Mr Byrne;

Suppose, if you will, that 25 years ago the pitch for an Alpha Flight team book was denied and no series was ever published.  Alpha Flight had appeared in Xmen a couple times, a few other appearances here and there, and over the past 25 years, nothing really happening with them except the occasional appearance to allow Marvel to keep copyright - the product largely unchanged.

Suppose, if you will, that TODAY a Marvel existed you would work for and they asked you to do a team book of Alpha Flight.

Given your history of story telling, character development, character creation, etc.  Given your additional 25 years of enhanced skill and talent as a creator - Is there anything TODAY that you would definitely do differently with the dynamics of the team in APLHA FLIGHT #1 (and onwards).  Would it be a darker book (more like Next Men)?  Would Northstar's homosexuality be as hidden in sub-text.  Would Guardian still be on the chopping block?  Would Puck and Marina still be there?  Would there be any costume or design changes?

I guess a easy way to summarize (in a way) -- if the existing Alpha Flight was Earth 2 - what would the Earth 1 Alpha Flight be like?

Unfortunately you begin with a false premise. I didn't pitch ALPHA FLIGHT -- Shooter pressured me into doing it. I really had no interest, as I felt the characters worked best in a supporting role.

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Yes, at the time but can't you see you developed something good!  Why has Alpha Flight become such a stench in your taste buds?  Your approach of Alpha Flight was brilliant.  It was a book I could never predict what would happen next, I was so deep into these characters and I love what you did to them through your last issue.  I agree with Nathan, I'm glad shooter pressured you as well because it's the best X title ever made.

BUT… thing is, those characters I created, while perfectly "real" to all of you, will never be "real" to me. Stan and Jack and Steve (et al) didn't create them, so to the 12 year old in my head, they will forever be mere pretenders.

Does this happen to all the characters you have created? I mean the fact that you don't consider them "real"?

I have the "Next Men" in mind, as well as the "Rat Lab" characters?

And if someone else was doing the whole story /art chore? Will you then consider them differently?

>T… thing is, those characters I created, while perfectly "real" to all of you, will never be "real" to me. Stan and Jack and Steve (et al) didn't create them, so to the 12 year old in my head, they will forever be mere pretenders.

Oddly I was thinking about this the other night. I was trying to work out why you are always so down on AF when so many of your fans rave about it so and it clicked with me that as you created them, you will never love them as much as the Silver/Golden age characters that you adore.

To me, as a teenager when I first met Alpha they were as real as the X-Men as they had first appeared in an X-Men comic waaay waaay back in the dawn of time before I started buying comics. ;)

Pascal, the exact phrase escapes me at the moment,* but I do believe it's one of them Latin ones, and at least roughly translates into "and others" or "and the rest" (fairly similar to "etc" (et cetera)).

*  though I guess it could be something like "et alias".