Every Wednesday, JP makes the after-work run to his local downtown comic book shop. Comics arrive on Wednesdays you see and JP, fearful that the latest issue will sell out, rushes out to purchase his copy. This regular, weekly column will highlight a particularly interesting release, written in short order, of course, because JP has to get his – before someone else does!
Alpha Flight #1
Written by: Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by: Dale Eaglesham
Published by: Marvel Comics
Let’s see…
The uninspired Canadian men’s soccer team just crashed out of the 2011 Gold Cup in the measly group stage. The Vancouver Canucks hockey club look set to turtle and bow out of the Stanley Cup finals. And traffic in Toronto on a summer day is still…absolutely horrible.
Not a good time to be a Canadian, right? Right?
Wrong!
Alpha Flight is back, people!
That’s right! Canada’s premiere comic book super-group: Guardian, Vindicator, Northstar, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Marrina and Aurora are here again! You remember them, eh? Eh?
Ok, so maybe Alpha Flight is a little niche, but it’s a popular niche with comic book readers – specifically Canadian comic book readers. They’re the super heroes that came out of the same covert government organization that gave us Wolverine for heavens sake. And you know those Canadian black-suit-government-guys can be a shady bunch…
The title had its hay day back in the 1980’s under the pen of comic’s legend John Byrne. In fact the series lasted for eleven years – not bad for niche. But the 90’s weren’t very kind to the group and neither has the new millennium, really. But vocal fans have always clamoured for more ‘Flight and Marvel editorial have always teased the Canuck super team at Canadian-based conventions.
And now it looks like things have finally gone “northern” again. Greg Pak, acclaimed writer of The Hulk has joined up with Canadian artist Dale Eaglesham, who is coming off of great runs on Fantastic Four and Justice Society of America. The new series promises to be engrossing while simultaneously visually stunning. Sure, the odds of it lasting longer than a year or two are somewhere north of, well, the north pole, but Canadians love an underdog and these Canadian characters always demand to be heard.
So get of your igloo (it’s finally sunny outside!), get on the maple syrup bandwagon and make the Wednesday run to your local comic book shop and give Alpha Flight a whirl. I promise it’ll be a good time – and that’s what comics like Alpha Flight are all aboot!
The current Alpha Flight series is an 8-issue limited, so the odds of it lasting a year or two are very slim indeed. 😉 But, seriously, I love the enthusiasm…it's so easy to get cynical about the seemingly endless cycle of ever-darker relaunches that it's nice to see someone straight-up cheering for a super-hero story with a hint of old school to it.
Yeah, Suzene – missed that in the solicits. It is indeed an 8 issue series (I was wondering if someone would pick up on it!) – and 9 issues if you count the 0.1 issue from last month. That's nearly a year's worth of periodicals there!
And it's a super fun read too!
Thanks for the comments!