Our Semi-Regular Look at Marvel and DC's Upcoming Offerings

We've known for some time that some original members of Alpha Flight were going to appear in this most recent volume of Captain Marvel. The first issue hits shelves on Wednesday but Comic Book Resources filled us in a few days ago when they displayed the preview material below.

It shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but why the hell are Alpha Flight's names so hard to get right? Marjorie Lu botched Northstar's in her X-Men book, and now these writers get Aurora's wrong.

It's Jeanne-Marie. "Jean" is a male name.

I know it doesn't affect the story and is largely irrelevant. But it would have taken 30 seconds to Google her "real" name to ensure you have it right. As it is, it shows a lack of care. And if you don't care, I don't.

And yet they got Langkowski right. Go figure.

Three editors credited on this book, by the way, in addition to two writers. Five people combined whiffed on that error.

Meanwhile DC has decided that if you can't beat them, join them. Marvel leans on its wars, whether Secret or Civil? Well, let's recreate some of our past events too, such as...Bloodlines!!

Written by J.T. Krul
Art and cover by V. Ken Marion
On sale APRIL 6 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T 

When a meteor crashes to Earth, bringing with it an unspeakable alien presence that terrorizes a nearby small town, the lucky ones die first. As for the rest, they find themselves locked in a hellish struggle for control of their bodies and their minds. This isn’t just an invasion. It’s an infestation. What would you do if the greatest threat to humanity was hidden away inside you? 

Award-winning writer J.T. Krul (Teen Titans, Green Arrow, Jirni) and superstar-in-the-making V. Ken Marion (All New Soulfire, Jirni) bring you their dark and horrifying science-fiction epic about tortured souls who are cursed to a fate worse than death...much worse.

You remember the original Bloodlines, right? It was intended to launch a whole bunch of new characters and...it failed miserably to do so. But for TSOG purposes, it did deliver some Sparx!

See what I did there?

I've posted about this character a bit in the past. Her real name is Donna Force (nice and easy to remember) and she came from a family of Superheroes based out of the fictional town of Timberton (I believe) in British Columbia.

The above cover to the first issue of Bloodlines certainly seems to indicate that we'll be seeing a redesigned version of her in the book. Honestly, while she's appeared sporadically here and there since her first appearance in 1993, I was convinced we'd seen the last of her.

But who knows if her original origin will have stuck? They made Adam and Alana Strange Canadian, they can certainly decide that Sparx is American, right?

That could be a Canadian setting on that cover. But the infestation is said to hit a particular town. Are all the characters from that one town? If so, I find it hard to believe they'll place it in Canada.

Hey, maybe Donna's just on her way to a shopping trip or concert in Seattle! Whatever works.

ICYMI Art: Alpha Flight by Marcelo Mueller

I particularly like the way Guardian came out on this:

It's been up on deviantart since August 20th, but only has a little over 100 views at this point.  Criminal. ;-)

ICYMI Art: Alpha Flight by Paul Pelletier

Still stalling while I catch up on my reading.  :-)

The image below was tweeted by the Alphaflight.net's Twitter account and originates from this tumblr page.

Guardian / Captain Britain by Toni Solanes

There's your dream Marvel team-up book.

This picture has been floating around for a while, but the comicartfan version had only 17 views when I came across it.  Can't have that. ;-)

All I know about artists Toni and Javi Solanes is that they are from Spain (and that is based on their deviantart profiles).  Guardian shows up in other artwork pieces from Toni, though unfortunately that does not include the "all-time favourites" folder.  It does, however, include the Alpha Flight pinup below...

...and an interesting one of a number of heroes teaming to take down Namor and Cyclops.

But then, as you can see, Toni uses Guardian as his avatar so perhaps we have more Guardian / Alpha Flight art coming.

Spring Vacation Reading part 2: Weapon-X The Underground TPB

I began picking up Weapon-X issues on the cheap for the simple reason that the series involves several Canadian characters, good and bad, including a few members of Alpha Flight.

I started with the Aurora and Wild Child "draft" issue, then gradually acquired issues 1-5 (The Hunt for Sabretooth) of the regular series.  I stopped by Silver Snail in Ottawa earlier in the week and, as they tend to sell their graphic novels at 20% of the U.S. price, could not resist getting The Underground.  It collects issues 6-13 of the series in one relatively inexpensive shot.

Is it any good?  Well, it depends...

If you're a big Alpha Flight fan, you likely already know all about the series.  Let's assume you are, but that you don't.

Will you get to see some of those characters that you love?  Sure!  In addition to the two named above, Madison Jeffries also appears.  He is not seen often, mind you, but his role is quite significant.

You just may not like what you see.

Keeping things relatively spoiler-free (and starting with the draft issue), Aurora starts as a drooling vegetable that the program attempts to rehab.  She is physically brutalized on two occasions.  Wild Child is little more than a recipient of both physical and mental abuse, depending on who happens to do the abusing.  Madison Jeffries is essentially brainwashed into assisting the Weapon-X program to commit atrocities.  Diamond Lil has a cameo...in which she is beaten into submission.  That's a lot of abuse to witness in only 14 issues.

So there are plenty of Canadian characters featured (Garrison Kane, while not a personal favourite, is another).  The story has a number of surprises, twists, betrayals, etc.  On that basis, I personally enjoyed the book a lot.

But if you are attached to these characters, you certainly won't see them in their best light.

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.

Register Now - It's The Law!

Closing gaps in my Alpha Flight collection recently, I got my hands on the bagged #120 from the original series, which included the poster below. I could care less about potential future value; I buy comics to read them. So I tore into that sumbitch like Wolverine on Christmas morning.


If you're one of these people that don't open bagged books, click on the picture to see a larger version of what you bought two decades ago. ;-) There was some cropping required down the right side.

I like a flag-wearer, and I like a consistent look within a team...but I'm not sure I like the two together, at least in this case.

Puck should look like one; that was the point of his original uniform. And I doubt an in-character separatist Northstar would have worn that outfit with a gun to his head (perhaps he justified it within the book. If he did, I either am not aware of it or have forgotten it entirely).