Written by Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak
Illustrated by Ben OliverBecause YOU demanded it: Exploding out of FEAR ITSELF with an all-new series is the ORIGINAL Alpha Flight by the superstar creative team of writers Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente and artist Dale Eaglesham — with covers by the incomparable Phil Jimenez! Get in on the ground floor of this highly anticipated maxi-series with this standalone adventure by artist X: Who are Guardian, Vindicator, Sasquatch, Snowbird, Shaman, Northstar, Aurora, and Marrina? How did they become their nation’s most beloved heroes? And are they strong enough to withstand their greatest challenge yet? DO YOU FEAR…YOUR COUNTRY TURNING ON YOU?
Let’s start the review off with the most important bit of information: I am an Alpha Flight neophyte. I know who Alpha Flight is, and I know very basic information. However, if you ask me the history of the team, the main thing I know is that they’re that team Bendis killed in New Avengers that one time that apparently upset a whole group of people. So all things considered, Alpha Flight #0.1 is made for me. With one writer being an Alpha Flight expert (van Lente) and the other just being a great writer along for the ride (Pak), this should work perfectly in order to get me excited for the new Alpha Flight series… right?
Find out after the cut if it worked or not. (And, as a side note, I of course had to be the one to scoop up this review for the site before the actual Canadians on staff can have their say on it!)
Poor Alpha Flight. For years, they were described as nothing more than cannon fodder. And to be honest, what more were they? Bendis needed a group to kill off, and there was Alpha Flight, ready and willing – because they were doing nothing in Canada. Sometimes considered the “Canadian Avengers” (which doesn’t make sense), this time saw it’s height of popularity in the ’90s, and never clicked with the modern audience until they were dead. Such is the way of things in comics, as we never quite know what we’ve got until it’s gone. And, as the rumor goes, once Alpha Flight was dead everyone kept trying to figure out how to bring them back and what to do with them – and Marvel kept saying no.
That is, until the super-star team of Van Lente and Pak, the men who more than breathed life into the Incredible Hercules, stepped up to the plate with the pitch that finally got Marvel to say “ok.”
Now. This issue right here? This issue is not that pitch. Or, at least from my understanding, it’s not. That pitch begins with Alpha Flight #1, the triumphant (which you can define how you like) return of the premiere Canadian super team. This Point One issue is instead to say to the reader – “hey, two things. One, Alpha Flight is a team, and here are the characters. Two, politics are fun and important and all, but there’s more to the world than just America.” It’s two rather bold notions to work on a comic with, but suffice it to say, Van Lente and Pak deliver a rather great introductory comic to the world of Alpha Flight.
First, we have the characters. As I mentioned earlier, I’m really not that knowledgable about Alpha Flight. I’ll make jokes, sure, but my knowledge base is very limited. So one of my hopes with the issue was that by the time I reached the end, I’d be able to name all of the characters whom I didn’t already know, and be able to understand who they are and their various power sets. That is exactly what this issue gives you. Whilst being rather steeped in a continuity that I can’t tell you much about, the story here cleverly re-introduces Alpha Flight and some villains over the backdrop of Canadian politics. Each character is given a scene to illustrate who they are out of costume, and the entire cast is given more than enough time to show off and become acclimated for the reader. It’s exactly what you could want from a Point One book that features a team that hasn’t been operative in the Marvel Universe since 2006. And sure enough, by the time the issue was done, I could look at the cover and tell you the difference between Guardian and Vindicator (specifically, which one was which).
Continued belowSecond, we have the world they inhabit. Through several discussions I’ve had with fellow writer (and Canadian!) Josh Mocle, one of the biggest misconceptions that Americans have about Canada is that everyone there has floppy heads Canada is a magical and happy land where everything is sunshine, rainbows, and chocolate. Given the amount of political turmoil ever present in America, Canada is viewed as “that place we’ll move to when so-and-so gets elected”, or whatever. However, in actuality Canada has just as many political issues as America does, if not more so, and – as Josh likes to put it – “despite what they believe, their shit does stick.” It’s then with a great amount of respect that I note that Pak and Van Lente have presented a very believable Canada, not in that it physically represents the country but that it actually evokes the real elements of the nation. Marvel Comics, despite a few annotations here and there, take place in our universe, and as such it’s important that these comics reflect us appropriately. With the Unity Party having a big impact on the future of the book, as helmed by a former director of Department H, it’s very nice to see Guardian getting the same figurehead representation that can be placed on Captain America in similar ways and for similar reasons.
So the comic is both an introduction and a prelude to what is to come in Fear Itself for the stories first eight issues (and then some, if it does well). It’s a great start to what I can only hope is as long and entertaining a run as what we’ve seen Pak and Van Lente do with Hercules. Ben Oliver handles the art for the issue (with Eaglesham coming in for the series), and he gives the book a pseudo-Land-ish hyper-realistic artistic slant to the book, presumably to help solidify the life-imitating-art nature of the issue. The book is very sleek visually, and while Eaglesham is a tough act to open for, Oliver’s artwork here deftly holds it’s own and warms us up for what’s to come in the new ongoing.
It’s exciting, as someone who wants to get into these new characters that I have so little experience with, to have an entry level book like this. A lot of the Point One stories have either been one-and-dones without any real introductory nature, save for a few notable exceptions. While Marvel certainly could’ve just released this as Alpha Flight #1, the Point One nature does give it an interesting oomph/push that displays the content in a rather unique fashion. We know that this is supposed to be an introductory issue, and so for those of us that really need the introduction the issue allows for a brief story before the series kicks off. The #1 to come is the first of the new storyline, and given it’s participation in Marvel’s Fear Itself event, it has certain unique expectations attached to it. With this Point One, we’re given a strong story that isn’t over-burdened with any hype over an issue number (and instead just gets the hype of being the return of the team, which I suppose is just as tough).
That’s ultimately the most important thing to note here: Pak and Van Lente have done it again. They’ve taken a group whom audiences might not be familiar with, and made it familiar. Yes, there are references in this that need a Google search, but given the nature of the creative team behind the book (with one who knows what’s what and one who doesn’t), it really offers a nice mix of storytelling that translates into an effective political drama set in the land of Maple Syrup and Other Stereotypes Us Americans Have About Our Northern Neighbors. Alpha Flight need something big to come out of the gate with, and Pak and Van Lente have given this a good start. Hopefully, what’s to come with Fear Itself will live up to the expectations that have certainly been enhanced by this issue.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
