Join The Super Alliance!

It's kind of nice, from time to time, to get some Canadian superhero goodness in a format other than comics. 

The Super Alliance is a Vancouver-based web series that I found while browsing Indiegogo.com for Canadian content.  It's fairly new; the oldest video appearing on their youtube page dates back to only three weeks ago.

Let's cut to their pitch for a second...  

John Jupiter, a young eccentric television host, abruptly discovers that he has superpowers. He is invited to join the Super Alliance, a mysterious band of misfits who also possess superpowers.

John reluctantly joins the Super Alliance in their adventures as they all attempt to come to terms with the conditions of their existence.

...And cue the video!



So we have no Captain this and Doctor that.  We have "Jason" and "Rob" as part of a small group of ordinary people who can do extraordinary things for reasons as yet unrevealed.  In fact, judging from the second episode (also available for viewing) there is a fair amount that has yet to be revealed.

Entertaining stuff.  Of course, you can keep track of their progress through Facebook and Twitter.

Box Jr.

Credit to the alphaflight.net, through their Twitter account, for drawing my attention to "a classic Alpha Flight character's legacy" appearing in Marvel Comics' "Infinity: The Hunt" book.  Even assuming (accurately) that the character's contributions would be minimal, I had to pick up the book out of curiosity.

And I have to admit I was rather surprised.

Roger Bochs Jr studies at the Braddock Academy.  He represents the Academy in what is meant to be a version of the Contest of Champions mini-series from 1982.  In this story, various schools (including Avengers Academy, the Future Foundation, the Jean Grey School, etc.) are preparing to compete against one another for "the ultimate title of...champion!"

While never a personal favourite, to the best of my knowledge the Box character was quite popular.  It was refreshing, and easy to appreciate, having a paraplegic character on a superhero team.

But like many Alpha Flight characters during Bill Mantlo's run, much of what made Roger Bochs appealing was gradually striped away.  He was killed off in issue #49 of the original series.  The Box armour lived on through Madison Jeffries and his abilities to control metal, but Bochs was a one of those rare deaths that actually stuck.

That the Box armour would resurface is not cause for surprise, but that Roger Bochs had a son is, at least to me.  I'm going to look, but I can not recall any mention of a significant relationship in his background, much less having a kid.   Hopefully the series touches on that during its remaining three issues.

It also leads me to thinking of what could have been.  In the insultingly stupid third volume of Alpha Flight, it was revealed that Puck had a daughter.

Yeah, aside from that, you couldn't tell them apart.

Now "Puck II" appeared to be among the Flight characters killed in Avengers #16 (2006) but we all know how that goes.  Hell, Guardian alone has died about five times.

Shaman's daughter Talisman has already been a member of the team (and of Omega Flight, for that matter).  If the second Puck were to be revived, that would already be three second-generation characters.  And a varied bunch at that.

According to this Hunt series, there are "super schools" in Japan, England, Wakanda and in a number of locations in the United States.  Why not Canada?  If Marvel is fairly convinced that the Alpha Flight "brand" is dead, then perhaps a team of youngsters, many of whom have ties to the original team, is the method by which they can rejuvenate it.

ICYMI Art - Acadia by Donald Caron

Sweet maple syrup is Donald Caron ever good.

The Heroes of the North team revealed the gem below yesterday.

Right click and open this in another window.  The quality is excellent.

As stated on the fundraising campaign page, the image is inspired by Acadia's origin story in the second omnibus.  Some of those books were difficult to find in stores so if you wanted to get your mitts on them, now would be a good time.  The three are being offered for $35 in total (shipping included) among the perks.  It should be pointed out that each book is 80 pages in length.

If that's a little rich for your blood, you might want to try the 15 for 15 (dollars) deal. All of the season one comics are offered in pdf format.  I don't know specifically which stories that includes, but I suspect most of them are origins of the various characters, so if you have yet to sample the HOTN product, this is a good way of going about it.

Frostbite, the Young Hero In Love

Yet another Canadian character on DC's roster that most people aren't aware of.

I found out about Frostbite a few years ago, but well after the Young Heroes in Love series was being published (in 1997 and 1998, for 18 issues in total).  Mind you, a book focused on the romantic relationships of the various characters doesn't appeal to me a great deal, regardless of Canadian content, so I doubt I would have picked it up even if I'd known.

Frostbite was not included during the rundown of DC's heroes characters last year because I believed that he was outside of the company's regular continuity (such as it is).  Turns out that's not the case, apparently the Young Heroes met with Superman (the electric blue version of the time).

Why mention him now?  A gentleman named Matthew Peterson wrote a thorough recap of the series for Major Spoilers.  The page below is among several that were scanned for the article.  Open it in a new window if you find it difficult to read.

Oh, right.  There was some question as to whether Frostbite was gay.  Maybe it was the double nipple rings.

You can probably accurately guess at his power set.  We get a bit more of his background among the final pages of the series.  It is also confirmed that he's "a horny monkey".

So there you have it.  The team has hardly been seen since the conclusion of the series and according to Wikipedia "It has been rumored that DC has returned character rights to (creators Dan) Raspler and (Dev) Madan".  That I know of, there are no plans to bring them back.

Northern Light will return too!

As much as I enjoy my Canada-focused comics info gathering, whenever I go away for a few days, I set it aside entirely.  But when I know I'm about to return home, I can't wait to get at it again.  I'm like a kid staring at the clock during the early hours of Christmas morning, waiting to see what surprises are in store.  There's always something interesting to come back to.

Earlier this week, I was pleased to learn that the Nelvana stories from the 40's would be reprinted.  This weekend, the surprising news was provided by James Waley in a comment to a brief post from last year about the Northern Light character.  You can read the complete comment here but I want to focus on the part below specifically (for now, at least).

...you might be interested in the fact that Jim Craig and I will be doing a short, 6 page, full-colour story on the NL in this upcoming fundraiser anthology, ONE TRIBE, I'm putting together ...https://www.facebook.com/OneTribeAnthology ... check it out and give it a LIKE, okay?...

Okay. :-)

Though this is the first I hear of it, the anthology has been in the planning stages for some time.  Click the image below to view a press release which includes larger images and a more detailed list of contributors.  Judging from that list, this anthology will not be lacking imagination, talent or variety. 

Please note that the crowdfunding dates are no longer accurate.  Join the Facebook group to stay up to date on the project's progress.