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.

A Mighty Thor followeth a tiny Puck

Back Issue #53
Dec 2011

Published by TwoMorrows Publishing eight times per year, Back Issue “celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments.” That unassuming description from the TwoMorrows website hardly comes close to the level of awesome of this magazine. Recently changed at issue #52 to 84 pages of full color in a nice square-bound format, Back Issue is filled with lengthy articles about comic book characters, creators and events, not to mention tons of original art, unpublished pencil sketches and the occasional commission piece. In this issue, we have one of the tiniest Alpha Flight appearances ever. Puck appears on a reprinted cover of Thor #373 (Nov 1986).

The entire issue isn’t about Thor, but he dominates most of the page count. Sharp-eyed readers already recognize the cover artist as Walt Simonson – an original Thor image so awesome that Back Issue moved its title block to the lower left corner so as not to detract from it in any way! An insanely long twenty-page (!!) article by Westfield Comics’ Roger Ash, “Flashback: The Tapestry of Walter Simonson’s Thor”, about Simonson’s legendary run on Thor (which spanned from issue #337 to #382) covers almost every major and minor plot point from each issue, along with dozens of cover thumbnails, interior panels and original sketches. Included is the cover to Thor #373, which was one of twenty-nine Marvel 25th Anniversary covers released in November, 1986 with a border drawn by John Romita, Sr.

Alpha Flight fans already have at least one of those 29 issues, as Alpha Flight #40 was part of that set, and if you squint down very close and look in the very lower left corner just beneath the UPC box, you’ll see Puck’s eyes just poking out. Unfortunately, due to poor quality control, many covers printed from that massive print run are offset slightly in the vertical and one can barely see Puck at all on many copies, but some are printed and cut more proper to show him better. This highly magnified image shows what one would see if the bottom edge the cover were shown all the way to the bleed, brought back to glory from 1986 by the wonder of Marvel’s digital comics app:

One can see from the large image above that either the issue used for that reprint had a shifted cover or the image was cropped to remove a ragged bottom edge. One can see from the size of the text to its left that the cover is just a thumbnail to begin with. In actuality the height of the reprinted cover is only two and a half inches (that’s 6.35cm for you metric folks), so Puck’s little corner is barely visible at all. This is just about the tiniest Alpha Flight appearance ever. But, there’s no such thing as an Alpha Flight appearance too tiny to collect, as far as I’m concerned.

Note: The reprinted cover above is the DM (Direct Market) cover with Thor’s hammer Mjölnir occupying the box where you’d normally find the UPC bar code on the Newsstand cover.

Note: My apologies to Dante for the title of the post. I couldn’t resist.

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…

You want the long or the short answer?

FUNday is back on Alpha Flight Collector (for this week) and if you think that wolves wearing spiked collars gnawing off children’s limbs for sport is fun, then you’re in the right place! Wait, what? Yes, that’s the main story of this week’s issue. Fortunately, it has nothing to do with a cameo appearance by Puck, but is sure is a hoot!

Wolverine #16
Nov 2011

Since Wolverine got back from Hell in issue #5 of his solo series, he hadn’t had such a good time of it all. Previous to this issue, he was tricked into murdering his own children, driving him to spend most of issue #15 repeatedly jumping off a very high cliff to smash his own brains to bits on the rocks below. Then he called his girlfriend Melita Garner to tell her that he’s not coming back and to tell everyone not to come look for him.

Oh, the drama, Logan!

OK, so what would you do if you were Wolverine’s girlfriend and he called you from a payphone and told you he weren’t coming back and not to come look? Would you:

• A) Call the FBI and CSIS and file a missing mutant report
• B) Contact Alpha Flight, the X-Men and the Avengers and convince them to go after him
• C) Ask one of the telepaths on Utopia to use Cerebra to locate Logan’s unique mutant signature and then ask Cyclops to send the Blackbird to rendezvous at those coordinates
• D) Get out your iPhone and record a youtube compilation video of a couple of dozen superheroes sitting in front of drab grey backdrop answering the question, “Who is Wolverine?”

If you picked D, you win! Interspersed the main story (see above re: wolves wearing spiked collars gnawing off children’s limbs for sport) are two full pages of single-panel headshots of superheroes responding to an off-panel interviewer. One of the 28 heroes interviewed is Puck, who answers, “The second toughest Canadian I know.”

Goran Sudzuka drew him barely poking up from the bottom margin of the panel, which looks even funnier when you see the entire page layout. It should remind readers of the calendars on the back of various Marvel Age issues from the 1980s when we saw the same sort of thing.

The original artwork shows the entire page and gives a good view of just how much empty space there is above Puck’s head – compare it to any of the other panels and you’ll get the joke.

Click to see big version.
Note: these images have been digitally inked and are not the original pencils.

Well, it’s a short FUNday post for this week (yeah, I know, I said this before, couldn’t resist).

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.

Puck in Wolverine, Punisher & Ghost Rider: Official Index to the Marvel Universe #2

Wolverine, Punisher & Ghost Rider: Official Index to the Marvel Universe #2
Nov 2011

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 after taking on Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men in the first series and the Avengers, Captain America, and Thor in the second. This third series coves the massive set of comics for Wolverine and Punisher, and the large but not as massive Ghost Rider series. 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). Puck appears in this issue in reprinted art from the cover of Wolverine #35 (Jan 1991).

Click to see full-size version of the solicited cover

Originally, the solicits for this issue indicated it would start right at Wolverine #35 and as the usual arrangement is for the cover art from the starting issue to be reproduced, the solicited cover included Puck! However, once the series started, the writers ended up off by a few issues and didn’t make it all the way up to #34 in issue #1. The issues covered for the Wolverine series in this issue start at issue #33, so the cover for Wolverine #33 was reproduced instead. It’s fairly typical for the OITTMU covers to differ from the solicits this way but for a while there, Alpha Flight Collector had a thrill going up his leg over it.

Note also that the solicit cover shown above oddly refers to the issue as “1982′s Wolverine #35“, a typographical error left over from the solicit to issue #1 which did index the first Wolverine series from 1982 by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont.

The actual image shown inside is a thumbnailed image, so here is an inset from the actual cover to that issue featuring Puck as he and Wolverine are sent back in time by Gateway to his first chronological appearance in 1937:

Puck is mentioned for his appearances in issues #35, #36 and #37 with notes in the issue details.

James and Heather Hudson are mentioned in the entry for Wolverine #50. They appeared in an uncaptioned snapshot inside the unusual die-cut cover of that issue. Though it was very obvious who they were, it had never been confirmed until this issue.

Here is the snapshot in question from that issue, which did not appear in the index, despite being part of the cover art.

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!

Sacks of Crap Bow to Puck in Wolverine #5

Wolverine #5
Mar 2011

The “Wolverine Goes to Hell” storyline, which has been rambling through recent issues of this title, X-23, Daken: Dark Wolverine and some one-shots, comes to its conclusion in this issue. Wolverine unsurprisingly returns from Hell, with a number of unresolved events from the past few issues that have yet to play out, notably the deaths of a few characters. Puck appears extensively in this issue, resulting in an interesting outcome.

In the previous issue, Puck took charge of an army of murdering badasses to fight a mass of demons scrambling for the Devil’s sword. This weapon, in conflict with literally thousands of years worth of ideas and beliefs regarding the conceptual nature of the Devil and his role in leading the Underworld, has been elevated by writer Jason Aaron to an extreme level: it confers leadership of Hell through its possession. For a brief time, a demon held it in issue #4, only to lose it after a rock hit him, which leads one to believe that it doesn’t actually imbue the wielder with the level of immense power you’d expect a Hell-Lord to maintain.

As Wolverine blabbers on and on with the mysterious stranger who revealed himself last issue as Thomas Logan, Wolverine’s biological father (although even Puck knew he wasn’t who he claimed to be), Puck calls out to Wolverine to join the battle. During the fray, Sabretooth gets his hands on the sword, only have it wrangled away by Wolverine, who uses it to chop him into chunks and eventually tosses it into the scrum.

Wolverine then rallies to Puck in the fight, but they quickly decide to escape Hell by literally climbing up the walls. As they climb, a green hand reaches out from a recess within the walls and grabs Puck, tossing him down into the pit.

Oh, but don’t worry. Shortly after this plunge, Puck obtains the sword, which is absurdly too big for him – at least twice his size as shown in a panel of complete awesome:

Does this mean that Eugene Judd is the new Devil? Over the course of this and the previous issue, there are a few scenes when the sword changes hands and the new owner openly claims leadership. When Wolverine acquires it, everything sort of stops as the demon hordes cry out:

We bow before you, holder of the sword… We bow before the new Lord of Hell…

So, it’s a pretty good bet that the demons acknowledge this scheme even to the point of declaring fealty en masse.

The only question is whether or not this is the true Devil. Earlier in issue #2 when Wolverine’s girlfriend Meilta Garner asks Mystique where Wolverine is, she asks:

So wait a minute. You’re telling me Logan’s in Hell? You mean like Hell Hell? Like a Devil with a pitchfork Hell?

To which Mystique answers with annoyance:

Is there some other kind of Hell I’m not aware of?

The problem is that in the Marvel Universe, there isn’t a true Devil that has ever been portrayed clearly as the commonly recognized single ruler of Hell. There have been a number of Hell-Lords in the Marvel Universe over the years that might be the true Devil, including Mephisto, Lucifer and Satan, but even those characters are generally acknowledged to be one of several. If Jason Aaron really wanted to indicate that this was the true Devil, he ought to have used one of these more established characters. The big purple horned guy introduced in this series who is referred to as “The Devil” is either an overly simplistic representation of the true Devil or just yet another Hell-Lord used for the confined purposes of this story.

So the answer is: Yes, Puck is the new Devil of the Hell as portrayed in this issue.

Besides, we all know who the one true Devil is:

Know the sweet, sublime feeling of complete obediance to your Evil Master! Come serve me, the Prince of Darkness, I command it! Hear me!

It would have been infinitely better for Puck to have escaped Hell with Wolverine and rejoin his Alpha Flight teammates, who were resurrected recently in the Chaos War: Alpha Flight one shot, but as Puck mentions to Wolverine as they climb the walls, “You still got a body to go back to at least. Mine probably ain’t looking so good right about now.” With no clear mechanism to have Puck escape Hell, Jason Aaron did a great job with this second-best alternative, writing him as a tough, scrappy character, loyal to his friend and ultimately left as a victor.

Puck: Puck goes to Hell again!

Wolverine: Wolverine Goes to Hell #1
Mar 2011

In an attempt to get readers into the new Wolverine series, this 72 page comic reprints the first three issues of the fourth Wolverine series that started up in late 2010. Puck appeared in the second and third issues.

Fans who waited were able to save a bit of money, as the $4.99 cover price offered a deep discount, working out to $1.66 an issue – a pretty good deal for fans who may have shied away from picking up yet another Wolverine ongoing series at the full price of $3.99 each. That’s a $7 savings for those of you who were reading Alpha Flight comics instead of paying attention in math class.

The Marvel logo on the cover is followed by “Must Have” in fairly small text, which loosely affiliates this issue with an unorganized set of other “Marvel Must Have” issues mostly from 2001-2003. Those were similar three-issue reprints published for the same reason: to snag new readers into a new series or story arc.

The cover uses the same artwork as the regular #1 cover, and inside, also includes cover art without title blocks for issues #1, 2 and 3, as well as one of the 7 variant covers for #1, but otherwise is a straight up re-printing of the issues, with the backup stories also included.