Alpha Flight: 17 Dreams Die Hard

Alpha Flight #17

Originally price: .60

Current price: $1.00

Written and Drawn (mostly) by John Byrne

Ah Alpha Flight, I'll confess I've always had a love of the super-team from north of the border.  From their first appearance in the X-Men to their solo series, there was just something about them that I found intriguing.  Perhaps it was because unlike the Avengers or the Defenders the members of Alpha Flight didn't have other books or maybe it was just because they were Canadian and Canada is cool.  Whatever the reason I really loved the Alpha Flight book at least until Byrne left.  Then it really seemed to lose it's heart.

So we begin with Heather recovering in the hospital talking about her late husband the Guardian, whoops at this time he wasn't the Guardian he wasn't even Vindicator he was simply Weapon Alpha.  Yet another reminder of Wolverines messy continuity.

James is modeling his new superhero duds when he get's shocking news.  Weapon X has left and in doing so caused $5 worth of damage to a guards polyester tie.

Well now what to do?  Leave Wolverine to work through his own issues or violently confront him.  Hmm, this being a comic book I wonder which they'll choose.

We then get a fight lifted directly from the pages of X-Men #109.

Did you know that Guardian's battle suit is the ultimate product of Canadian technology?  Take that RIM.  Meanwhile in another part of the forest some of the other X-Men are enjoying some much needed downtime.

Did you know Peter was from the Soviet Union?  You can tell because he says "Lenin's ghost."  A common Soviet swear.

I love those last four panels.  Now that's some good layouts.  Guardian is then attacked by Storm as well.  He tries to strike back with his force beams but they ricochet off of Colossus and hit Moria.  Hanging out with the X-Men is a dangerous business.  Banshee is not pleased with Major Maple Leaf.

Guardian decides that discretion is the better part of valor and bids a retreat by neutralizing gravity's pull on him.  Believe it or not after his death a popular theory was he used some version of this trick to escape despite all evidence to the contrary.

We then cut back to the hospital where Heather is talking to Wolverine.

Heather is still racked with guilt over her husbands death and quite frankly Wolverine's speech isn't helping.  Luckily Puck shows up with the worst idea ever, Heather should lead Alpha Flight.  Which of course she immediately agrees to.

Did I say that was the worst idea ever?  I mean experimenting on your mentally ill girlfriend is the worst idea ever.  I mean who in their right mind would ever do that.

Oh yeah Walter Langkowski, worst boyfriend ever.

And just like that Aurora's powers are altered.  I can't see how this could possibly go wrong.

Letters!  Where everyone talks about AF #12.

And that's that.  Now let's talk about John Byrne.  Without a doubt one of the most influential comic artists and writers of the 70s and 80s.  His run on the Fantastic Four is legendary, as is his X-Men work, and of course the rebooting of the Superman franchise with Man of Steel I love his work.  His layouts are generally great.  His panels convey a since of dynamism.  It's simply fun to read.  But there's always been something that bothered me about some of his works and wasn't until I saw this comic and saw his pencils with two different inkers that I figured in out.   John Byrne shouldn't ink his own stuff.

Exhibit one: the coma shaped mouth:

Exhibit 2 extra lines:

Of course this is not to say that John Byrne isn't a good artist but like many good pencillers he needs a good inker to "clean up" his work.

Bonus:  Hey network exec you know what's a great idea?  Let's have Richard Pryor host Saturday morning cartoons.

I want to see a death match between Richard Pryor and this stupid NBC peacock.  Let's compare the lineups.  I match up the Snorks vs the Get Along Gang, Pryor's Place vs Going Bananas, Mr. T vs Donkey Kong, Pink Panther and Sons vs Q-Bert, Spider-Man vs Dungeon and Dragons, the Smurfs vs the Muppet Babies, and Space Ace vs Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Looks like a clean sweep for CBS with the possible exception of Spider-Man.   

Extra Bonus: Frogger II THREEDEEP  Beyond the pond what the hell does that mean.  In Frogger you were obviously crossing a river.

Next Time: The Hero Who Could Be You!