Oy vey! Chinese food for Christmas?

Marvel Holiday Special 2011 #1
Feb 2012

It’s pretty much a sure thing at this point that Marvel intends to skip any sort of 2012 Holiday issue, so what better way to wrap up the season than by looking back on last season’s issue? Originally published as a series of free Digital Comics in late November and early December 2011, Marvel Holiday Special 2011 #1 came out in print on December 14, 2011. For those of you who keep track of these sorts of things, that was before both Chanukah (which started the night of the 20th in 2011) and Christmas (which falls on the 25th every year). Sasquatch appears on the last page of the fourth story of four in a single panel cameo.

While the other three stories are your usual Christmas stories, this one, titled, “Chinese Food for Christmas” is a quasi-Chanukah story featuring arguably the most famous Marvel Jewish character, Ben Grimm as The Thing. The reason it’s “quasi-Chanukah” is that the entire basis of the story is the unofficial tradition that Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas, making this a Christmas story, not a Chanukah story. The Thing, along with Kitty Pryde, Moon Knight, Songbird, Wiccan and Sasquatch (all of whom are Jewish) gather for a banquet at a Chinese restaurant and invite some kids along to celebrate.

Wait, Sasquatch is Jewish? What? Yes, Walter Langkowski’s religion was never addressed in any of the Alpha Flight issues, and John Byrne probably never intended for him to be Jewish, but sure enough, Jim Starlin popped this little gem on us, seemingly out of nowhere:

Panel from Infinity Crusade #1 (Jun 1993)

When various heroes around the world visualize their religious icons, Sasquatch is shown witnessing the Star of David, and just like that, he’s Jewish. Langkowski isn’t a Jewish surname but must have sounded plausibly Jewish to Starlin when he needed an international character to be Jewish. Why he didn’t pick Sabra is beyond me, and Alpha Flight Collector has always been just as confuzzled as anyone else about that Star of David panel, but it doesn’t contradict anything else and Sasquatch wouldn’t have made it into this issue otherwise, so no complaint.

The only part of the story that is related to Chanukah at all is an image of Wiccan lighting the candles in the lower right corner of the last page, but it’s completely wrong. After you get past the whole concept of someone named “Wiccan” lighting them, note that Jews don’t light Chanukah candles after the holiday is over (earlier in the story, one of the children notes that Chanukah had ended, placing the actual story in 2010 because in 2011 the eight-day holiday ended “late” on the 28th and in 2009, The Thing wouldn’t be wearing his FF costume). Additionally, only new candles are used, not the half-melted ones shown, as they are supposed to be burned down to completion each night. Also, the central candle should be higher than the others, not even in height. Wiccan should be using that central candle to light the others, not his powers. Finally, there should be a gathering around while prayers are uttered, as lighting the candles is a religious event, not a decorative action. I’ll go ahead and guess writer Jamie Rich (who is Jewish) wasn’t so explicit in his script on these details, and that both penciller Paco Diaz and editor Daniel Ketchum (neither of whom are Jewish) did the best they could, but in the days when Marvel Comics was Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, this shanda would never have happened.

Note: the part about Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas is completely accurate.

Note: the Digital Comics version’s cover was based on an interior panel and not used as a section separator in the print version:

Marvel Holiday Special 2011 #1 – Digital Comic cover for the fourth story

All that glitters isn’t Auric

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z TPB #2
2012

Note: no month of publication is indicated, with the exception of manufacturing date range of 10/27/11 to 11/15/11. The issue was released on 11/30/11. Other issues released on that date carry a publication date of Jan 2012.

The second 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. In the entries, Alt. Sasquatch appears in Blink’s entry and Sasquatch appears in the Contest of Champions entry. In the updates, Hodiak appears in the Council of Godheads update and both Auric and Silver appear in the China Force update.

The Alt. Sasquatch appearance, as it was in the HC version from 2008, is only her hand in a cropped illustration taken from the cover of Exiles #55 (Feb 2005).

The entry for Contest of Champions is identical to the HC version, with the exception of the coloring of the illustration, where Sasquatch appears. It has been nicely updated to remove 1980s-era dithering and replaced with a flatter modern style, while still retaining the simplicity of the original.

The China Force entry is unchanged, but in the update section, new headshots of previously mentioned trainees Auric and Silver are shown. Back when Auric was a trainee in China Force, he was known as “Gold”, and he’s properly identified as such. As I mentioned already in a previous post, Auric still has never had an entry, but at least the writers went out of their way to show the proper name in the proper entry, a detail not unnoticed by Auric fans.

They are the same images from the extensive Alpha Flight team update from issue #1 of the TPB series. However, the best headshots to have used would have been those taken directly from the only issue where they appeared as trainees in China Force, which was the Rick Mason: The Agent Graphic Novel. Had the writers done that, the headshots would have looked like this instead:

Likely because the original images were in black and white, they weren’t used.

Also in the update section, which is only 16 pages long, the Council of Godheads have about a full page worth of update including two large illustrations and a new grid of headshots of gods not already identified in the entry. Hodiak appears in one of the illustrations, which was taken from Greg Pak and Fred van Lente’s Incredible Hercules #116 (Jun 2008) with art by Rafa Sandoval; an image repeated in the preview page of Incredible Hercules #117 (Jul 2008). This is the first positive identification of Hodiak among the ghosty gaggle of Native American-looking gods in those issues.

Hodiak among the Council of Godheads (Image from Incredible Hercules #116)

In the new grid of headshots, an image taken from the Encyclopedia Mythologica #1 (Sep 2009) entry for the Inua identifies Hodiak, with his correct 1st appearance noted below as Alpha Flight #7, not Thor #300 as some websites maintain. That image is by Kevin Sharpe, one of many new illustrations for that issue, but sadly, the characters were not clearly identified at the time. The image was later tagged nicely over at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe site, but this is the first time Hodiak was officially identified in that image in print.

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…

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.

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!

Alphans in Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear #1

Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear #1
Oct 2011

Part of the Official Handbook series, this book contains both a “Saga” portion and regular handbook entries that blend together to tell the backstory of the massive Fear Itself storyline. The first portion of the book, roughly akin to a “Fear Itself Saga”, is narrated by the Fear Lord D’Spayre and tells the story of recent events in the Marvel Universe. No, you won’t find the harmless 1980s-era funtime battle-o-rama like the Contest of Champions, or Spidey getting his new costume in Secret Wars, nah – this is all about widespread damage, high body counts and all-around devastation. The second portion consists of handbook-style entries for various dreadful characters and terrifying events in the Marvel Universe. Murmur and Radius appear in the Saga portion of the book and several members of Alpha Flight (Vindicator, Shaman, Snowbird, Sasquatch and Marrina) appear in one of the entries. Additionally, the Dreamqueen has a one page entry.

Wait – the Dreamqueen wasn’t in Fear Itself! Well, some of the events mentioned in the Saga portion and many of the entries in the handbook portion are not directly related to the Fear Itself storyline, but they do fit with the theme “all things frightening!” quite nicely, so it’s all good. For those of you who keep track of these sorts of things, she had an entry in the OHOTMU ’89 update (issue #2) and one in the OHOTMU Master Edition in 1993 (issue #28), but this one is completely re-written in the modern style – it even refers to Laura Dean as Pathway!

In the Saga portion of the book, D’Spayre gleefully recounts events in the Marvel Universe from the perspective of how frightening it must have been for the characters. For instance, The House of M storyline, which wasn’t exactly in the horror category and likely didn’t frighten any readers (who were too busy trying to figure out who was left powered and depowered in its aftermath), is described chillingly:

Millions upon millions of beings were left powerless, their very identities torn to shreds, terrified to be left vulnerable and weak in a threatening world.

Creepy, and well-done. The accompanying image for this text is taken from the array of depowered mutants as depicted in a two-page splash from New Avengers #18. The actual image shown is the modified version from the House of M entry in the Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1 handbook, as can be seen by the slightly rotated image [to better fit the grid into the small horizontal space]. The four Alphans shown in that array are Murmur, Radius, Wild Child and Windshear, but in this cropped image, only Murmur and the very top of Radius’ hair can be seen.

The Alphans have been highlighted in red below. Look for Radius’ hair in the extreme lower right corner of the image. For a larger version of the original and for more info on that panel and its importance to Alpha Flight, please click on the link above to the post for Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1.

In a new two-page entry for the Chaos War event, one of the inset illustrations is a miniaturized version of a splash page taken from the Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1 one-shot showing five members of Alpha Flight watching the battle with the Great Beasts just as Walter revealed the corrupt bargain he had made with them. There is also a very well-written account of the events of that issue as well as some other mentions of the Alpha Flight resurrections in Chaos War #5 and the team’s current status.

Just in case you wanted to see Heather’s butt, here is an inset from the original page showing each of the characters in greater detail:

Oh and since this a is a blog about collecting comics, I’d like to take this opportunity to mention where I picked up my copy of this issue: Coliseum of Comics in Kissimmee, FL, while on vacation with my trusty sidekick.

It’s one of the best (and largest) comic shops I’ve been in with a great staff, a great selection and best of all, free parking! So if you’re ever in the Orlando/Disney area, make sure to stop by and check it out!

Canada wins a gold medal in Fear Itself Spotlight #1

Fear Itself Spotlight #1
Jun 2011

This spotlight issue was published a few weeks after the Fear Itself story arc had already begun, but still served as an excellent preview for the upcoming event. Filling 32pg with preview art, interviews and other features that set an historical context for the readers, it contained all except an actual checklist of the massive company-wide crossover. In a section called, “The Main Event”, Spotlight Bullpen writer Jess Harrold recaps many other company-wide crossovers from Marvel history, which ought to remind readers of the content in Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1, but shrunk down to 6 pages and mashed up with full-on advertisements for recently published HC collections and other TPB’s.

One of the HC collections shamelessly hawked is the Marvel Premiere Classic #45 “Avengers: The Contest” book which collected the Contest of Champions series from 1982. The dustjacket shown features art taken from the cover of the first issue of that series, colored using modern techniques. Sasquatch, who played a significant role in this series, can be seen near the center.

The accompanying text correctly notes that the series was once supposed to be based on the 1980 Olympics, but the comments goes awry shortly after that. It states:

With cosmic string-pullers Death and Grandmaster handing out the medals, the all-powerful American team engages in spirited competition with some plucky new foreign super-types – including China’s Collective Man; France’s Peregrine; and Ireland’s lucky lassie, Shamrock.

Wait, the Grandmaster and Death didn’t hand out any medals! Also, there wasn’t an American team battling it out with an International team; the two teams of twelve heroes each were evenly distributed. For those of you who keep track of these sorts of things, there were eight heroes from the United States selected for the two teams (Angel, Captain America, Daredevil, Invisible Woman, Iron Fist, Iron Man, She-Hulk, and The Thing) and they were divided equally between the two teams.

It’s rather bizarre to describe the Contest of Champions this way, as all vestiges of the Olympics were removed by the time the issue went to print. It’s hard to believe that Jess Harrold or the editor(s) of this section had even read the Contest of Champions series in the first place, because anyone who had actually read it would never have made these errors. Still, it’s always good to see Sasquatch representing Alpha Flight from that moment early in the team’s history and I’m glad that a little three-issue series from almost thirty years ago is considered on par as an “event” with the insatiable mega beast horde of 120+ issues that is Fear Itself.

Captain Underpants joins Alpha Flight in Chaos War #5

Chaos War #5
Mar 2011

The Chaos War story line comes to its conclusion in this final issue of the five-issue mini-series. The plot lines leading up to this issue ought to be familiar to Alpha Flight fans who saw four dead members resurrected in the Chaos War: Alpha Flight one-shot, and reunited with four living members. After a brief cameo in issue #4 of this series, Alpha Flight appears more extensively, and with an important and serious outcome for the team. Guardian (Mac), Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Marrina, Northstar and Aurora appear in this book, having teamed up in the one-shot. Although Heather was also resurrected in that issue, she doesn’t appear in this one.

The opening page of issue #4, which showed various images of events spun out of the various mini-series, one-shots and other books of Chaos War, is mirrored with the opening page of this issue to show how they all converge together, literally and figuratively. The various characters (Thor, Hulks, Dead Avengers and Alpha Flight) are neatly brought together through some complicated space/time thingy, as explained by Sasquatch, who correctly places Alpha Flight’s former whereabouts, as mentioned in the one-shot, as Alberta. It was a nice touch for writers Greg Pak and Fred van Lente to have Walter explain this in character as a brilliant scientist instead of having Amadeus Cho give us the technobabble again.

During the battle sequence with the Chaos King baddies, only Sasquatch and Guardian are shown, and only in three panels, which is a bit disappointing since Alpha Flight at the time of this battle consisted of eight members. Perhaps it was just too much to fit into the limited space of the panels with all the busy action of the battle and overwhelming number of characters in this issue, on top of having to actually wrap up the entire story line.

For those of you who keep score, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the series penciler Koi Pham draw Sasquatch, but he does so in a markedly improved style over two previous versions in Mighty Avengers #21 and #23.

After the Chaos King is defeated, there’s an expository scene of “What just happened?”. Mac does the asking in two panels, but claims to be an actual “Rocket Scientist”, which frames him in an agreeably complimentary light as a genius, but isn’t technically right, as his background is more in petrochemicals and cybernetics than aerospace. However, since he has been in outer space at least once (OK, I won’t mention the Plodex thing from v3!), and it was an attempt to make the guy look good, I’ll give the writers a pass on this one.

It should be noted that up until this issue was published, it wasn’t known for sure whether or not the resurrections in the one-shot would be permanent or if the dead Alphans would wink out. This was explicitly stated as a known risk by the characters in the one-shot, and in a few interviews, neither Jim McCann nor any other writer confirmed there would be any more Alpha Flight beyond this issue. But, after Hercules re-sets the entire world back to how it was before, the resurrected members of Alpha Flight remain!

click here to show very big version of above panel

The resurrected members are confirmed as permanently resurrected in a quiet scene of post-hubbub solemnity on a beach at the base of the new Mount Olympus. There hasn’t been such an important turn of events in Alpha Flight history in a long time, and to add serious emphasis to the magnitude of the moment, none other than the very, very top Marvel A-List characters help out: Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America each take part. I get the sense that this formality was extended particularly as a nod to Alpha Flight fans to make up for the paltry and unceremonious way the unfortunate events of New Avengers #16 played out. The respectful gravitas of the scene isn’t lost on us, especially since other permanently resurrected characters from other parts of the Chaos War story line go unmentioned.

Unfortunately, this moment is imperfect – besides for not being a splash page featuring Alpha Flight in full, the panel has some outright mistakes. The issue still stands in the official category of “understated awesome”, but it’s fun to pick nits out of comics. First, there is a minor error in the speech bubbles. The dialogue from the previous panel reads:

Spidey: Hey, the big guy comes through. I always knew he would.
Iron Man: In more ways than one.
Captain America: How’s that?

The next line is uttered as Alpha Flight is shown on the beach: “Look who’s not dead anymore.” This ought to be uttered by Iron Man (or Spidey), but instead, the speech bubble comes from Cap, which makes no sense, as he wouldn’t be answering his own question.

Second, where’s Heather? Likely nearby, safe and sound, as Mac’s demeanor isn’t consistent with a fellow who has just lost his wife to a snarly chaos demon, but why the team would be shown this way with a pretty damn important member missing is not clear.

Third, the strange coloring in that panel, possibly caused by an odd spectrum from the sun at the horizon. Snowbird, a brunette now, is shown wearing a green cape, Marrina is wearing a red swimsuit, Iron Man (shown between Spidey and who I believe is Luke Cage) is completely miscolored, and Shaman… Shaman is shown wearing… I don’t know what… someone’s underwear? …outside of his costume? He should be drawn with just a belt!

The beach panel is the only appearance of Captain Underpants, Snowbird, Marrina and Northstar in the book. Aurora appears also, and again on the last page, seen from behind standing next to Mac as they face Mount Olympus.

Note: the cover to this issue was originally intended as the cover to the first issue of the series. Thanks to alphaflight.net member -K-M- who points out an alternate, unpublished version of the cover:

click to enlarge

What If… Alpha Flight were imperceptibly tiny?

What If? #200
Feb 2011

Note: this issue has a wraparound cover. The back is shown below and the cover in its entirety can be seen here.

I’ll speculate that somewhere last year, one of the guys over at Marvel figured out that they had published about 199 or so issues of the “What If…” series over the years and that it deserved a celebratory #200 issue.

Great idea!

After a run starting in 1977 which lasting through 1988, the series relaunched in 1989. That series ran through 1998, and lay dormant until it was relaunched in 2005 with a series of irregularly published one-shots at the rate of five or six per year that neither picked up the previous numbering nor had their own sequence, so the notion of a 200th issue really took some careful indexing and collecting. I’m obviously impressed by the effort of my speculative fellow indexer and collector. Alpha Flight appears on the covers of two What If…? issues, both of which are reprinted.

This giant issue includes a main story, “What if… Norman Osborn won the Siege of Asgard?”, a backup Watcher/Galactus story by none other than Stan “The Man” Lee, an interview with former Marvel EIC Roy Thomas, and a two-page spread featuring the question, “What was your favorite What If?” as answered by various Marvel writers, artists, editors and executives. In the response given by Tom DeFalco, who picked the one I would have picked, a thumbnail of the cover of issue #34 is reproduced, with a very very tiny image of Mac on the cover. In truth, one can barely even see it but Alpha Flight Collector knows it’s there.

A larger version of the cover:

Mac holding a beer and wearing a ski cap:

Following a full reprint of What If… #35, a Daredevil story, two double page spreads index all 200 What If… issues, including a numbering scheme for the 2005 series, the titular question for each issue, along with two giant 10×10 arrays of cover thumbnails. In the array, Alpha Flight appears on the cover of #34, as mentioned above, as well as on the cover of #59 from the second series. That issue is officially titled, “What if… Wolverine had remained a captive of Alpha Flight?”, though the tagline on the cover asks, “What if… Wolverine led Alpha Flight?” On that cover, the original six Alphans appear on the left and right side of Wolverine. Again, the cover shown is very tiny but one can make out the characters. Unfortunately a white border obscures part of Shaman.

A larger version of the cover:

Both left and right sides show the full team:

....

The back cover of issue #200: