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!"  

1984: Alpha's Initial Outing part III: Oh my, Omega!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The year is still 1984 and John Byrne's about to finish the first twelve issues of Alpha Flight, a series he didn't particularly fancied working on from the word go. But that reluctancy led to an inspired level of daring creativity some would say bordered on carelessness, as we'll see in the third and final part of Alpha's Initial Outing.

"Soon, these heroes will face their greatest challenge... One of them won't survive it."

Back in 1984, before the age of online previews and spoilers galore, pretty much all you had to go by were Marvel's in house announcements, the "Bullpen Bulletins" which offered brief descriptions of upcoming events... and house ads like this one.

For posterity's sake, it's almost a shame there weren't any message boards around then for fans to discuss which of the heroess would bite the bullet. Having Marrina there is a bit of a red herring (pun intended), considering the aquatic Alphan hadn't been seen since issue #4 when she quit the team to accompany Namor the Sub-Mariner back to Atlantis.

But, as always, we're getting ahead of ourselves. There wouldn't be any dying Alpha Flighters until issue #12 and when we last left the team (that hadn't been together since #2) we were on the series' ninth issue which was part one of a Sasquatch two parter. Since we have a lot to get to, let's explain the plot of issue #9 with the recap provided in issue #10.

"For it had never truly been the Thing at all. It had been..."

This brief summary really doesn't do issue #9 justice. Byrne was going for an obvious hommage to the classic 1952 horror movie The Thing From Another World, based on a 1938 short story by John W. Campbell Jr. In it, researchers in a remote, arctic outpost encounter a supposedly deceased alien lifeform they take in to study, only to find it's still very much alive and out to make sure they aren't.

Pretty much the same happened with doctor Walter "Sasquatch" Langkowski, who was also visiting an arctic research facility when "the Thing" mysteriously showed up and started killing people left and right. Only, it wasn't Benjamin Grimm...

"Perhaps even Sasquatch cannot prevail
against one who possesses
all the powers of the Fantastic Four!"

Or... perhaps he would. After an interesting and particularly brutal battle that showed Langkowski losing control over his monstrous form, the Super Skrull was teleported back to space. Which, essentially, meant a death sentence.

" His atoms are scattered back across the Van Allen belts, soaking up more radiation.
If this murderous off-worlder even manages to get himself reintegrated again
he should last about five seconds before the cancer finishes him off"

That sequence, if nothing else, proved that Sasquatch wasn't too squeamish to send someone to his death... It's doubtful a member of the FF or Avengers would have dealt with their enemies, even if it was a Skrull who had murdered several innocent people. But, speaking of New York based heroes, guess where Alpha's leader Guardian is?

"I had no idea I'd be moving here, leaving Canada, maybe forever"

Guardian, the leader of Canada's premiere team of superheroes has just moved to New York City. Long story short, in a continuing subplot the Roxxon oil company had offered James Hudson a lucrative position at their New York branch. Seeing as he was effectively out of work since the Canadian government cut Alpha Flight's funding, he happily took the job and prepared to move to the States, along with his wife Heather. Unfortunately for Hudson, nothing was quite as it seemed. 

Alpha Flight I#11 really started to weave seemingly unconnected plot threads together into a neat little net the team would soon find themselves trapped in. Remember this lady from last post?

"Four down, one to go. So far the plan is proceeding perfectly."

Meet Delphine Courtney, a woman who's been visiting with and succesfully recruiting members of the Beta and Gamma Flight programs... Who all made their debut in a one panel flashback in Alpha Flight I#1. Courtney, using a mechanized form of mind control, all got them to come to New York. Surely, that can't be a coincidence? 

"But first, since you've obviously have not taken care of the matter yourselves,
some introductions."

As far as delivering obviously necessary exposition goes, this isn't too bad... Even if it doesn't make any sense. Remember, they're all former Flight members, some of them were even on the same team. Unless they were all mindwiped during their exit interviews, I'm pretty sure they remember who they shared a locker room with.

Alpha Flight I#11 is also the first proper introduction of Wild Child, Kyle Gibney, who would go on to have an interesting career as a hero, serving with both Alpha Flight and X-Factor during the 1990s. But none of that heroic potential is on display here, seeing as he almost guts Flashback before Courtney calms him down and introduces the mastermind behind it al...

"My name is Jerome Jaxon.
(...)
I propose nothing less than the utter destruction of Alpha Flight!"

Ah, how to explain Jerome Jaxon... Apart from the fact his name alliterates in the mighty Marvel manner (Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Otto Octavius, Doctor Doom etc), he's actually a bit of a sad sack. The reason why he hates Alpha Flight is James Hudson, who once worked for him as part of the research & development branch of Am-Can, a petrochemical company. 

There, Hudson came up with the prototype of the Guardian armor, which Jaxon realized could be used for more than coal mining: with some adjustments, it'd be a fantastic weapon of war. He planned to sell the design to the US military, only for Hudson to disable the one prototype that existed by stealing the psycho-cybernetic helmet required to operate it. The armor now useless, Am-Can fired Jaxon who grew bitter, desperate and despondent.

"I had failed in my attempted self-destruction... but I would never walk again."

In 1984, depicting someone, even a supposed villain, attempting suicide was positively unprecedented. And, to add insult to injury, Jaxon failed and ended up paralyzed. A broken man, both in the literal and figurative sense of the word. However, when he inadvertently figured out that Canada's national hero was actually his archenemy James Hudson, he regained his purpose in life.

Jaxon went to Am-Can's business rival Roxxon with this knowledge and the company was more than a little interested. They partnered him with Delphine Courtney and together, they worked out the plan to lure Hudson to New York for vengeance (and, one would assume, to get their hands on his armor). Having that vengeance carried out by former members of Beta and Gamma Flight, influenced by Courtney's devices to be out for blood, was poetic justice.

But how to get your hands on Guardian? Simple, capture his wife and tell him about it.

"I have your wife.
I am holding her in an office on the 43rd floor of Number One World Trade Center."

Sigh, the 1980s... back when seeing a flying object hurtling towards the WTC wouldn't cause readers' stomachs to turn (or internet fora to flare up). Inside the World Trade Center, Guardian discovered who was waiting for him in the closing pages of #11.

                                                   "Allow us to reintroduce ourselves.
                                                            We are Omega Flight!"

True to stereotype, even Canadian supervillains are so polite they take the time for proper introductions before trying to kill you. And with that, the setup for the year's capper was obvious. Alpha's instigator versus those he had allegedly scorned. So, where's the backup, where's Alpha Flight? Well, he sent an emergency signal back in #11, a call the membership received an issue later through their implanted communication chips. The only one to miss it was Marrina, who didn't have an implant but a hanger she wasn't wearing when the call came in.

Fortunately for Guardian, the others were able to make it. But it wasn't exactly a happy reunion. This issue started the trend of Alphans being outrightly hostile towards each other. Sasquatch had started seeing Aurora, which her brother Northstar didn't care for because he felt this wasn't in his schizophrenic sibling's best interest. Guess what, words failed...

"As soon as I uproot this makeshift hockey-stick..."

Way to emphasize the fact they're Canadian, eh?

Shaman used a little magic to break up the fight and then used a whole lot more to teleport the team to Guardian who was more than a bit relieved to get some reinforcements. It was Alpha versus Omega in a confrontation far more vicious and cruel than most superhero dust ups of the time. People were out for blood and pulled no punches. Wildchild savagely tore into Aurora, forcing Northstar to resort to extreme measures.

"The impact is not fatal, but it is only the phenomenal resilience 

of the half-human Wild Child that makes the difference"

Half human, eh? Wonder what the other half is. Still, that was hardly the worst that happened. Mere moments after arriving in New York, Snowbird started feeling faint, making her easy prey for the rough and tough Diamond Lil. Shaman was forced to help out his teammate, using a little magic to drive Lil temporarily insane...

"She withers away before my very eyes!"

So, what's wrong with Narya? Well, remember how Shaman assisted in Snowbird's birth? He used his powers to anchor the god-child to this reality, by literally binding her life force to Canada. As we find out now, this also means that as soon as she leaves her native soil, she'll die a painful death. An interesting reveal to say the least, though a little surprising given the fact she left Canada before without any visible discomfort... like when she attended the Hulk's big parade in New York City after the president pardoned him in Incredible Hulk I#279.

How to explain this one? Well, it's hardly No Prize worthy, but let's just say the reason she looked okay here was because she didn't have to rapidly expend her energies in a fight to the death. Yeah, that'll work, true believers. Also: apparently Sasquatch didn't have time to shave.

Back to the battle, where we're about to have the first, real victim...

"As the last, dwindling spark of his sanity flickers out,
for an instant, Smart Alec knows why."

Curiosity killed the cat... and the mind of the most intelligent Canadian ever to walk the planet or don a big, crazy hat with Cyclops style goggles. But we've yet to reach the bloody climax... The big silver and blue robot called Box was actually controlled by Jaxon, who used the device to beat Guardian to a pulp. However, turnabout is fair play...

"I might have been killed by the blast.
But then, I was certain to be killed otherwise."

Oh James, you don't know the half of it... Defeating Box by creating an overload that fried Jaxon's mind also caused his suit's power pack to overheat. Guardian only had a few seconds to safely remove it in a now classic, often imitated sequence.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."

Then, in what has to be one of the most monumental moments of bad timing ever... His wife Heather stumbles into the room, after having freed herself a few pages earlier. Right in time to witness this...

"I wonder what's behind this door."

Faster than one can say "flame on!", Guardian is seemingly incinerated before his wife's eyes... And while Heather watches Mac get burned to a crisp, she realizes that it's all on her. If only she hadn't distracted him at the most crucial of moments.

And with that, Alpha Flight's first year as a team comes to an end... And what an illustrious first year it was. As if getting fired by the government in their premiere issue wasn't bad enough, the second featured their new member Marrina going crazy, mutilating a midget before storming off to fulfill her destiny: breeding a race of alien invaders. Issues 3 and 4 saw part of the team chasing the murderous Marrina, leading to an encounter with the Master of the World, which they only survived because of the Sub-Mariner and the Invisible Woman... Whose competency made Alpha look like inconsequential guest stars in their own book.

Then, issue #5 was all about Puck in a hospital gown, hitting drug peddling doctors (in a double fisted pulse pounder of an ish, true believers!). #6 is best remembered for Byrne getting away with 1/4 of an issue of blank pages followed by #7 and #8 in which Northstar and Aurora stretch out the barest of plots to fill the pages. Issues #9 and #10 are all about Sasquatch and the Super Skrull, which sounds like a bad Saturday morning kids cartoon, if not for all the gratuitous violence and bloody death...

                              "The lifeless thing that had been Megan Masterson is silent now"

But that all led to #11 & 12, the big finale which reunited the team to save a leader who had actually pretty much abandoned them by taking a job in another country... A leader who'd be dead by the end of #12 anyway. All in all not the most memorable of beginnings for a superhero team. Alpha Flight makes the original Defenders look calm, cool and stable... and their founders include Namor "breathing oxygen makes me go crazy" the Sub-Mariner, a silvery alien on a surfboard whose previous job was picking out planets for lunch and the friggin' Hulk. 

As stated before, Byrne had trouble figuring out what to do with "his" creations. "Alpha Flight was never much fun. The characters were created merely to survive a fight with the X-Men, and I never thought about them having their own title. When Marvel finally cajoled me into doing Alpha Flight, I realized how incredibly two-dimensional they were, and spend some twenty-eight issues trying to find ways to correct this fault. Nothing really sang for me. If I have any regrets, it would probably be that I did the book at all! It was not a good time for me."

Still, he tried and his second year on the book proved distinctly different than the first. A new leader, new members and the sense the team was actually, well, a team. Byrne tried it all in an anything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to storytelling just to keep himself amused. And he got away with most of this, one because's John Byrne and second because Alpha Flight wasn't exactly a household name... Not even in the house of ideas. This gave him ample opportunity to experiment and be as gross, creepy and weird as he wished. If nothing else, it gave us Marvel mainstays like Pink Pearl and Gilded Lily.

Maybe someday we'll revisit Alpha Flight year two. If you can't wait, by all means track down those issues... Marvel released the Byrne run in paperback back in 2011 and they're well worth getting: restored art printed on high quality paper with brighter than life colors... As the images in this overview prove, they really add to the experience. All things considered: even though 'Alpha' never gave John Byrne any flights of fancy, the Canucks never soared higher than with him at the helm.

Which, if you think about it, really says something, eh?

1983 - Marvel Age #2 - Alpha Flight Interview with John Byrne

1983: Alpha's Initial Outing part I: Some Assembly Required

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The year is 1983 and Jim Shooter just had an idea: let's launch Alpha Flight in their own series. After all, the Canadian superheroes had proven remarkably popular ever since their earliest Uncanny X-Men appearances.  One slight problem, as we'll discover in this review of Alpha's initial outings: Alpha's co-creator John Byrne had no idea what to do with them.

Way back in 1979, when Jimmy Carter was president, the Russians were in Afghanistan and buying comics didn't mean getting a second mortgage on your house... There was Uncanny X-Men I#121 which featured the X-Men getting stranded in Canada after a freak weather event. There, they quickly realized the unruly weather was the work of the first Canadian superhero team... Alpha Flight.

"We've no quarrel with you, X-Men..."

Of course that's what they always say, but we all know what's going to happen here... This is comics after all, the good guys always fight the other good guys, it's in the comics rulebook, look it up. Also, John Byrne himself has stated in numerous interviews that Alpha Flight had been specifically created to "merely" survive a fight against the X-Men.

Fair's fair, the parallels should be obvious. Both teams have leaders who discharge energy blasts (Cyclops and Vindicator). Both have imposing powerhouses (Colossus and Sasquatch), the teleporting Nightcrawler should be able to keep up with the lightning fast Northstar and Aurora. The feral Wolverine should be a match for whatever arctic creature Snowbird turns into, while Storm is there to take on Shaman, whose Indian magicks caused the freak snowstorm that stranded the X-Men in the first place.

All in all, it made for a more than entertaining fight. It was actually the first time this still relatively new team of X-Men actually faced a squad of opponents. Sure, they'd fought Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men during their first mission, only to lose Thunderbird in the process. But after that, they mostly encountered only one or two villains at a time.

It made for gripping storytelling, so much so that Alpha Flight quickly became a fan favorite. Readers demanded to see more of these Canadian heroes. And while Claremont and Byrne obliged with a two parter in Uncanny X-Men I#139 & 140 and minor guest appearances in Fantastic Four (Vindicator) or Incredible Hulk (Sasquatch) those just weren't going to cut it. Even including them in 1982's Contest of Champions wouldn't suffice. That's why John Byrne was eventually (t)asked to launch an Alpha Flight soloseries in August of 1983.

"One side, super heroes... This is a job only WE can handle!"

Vindicator's cover blurb really says it all. Alpha Flight's here to do a job none of the super heroes could handle... Simply because it had very little to do with actual superheroics. Remember, this is the first, real taste we get of Canada's premiere superhero team. And guess what we learn on the first page of the first issue: they're already dead in the water... The government decided to cut funding to Department H, which bankrolled Canada's super powered operatives... effectively shutting down the entire Flight program. 

And that led to these encouraging opening scenes.

"I can probably surive. At least I've still got Heather."

We meet the hero of the book, Vindicator, in the deserted, cleared out corridors of Department H... Obviously, things are not going his way. He used to be in charge of no less than 16 Canadian superhumans and now he's basically out of a job because the funding got cut. Exploring the fate of a down on his luck hero would have been interesting enough to explore, it worked for Spider-Man after all, but Byrne went the extra mile by casually introducing the members of these elusive Beta and Gamma Flights. Forget Professor Xavier and his X-Men/New Mutants classes, Canada has three teams of superhuman operatives... all equally out of work. 

Even though John Byrne would later claim he had no idea what to do with the book, the mere fact he subtly introduced two more teams who, storywise, would prove invaluable down the line points to at least some slight notion of long term plotting. For now, for the first issue, all that would suffice is the fact that Canada is in danger... Even if its government is no longer funding the Flight. 

So, who of the discarded Flight members will be the first to notice the coming peril?

"Speak, o my grandfather... the son of your son awaits..."

Now, I'm no expert when it comes to native American rituals, but keeping the bling bling decorated skull of your dead grandfather in a box for fortune telling purposes might just be a bit on the nose he no longer has. Still, doctor Michael Twoyoungmen's ancestor came through and alerted him to the rise of Tundra, one of the seven dreaded Great Beasts of the North... Mythical creatures that would become some of Alpha's primary foes through the years.

Even as Twoyoungmen travelled to the place he sensed Tundra would ascend from, Vindicator had no dead granddad to fill him in. He simply caught the CBC news, where reporters pointed to some mysterious danger about to overtake Resolute Bay. He immediately took off, leaving his wife Heather to make sure her hubby had back up... Like Aurora and Northstar, the siblings Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie Beaubier. Though their powers were similar, they couldn't be more different personality wise.

"Deny her? I hate her! She is a devil, a foul imp who uses me.
She is perverse!"

While Northstar, despite his obvious snootiness, displayed a certain resolve, Aurora seemed disturbed. Almost like she wasn't exactly who she appeared to be. In issue 2, we'll learn Jeanne-Marie Beaubier is actually a schizophrenic with a dual personality: the ultra orthodox, prudish catholic school marm Jeanne-Marie versus the flingy, slightly slutty Aurora. It goes without saying these two aspects of the same woman hated each other. But no one told Heather when she found Vindicator's secret Flight control console in their home. She figured she could use the command cards to get her husband some help. Stuffing in all the punch cards (ah, the 80s!) she contacted all the established members, as well as two others...

"They must be Betas who were ready to come up into the first team... Well, "Marrina" and "Puck", whoever you are... I hope you're ready to play with the big boys..."

Speaking of Marrina, this is the first time we meet her... A relatively simple, yet decidedly alien looking teenage girl living off the coast of Newfoundland.

"Yes, the call still pulses in the stone"

I always wondered why Marrina insisted on wearing those bulky clothes, especially when she can survive in freezing waters with just a bathing suit. Guess it's mainly to make the locals feel slightly less creeped out by her, though she does rock that kelp bikini. The pulsing stone is actually an Alpha Flight beeper, relaying Heather's signal. Marria responded immediately, diving into the waters and rushing up the rivers to help deal with the growing threat of Thundra.

But wait, the psycho-sensitive Snowbird arrived first. Let's see what she has to say.

"O Nelvanna my mother, grant me the power I will need in this awful place."

Snowbird's prayers were left unanswered in the end. Tundra rose again, the gigantic plains based demon using the earth's powers to grow to gigantic size. But just then, another Alphan decided to chopper in and take charge...

"At last! Something big enough to really test my strength!"

Don't worry about any innuendos, doctor Langkowski... I say worse things on date nights. But even so, the arrival of Sasquatch turned the tide. By that point, Vindicator, Snowbird and Shaman had proven largely ineffectual against the creature. And then, the orange hued Hulk did this...

"He quickly moves from an annoyance to an actual threat"

Man, just look at that page. That is power... The arrival of Sasquatch really turns the tide, even though things still looked pretty bleak. That all changed when Marrina showed up, riding a massive water spout. She redirected the squall to give Thundra the proverbial deathblow. The water hit and destabilized Thundra's form, so with some help from the superspeedy Beaubier twins he was quickly widdled away.

With their first foe literally reduced to a harmless pile of muck, the assembled heroes were so elated they decided to ignore Department H's rulings and stay together. Just as the decision was made official in the closing pages of the first issue, its time to meet their newest and latest member... the one who failed to respond to Heather's assembly call on time to make a difference.

"I busted my buns to be in Alpha Flight. I wanna be in Alpha Flight!!"

Just what use an acrobatic dwarf would have been against Tundra is a question best left unanswered. Still, Hudson granted Puck's wish, allowing the slightly belligerent little person to join... but his admission quickly led to the first of many scuffles between his various teammates. Heather's no mind reader, so her relatively benign response to this kerfuffle can be forgiven. If only she knew having her most prized possessions stamped on was but the smallest sign of things to come.

"Oh lord... Suddenly, I don't know if this is such a great idea..."

Guess Heather really was a bit of a visionary... because a month later, the second issue of Canada's non funded superhero team opened with a training session in the wild where the various team member's responses were being tested. Unfortunately, Marrina was having a bit of an off day, as Puck quickly discovered...

"I said don't touch me!"

Yeah, having one of your own disembowel a teammate on her second mission does not exactly bode well for the continued survival of this clandestine team. After getting Puck some medical help (more on that next time), Alpha Flight starts to chase down Marrina, eventually locating her somewhere near the magnetic North Pole where they discovered a massive spaceship buried in ice. Like a moth to a flame or a teenage girl to a One Direction concert, she'd been drawn there by the inescapable urge to mate. However, that was all part of a plan hatched by the Master of the World. A villain who would prove to be Canada's answer to Doctor Doom and the Flight's most implacable foe.

The Master had special plans for Marrina...

"I do not wish to rule a world of fish-things"

The "I think not, masked one" line is delivered by the Sub-Mariner (and the Invisible Woman) who had been on a seperate quest in Fantastic Four and conveniently arrived to do a little cross(over) promotion.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We learn the reason why the Master wants Marrina dead. Turns out the aquatic girl isn't a mutant but actually a member of the alien Plodex. This race of metamorphs conquers entire planets with gigantic colonization ships that carry billions of unformed embryos. Once a world's dominant lifeform has been found, its DNA is incorporated in the embryos that are then seeded worldwide. One of those Plodex motherships arrived during Earth's final ice age, but was somehow damaged and crash landed on the North Pole. During the crash, most of the eggs were destroyed.

The embryo that would become Marrina ended up on the bottom of the ocean where it somehow survived until it was found by the Smallwoods after the man of the house dove it up from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

"Within a year, she was very much like a normal child" 

By touching the unformed Plodex embryo her husband brought home, Gladys Smallwood inadvertently made sure the unformed baby became human. She was raised in a "closed, frequently inbred community" which was John Byrne's reason for the locals accepting a bug eyed Simpsons-style amphibian amongst their midst. "Sally, your cousin Ada has webbed feet and she ain't even a sooper-hero... who are youse to judge?"

Even as Namor and the Invisible Woman were dealing with the Master, the Alphans were facing the various traps hidden inside his base, like this magnificent piece of three dimensional danger. Fans often felt Byrne was "phoning it in" when he was writing and drawing Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight on a monthly basis. He tended to leave out backgrounds and started relying on less intricately detailled foregrounds, adapting a more economic pencilling style. While that's certainly true, Byrne could and would still deliver the goods if necessary: watching him draw this honeycomb of bars in spite of all the deadlines (he was also writing The Thing) is worth a cheer or two.

And guess what, in the end (as seen in Alpha Flight I#4) the heroes win... Marrina is freed, the Master seemingly perishes along with his entire underground complex and all seems right in the world.

"Sunnavagun, we made it!"

Sure, you might have survived to tell the tale, Sasquatch... but that doesn't mean every single Alphan will be returning home to share in that particular glory...

"I have invited Marrina to come and dwell for a time in Atlantis.
And she has agreed."

And with that, Alpha Flight loses a teammate in its fourth issue. But that's just the beginning as we'll see in part two of Alpha's Initial Outing. Turns out, there's most definitely more than one "I" in team when the Flight does everything but fight together.