Alpha Flight #9

Alpha Flight #9
Writing: Steve Seagle

Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down:  Alpha Flight’s supervisor General Clarke, who bears an uncanny resemblance to DC’s Lex Luthor, is overseeing Alpha Flight through the robot Manbot’s cameras.  In the cockpit of their Alphajet, the team discusses how they need to keep a low profile to avoid sparking an international incident in the U.S.  They are supposedly tracking Wolverine through his adamantium skeleton, although all the fans know this is a lie because Wolverine doesn’t have adamantium bones any more.  They also discuss the video footage they saw of Wolverine killing Madison Jeffries.

Back at Department H, an aide interrupts General Clarke, saying it’s about a new harvest named Lilli.  Clarke calms the Lilli, who is trying to escape, and insists she can leave at any time.  She is then sedated under the pretense of removing a security mark.

We get the same scenes from Uncanny #355 of Wolverine confronting the team, with some minor added dialogue between the Alpha Flight characters.  Clarke observes that Wolverine smells Guardian, and the audio and video cut out for a moment.  After Wolverine drives off, we get to see an argument between the members of Alpha Flight before Guardian flies off to confront him.

There is an interlude with the mutant Sunfire talking on the phone with someone.  He reveals that he has been in Canada getting treated by Dr. Huxley, and he has discovered he is dying of radiation poisoning.

The fight between Wolverine and Alpha Flight occurs exactly as it did in Uncanny #355 with Rogue flying by and retrieving the X-Men to help Wolverine, except of course the art is a little different.  The one difference is that we get to see what Murmur saw when she examined Maggott’s mind…it’s a dark room with lots of tentacles in it.  Cannonball and Flex stop the fight, and General Clarke demands to be informed when the team arrives.

How It Was:  I don’t really know how to label this one.  It’s not so much a crossover as a reinterpretation of the same events from a different team’s point of view.  That’s actually a really interesting idea, and in a story where both sides have competing agendas, this format would work pretty well.  Given that Alpha Flight’s members are so clearly in the wrong in both issues, it’s not quite as effective.  The worst offense of all is that this issue isn’t solicited at all in Uncanny #355.  If you’re going to try to cash in on the popularity of the X-Men, wouldn’t a good place to start be to tell X-Men fans to buy this comic?

As for the different perspective, the majority of this issue is a scene for scene rehash of Uncanny #355.  Most of the different scenes are just exposition setting up why Alpha Flight is after Wolverine, which was already clearly defined in the beginning.  I will admit to being somewhat intrigued about the overall conspiracy driving the plot.  Parts of it make me think that it might be a precursor to the plot of the Weapon X ongoing in the mid-2000s, although that certainly can’t be the case.  The only problem with this is that Clarke is such a generic evil military-type that I don’t have much faith in this going anywhere ambitious.  However I do like the setup of Sunfire dying of radiation poisoning, although it feels like that might belong more in an X-Men comic.

We do get to see a little more of the dynamics of the Alpha Flight team.  Younger James Hudson isn’t an uncontested leader, Radius has problems with lots of team members, and Manbot is a spy directly under Department H’s control.  Oddly enough, plot points from the X-Men issue aren’t explained for the sake of Alpha Flight readers; nobody ever mentions that Sauron is the one in the bag, and the reveal of Maggott’s mind being just a room of tentacles is a real let down.  I don’t even think the issue explains who the X-Men are or defines their members like the Uncanny issue clearly defined Alpha Flight.  The art’s good, although the coloring is a little dark and muddy at times. 

This is just a weird experiment that was poorly executed.  It might’ve made more sense as a two-part crossover, but it feels weird to have these two teams come together and then have no real resolution.  I can’t say that the story makes me feel strongly about either of the teams; it feels really abrupt and rushed. 

C-

Uncanny X-Men #355

Uncanny X-Men #355
Writing: Steve Seagle

Art: Chris Bachalo

What Went Down:  We start with a clever bookend involving the answering machine at the Xavier Institute.  We hear messages of Nightcrawler saying hi, department of education inspector Margaret Stone talking about a representative staying at the facilities, and Jean wanting to alert the group about their adventures in #352. 

Meanwhile, Wolverine has decided to chain Sauron up in a burlap blanket and drive him on his motorcycle to the authorities.  Sauron tries to get out of it, mentioning their time together in the Savage Land, but a low-flying aircraft interrupts them. 

In Manhattan, Rogue is meeting with Dr. Agee, a scientist who says he has a cure for being a mutant.  Rogue doesn’t fully trust him, as shown by her clever alias of Ms. Smith, but she does allow him to take a DNA sample. 

Wolverine continues riding until he is confronted by Alpha Flight--Canada’s premier super team. Alpha Flight has been tasked by the Canadian government to bring in Wolverine for killing their teammate Madison Jeffries; unknown to the team, their bosses at Department H are brainwashing them and faked the footage of Jeffries being murdered.  Wolverine goes through all the team members to introduce them to new readers, then nonchalantly ignores them and drives off.

All the way in Alaska, Jean is outside crying in her Phoenix uniform; she has also summoned a pretty large and fiery Phoenix effect.  Cyclops apologizes for yelling at her and tries to make her understand that he has a lot of bad memories associated with the Phoenix uniform.  Jean insists that she is claiming the Phoenix identity to empower herself and overcome the ghosts of Dark Phoenix and Madelyne Pryor

Believing he has convinced Alpha Flight not to pursue him, Wolverine is surprised when the team attacks.  AF members Murmur and Sasquatch catch Sauron making a run for it and stop him.  Rogue just happens to be flying home from Dr. Agee’s and spots Wolverine fighting all of Alpha Flight.  She flies off to get more X-Men. 

Wolverine holds his own against the team.  During the fight, Alpha Flight is shocked to notice that Wolverine has bone claws because Department H told them they were tracking his adamantium signature.  Wolverine points out that James and Heather Hudson have both examined him since he lost the metal skeleton, so they should already know his bones and claws aren’t metal anymore.  They seem to be coming to a consensus when Sasquatch attacks.

The X-Men show up to save Wolverine.  During the fight, Cannonball and Flight member Flex stop to discuss what the fight is all about.  At the same time Maggott gets beaten up (again) and Murmur tries reading his mind, but this causes her to scream.  Cannonball yells for everyone to stop fighting, and he and Flex explain that Wolverine and the X-Men were captives of Operation Zero Tolerance at the time the murder was supposed to have taken place.  Alpha Flight starts to realize that they are being manipulated.  Wolverine and Storm offer to help the team if they need it.  Wolverine also notes that Sauron has disappeared.

The issue ends with Cyclops leaving a message on the machine about his concerns for Jean.

How It Was:  Real quick to get out of the way…there is a minor continuity issue with this story.  It’s obviously written to take place right after Uncanny #354, with Rogue leaving to the Agee Institute and Scott and Jean fighting.  However, X-Men #73 has to take place in between these two issues because Joseph is there in #354, but gone in this issue.  You can write it off as Rogue making two trips, but it’s clear that this is her first meeting with Agee and the writer intended for this to be a continuous story.

Anyways, this is a tried-and-true example of a writer trying to leverage the popularity of a successful comic to boost the sales of a flagging one.  Steven Seagle was the writer of both Uncanny and Alpha Flight, and at the time the X-titles were consistently #1 and #2 in comic sales monthly.  It makes sense that you’d try to expose your less popular characters in a more popular book, and the two teams did have a history together, so it wasn’t totally out of the blue.

Just for some background, Seagle’s Alpha Flight involved a new team that was being manipulated by their handlers at Department H; any time the team would start to catch on, they’d be subdued and brainwashed to forget.  So we have our premise, where Department H wants Wolverine, so they come up with a false reason to compel Alpha Flight to action.

As an introduction to Alpha Flight from an X-Men point of view, it’s not very strong.  None of the characters really get to shine, Radius is a jerk, Flex is a wimp, and the other characters aren’t very well defined personality-wise.  The twist of Wolverine’s bones not being metal makes no sense since the team is obviously tracking him somehow, so why would their shady manipulators choose to create a lie that would be so quickly found out?  Wolverine hasn’t had metal claws or bones for almost five years at this point.  On the other hand, it doesn’t really make sense that Wolverine would take Sauron out on his bike by himself.  Can’t he just call the authorities and have Sauron taken away?

So the plot’s not strong, but that doesn’t matter because we all know the real purpose for this issue is some hot hero-on-hero action.  So how does it rate as a big, dumb fight scene?  Well…not spectacular.  The scenes with Wolverine fighting Alpha Flight are pretty fun, but once the other X-Men show up it soon devolves.  Storm takes out Vindicator with one lightning bolt, and the X-Men are able to pretty much dominate even though they’re outnumbered eight to five.  Except for Maggott, who once again gets taken out.  Even worse, the story struggles to find something to do with Sauron, but winds up just having him disappear.  Still, I will admit that I do have a soft spot for Alpha on X fights, even if this isn’t the best example of one.

The art is pretty good, although sometimes Bachalo’s distorted style looks off.  Dr. Agee’s head is just way too big, and Puck and Wolverine don’t seem to be proportioned right.  As a marketing ploy, I can’t say that this was too successful, as I can’t really see this inspiring too many people to pick up Alpha Flight.  There was even a tie-in issue to this story that was so poorly advertised that I, the X-enthusiast, didn’t pick it up until years later because I was unaware of its existence.  There’s a lot of weird plot mechanics going on with this one, but it is an amusing distraction as a big, dumb fight.

C+