A Can-Con look at Astonishing X-Men #48

Even if this blog were not specific to Canadian characters, this would be a Can-Con look regardless for the simple reason that I don't even slightly care for anyone else in it but the Canadian characters.  In fact, even that is stretching it because I find Northstar's boyfriend Kyle to be a one-trick pain in the ass.

A very good sign early on is that Northstar has the first page all to himself.  He's joined by Wolverine on page two, so in terms of Canuck-goodness, we're off to a fast start.  Gambit is there too, but since he's a character I detest only slightly less than Michael Pointer, I shall ignore him.

Pages 4-7 continue to include Northstar, now with Kyle, unpacking.  That's right, four pages of unpacking in their new place.  And being gay.  Lots and lots of gayness.  It's like Marvel REALLY wants us to notice that however homophobic they were in the past, they're totally not now.  See how gay these two are being? SO gay!!  And that's okay!

The next three pages are Gambit and some chick, ALSO chatting in an apartment.  After checking the cover again to make sure they haven't brought back Friends in comic book form, I forge ahead hoping that the next four pages aren't just Gambit making gumbo.

They're not.  Northstar and Wolverine show up on Gambit's doorstep.  Not sure at first that it's actually Northstar because writer Marjorie Liu got his name wrong.  He's referred to as Jean-Claude instead of Jean-Paul.  The pointy ears give him away though.  At least they got that right.

Though it's a head-shaker, I'm sort of appreciative of the timing since I referred to Alpha Flight as a Marvel afterthought in the previous post.  Way to prove my point, Marvel.  But in fairness, only one writer and three editors would have looked at it.  And the mistake only appears three times in total.

Speaking of goofs, the usually arrogantly proud Northstar reminded me of another comic character during that scene.

Even after some warrior chick shows up and tosses a severed head on Gambit's floor, Northstar's reaction is to ask if he can go home.  Dude is totally bummed.  Must have a been a tiring night of gayness, because Marvel is totally pro-gay now, if you haven't heard.

Then the team gets attacked by a chopper, and a few pages later six super bad guys, for no reason I could determine (maybe it's hinted at in the previous issue?).  And on the last page, Kyle appears to get abducted in a nearby alley.  To be continued.

So the Canadian Content is actually quite high, and the pleasant surprise is that it isn't 80% Wolverine.  Northstar is actually the most prominent character in the book.

Unfortunately, it isn't a very good book.  But it's too early to judge the overall story, so we'll get #49.  At the very least, we're pretty well guaranteed a gay old time, because Marvel loves gays now.  They really, really do.

From time to time, look past the obvious

I was looking for information the other night and one of my search engine results directed me to a comics-based message board. It wasn't specific to Canadian books, but someone had started a thread asking about Canadian heroes other than Alpha Flight.

One Canadian poster lamented the lack of Canadian characters in comics, to which an American reader suggested that perhaps the Canadian poster should support Canadian comics. Crazy, eh?

The response? Basically that there was little out there to support so there's no point. That's a common attitude in many forms of entertainment and I'll never understand it.

All right, disclaimer time. I have no direct or indirect involvement with the Heroes of the North aside from enjoying the material they put out there. In other words, I’m not promoting something I have a stake in, other than as a fan. They just happen to be the best example in this case.

It’s also not a dump on Alpha Flight. I have most of their material, with the exception of some gaps in volume one, and many of their guest appearances. But those that perceive Alpha Flight as the only current Canadian hero option are mistaken.

Heroes of the North are not Alpha Flight and to their credit(in my opinion) they don’t pretend to be. They can’t match Marvel’s output of a regular (or limited) monthly series when Marvel happens to see fit that there should even be an output. But they maintain a steady stream of material. Comics are only a small part of their whole package. But for that part of the package, they have drawn from a pretty impressive stable of Canuck talent, including Big Two veterans Ty Templeton and Geoff Isherwood.

And while Alpha Flight is little more than an afterthought to Marvel, HotN’s entire attention is dedicated to their characters. They care about them, and along those lines, HotN are far more interactive through social media and they seem genuine in their appreciation of interest. In other words, they are fan-friendly, as opposed to Marvel, which has disappointed Alpha Flight fans numerous times.

There are other options if Heroes of the North is not your deal. Arcana appears to be based out of Vancouver and strays a fair bit from the superhero genre. And this part of the Joe Shuster Awards website lists other Canadian comic book publishers, most of which wander even further off from that theme.

Bottom line; that the "scene" doesn't appear to be very strong is not a reason to avoid supporting it. It's actually the very best reason to do that very thing.

The Red Panda Adventures!

Listening to the Red Panda Adventures is quickly becoming something of a ritual.  While I'm tinkering with some part of the blog, taking in one of the Panda's shows makes for an entertaining and appropriate backdrop.

The Red Panda Adventures are described on the Decoder Ring Theater website as being "in the tradition of the classic programs of Radio's Golden Age".  The titular character and his sassy sidekick The Flying Squirrel fight crime and solve mysteries in 1930's Toronto.  As I write this, there are 79 episodes posted, dating back to 2005 each running about 25 to 30 minutes.

I've never heard the Shadow or Green Hornet radio programs, but I don't think it's necessary to have done so to issue a "warning" of sorts that that the Panda/Squirrel stories are lighter in tone.

The Panda's adventures are also available in book form, one of which is making its way to the TSOG cave as we...huh...blog.

Should make for nice cottage reading.  :-)  Click on the cover for a description.

All Ages Reading: The Maple Ones

A friend of mine recently tried to use DC's New 52 books as an encouragement to his young daughter to read more. He bought the first issues of Wonder Woman and Batgirl. To a casual reader, that would seem like a no-brainer, right?

If my memory is sound (I don't own either book myself), the former includes an image of a decapitated horse and the latter recaps the time that Barb Gordon was gut-shot by the Joker. I don't know if he continued with either series but if so Wonder Woman #7 will require a type of conversation that I suspect he'd rather not get into quite yet.

Too bad he didn't get Catwoman or Red Hood and the Outlaws instead. No, wait...

I thought of him when I found out about The Maples Ones.

It's an "all ages" book (not of the comic variety, mind you), but judging from this press release, appears to be geared more towards a younger age group.

The MapleOnes is great reading for kids aged between 9 and 13, with a plotline that has all the themes that the Canadian public can identify with – a love for nature, honesty, fairness and justice. At the same time, there is excitement, danger and action. The superheroes are multi-ethnic, include both men and women, and have a sharp sense of responsibility towards their country, Canada.

It doesn't feel as though there has been much activity since that release in August 2010, but the "buy the book" link still works so presumably it's still available for purchase for those who may be interested. It may be a better option than, say, a book in which Vindicator murders the relatives who were looking after her daughter then hands said daughter over to Wendigo to play with. For example.

2005 Paradise Toronto Comicon program cover art

This is another terrific piece I've come across while looking up information in order to write The Superman Conundrum (see above).


Some cropping was required for display purposes.

I happened across this pic from the graphicly site and it is identified as being the work of Kaare Andrews (in case you missed it on the picture itself). It seemed like a particularly appropriate time to post it since it was done to celebrate the launch of the Shuster Awards mentioned in the previous post.

2005 Shuster Award Hall of Fame Print

Not new, but new to me, and therefore perhaps to others. It's too cool for people to miss so I'm sharing a smaller version of it. Plus anything that includes my girl Nelvana is going to get stored away for eternity or until my death, whichever comes first.


I located it on the comicartfans page. Coincidentally, James Waley is involved. He was one of the gentleman who brought Northern Light (see previous post) to life in the 70's. Full credits:

Credits: CONCEPT / INITIAL LAYOUT / ART DIRECTION: JAMES WALEY;
FINISHED LAYOUT: PAUL McCUSKER (w/ JIM ORDOLIS);

PENCILS: Freelance / STEVE LeBLANC;
Prince Valiant / TERRY PALLOT;
Nelvana / SCOTT COOPER;
Johnny Canuck / PETER GRAU;
Superman / TY TEMPLETON;
Harold Hedd / PAUL McCUSKER; INKS: T. PALLOT;

COLOURS & PRODUCTION ASSEMBLY: P. McCUSKER. a SOLID COMICS STUDIO production / raythyonder@yahoo.ca

Superman TM & Copyright DC Comics; Prince Valiant TM & Copyright King Features Syndicate; all other characters are TM & Copyright to their respective owners.

Float around the Joe Shuster Awards page for more artwork involving classic and current Canadian characters.

Northern Light pinup

If you've ever spent any amount of time looking up Canadian superheroes other than Alpha Flight, you've come across the usual suspects; Nelvana, Captain Canuck, etc.

Many sources will also refer to a character named Northern Light who was first introduced in Orb magazine #2 in 1974. Pretty well any mention of the character will display his one cover appearance for that mag.


Groovy, daddy-o!

I had an opportunity to get my hands on issues 4 and 5 of that magazine, in which Northern Light's origin story is told, so I jumped at it.

The above picture is quite cool, but it fails in one area; it does not properly highlight Northern Light's boss fu manchu mustache. It is displayed a bit better in a full page pin-up in #4.


Seriously, there was a lot to like about this character. He had a dramatic origin, spectacular abilities, a secret fortress "somewhere in northern Canada" and was a part of an alien research organization. It's too bad the bulk of his appearances are short stories in four issues of Orb.

I may also try to land this book. By the time it was published, Northern Light had had something of a makeover, but I'm not sure it was an improvement (though admittedly, the original started to look dated very quickly). Thankfully, the new look did not involve losing the fu manchu.

Speaking of family...

The Dynamo 5 team may not be fully Canadian, or more than "half-related" for that matter, but one member appears to be Canadian-born.


I have only read the first two Dynamo 5 trades (for now) and I enjoyed them a great deal. This particular character was first known as Visionary but evidently a power switch later in the series led to a name change. He's now the strong man of the group.

Are you familiar with Dynamo 5? If not, you should be.

Long story short, Captain Dynamo, the book's Superman analogue, was not the most faithful of husbands. He fathered children with several women including an Asian lady in British Columbia (the Captain liked variety when it came to women, judging from the range of "moms" in the book). Presumably Smasher is at least Canadian-born as all scenes of his personal life away from the team take place in BC.

The reason this is unclear is actually somewhat refreshing. Smasher is probably Canadian but you don't get beat over the head with it. He doesn't say "eh?" all the time, he talks about things other than hockey, and eats/drinks things other than poutine and beer.

It may seem contradictory to like a Canadian character that isn't so obviously Canadian, but it's actually a nice change. He's...just a kid. And like many Canadians, he's not Caucasian, either. Imagine that! ;-)

The Family Dynamic

Just as I was concluding the previous (chronologically) post by stating that DC Comics did not have either a Canadian or family-based team, it struck me that I was arguably quite wrong.

In late 2008, DC announced a 6-part book called Family Dynamic. Here is the solicitation:

FAMILY DYNAMIC #1
Written by J. Torres
Art by Tim Levins & Dan Davis
Cover by Sean Galloway

Pyralis! Sirocco! Troylus! Terran! This is The Family Dynamic, defenders of Storm City who use their mystical Elemental Rings to battle the forces of evil. But what happens when members of their extended family want in on the superhero action? They say the family that plays together stays together – but does that count when they’re playing the good guys? Find out in this exciting new 6-issue miniseries by writer J. Torres (WONDER GIRL) and artist Tim Levins (BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES).

Storm City was a fictional (obviously) Canadian town so this team fit both categories.

Unfortunately, the book bombed, though reviews by those who did get it were quite good. Due to poor pre-orders, it was reduced from six issues to three and the characters have not (to my knowledge) been heard from since. Here's how Levins described the news on his deviant art account.

...but somehow I think the misclassification of The Family Dynamic as a Johnny DC book (geared mainly towards kids), along with the total lack of any promotion whatsoever from DC Comics, might have played a teeny-weeny part in our premature demise.

Yeah, just maybe.

While I love the idea of fleshing out the Force Family, given the choice I think I would prefer to see the Family Dynamic given another chance with another publisher. I'm not particularly interested in seeing the Dynamics roped into the rest of the DC Universe and therefore shoehorned into every event that ripples through its various titles.

So if the possibility of the Force Family ever being featured is extremely remote, what are the odds of ever seeing the Family Dynamic return? Let's let Torres talk about that aspect of it (from the CBR forums):

...we're trying to work something out with DC. Keep those fingers crossed. Will report when I have something to share.

And that's the last post in the thread, so you can reach the obvious conclusion.

Too bad, this has the feel of a blown opportunity by DC. Hopefully someone else sees potential here and gives it a chance (assuming DC plays along).

Edit: In response to comments on deviantart, Levins said the following:

We get the rights back after a couple years, so perhaps we'll approach other publishers then.

So maybe the possibility isn't so remote after all!

Sparx and the Force Family

Sparx is among the characters I came across while looking for Canadian content among DC Comics a few weeks ago. Here she is, cropped off the cover for Superboy and the Ravers #6.


Frankly, at first glance, she didn't seem particularly interesting so I ignored her when suggesting (in jest) Justice League Canada. But her entry on comicvine refers to the rest of her super-powered family and that part was intriguing. Here's an excerpt:

The Force Family are the largest and probably only mainstream continuity supergroup in DC Comics' Canada...The Force Family lives in a rustic yet high tech Fantastic Four styled compound in the fictional town of Timberton, British Columbia. And it appears that the entire town of Timberton is populated by members of their extended family. The town of Timberton also hosts a Force Family museum, filled with statuary which seem to indicate that they have been operating since the time of the Roman Empire.

The bulk of Sparx's appearance were in Blood Pack (ugh) and Superboy and the Ravers (groan). A few members of the Force Family seems to have shown up in only a few issues of the latter.

A lot of comics sucked in the 90's so I'm not kidding myself; probably these characters were part of that stew. But I could see a good writer squeezing something out of this.

Marvel has a Canadian team, and they have a "fantastic" family-based team. DC has neither (I know they did briefly...more on that later) but they could update these characters, who are barely more than blank slates anyway, and combine the two aspects in one package. It'll never happen, but I'd love to see it.

Captain Wonder!

I've never been crazy about the option of digital comics, but landing on the Digital Comic Museum last weekend changed my mind somewhat.

I had been searching for information about the war time heroes; Nelvana, Johnny Canuck, etc. From time to time I would land on another blog or site which featured a few pages from those 1940's books or on rare occasions a full issue.

The DCM is a gold mine though. Free, downloadable, public domain, golden age comics that obviously would be extremely difficult to obtain otherwise. And if the amount of content alone were not enough to impress, having a specific Canadian section is a juicy cherry on the sundae. They made it easy to access the early issues of Triumph Comics (among others) and our title character in particular, Captain Wonder.


Vernon Miller's Iron Man is considered the first Canadian superhero. But Captain Wonder is the first mask-and tights type. And while Iron Man was created by a Canadian, he lived in the ocean (???). "Capt. Wonder" (as his name was usually written), on the other hand, was in-your-face Canadian. To wit:


Did you pick up that he was a young Canadian going back to Canada to fight Canadian evil? In Canada?

Our boy had the strength of 100 men, great wisdom and speed, the power to fly like a bird and swim like a fish (which has to be better than swimming like iron).

He may not have had many appearances but it's still surprising to me that he's not better known. Not that our first lady Nelvana and Johnny Canuck don't deserve their iconic status, but this guy was our Superman! Dude should have been on a stamp or something! ;-)

Alpha Flight Eaglemoss figurines

Comics are not my life. They're not even my primary interest/hobby. So with every post I wonder if I'm not stating the obvious to people who know far more than I do about the subject matter. But I have found very little mention of this collectible so I'm forging ahead.

The Eaglemoss Classic Marvel Figurine Collection (there's a DC version as well) is a combination of a lead figurine, about 3 inches in height, and 16-page (at least in this case) magazine. Eaglemoss is based in the UK and do not ship to Canada, making the acquisition of their product a little more tricky.

It is, however, worthwhile in my opinion. I purchased the Snowbird one on e-bay and am very pleased with it.


Now truthfully, the figurine doesn't fully stand up to extreme scrutiny. For instance, here's the paint job around the top part of the boots on the one I bought.


A little sloppy. If you're anal about that sort of thing, then you might want to take that into consideration. And it may be that I got a lower quality one. Whatever.

I love the magazine though. Both facets of her history (creation by John Byrne and adventures since) are explained thoroughly. The tone is light but it is still done respectfully which, as any Alpha Flight fan knows, has not always been the case for our team.

The magazine also provides an overview of enemies and allies and a checklist of key and/or prominent appearances including, but not limited to, Wolverine First Class #5 and the Astonishing Tales digital comic.

Overall, it's a quality package. Besides, anyone who can untangle the continuity of any Alpha Flight member in a mere 16 pages deserves major respect on that basis alone!

There is a Guardian figurine available, a very hairy Sasquatch / Puck combo (see below), which I believe was only released last fall and Northstar and Aurora are apparently now available (I had read about an April in-store date)!


I think it won't be long until these decorate my nerd den.

Save the Date

Well, this pretty much puts previous concerns about the extent of Northstar's role in Astonishing X-Men to rest!

It appears that he and his partner Kyle are getting married. Considering the lengths taken to mask Northstar's homosexuality in the past, this is quite the leap for Marvel.

It's also not quite the sort of thing that I tend to buy comics for, but what the hell. Marvel has an opportunity to do something memorable here, either good or bad. Let's hope they don't drop the ball. And if nothing else, I look forward to seeing the guest list!

Did Alpha Flight fans bother reading this?

I'm sure that following the end of the Omega Flight book, Alpha Flight fans were aware that Michael Pointer's story would be continued in Marvel Comics Presents issues one through 12 in eight-page installment. But were any of them actually interested in reading it?

Never mind the American-in-the-Guardian suit controversy for a while. Oh, and that to the best of our knowledge at the time, Pointer killed Alpha Flight, making them look foolish in the process, for no better reason than shock value.

The problem with Pointer is that he's quite lame. Even knowing that he inadvertently destroyed his Alaskan town, including his mother (I beleive, and can't be bothered to look it up) it's still hard to feel sorry for the guy because he's such a drip.

Still, I grabbed the trade a while after it came out. I don't know how long after, because I didn't even know it WAS coming out.

So if you haven't bothered with the continued adventures of Michael Pointer to this point, should you, now that most of Alpha has gone dark again?

The compilation includes the Omega Flight chapter of Civil War: The Initiative. So again, if you didn't pick that up because it was only a small part of the comic, it's available here.

In terms of appearances by Alpha favourites...Not much to report. Sasquatch appears most prominently in chapters three, nine and 12, if my memory is sound but very little in the other ones. Talisman, who was in the Omega Flight book, is a notable no-show, yet USAgent and Arachne (or whatever the hell her name is) are all over the book.

The story defines Pointer's abilities far better and provides what could have been a satisfying conclusion to his tale of sorrow (I understand he has resurfaced in Dark X-Men, at least briefly). It's a good enough read, but if you avoided it because you thought it would have too little to do with Alpha Flight, I see little cause for you to question your decision. This one is for extreme completists only.

Heralds of Canada

Earlier this week, I received a bundle of back issues I purchased from Mile High Comics.

Among them was the Canadian Ninja book I mentioned a while back. The only other title produced by that company was also included: Heralds of Canada.


Any comment I've been able to find about Canadian Ninja underscored the terrible spelling and clunky dialogue within. Evidently, it's not exclusive to that title; it's all over the Heralds book as well.

The peculiar thing is...the books have different writers. So I suspect what we had here is someone relying entirely too much on an early version of Google Translate. As a result, you have lines of dialogue like "You're good at that, don't you?" and "We won't be that lucky when the boss will know that his month's delivry (sic) has been destroy".

Yikes.

Mind you, the publisher's mailing address is in lovely (presumably) St. Gabriel de Brandon, QC, a town that...huh...I've never heard of before. According to Wikipedia, which as we all know, is NEVER wrong, the town's 1991 population (the year closest to the 1987 publication dates of these two books) was a cramped 2161. Less than 1% of them lists English as a first language and clearly, Herald's writer was not among them.

But could someone not find one of the 20 anglophones around town to look over the book before publishing it? It would take that one English-speaking person all of four seconds to point out that the book reads like "le shit".

You kind of wonder what could have been. Some of the art reminded me of Ron Lim's work on Ex-Mutants a few years later. Long thin legs, heels, Elvira-sized hair...


On the other hand, they clearly couldn't even differentiate between a foreword and a spoiler.


The Bombardier's chef? What, the guy who prepares dinner on a train?

So to be entirely honest, the book probably still would have sucked in proper English, but at least it would have been easier to read. It's still fun in the same way that watching a Spike TV show about kids falling off skateboards is funny. You know, that whole "a failure so epic that it's almost a success" thing. Hell, if the other issues were available, I'd get them. Unintentional comedy is still funny.