414 and would go on to appear as a regular member during Austen’s run in 15 issues on that title, right around the time Juggernaut was there too, during several arcs: Dominant Species, Rules of Engagement, Sacred Vows, and The Draco, among others.

This closeup shows Northstar wearing his red goggles, which were part of his costume back then. It’s a nice touch to have him and the other X-Men drawn in the proper costumes from that era, so good job on the costume check!

Northstar and Aurora do… uh, something… in X-Men: Schism #2

X-Men: Schism #2
Sep 2011

Just as the massive Fear Itself crossover was ending, Cyclops and Wolverine finally decided they’ve had just about enough of each other’s shit, and it all comes to a head in the five-issue X-Men: Schism series. This mini-series resulted in the splitting of the X-Men into two teams with one team staying in San Francisco and the other going back to Westchester, NY. It also brought about the end (and subsequent restart) of Uncanny X-Men – one of the longest running titles in comic book history, and began yet another Wolverine title, so as far as X-events go, this had a fairly substantial aftermath. Northstar and Aurora appear as regular members of the X-Men in one panel, and on two variant covers.

Wait, what? Aurora? For those of you scratching your heads, remember that Aurora joined the X-Men in X-Men: Secret Invasion #2 (2008), as revealed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Hardcover #13. When Northstar was asked to re-join the active roster by Wolverine in Uncanny X-Men #508, Aurora was already a member, though no mention was made of it at the time. Subsequent appearances of Aurora in Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3 and as COO of Team Northstar Extreme Snowsports in Nation X #2 made no mention of her X-Men membership either. Even when Alpha Flight was rebuilding in Chaos War and during the overlapping storyline of Fear Itself in Alpha Flight v4, she was still on the X-roster, so this little appearance is the result of a fairly well-researched job on the part of series writer Jason Aaron.

As part of a wave of anti-mutant sentiment, the world’s nations re-activate their Sentinels, only to find many of them malfunctioning. The X-Men send tactical squads across the world to deal with the threat, as coordinated on Utopia by Cyclops, Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos. One of the Cuckoos telepathically calls out to the twins:

Northstar and Aurora, your targets have just sunk a fishing boat in the Red Sea. Coordinates are as follows…

For those of you who were reading Alpha Flight comics instead of paying attention in Geography class, the Red Sea is nowhere near Utopia – it is in fact halfway around the world off the coast of Africa, so it makes sense to dispatch two of the fastest mutants there. Unfortunately, what they do when they get there isn’t exactly clear…

When Frank Cho isn’t drawing cleavage, he just doesn’t know what to do, I suppose. If only the front of Aurora’s costume had a zipper going down the front so he could draw some gigantic massive boobs, we would have seen an actual battle scene. Unfortunately, there’s no zipper, so all we get is Northstar’s feet and Aurora’s butt along with some blurry lines and pretty sparklies.

This speedster battlefail should remind readers of Greg Land’s silly dance scene between Northstar and Spiral in Uncanny X-Men #511. Like that battle, the reader is left to assume victory despite the inability of the artist to portray it.

Note: Aurora does have some sort of lightning blast powers, and so does Northstar, as explained in a caption in Alpha Flight #119 when Aurora blasted the Wrecker with lightning:

That’s the other side to the twins. A side Northstar seems to bury. They generate light energy, wielding it as blinding or concussive force. It’s Aurora’s forte.

Note: this issue was published interstitial to Alpha Flight v4 issues #2 and #3, but likely takes place after the series end or briefly during the series with no concerns to continuity given the twins’ ability to instantly respond and return.

Note: this issue has a variant cover by Frank Cho, which is part of a larger 5-part poster featuring nearly every X-Man and tons of cleavage. Northstar and Aurora are depicted in the seam between the second and third parts, so all we get is Northstar’s right arm, part of his head (pointy ear included!) and Aurora’s right forearm on this cover. There is also a Second printing variant featuring interior art by Frank Cho, a Third printing sketch variant and an X printing variant, which is a sketch variant of the first variant, also featuring Northstar’s right arm, part of his head and Aurora’s right forearm.

	X-Men: Schism #2 – Frank Cho Variant
	X-Men: Schism #2 – Second Printing Variant
	X-Men: Schism #2 – Third Printing Variant
	X-Men: Schism #2 – X Printing Variant

Northstar on the cover of Uncanny X-Men #541

Uncanny X-Men #541
Sep 2011

Four hundred and thirty-two issues ago, Weapon Alpha graced the cover of X-Men #109 (yes, this was even before it was Uncanny), marking the beginning of the greatest super-hero team the world has ever known. From that Cockrum cover to this Land cover thirty-three years later, Alpha Flight has been intimately associated with one title more than any other – the flagship title in the X-books: Uncanny X-Men. Even the very top of Alpha Flight #1 defines this relationship from the very beginning: “Exploding from the pages of the X-Men!” Why is this such a reflective moment? This marks the last appearance of Northstar or anyone else from Alpha Flight in the Uncanny X-Men title, as the run ended a few issues later with #544. Northstar appears on the cover of this issue as a regular member of the X-Men, having joined up in issue #508.

Although he doesn’t appear inside, he does get a quick reverse angle on the cover as he flies in to battle the possessed Juggernaut (Kuurth). It’s no surprise that he doesn’t show up inside the book, as it really makes no sense to have a super-fast flier go up against a super-slow bad guy. In fact, Northstar doesn’t appear at all in the entire story arc, and Alpha Flight Collector doesn’t fault Kieron Gillen one bit for completely detaching Northstar, as his power set is simply incompatible with the X-Men’s goal of stopping Kuurth.

Here is an inset from the cover which shows this concept – what’s Northstar going to do, collide head-on with an unstoppable enemy? The answer can be found in the extreme lower left of the image.

Likely, Greg Land just wanted to put Dazzler’s butt on the cover and felt compelled to have Northstar as nearby as possible.

Northstar in flashback in “Flashback” in X-Men Legacy #250

X-Men Legacy #250
August 2011

Though not billed on the cover as an Age of X aftermath issue, this Giant Size milestone issue of X-Men Legacy (wow – has it really been 20 years and 250 issues since a comic book sold 8.1 million* copies?) contains a ten page Age of X epilogue story about the mysterious Revenant character. Likely because it has the most unimaginative title a story could have, “Flashback” is only titled in the intro page, where readers are warned of the abrupt change in artist as Steve Kurth, Age of X artist, takes over midway in the book from Koi Pham. Northstar appears as a regular member of the X-Men in flashback, and there is a possible appearance of Box’s foot.

Right before Revenant’s ghosty naked form finally leaves, a recap of various Age of X events dizzyingly radiates in reverse order from top left to bottom right across a two page spread, with the very first panel showing an image of Northstar crouching down just after reality is returned to normal. This image is a faithful reproduction of the same scene Steve Kurth drew in New Mutants #24, the last numbered issue of the crossover.

In a jagged corner of one panel on the same two page spread, a foot which may belong to Box appears. Unfortunately not enough is shown for an exact confirmation but Box was present in the depicted scene, so it is possible.

* – in 1991, the first issue of this title, the adjectiveless X-Men #1 sold a very large number of issues. It’s generally agreed that it is at least a 7-figure number. Some place it as high as 8.1 million, but I hereby disavow any actual knowledge of what the actual number might be. Since 8.1 million is the highest number I found on the Internet, I’m using it to make my point and for the fun purpose of intentionally spreading unverifiable information, so please no flames. If you know the exact number, please leave a comment.

Northstar and Jeffries in X-Men #12

X-Men #12
Aug 2011

This issue is part two of “First to Last”, a five-part arc that started in X-Men Giant Size #1 where a clan of the advanced mutant race Neo show up on Utopia, only to be destroyed by the Evolutionaries, powerful interventionist beings who claim to protect mutantkind. In this issue, Cyclops attempts to pull off a “behind the scenes” plan to defeat the Evolutionaries, all communicated telepathically, while the expository portion of the book plays out in regular speech. One of the telepathic messages goes out to Northstar, who appears in one panel as a regular member of the X-Men, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #508 and one goes to Mister Jeffries, who also appears in one panel, as a regular member of the X-Men Science Team, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #505.

Alpha Flight Collector has had serious problems with Chris Yost for killing off Diamond Lil in an inexplicable and unceremonious manner in X-Force #23, so his writing is particularly subject to extra scrutiny. He does Northstar’s bit just fine, placing him alongside Namor subsequent to the mighty stone giant Pillar’s disintegration last issue, and sounding as perfectly arrogant as he can make him with his one line when he mocks the order to stay still.

In the next panel, Jeffries receives a telepathic message from Cyclops to build a machine that does… something… , and immediately has an intense reaction, calling out for Dr. Nemesis, who in turn, races just as intensely to the lab to assist.

This is exactly how Madison Jeffries’ powers are supposed to work – he was supposed to be the guy who can build any machine with his mind, but not necessarily ready with the engineering knowledge how to design them. Both John Byrne and Bill Mantlo paired him up with Roger Bochs, the brilliant design engineer, and this is the general sense fans had of how Madison Jeffries’ powers were supposed to work.

Roger Bochs concentrates, Mr. Jeffries touches his forehead… …and machinery mentally designed by the one is transformed out of metal by the other.

This type of “design download” directly into his mind had been done in Alpha Flight #36 when Roger Bochs uploaded the design for a sonogram machine directly into Jeffries’ mind when Shaman (as Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen) required one to analyze Snowbird’s unusual pregnancy. Chris Yost got this nuance of Jeffries’ powers exactly right, so good job on that. Also, good job on the tease. I closed the cover, DYING to know what Jeffries’ next contraption would be, and thrilled that he might play a pivotal role in defeating the extremely powerful Evolutionaries, when the other X-Men were told to stay still.

Note: this issue has a variant cover by interior artist Paco Medina taken from a much larger promotional poster for the “First to Last” story arc.

X-Men #12 – Medina variant

Alphans appear in X-Men Spotlight

X-Men Spotlight
July 2011

Note: This issue is unnumbered. The Marvel Spotlight series, a promotional series featuring artists and events since 2005, has not been numbered, but unofficial numbering by fans was possible as issues were released. Since this issue does not even retain the title “Marvel Spotlight”, it is difficult to place it in any numbered sequence in that series.

Though the cover shares the logo with the ongoing adjectiveless X-Men title, the actual contents of this promo book are broadly divided among nine sections covering the major ongoing titles in the X-books. Mostly consisting of creator interviews, it also includes penciled previews and retrospective pieces, as well as a modest number of advertisements for collected works. Wild Child appears in one of the promotional images and Northstar appears in a full-page splash reprinted from Uncanny X-Men #531.

The promo piece with Wild Child was first released online in February of 2011 to promote Uncanny X-Force #11 and some sort of nebulous event called “Year of the X-Men”, which so far has turned out to be nothing more than a few promo images and a symbol of a big X in the Roman numeral MMXI. For those of you who were reading Alpha Flight comics instead of paying attention in math class, that’s 2011. It also appeared recently in print as an in-house ad in several comics dated June 2011. The full two page in-house ad is slightly larger than the image printed in this book, which is reduced and cropped, with the text elements of the ad removed as well. The image is of the Age of Apocalypse X-Men battling X-Force, recreating events which sort of happened in Uncanny X-Force #11.

I’m glad it was published in this book because I’m generally not going to post about Alpha Flight members appearing in advertisements and it is a nice piece by Mark Brooks. It appears on the inside front cover and spills over onto the first page, both of which serve as the table of contents for the book. Note that the image shown above is from this Spotlight book and is cropped at Kyle’s elbow and butt from the actual ad which shows him in his entirety.

Turn the page and a full-page splash featuring Northstar opens the section for Uncanny X-Men and Generation Hope, which is an interview with Kieron Gillen, the current writer for both series. The splash is from Uncanny X-Men #531, which was Kieron Gillen’s first issue as co-writer with Matt Fraction, who phased out after the Quarantine arc ended in issue #534. The panel shown above is from the original issue and is faithfully reproduced in this book.

Northstar Tiny Size in X-Men Giant Size #1

X-Men Giant Size #1
July 2011

No, not Giant-Size X-Men #1 from 1975, the one-shot that relaunched the adjectiveless X-Men title later renamed Uncanny X-Men. Flip around the title and you get this book – a one-shot out of the adjectiveless X-Men title that started up in 2010. By reversing the title, “Giant Size” no longer modifies “X-Men”, and it’s a good thing because it’s hardly giant – just a 40pg issue, not the 68 pages we used to get. Northstar appears in a few panels as a regular member of the X-Men, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #508.

Utopia, the island home of the X-Men, is invaded yet again, this time by the Neo, a group of super-evolved mutants who have also experienced depowerment and an inability to procreate as a result of the Scarlet Witch’s reality-altering in House of M. Inexplicably, they launch an all-out assault on the island and just about every inhabitant of the island comes out to its defense, including Northstar. Unfortunately, due to the enormous number of mutants on the island, this is one of those issues where nearly everyone (not Mister Jeffries, though!) appears very tiny in the background and only a few main characters are featured.

Northstar is shown in battle against Pillar (name not revealed in the book but identified subsequently in X-Men: Earth’s Mutant Heroes #1, an OHOTMU-style handbook published the following week), one of the Neo who appears to be an enormous stone giant and who is able to take down Namor, no easy feat indeed! It’s not clear exactly why Northstar was sent to battle an enormous stone giant, as his power set seems incompatible with that type of opponent. What is he going to do – use his super-fast punching power to pulverize fist-sized chunks out of the guy? It would take years! It would have made more sense for him to be paired up against some of the other Neo, but since the scene starts in the middle of the battle, the fog of war leaves us to wonder.

The book itself is split into “now” and “then” segments; the “then” segment being an extended hidden memory retcon flashback explaining the sudden appearance of yet another set of invaders: the extremely powerful Evolutionaries. Back in the “now” segment, the Evolutionaries end the battle by killing off all the Neo by ripping them apart. Northstar can be seen very tiny again in a single panel with Namor, who has apparently recovered, as Pillar is disintegrated.

Later, Northstar can be seen again rather small, standing among a very rattled group of X-Men as they realize that all Neo everywhere have been exterminated. It should be mentioned that the images shown on this post are highly magnified, as the actual size of the three Northstar’s images in the book are (in order from top to bottom) one, one and one and a half inches – hardly Giant Size at all!

Note: there are three variant covers for this issue including a blank cover, which is the first blank cover in the Alpha Flight Collection, a cover by interior artist Paco Medina taken from a much larger promotional poster for the “First to Last” story arc, and a “50 years of Fantastic Four” cover by Simone Bianchi which wraps around to a low contrast reprint of the cover to Fantastic Four #544 on the back, with art by Michael Turner.

	X-Men Giant Size #1 – blank variant
	X-Men Giant Size #1 – Medina variant
	X-Men Giant Size #1 – Fantastic Four variant obverse
	X-Men Giant Size #1 – Fantastic Four variant back cover

The black T-shirt returns after 27 years lost in the wash!

New Mutants #25
Jul 2011

The Age of X crossover ended after taking over the series for three issues, and we can now return to our normal programming. It’s not so normal though, as new writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning’s run starts with this issue. Near the end of Zeb Wells’ run, Magik caused a bit of mayhem, bringing the team to Limbo, which was great for Alpha Flight fans because we got to see Witchfire, but not so great for New Mutants fans now because Cyclops is squarely pissed at Illyana. Mister Jeffries and Northstar appear in a cameo as regular members of the X-Men, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #’s 505 and 508.

The two page spread on which they appear follows a fairly intense conversation between Cyclops and Magik where he tries to get all snarly in her face while she calmly responds to his aggressive questions in a respectful and obsequious manner. The scene ends with his announcement that she’s under permanent house arrest (right, how long is that situation going to last?), which she accepts with equanimity in a serene manner.

Meanwhile, unknown to the reader and in a goofed mismatch to her composed and passive behavior, a gaggle of sneering and heavily armed mutants is gathered behind her, weapons drawn, ready to take her down with extreme force at any second. Up until the point where the actual circumstances of the conversation are shown, the reader is made to feel as if it’s a one-on-one. At the reveal, this reader was surprised to see the overwhelming show of force standing behind Illyana, as it seemed to make more sense to have them standing behind Scott, weapons sheathed, in support of his decision and scowling in disapproval as a sort of jury pronouncing a sentence over her. It seems more like a misguided group shot that got out of hand and really makes no sense in retrospect.

Well, Northstar made it into the group, hovering above and behind, ready to do what – fly in at 99.9% of the speed of light and punch her in the head if she tries to summon a stepping disk? It’s not clear how long he had been hovering there, as the conversation went on for a bit and it seems quite silly to think he were hanging there in mid-air with his fists balled up and holding that look on his face for so long.

Jeffries also appears, just as angry, and even without the Box armor or any other tech gagetry around, the closed-fist street-thug stance looks threatening. But with all the awesome-looking guns and improvised lightning cannons and other armaments he has created using his mutant powers, you’d think they could have put some kind of weapon into his hand to display a more canonical representation of a gadget/weapons related mutant. However, there is one completely awesome element in that image… the return of Jeffries’ black T-shirt! Yes!

For Jeffries fans who have been somewhat concerned about all the flannel, plaid and general lumberjackesque appearance he’s had since joining up with the X-Men, this blast from the past is a welcome sight. We first saw the black T-shirt in Alpha Flight #16, his first full appearance, when he showed up at Roger Bochs’ door.

Panel from Alpha Flight #16 (Nov 1984)

The retro look is great and it’s so nice not to see him in plaid, which makes up for the otherwise very strange circumstances of these cameo appearances.

Note: The wraparound cover by Marko Djurdjevic is reprinted from a much larger (24×36) promo poster also released on 5/11/11. It is unusual in that recently, his poster covers (i.e. covers that were also released as posters in part or whole) have usually been expensive variants, not the regular cover at regular price. Here is the full cover:

Note: this issue has two variant covers, one by Art Adams and Peter Steigerwald, and an X-Man variant by Jorge Molina.

	New Mutants #25 – Art Adams variant
	New Mutants #25 – X-Man variant

Northstar in New Mutants #24, Age of X Chapter 6

New Mutants #24
Jun 2011

The Age of X story line comes to its conclusion in Chapter 6 as the full reveal of the nature of the alternate reality is presented, then un-done, returning us to the 616 reality. Congratulations to writer Mike Carey, artists Clay Mann and Steve Kurth and everyone else involved for a well-written and enjoyable project. Northstar appears in this issue as both the Age of X and 616 version of himself in various panels scattered throughout the book.

The assembled mutant army reacts quickly to the massive assault that started up last issue. They’ve just had their worldview completely shattered by part of the reveal from last issue but nevertheless head right into the battle. In a fairly large panel, Cannonball and his mutant army are shown heading straight out of the page toward the reader. The panel is filled rather densely with fliers and runners occupying background and foreground and let’s just say that Steve Kurth is much better at drawing flying figures than running ones. Some of the running figures are in rather contorted poses as if they were suffering from a neuromuscular disorder or in need of a bathroom break, but fortunately, Northstar is a flier in this panel, and Kurth is rather skilled at drawing powerful and graceful flying figures. He can be seen under Cannonball’s armpit in such a great pose but unfortunately very tiny. I really wish he had been drawn much bigger because even though he has no face, that position is just so awesome.

As the battle begins, a giant two-page spread features Northstar zipping along with his red contrails streaming behind him. These red streaks were never explained but do appear several times in this issue, drawn more jagged than the perfect geometrical style Clay Mann used. Northstar appears to be running in this scene, but like all of the other scenes in this battle, he’s not shown directly engaging any of the invaders. Contrast this with Namor, who destroys two gunships by smashing them into each other or Basilisk (the Age of X version of Cyclops), who routinely blasts the hell out of everything in sight.

On the other hand, at one point, Cannonball calls out to Northstar, who is still running around doing who knows what, and orders him to help out Storm and her squad, so the reader does get the idea that he is a useful combatant who can quickly turn the tide of a skirmish. Well, that’s the best Northstar respect we get in this very busy book where dozens and dozens of characters don’t even get identified by name at all, so I’ll take it.

As the battle rages on, Legion takes control over the reality and eliminates all of the bad guys by uttering a slightly mangled line from Alice in Wonderland. Shortly thereafter, he winks the Age of X reality back to normal. Northstar’s left leg can be seen behind Pixie’s wings in the “before” panel which is fuzzed out with a hazy transformation effect. On the back of the next page, the clear “after” panel shows everyone in the exact same positions in the 616 world, standing on Utopia and with a normal sky behind them. Northstar can be seen again but now unobscured, as Pixie’s 616 wings are a different shape and much smaller. It would have been much better to have had the “before” and “after” panels on facing pages, so as to produce a sort of character map, but unfortunately the Alice in Wonderland scene was also a two page spread and it didn’t work out.

Northstar appears in a few more panels, drawn with the belted version of his costume. This version does not have a starburst on his right hip. We’ve seen this costume before in a few books, in his little cameo from New Mutants #15 and in Tim Fish’s featurette in Nation X #2.