Thoughts

This is a two-issue miniseries that brings back two things I love – the art of Paul Smith and the Canadian super-team Alpha Flight. As is the case in the main title, it also plays with a large array of X-characters from across the title’s continuity. Scott Summers is back, living his Alaskan pilot life with Maddie Pryor. Illyana and Doug Ramsey from the New Mutants also show up.

That’s not all, though, with Scott and Maddie kidnapped while flying a plan – the small number of crew and passengers on the plane also ket swiftly defined as characters. And if that wasn’t a lot already, Loki and Asgardian mythology turn up here too.

Claremont is a skilled enough writer to keep all these strands going alongside each other. The new characters get drawn in broad strokes, but this efficiently gets us up to speed with the essential qualities they have for the story. I’ve not been reading Byrne’s Alpha Flight alongside this project, but that did not mean I felt lost reading this. Again, there’s an effortlessness with how Claremont fills the reader in on where all these Canadian characters are in their lives (and their own title right now).

Given the differences between the two men at this point – it must have been a challenge for Marvel editorial to have got Byrne to accept Claremont getting to play with the characters he was writing for on the Alpha Flight title. But Claremont does a great job with them – I think. The brief mentions of their issues/problems makes me intrigued to want to read that title. And new characters like Puck and Talisman seem instantly intriguing. It must have been a great advert for the other book.

Alongside the writing, though there’s the art. And what a joy it is. Paul Smith really makes it all seem so easy, from the detailed, emotional realism of close-up personal moments…

… to the epic Asgardian psychedelic freakouts. It’s all great.

The story itself sets up the idea that this magical place can “cure” the team of all that ails them. I’ve read enough of these stories to already know how this is going to end. But all the factors given above mean I still enjoyed the ride despite knowing where it is going.

Fun Panel

That Don’t Make A Lick of Sense

There’s something contrived about the early pages – where Rachel goes off to fight Alpha Flight because shes convinced they did something to her dad. It’s never entirely clear why she would think this so absolutely. The whole fight does feel like padding – if only the two groups would spend a few seconds it will all be sorted. Because simply any one of them would be able to notice that none of this is making much sense.

It was a Product of its Time

Missing out on reading the main Alpha Flight title, I don’t really know where it was with the Northstar being gay. Claremont does what you’d expect – dropping hints to it without ever being explicit. Of course, now we all know this was the intent, the characterisation of Northstar as an arrogant, unhappy loner feels a bit too close to lazy cliches of closeted characters. It’s a feature, and a flaw, of some of Marvel’s attempts to be progressive. You can’t help but feel glad they tried – even if the execution is just too close to Conservative stereotypes.