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Craig Earl
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1246
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | 1
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Agreed, Andrew. Mantlo was just a horrible fit for Alpha Flight (conversely, I remember his early White Tiger stuff and the character's appearances in Peter Parker, which I enjoyed).
AF just seemed to have a different flavour to the rest of the Marvel universe (slightly 'apart', a little like Moore & Davis' Captain Britain).
JB's run remains the benchmark, with no one else coming close (the Claremont/Smith X-Men/AF mini was the best of the rest).
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3137
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | 2
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It was a whiplash of a transition. I can sort of appreciate the idea of trying something different, but what was delivered was so off base with the initial JB run that I couldn't engage with it at all. All the characters behaved out of character, things that had been open mysteries were answered badly, and things that were already narrative done deals were exhumed and carelessly heaped back in their coffins. Even Mignola's art couldn't keep me buying, though admittedly that was a little bit before he became, y'know, MIKE MIGNOLA.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15787
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | 3
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Looking back it's amazing how little time it took from AF for him to become MIKE MIGNOLA. By 1988 he was doing the A Death in the Family covers, which to me look like his famous style.
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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8030
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | 4
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JB made me care about the characters, so I stuck around for a bit.
But the final issue (and straw) for me was the one where Roger Bochs of all people went insane.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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Posts: 3137
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | 5
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I'd been following Mignola a little bit before he started his AF run, having first seen him on the Rocket Raccoon mini, and I really enjoyed his art on that. To such a degree that adjusting to his mature style took me a little time.
Weird how time seems so expansive when you're a kid - in my mind, there were ages between his Rocket Raccoon and Alpha Flight runs, but a quick lookup shows there were only a couple of months between the last issue of the former and his first of the latter.
Edited by Dave Kopperman on 11 January 2023 at 9:58pm
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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 30894
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| Posted: 11 January 2023 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | 6
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I was sold on Mignola from his HULK run.
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Harry Dounis
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Joined: 06 October 2022
Location: United States
Posts: 93
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 12:21am | IP Logged | 7
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Viewing anything after issue #28 as fan-fiction as Andrew said is the only way I can see enduring that dumpster fire. Now if only JB would grace us with another run or an Elsewhen...
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Andrew Bitner
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Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7482
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | 8
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Honestly, that's how I would restart (not reboot) the book:Judd is sitting in a chair reading a pile of ALPHA FLIGHT comics and laughing his ass off. Glances at the reader and says "They sure had some funny ideas about what we were doin' up here, ay?" Next panel, we see he's talking to Hudson, who gives him a rueful smile. "Well, after Department H agreed to license our 'adventures' to a publisher... and we didn't have a whole lot of big adventures... I guess it was inevitable." Then we see Mac now has a prosthetic leg (courtesy of Madison Jeffries) and some visible injuries--we find out how he got those later--and we settle into the first story arc: THE REAL STORY. And, for those who liked AF's stories post-JB, it would NOT say that those stories didn't happen... but that something else was going on and there's a continuity apart from all of that. (I'm not a fan of the overworn trope 'everything you know is a lie!' because that's really disrespectful to creators who were doing their best, even if their best wasn't very good.)
Edited by Andrew Bitner on 12 January 2023 at 1:50pm
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Joe Smith
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Joined: 29 August 2004
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Posts: 6598
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | 9
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Just grateful for the whole 28 and the time it came out being my early to
mid teens. It grew me up good.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | 10
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I'm glad JB was on the book as long as he was. AF was a special book in his hands and, for my money, never flew as high as when he wrote and drew it.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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Posts: 3137
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 11
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The odd thing about JB's Alpha Flight is that it feels intimate and personal, which is surprising as JB has said that he didn't really feel that connected (is that the right word?) to it. The book ended up being a major stepping stone for me from superhero books to 'alternative' comics, and from my childhood love of comics as stories to my adult appreciation of comics as an art form.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 12 January 2023 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | 12
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If AF feels “intimate and personal” it’s probably because I wasn’t drawing (no pun) on decades of established Marvel lore. I was very literally making it up as I went along, which meant some deep dives into my own head.
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