B. Radtz
Alpha Flight Special #1 hit in the late spring of 1992, and it gave the team its behind the scenes origin, and it’s all wrapped around this central figure of officer Sean Bernard, who upon the opening of the issue has caught some bad cops who were in the middle of a drug peddling ring. As they had Bernard cornered, it looks like this could be the end of the good officer, when Wolverine, then known as Weapon X, saved his hide by stabbing the officers trying to kill the beleaguered officer.
Convincing the officer to follow him to get to safety, since it’d look like the officer killed the drug dealing officers, he joins the burgeoning superteam, in an undisclosed location (aren’t they always undisclosed?) Bernard tries to go to sleep with his new roommate, one Alexander Thorne, who would go on to become Smart Alec, the smartest man in the world. Thorne can’t seem to stop talking in his sleep, so he heads out to sleep on the couch, and he walks into a nude Snowbird. Narya, the Inuit demigoddess shapeshifter, spooks Bernard, but he’s getting to the weirdness. The next day Weapon X, Bernard, Thorne, a mute girl named Stitch, and Saint Elmo, a self-proclaimed god of the Northern Lights, are sent after Egghead, and his motley crew of US bad guys, attempt to launch a nuclear bomb off on Canadian soil, and the neophyte team, but they’re in way over their heads. The team barely survives, with Saint Elmo sacrificing himself to stop the bomb from going off!
So let’s begin from the beginning: this story was alright. From Alpha Flight alums Scott Lobdell and Simon Furman wrote this story, and while not awful, just didn’t hit its mark. Officer Bernard is your average prototypical white guy in 90’s comics. Full of emotional outbursts, with a loner mentality, mirroring the 90’s tough guys, like Wolverine, the Punisher, Ghost Rider, etc. that were taking the comic buying public by storm in 1992. We also got to see Wolverine in his pre-X-Men era that wasn’t bogged down in stories that didn’t involve mindwipes, and secret bureaucrats who are hell bent on doing anything and everything to create the perfect weapon. The problem is the same issue I had with Scott Lobdell’s other two runs on the book; he just doesn’t understand the team, or its members. It’s something that he also had with his run on Excalibur before Warren Ellis took over. I’m not sure if it’s because he doesn’t understand the cultural changes, but it’s pretty apparent here. Another issue was the use of Egghead, and a couple other B list villains with no ties to the team that took the reader out of the story.
The dream
Luckily not everything involved with this issue was bland or boring. Yes, I’m talking about the art. Pat Broderick is one of those under the radar artists who has had some pretty exemplary performances over the years. He’s been attached to series like the Micronauts, the Legion of Superheroes, Batman, Green Lantern, and so many more, and he’s a proven talent. His work here has crisp, clear lines, and his storytelling skills are exemplary. He’s not one of the big, flashy artists, like Lee, Silvestri, and the rest of the Image crew, where there’s more style than substance, but he’s a solid artist. His work here highlights his craftsmanship, and elevated this book to be more than just mediocre.
