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Topic: Why I liked John Byrne’s Alpha Flight Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Ben Herman
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Posted this earlier today on the FB group Byrne Victims, and it resulted in some interesting discussion. I hope this doesn't get me banned!

So, what is it about Alpha Flight?

I've often found it interesting that so many people love John Byrne's work on Alpha Flight. Yet he personally was not especially fond of the the series. He has explained on several occasions over the years that he only created the characters to be able to survive a fight with the X-Men, he never intended for them to carry their own series, and that he only agreed to do an Alpha Flight book once Marvel told him that they would be getting their own title, with or without him. He's admitted that he feels like he spent over two years struggling to find interesting things to do with the characters, and that he finally left after only 28 issues when he felt he'd just completely run out of ideas.

It sort of brings to mind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was famously vocal about the fact that from a certain point on he was only writing Sherlock Holmes stories to pay the bills, and that he felt the character was distracting attention from his much better, more serious literary works.

Since we have a large gathering of John Byrne fans here, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask what is was about Alpha Flight, the characters and the series, that appealed to so many of us.

Yeah, I said "us." Yeah, I like Alpha Flight, too. To answer my own question, it's because they are such freaking offbeat and quirky and dysfunctional characters, most of them had really interesting and unusual designs, and their series was the most unconventional "team" book you could probably find being published by Marvel in the 1980s. Well, all that, and I thought the Master of the World was a really good, solid, underrated villain. Plus it felt like the various locations in Canada were really exotic and different, especially as 90% of Marvel's characters lived in the vicinity of New York City.

Oh yeah... as a kid I was like "Why did he kill Guardian?!?" But as an adult I end up saying "They should have kept Mac dead!"
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Ted Pugliese
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I became a Byrne victim with Alpha Flight #1.
Absolutely loved the series and have followed him
everywhere since. The death of Guardian was the most
amazing thing I had ever seen in comic book then. I was
totally blown away and couldn't believe it. I mourn for
Mac til this day.

Yes, I call him Mac, and yes, he is dead.
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Ted Pugliese
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

My Guardian

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I hope this doesn't get me banned!

•••

Even if that’s meant as a “joke” it’s tiresome.

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Ben Herman
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Even if that’s meant as a “joke” it’s tiresome.

.....

My apologies.

In any case, some of those Alpha Flight issues were pretty memorable parts of my early years reading comic books. I understand that it was far from your favorite series to have worked on, but a lot of people, myself included, enjoyed the stories you told in those 28 issues.
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I've long said JB's Alpha Flight was my gateway drug into alternative comics.  It was a quiet piece, character focused, a lot of internal meditation.  All the action was there, but the book had a melancholy to it that's difficult to pin down, even before Mac met his fate.
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Ben Herman
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I feel like John Byrne made Alpha Flight more of a "non-team" than even the Defenders. Maybe that was a part of the appeal, that you'd get these solo adventures of unusual, offbeat characters like Puck and Sasquatch, who would never in a million years be able to get their own series.

As for Mac's death, when I was a kid my basic reaction was "Why did he kill Guardian?!?" But as an adult I end up saying "They should have kept Mac dead!" 

Likewise, at the time I didn't appreciate it, but in retrospect John Byrne was a genius to do a fake resurrection of Guardian, and then pull the rug out from under the readers with "Nope, it's actually Delphine Courtney!" You have really got to feel sorry for Heather after all that. Plus when Madison Jeffries finally caught up with "Dark Guardian," wow, that was a really memorable act of revenge he inflicted on that damn robot!
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Bradley Dean
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

As a young gay teen, the world didn't feel like a welcoming place. Reading Alpha Flight and realizing the Northstar was gay I felt like someone understood and was showing me it was alright. I loved looking for Northstar clues. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 05 April 2020 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I’m sorry you had to search! If I’d been allowed to be more bold about Northstar’s sexuality, the whole world might be a better place.

Well, maybe not the whole world, but at least we would have been spared the god awful “reveal” after I left.

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Mal Gardiner
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Posted: 06 April 2020 at 1:40am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I dug Omega Flight, I really did. I enjoyed JB’s run as a whole, but loved the concept of the pissed off members of Beta and Gamma taking any chance to get even, loved the character concepts and loved the double-barrelled names - except Box, who turned out to be the good guy. 
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Leigh DJ Hunt
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Posted: 06 April 2020 at 3:15am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

There's very little I don't love about those 28 issues.

Some favourite things: the art (of course), the colouring, the costume designs, the different places in Canada that it showed me, Omega Flight - especially the ominous build up as they are recruited, Snowbird, the end of #12, the reveal that Mac wasn't back, Smart Alec looking into Shaman's pouch, Tundra, the solo adventures, Sasquatch vs Super Skrull, Heather, Aurora, Puck. 

I could go on...
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Ted Pugliese
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Posted: 06 April 2020 at 7:16am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

In addition to my Guardian commission, I still have
the omnibus and all three trades.








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