Alpha Flight #1: Are the Voices in Your Head Calling, Gloria?

True north, strong and free! The Fall of X has officially begun! Our friendliest neighbors to the north, and the reformed Dept. H has just got a lot more dangerous than we thought possible. In the wake of the war between mutants and ORCHIS, the newly reformed Alpha Flight team, as well as the new BOX Sentinels. The team also has a new liaison in the likes of Erika Doiron, their very own Val Cooper, of ‘90s X-Factor fame, to help drive the new anti-mutant agenda that’s sweeping through most global administrations after the events of this year’s Hellfire Gala, giving us another bureaucrat that’s not Maria Hill to root against. 

Ed Brisson’s writing this mini, and he’s no stranger to the Merry Marvel Mutants and Alpha Flight, hails from Canada, so I have hope that he’s going to be able to bring that “home team” knowledge that only someone who has a native’s perspective to storytelling with niche characters like Alpha Flight, Winter Guard, or even Excalibur, who can bring a piece of authenticity to the storytelling when describing the locales, or even describing the local cultural experiences that someone who has never been there. It’s why the Claremont and Warren Ellis runs on Excalibur, or John Byrne’s original run hit such a cord with fans, and made this team a fan favorite that lasted 130 issues. 

I feel that because of the lack of familiarity that has made this team more of a cult classic that just hasn’t reached the heights from its heyday. While it’s only the first issue, I have hope that Brisson will be able to tap into that perspective over the course of this mini. He already had me excited after some of those deep cuts, like Janus and Feedback. I hope we get Sasquatch, as well as some of the other longtime missing Alphans, (Heather, Talisman, Madison Jeffries, Diamond Lil, Wild Child, and so on) back before the end of the mini. 

Brisson’s setting the team up for the upcoming war between humans and mutants, with the government sponsored heroes on the side of ORCHIS, but the team’s connection to mutantkind, as well as all of its past members who were mutants doesn’t strike well with the populace, but not everything is as it seems. I’m a huge Alpha Flight nerd, who’s been anxious about the group since their name was co-opted to become a global fail safe for extraterrestrial threats, but that’s been all but forgotten since Empyre dissolved the group to set up the now defunct SWORD book, that broke up after the first Hellfire Gala to make way for X-Men Red, so it’s been a rough couple decades for everyone’s favorite Canadian superheroes. 

Scott Godlewski is on art duties, and he’s putting out some great visuals for Alpha’s fans. I especially like his depiction of Mac’s Guardian. Guardian’s look is just so iconic, one that’s on par with Captain America, Captain Britain, and Union Jack, but he just doesn’t have the story that resonates with Alpha’s fandom. Mac was dead for a large majority of the forty-three years of Alpha’s history, as can be seen during the original run. Since Byrne’s departure, it seems like none of his writers could find a compelling voice, or character arc that can connect him to the readers, like the others have had over the course of their existence.