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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132335
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 9:36am | IP Logged | 1
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Were they created for that reason only?
••
Several members of what became Alpha Flight date back to my fan days.
Guardian is chief among them, being created when I was in my early 20s
as the figurehead of a whole line of "Canadian comics" I was hoping to
produce. Snowbird, in very different form, was born around the same
time. Shaman, originally called Chinook (he had only weather-controlling
powers) came next. (There was also a character called Phoenix. No
chance he would ever have made it into Alpha Flight!)
When I was assigned the gig of penciling UNCANNY X-MEN, Chris
Claremont mentioned that Dave Cockrum had an idea that the Canadian
government probably would not be too thrilled to see their multi-million
dollar investment -- Wolverine -- head south as had so many other
Canadian resources. Surely, he suggested, Ottawa would send somebody,
perhaps even a team, to get him back. This sounded like a great idea, to
me, and, of course, I had just the characters to do it. We decided to start
with just one, tho, the leader of the group. Since Marvel at that time was
publishing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY the Powers that Were nixed the
name Guardian, and since my backup, the Canadian Shield, was equally
problematic in the Marvel Universe, he was without a name for a while.
Chris took to calling him "Major Mapleleaf", and Roger Stern said we'd
better come up with a name before that one stuck. Chris then tacked on
"Vindicator", which absolutely did not work for me. What does Canada
need to "vindicate"? I began pushing for the restoration of Guardian, and
eventually pushed that thru.
Before that happened, tho, we had our "sequel" to do, with that group of
Canadians coming down to reclaim Wolverine. I dropped in the renamed
(and power enhanced) Shaman and a redesigned Snowbird, and came up
with Northstar and Aurora (super speed to counter Nightcrawler's
teleportation), and Sasquatch (to balance Colossus) and off we went. In
the process I came up with real names and some backstory for each.
But in my mind, Alpha Flight existed only as a team assembled to fight
the X-Men. When Marvel asked for an Alpha series, I resisted for a long
time. I just didn't see much that could be done with them.
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7627
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 2
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And the latest travesty?
Snowbird slept with Hercules. I kid you not.
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Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 April 2006
Posts: 15539
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 3
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Well said, Brad.
I wonder what AF would be like if JB refused to do the book and Marvel decided to go along with it anyway.
(thanks, Ryan!)
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Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 April 2006
Posts: 15539
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 9:40am | IP Logged | 4
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Brian wrote:
| I think I liked the original story better. |
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Well, it was more plausible, but it played to a stereotype; it was a story that didn't need to be told.
James wrote:
| Snowbird slept with Hercules. I kid you not |
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Sadly, I find it all too easy to believe.
Edited by Paulo Pereira on 16 July 2008 at 9:40am
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Ryan Maxwell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12937
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 9:43am | IP Logged | 5
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Is there some sort of street cred that goes along with sleeping with Hercules?
And SNOWBIRD?!? Nothing, and I mean nothing, in her character would ever bring her to do this. Aurora, sure, I could see that, maybe.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30905
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:06am | IP Logged | 6
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Well, it was more plausible, but it played to a stereotype
***************
Still better than how it turned out. IMO.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30905
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:07am | IP Logged | 7
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And by saying that, I'm not stating that I think all gay men should die of AIDS. I just think with how that particular story progressed, it was the best ending for it.
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Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 April 2006
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:13am | IP Logged | 8
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A better ending could have been just to forget it and have him get better from whatever was ailing him. The elf heritage angle was retconned away at some point, anyway.
Edited by Paulo Pereira on 16 July 2008 at 10:13am
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30905
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:17am | IP Logged | 9
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Well, that's good.
And you're right, of course, about him getting better but that's not much "payoff" for a plotline that seems to have been going and building for a number of months. ( At least according to that article. I've not read the actual issues to be able to say how "major" that thread was or wasn't).
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Greg Reeves
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 February 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1396
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:41am | IP Logged | 10
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The fact that JB isn't too fond of the team or his work on it doesn't bother me, because I've felt for a long time that my most loved concepts are those that the creator wasn't too thrilled about. Consider the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucas felt limited and dissatisfied with a large portion of it. The prequel trilogy, on the other hand, was done "exactly to his liking". I think either limitations to, or some dissatisfaction from the creators leads to a better product (one of the reasons that I was NOT thrilled by the Image books coming out, whereby the creator had full reign to do anything, including coloring techniques and paper quality).
Edited by Greg Reeves on 16 July 2008 at 10:42am
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Tshombe K. Hamilton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 July 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 427
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:47am | IP Logged | 11
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JB's lack of fondness actually was a blessing in disguise...I loved the way he decentralized the team and focused on 2-4 characters per issue and then bring everybody back every 12th(Annual) issue.
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William Byrd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 October 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 165
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| Posted: 16 July 2008 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 12
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JB's Alpha Flight is still my favorite run, favorite characters, and favorite costumes (the Guardian and Snowbird costumes anyway)
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Topic Closed)
