1983 - The Punisher by Kerry Gamill and Joe Rubinstein

1989 - Anatomy of a Cover - Alpha Flight #75

1985: Alpha's Beta Flight part V: Byrne 'n Body Switcheroo... Plus the Beyonder too!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fifth and final entry of Alpha's Beta Flight, John Byrne's finally on his way out the door but his send off includes the return of Omega Flight, a visit to the West Edmonton Mall and more guest stars you can shake a stick at... But Alpha will try and do just that anyway.

"As if the Beyonder wasn't bad enough..." 

Your name is John Byrne. You're a wildy succesful comic book creator forced to do a series you never particularly cared for. What do you do? In the Summer of 1985, after 28 issues of Alpha Flight, John Byrne found a way to escape to greener pastures by somehow convincing Incredible Hulk writer Bill Mantlo to trade titles. Let's review how Byrne worked towards his great escape. 

As you might recall, #25 ended with the reveal that Alpha's leader Guardian wasn't really dead after all. Sure, his explanation how he survived the seemingly fatal explosion of his battle suit was a tad farfetched to say the least... But everyone mostly seemed happy to see Mac again. So, it's no surprise #26 opened with a "business as usual" vibe as Guardian leads his team against the threat of the Macro System.

"You look like reasonable robots, I'd think the choice would be easy, eh?" 

After a few pages of Alpha busting up these Transformers/Go-bots/Shogun Warrior rip-offs it turns out the robots were actually created by the Canadian military and the Flight were invited to fight them as part of a final field test. The Macro System never appeared again after this, so it's likely they failed this test or maybe the good people at Hasbro caught wind of the project and filed for copyright infringment. 

So far so common for Alpha Flight, but things were about to take a turn for the terrible.

"Say, what's this, eh?" 

The soldier delivers a message from Heather Hudson to Guardian, informing him that she and Northstar had uncovered a situation at the West Edmonton Mall deserving of Alpha Flight's attention. However, Aurora had suffered a few cracked ribs fighting the Macros, forcing Shaman and her boyfriend Walter Langkowski (still stuck in the Box armor) to stay behind and care for her. Guardian left with Puck and Talisman and as soon as they arrived at the evacuated mall they learned that their teammates were still inside, along with the reason for Heather's distress call: Omega Flight. 

The Alphans quickly entered the enormous shopping mall to look for friend and foe. But unfortunately for them, Omega Flight had a mysterious new leader who helped his teammates beat the heroes almost singlehandedly. 

"Boss! NOW!" 

That's one down...

"I have one last very special fish to fry..." 

And another...

"Ungh!"

Can you guess who it is? The reveal is wonderfully subtle, showing Byrne's clear choice to build the suspense by slowly showing more and more of this mysterious new threat. Still, Heather Hudson had no idea who it was when she caught up with her husband. She was understandably relieved to see him... but then his voice suddenly shifted to that of Omega Flight's deceased leader Jerome Jaxon and the final, awful truth was revealed at last.

"It allows me to complete my programmed instructions:
  the destruction of Alpha Flight!"

No, Jaxon is still dead... That's actually his robot aide Delphine Courtney who was also instrumental in Guardian's death back in #12. Courtney had herself outfitted to resemble James McDonald Hudson and once and for all dispelled the notion that robots don't possess imagination by coming up with that utterly ridiculous "I was stranded 10.000 years in the past on Jupiter's moon Ganymede where a race of ancient alien ice squids rebuilt me into a cyborg..." excuse for Mac's seeming survival. 

Still, one wonders if Byrne would have reveal Delphine's trickery if he hadn't been scheduled to leave the book. After all, there's a natural arc to these kind of stories and reintroducing a long lost character only to have him turn out to be the bad guy halfway through the next issue doesn't exactly deliver the big, emotional pay off you'd be aiming for. But with only two issues left to go, Byrne was in a hurry as we'll see in the opening pages of #27.

"No way do I summon Shaman for you." 

Courtney expected Talisman's lack of cooperation, that's why he/she/it simply started to torture Elizabeth until her father's mystical senses picked up his child's distress. This would bring the remaining Alphans to Edmonton where Omega would be waiting for them. As plans go, it's actually not the worst idea in the world. Shaman was still in the team's Vancouver base where he'd just used a combination of western medicine and magic to take care of Aurora's injuries. Together, they accompanied a very excited Walter Langkowski to the lab of Roger Bochs. Turns out he'd found a suitable new body for Walter to inhabit.

"Look! There he is!" 

Gee, wonder who *that* could be, eh? Before they could explore the options of getting their hands on this new body, Shaman sensed his daughter's pain and teleported himself, Box and Aurora to her location. Unbeknownst to everyone, Snowbird had also felt Talisman's pain and started to make her way towards Edmonton. This was a big deal, since she'd actually been pretending to have left the earthly planes altogether after killing Sasquatch in #24. 

"Guardian" meets Shaman, Aurora and Box as soon as they arrived. Unaware of their leader's true nature, they initially buy his cover story about Alpha Flight having already taken care of Omega Flight. However, "Guardian" (along with human rights activists everywhere) loses his cool when Shaman casually mentions he's still carrying the miniaturized, comatose Omega Flighter Smart Alec around inside his medicine pouch. Incensed, Courtney grabs the Sarcee's medicine bag and flies off in hopes of retrieving Alec. When the bag proves to be empty, the frustrated robot turns it inside out, figuring there might be a secret pocket he missed. 

This move released the void, the universe that dwells beyond the mouth of Shaman's pouch. It needed to be contained quickly before it took over all that is. Before he could do anything, the Void claimed most of Alpha Flight even as Omega Flight made a run for it. Still, Shaman needed help and that's why he called on his barely conscious, drugged and tortured daughter.

"Talisman! Talisman! Elizabeth, can you hear me?"

Yes, wouldn't every loving father call his injured daughter by her codename twice before actually remembering her real one? And it got worse, he convinced her to dive inside the void to get Alpha Flight out before exposure to the maddening effect of otherworld would turn them incurably insane. Reluctant to risk her own sanity, Shaman assured Talisman he'd do everything to make sure she got out too. And we know Michael Twoyoungmen's as good as his word... Just ask his dead wife. 

Still, despite the fact she could barely stand or form a coherent sentence, Talisman did her job and retrieved her fellow teammates while Shaman used his own powers to slowly drive the void back into his pouch. All in all, it felt like an easy victory... until this happened.

"This will take but a moment, Elizabeth. Be brave, I shall not fail you." 

Unbelievable... It's like Shaman gets his powers from continuously making the wrong call. Even if he decided to save Snowbird first, he does so by reaching into the same void he needs to pull his daughter out of. You went to medical school, didn't you Michael? Remember how they taught you humans actually have two hands? Try and use them next time.

Shaman's attack shortcircuits Courtney's robotic structure, forcing her to flee and allowing him to finally turn his full attention to Elizabeth. But, you guessed it... 

"You can do it! You have the power!!" 

You have the power? C'mon, Shaman... Don't blame this on the power of Grayskull, she's Talisman, not She-Ra. 

#27 closes out with a horrified Shaman realizing he'd just doomed his daughter. And, what's an even bigger travesty: she would actually be rescued by the Beyonder in Secret Wars II#4. Yes, the tail end of John Byrne's Alpha Flight run coincided with Marvel's first company wide crossover, a sequel (in name only) to 1984's smash hit Secret Wars. The Beyonder was on Earth now and up to all kinds of mischief. In his Jim Shooter penned limited series, the One from Beyond popped up all over the place to make the lives of the heroes... and their creative teams... miserable. 

For instance, Beyonder appeared moments after Talisman vanished to get a gift for Dazzler, who he had been trying to romance earlier that issue.

"...And fish out what I came for." 

Byrne's take on that particular scene from Secret Wars II#4 appeared in Alpha Flight I#28, which opened with the final fate of Omega Flight. As they were fleeing the mall, they were attacked by Madison Jeffries who had also come to Edmonton to help Alpha Flight. He singlehandedly defeated the team by turning a station wagon into Rover, a mechanized Deadpool lookalike avant la lettre. Jeffries then focused his attention to Delphine Courtney in a rather gory sequence, even if it's "just" a robot.

"You killed the real Guardian, Courtney...

                                                              Now you're gonna pay..." 

With Rover guarding the unconscious Omega Flight members, Jeffries was free to enter the Edmonton Mall to look for Alpha. He caught up with them just as the Beyonder was finishing his conversation with the team and teleported away. Right around the same time, Talisman woke up and to say she was a tad ticked off is putting it mildly.

"Shove it! I don't want to hear any more of your lies!" 

And who can blame her, really? After rattling off the embarrassingly long list of instances he'd failed her, Talisman got even more furious when Heather Hudson tried to make her see Shaman's side. Not exactly the smartest thing to do when a daughter just watched her father condemn her in favor of saving a relative stranger. Fed up, she teleports all of them to their Vancouver facilities, except for Snowbird who (rather conveniently) can't be teleported against her will. Once home, the full weight of all his bad choices finally hit Shaman.

"I have used her, manipulated her. And even though my intentions have ever been for the best... 

In the end, I have treated her no better than one of my mystic tools." 

Well, it takes one to know one, eh? After all this drama, and the realization she'd just lost her husband *again*, Heather Hudson ordered a mandatory two hour break before debriefing. After taking a hot bath and worrying about Shaman's shattered self confidence possibly eroding the control over his powers, she suddenly finds herself even more in the dark than usual. A major power outage blankets the base in darkness, because Box, Bochs and Shaman have gone a-fishing for a new body...

"Roger... What in blue blazes are you doing here?" 

Truth be told, there is something inherently comical about a robot holding what is essentially an electronic fishing rod hoping to get a bite in the vast, extradimensional drink. Meanwhile, in Incredible Hulk I#313, we see the effect of Alpha Flight's attempts to get Walter a new body. The "lure" has latched on to the Hulk and, with a little help from Shaman, the spirit of Walter Langkowski is sent across countless dimensions to inhabit this newly found form. But Walter soon discovered the body wasn't exactly unoccupied when he encountered its former inhabitant Bruce Banner...

"Walter Lang...? I once roomed with you back at the university..." 

What are the odds! Guess it's a small pandimensional crossroads of realities after all. After talking it over, Banner was thrilled with the idea of Langkowski as the new Hulk, in no small part due to the fact he'd been craving the sweet release of death. However, that didn't sit well with Walter who decided it'd be for the best if he sacrificed himself to make sure Bruce was reunited with the Hulk again.

Gee, thanks a lot roomie... 

"No! I don't want to be the Hulk!" 

Seconds after that, back in Alpha Flight I#28, Box finally manages to reel in his catch of the day. In Byrne's closing moments with the team they discover they were responsible for bringing the Hulk back to Earth following his banishment by Doctor Strange in #300 of his own book. The Hulk, angry as always, punches a hole in Box and that's all Johnny wrote. 

The new creative team of Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola resolved the situation in Alpha Flight I#29 in the most elegant way possible... The Hulk simply left. 

"He said he wanted to go back to the deserts..." 

Now, as for the ever lovin' wrap up...

Fans of Alpha Flight most likely were fans of John Byrne first. After all, he was the one who (co)created the team and the main creative driving force behind the bulk of their adventures to date. Imagine the culture shock if you were only a casual reader, happened to skip #28 and came in a month later to find Mantlo at the helm. It wasn't the smoothest of transitions, in part because of the obvious visual differences between Mignola and Byrne art. But let's not forget Mantlo's scripting also tended to be a bit more... verbose.  Take the last page of #29 for instance, in which Mantlo managed to cram in a lengthy motivational speech along with all the necessary set up for the team's new status quo.

(.... So. Many. Words...)

Mantlo wasted little time making the book his own, deciding Alpha Flight would be best off as an actual, properly organized team, complete with government funding. In a way, this move proved the inherent cyclical nature of comics. After a while, all the old tricks are new again. Case in point: Byrne kicked off Alpha Flight I#1 with the team completely defunded and out on the street. But as soon as he left, they were back in business with unlimited backing to boot. 

In closing... John Byrne's time with Alpha Flight is without a doubt the most beloved and best remembered period in the entire history of the team. His run has been reissued numerous times, presented in polished up collections, recolored and printed on high quality paper. But, 30+ years on, one has to wonder why John's take is considered the definitive "Flight". Could it simply be because he got there first?

For one, Bill Mantlo stayed on considerably longer, chronicling the team's adventures until January 1989's #67. In fact, the first volume of the book lasted 130 issues. For most of that run Alpha Flight was in no way comparable to the non team appearing in Byrne's initial 28. In interviews about his time on Alpha Flight, John Byrne has repeatedly stated he experimented to find out what would work, eventually settling on the non-team approach as the least terrible way to fulfill his contractual obligations. But despite all their bickering, Alpha Flight never came close to the Defenders in that respect... Perhaps in no small part thanks to the average Canadian's inherent politeness. So, what good is breaking the mold when the next person to come along simply uses another one?

In the long run, was Byrne's Alpha Flight nothing more than an aberration? Yes and no. While it wasn't exactly comparable to what would follow, Byrne's work is a reminder art doesn't exist in a vacuum... Not even reluctant art. Even though Byrne himself had trouble finding a way to make the team work, his struggles served as an inspiration to all those who followed. To borrow a popular phrase from the X-Men franchise: "Omnia mutantur"... Everything changes, even the initial flight.

In the end, it's rather simple if not slightly paradoxical... John Byrne's Alpha Flight made us feel good, even if Alpha Flight under John Byrne didn't. 

... And nothing else compares.

1987 - Anatomy of a Cover - MERC #10

The Beast by Bob McLeod

1985: Alpha's Beta Flight part IV: Black, White & Mac All Over...

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fourth entry of Alpha's Beta Flight, John Byrne's nearing the proverbial down home stretch with Canada's finest. But before he bows out, there's the two year anniversary to celebrate and it promises to be one hell of a good time... literally!

"But he's DEAD... Isn't he?"

Spoiler alert: that will be the most frequently asked question in this chapter. But, as always, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Ever the gifted storyteller, not to mention a smooth marketing type, John Byrne figured that with Alpha Flight's two year anniversary coming up it was high time to work towards a climax of sorts. At last, several of the mysteries he introduced would lead to a pay off... Starting with just what the heck was wrong with Snowbird in recent months. The demi-goddess had apparently fallen out of favor with her ancestors... And in the opening pages of #23, the arctic deities finally tell her why they're so cross with her.

"Look... and tell me if you have not failed us...

Tell me you have fought the beasts wherever they might appear..."

Say, that *does* look an awful lot like her teammate Sasquatch, doesn't it? But surely, you'd expect a demi-goddess with enhanced, mystical senses to be able to tell the difference between a fellow Alphan and one of the mystical beasts she was bred to destroy. Yeah, guess only Shirley expected that. Now aware of her mistake, Snowbird begged Hodiak and Nelvanna for forgiveness and set off to correct this particular oversight. Meanwhile... a considerable number of Alpha Flight members had conveniently assembled to deal with the threat of Caliber.

"ALPHA FLIGHT!"

Yeah, guess it really is Alpha Flight. It's a testament to the (accidental) artistry of John Byrne that the readers get an all too subtle realization that Alpha has come a long way in its relatively short existence. From government backed team with two sub-divisions to a bouncy dwarf, a reluctant art history student turned mystical talisman, a schizophrenic with a big, blue scarf that screams *choke me, choke me* and a somewhat sadistic looking Sasquatch. Still, they are able to take down Caliber, who did manage to get a few decent shots in... Shots that really hurt Sasquatch who seemingly had trouble dealing with his wounds.

And then Snowbird showed up, quickly shifting to her snow owl form to attack Sasquatch. Now, Aurora might be mentally unbalanced but she was still able to tell when a teammate was acting out of character. So, she intervened...

"Get your claws out of my man !!"

Little over a decade after this issue hit the stands, Jerry Springer would make a fortune hosting talkshows with similar titles. For now, things escalated far beyond that show's usual shouting matches and hitting with folding chair. In fact, way before Jerry or anyone else's final thought... Sasquatch showed his true colors...

"I shall grant thee the boon of a quick and merciful death!"

See Aurora, I told you that scarf would lead to trouble. 

So, what's been going on? Well... remember Walter Langkowski turned into Sasquatch when he tried to recreate the gamma bomb incident that led to the creation of the Hulk? Turns out "Sasquatch" had been a lie all along. Langkowski's gamma experiment caused a tiny tear between Earth and the Great Beasts' prison realm. The beast Tanaraq seized this opportunity to merge with Langkowski, allowing Walter to change into his giant, orange shape.

However, with every subsequent transformation Tanaraq slowly gained more control of their dual form. The inevitable take over was actually sped up whenever Langkowski lost his temper or experienced severe pain... For instance when Caliber pelted his pelt a couple of times. That attack proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, finally allowing Tanaraq to take over completely. This forced Snowbird to rely on extreme measures... Shapeshifting into a white sasquatch, she finished her teammate by ripping his heart out...

"It... is done!"

No, not by a longshot actually, no matter what Snowbird tries to tell the grieving Aurora. Luckily for her, Puck can spot a fib a mile away...

"To save Langkowski, it would mean crossing the dimensional barriers,
entering into those planes where evil holds eternal mastery...
The kingdom of the Beasts!"

Oh boy, road trip!

In many ways, #24 is similar to Alpha Flight I#12. Once again, the team must gather to go abroad and save one of their own in a double sized anniversary issue... But while #12 ended with an Alphan dying, #24 starts with the corpse already on the floor (and turned to stone for easy transport, incidentally).

Using her handy, nebulously defined powers, Talisman summoned every Alphan ever to come to "the eye of the world", a barren piece of rock that houses a portal to otherworldly realms. In time, Heather Hudson, Shaman and even the reluctant Northstar showed up. However, Jean Paul was ready to leave as soon as he realized it wasn't his sister who had called for him. Luckily, Talisman wasn't the only one with nebulously defined abilities...

 "It is always dangerous to shape the minds of humans against their will.
I am sworn never to do so myself"

Sage advice from a man who only four issues earlier blatantly lied to turn his only child into a mystical messiah against her will. Oh Shaman, you truly are the worst.

Still, his abilities were needed to get the team where they needed to go. While their leader Heather Hudson stayed on Earth to look after the slowly crumbling form of Walter Langkowski, Shaman produced a totem staff from his medicine pouch to open the eye of the world. And with that, he takes Alpha across several dimensional planes. After two pages of Kirbyeque alien realms, always a convenient way to fill 48 pages, the team arrived at their destination...

"Behold my friends! The realm of the Beasts!!"

A lot has been said about the way John Byrne's drawing style evolved from the late 70s to the mid 80s. He's been accused of cutting corners, adopting a far less detailed style, even leaving out backgrounds altogether... But man, can he still pull out the stops when he wants to. The realm of the Beasts looks astonishing, perhaps even more visually impressive than the City of the Sun God he drew back in Uncanny X-Men I#116. The lack of color also adds to the effect, clearly showing just how intricate this piece of work is. But enough sightseeing, we're here to find Walter Langkowski's soul... 

"You are most welcome here. 

As meat is welcome in the house of a starving man!"

Meet Somon the Artificer, leader of the Great Beasts. Alpha is in for the fight of their lives when Somon summons (get it?) the other beasts: Tundra, Kariooq the Corruptor and Kolomaq the fire beast all have a(nother) go at trying to kill the heroes. The key to their defeat lies with Somon, whose power keeps the Beasts from remembering they actually hate each other more than the outsiders. As soon as Snowbird took out Somon in her bearform, the Beasts tore into one another allowing Alpha time to continue to look for Langkowski. After some doing and a brief sojourn into the Well of Sorrows, they retrieved his soul and headed for the exit.

Meanwhile in the real world, Heather's been busy too. Not only was she joined by Box who was late to arrive in response to Talisman's summons... She was also busy keeping what remained of Walter's body from blowing in the wind.

"But... where is his body?!"

You're looking at it, Snowbird... Alpha took too long in the realm of the Beasts and now Walter's physical form had deteriorated way past the point of even Shaman's Sarcee skills. And what's worse: without a body to house it in, Walter's soul would soon be lost as well. Luckily, you can always rely on Michael Twoyoungmen's ability to improvise. If you don't have a body handy, will a Box do?

"It is done!"

Yup, in a ludicrous "only in comics!" Silver Age style turn of events you could barely get away with by the mid 80s, Byrne decides to have Walter's soul inhabit the semi-living metal of the robot created by Roger Bochs. Never mind the psychological effect of suddenly finding you're a disembodied spirit, stuck inside a robot, not to mention that Aurora can now add objectophilia to her list of disorders... Shaman is pleased as punch.

"We have prevailed!
Alpha Flight is whole once more!"

Whole, Shaman? I guess that's true, if you gloss over the fact Guardian is still dead even though his wife swears she saw him on the street a few weeks ago. But hey, you diagnosed that as little more than a bout of grief induced hysteria. So, onwards to #25, which opens with the semi-official court martial of Northstar. Back in #22, we learned Jean Paul Beaubier used to belong to the Séperatistes, a terrorist group fighting for an independent Qúebec. After finding this out, his shocked sister Aurora announced she'd reveal this to their teammates.

Naturally, Northstar stood up for himself in his usual, charming way...

"Talisman just called in, that creep Caliber has busted jail
and he's right in the middle of a big battle downtown... with Guardian!!!"

And so he was. Talisman watches in awe as Guardian took on Caliber, who mysteriously had managed to not only escape prison but also reclaim his battle armor. In the end, she was able to defeat him by channeling some magic and literally wishing the armor away. Moments later, the rest of the team arrived...

"And I thought that kind of thing only happened in comic books!"

Said the former orange haired demon beast encased in a talking tin can. Yes, ol' Mac is back and he even proves he's the real deal by kissing Heather who passes out as a result. Guess that's one way of testing for DNA. Once she came to, Guardian finally explained what had happened to him. And if you felt the Sasquatch/Box transfer story was 1950s Superman comics weird... Hold on to your hat. 

A little used feature of the Guardian suit allows the wearer to teleport. In the final pages of Alpha Flight I#12, with his damaged suit's power pack about to explode, Mac saw Heather enter the room. Not wanting his wife to get hurt in the explosion, he channeled all available energy into the suit's teleportation mechanism. As a result, he vanished through a miniature rift in the space/time continuum. 

Still with us? Good.

When Guardian reappeared, he couldn't breathe the air and in the few seconds of consciousness left to him, he realized why: he was on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. You'd think that'd be the end of James McDonald Hudson but no, he was found by the Quwrlln, an advanced alien race who lived in the ice seas underneath Ganymede's surface. They took Mac in and nursed him back to health.

"There were tears... or the equivalent... on both sides
when I announced my return to Earth."

Tears under water? Won't those be hard to spot? The Quwrlln used their transoptic scanners to take a look at Earth in order to figure out a way to get Guardian back there... and that's when the other shoe dropped. Upon viewing his homeplanet, Mac realized he had also traveled back in time... ten thousand years in fact. Needless to say, he couldn't possibly return now. So that's why the Quwrlln offered to put him in suspended animation for the next hundred centuries while they worked on a means to transport him home.

Mac agreed and awoke refreshed after a millennia long nap to find the Quwrlln civilization had bombed itself back to their version of the stone age. However, they did leave him a rocket ship which, amazingly, still worked after all that time and, even more amazingly, he instantly knew how to pilot without any training whatsoever. The trip back lasted 28 months, so he took another suspended animation snooze and then he was home...

"I appreciate irony as much as the next man..."

After breaking into a nearby cabin to get some clothes, Mac didn't bother to call the government or even his wife. No, he bummed his way to Vancouver where he happened to run into Heather anyway. He quickly ran off, figuring that with all that had happened she might be better off believing he was still dead. After empathically assuring her husband what an idiot he was for even thinking that, Heather received yet another surprise... As great and wonderful as the Quwrlln were, they had no prior experience with human physiology. That's why when they tried to fix up Hudson, they made a few understandable mistakes...

"They had no way of knowing what was me...
and what was my armor."

And speaking of metal men and their problems; Walter Langkowski was still trying to get used to his own robotic body. And he wasn't alone in this discomfort. Aurora prefers her men with buns of steel, but this is ridiculous...

"You love me for my mind too, don't you?
Don't you?!"

An honest question deserves an honest answer and that's what Walter gets from his flighty girlfriend. He doesn't take it too well, finally acknowledging he is having trouble coping with all he's been through recently. Luckily, Roger Bochs has a solution...

"She needs a man with a real, human form.
And I think I know how we can get you one."

And that's all the set up required for the fifth and final part of Alpha's Beta Flight: Byrne 'n Body Switcheroo... Plus the Beyonder too!"  

1986 - Anatomy of a Cover - Incredible Hulk Annual #15

By Mike Zeck Bob McLeod