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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 10:27am | IP Logged | 1
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In a way, I regret that Puck was a member of Alpha Flight. A team, as noted, designed to battle the X-Men... and then a short human.
I love the character. I think he's fantastic, and I think there is an unending font of storylines from him. I'm not entirely sure I can even compare him to another existing character.
But when AF started losing its appeal to Mr. Byrne, that included Puck. No offense intended at all, but if Puck had come up in a different context, I think "The Chronicles of Puck" could still be going strong today. Shucks, that would have worked perfectly as an IDW title, as so many other ideas of Mr. Byrne's did. I would wager that he would be so popular, what reader wouldn't want to check Puck?*
Of Alpha Flight, all of them (save possibly Heather) might have rated a solo strip with some interest; personally, I believe Guardian would have had a pretty good turn of it.**
No character is unusable, and the same for most super teams***. There are stories that would work, and Mr. Byrne is a GENIUS at finding these. But I feel I'd have liked a solo Puck strip even more.
* I'm sorry.
** I have a cover in mind of Guardian, in the blue-and-red outfit facing off against Vindicator. But the setup could be too much Stark vs. Stane, and then where would we be? Not that the cover wouldn't be a classic...
*** I absolutely cannot figure out a good storyline for the Watchmen. Five ordinary humans, with maybe a little tech... and God. Hard to organize that in my head.
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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1251
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 10:37am | IP Logged | 2
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It is to JB's credit that his lack of interest in the characters did not transfer to the printed page. Puck was my favourite Alphan by a mile. I can certainly imagine a solo series with him in a sort of pint-sized Indiana Jones role...
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16432
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 10:40am | IP Logged | 3
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JB wrote:
...When ALPHA FLIGHT was announced--after
years of fan demand--there was a general chorus of
"Not ANOTHER group book!!" from pretty much the
same corners of fandom... |
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I enjoyed your entire run on "Alpha Flight", and I
appreciated even in my youth that you were
experimenting with the team book dynamic. That
noted, though, those "fans" complaining about team
books -- precursors of the idiot Twitter mobs? --
did not represent the majority of fans, they were
just more vocal. Why would somebody who doesn't
like team books buy such a title? Even if it were
just for speculation, why would the actual content
matter in that event?
The fans who were fussing about the team never
getting together were the ones that actually wanted
a team book. I don't think it was the same group
complaining about team books, and just being
fickle.
About your approach to the series, when it first
came out, I picked up on the solo stories thing
that first year. The second year seemed to be more
centered around duos, like a team-up book. I also
noticed each of the first two years ended with a
story that brought the team together. It did make
the team uniting seem like a special event.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132327
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 10:51am | IP Logged | 4
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Those who complain about books they don’t like—instead of simply not buying them—I suspect feel themselves in some way deprived. They associate the space on the rack filled by something they don’t like with that same space holding something they like.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132327
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 10:58am | IP Logged | 5
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Far too much has been built out of my having said Alpha Flight wasn’t “real” to me. All that means—as I have also said—is that they weren’t created by Stan and Jack and Steve. I felt much the same way about the All New, All Different X-Men, though nobody seems to have felt the need to build a deep psychological case out of that. (The X-Men had the advantage, too, of being bonded to the REAL Marvel universe by Scott, Jean, Xavier and occasional others.)
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Jonathan A. Dowdell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 July 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 417
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 11:07am | IP Logged | 6
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Mr. Byrne's Alpha Flight was always fun because the characters were more malleable than the Avengers. Things didn't always return to a neat package at the end of a story.
I stuck with Alpha Flight for a year or so after JB left. I bought the occasional issue between 50 and 100 (I have one or two of the Jim Lee issues). I wonder if Marvel ever thought about (maybe they did?) rebooting as Alpha Force in the 90's - doing a Leifeld treatment to our Canadian team?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132327
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | 7
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"Alpha Force" doesn't quite sound right for a Canadian group--not that I think Marvel would worry about such things.
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Mark McKay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2240
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| Posted: 10 April 2020 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | 8
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I know this is an old trope in regards to Alpha Flight, but I wish JB had worked on more projects that he wasn't really in to.
(After all, isn't my happiness more important than his?)
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Bill Dowling
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2176
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| Posted: 11 April 2020 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | 9
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“*** I absolutely cannot figure out a good storyline for the Watchmen. Five ordinary humans, with maybe a little tech... and God. Hard to organize that in my head.”
Are you familiar with Angel Summoner and the BMX Bandit?
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Philippe Negrin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 August 2007
Location: France
Posts: 2644
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| Posted: 11 April 2020 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | 10
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Very funny
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 878
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| Posted: 11 April 2020 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | 11
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I jumped on board Alpha Flight for two reasons.
First, as a relatively new comic book reader at the time, I was starting to realize that I really liked John Byrne’s stuff. I had read and enjoyed his work on other Marvel titles (Avengers, X-Men, FF), so being able to get in on the ground floor on a comic that he was both writing and drawing was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.
Second, as I started reading AF, it dawned on me that the book was unlike any other “super team” that I had read before. There was very little “team” in the stories, as our host was using those early issues to introduce the main characters, provide the readers some of their backstories, and define the relationships between them.
This was totally different than the super team stories I had read up to that time. In those other titles the characters had already been well established and had gelled as a team. But Alpha Flight was very much a super team that still had its training wheels on. The pieces were all there, but it remained to be seen whether a true team of superheroes could be built from them.
And it made for some terrific reading. The characters were fresh and exciting yet tempered by their own very human flaws. Our host also threw in a ton of guest stars (Namor, the Invisible Girl, Wolverine) to help whet our appetites and provide some linkage to the established Marvel Universe. And he gave us new villains (The Master of the World, The Great Beasts, Omega Flight) that were unlike anything I had seen up to that time.
For a new comic book reader like myself, Alpha Flight was like getting a glimpse of the early days of Marvel when the roads of creativity were wide open. And JB was the best tour guide a guy could ask for.
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Ian David
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 June 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 47
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| Posted: 11 April 2020 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | 12
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I can echo that James. The varied characters and a different dynamic drew me in from one issue. My first issue was Alpha Flight #28. They were different from other team books I had read. #28 began with Diamond Lil, Wild Child, 'Guardian', Flashback et al walking through a mall car park. As far as I was concerned these were the heroes. Despite the costumes they talked amongst each other in a casual way. Then a normal looking guy walks up and crushes a car into a robot with his mind, gives flashback an existential crisis, and prompts 'Guardian' to literally pull his face off and spew his metal guts before wiping the floor with the cast. Cut then to alpha flight proper, a Shaman, his daughter, the Beyonder, a bunch of other costumes - no idea who these are or their powers. But hang on THESE are the heroes and they are all arguing their worries amongst each other? There was a 'real people' in mad circumstances element. I couldnt help but wonder who ARE these people?!
The finale was Box fishing the Hulk from another dimension. Do I need to say any more?
Unfortunately it wasn'’t the same after that.– I’'d joined at the end of JBs run and had more enjoyment tracking down back issues than reading new ones.
Edited by Ian David on 11 April 2020 at 8:38pm
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