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Alpha Omega Alpha - About Alpha Omega Alpha alphaomegaalpha.org | Buy One-alpha Online | Order Cheap One-alpha | Generic One-alpha 24x7pharmacy.com | Top Flight Academy: Photos of Top Flight Academy Boot Camp for Troubled topflightacademy.com |
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979). Throughout most of its history, the team has worked for Department H, a fictitious branch of Canada’s Department of National Defence that deals with super-powered persons. Most team members have distinctly Canadian attributes, such as Inuit or First Nations heritage. The team was originally merely a part of the back story of the X-Men’s Wolverine but, in 1983, Byrne launched an eponymous series featuring the group, which continued until 1994. Three short-lived revivals have been attempted since, the most recent titled Omega Flight, in April 2007.
[edit] Publication history[edit] Volume 1Though reluctant to take the job,[1] John Byrne wrote and drew the series for 28 issues before handing it off to another creative team. During that time, the series attracted fans with storylines that dealt with one or two characters at a time, seldom bringing all the members together. This unusual approach contrasted with other Marvel team series like the X-Men, the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four. The initial makeup of Alpha Flight was pan-Canadian, including:
After Byrne left, the series was written by many others, including Bill Mantlo, James Hudnall, Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell & Simon Furman. It continued for 130 issues, introduced dozens of characters and villains (the most prominent of which were Talisman, Madison Jeffries, Box, Diamond Lil, Manikin, Persuasion, and Goblyn), and featured cross-overs with other characters in the Marvel universe. The series ended in 1994. [edit] Volume 2In 1997, Marvel restarted the series as a Volume 2, with largely different characters. The series was written by Steven Seagle, then known mainly for his work for DC Comics' Vertigo line, with art mostly by Scott Clark and Duncan Rouleau. One issue, #13, featured guest art by Ashley Wood in an unusually conventional style for him, but still very distinctive for a Marvel superhero comic. This series ended in 1999 after only twenty issues and an annual. The new additions to the roster included:
Returning members were Vindicator (Heather Hudson, with a new costume and new geothermal powers), a de-aged Guardian (who turned out to be a clone of the original James Hudson, set at age 19), and Puck. Sunfire was also briefly a member while looking for a cure to a crippling illness. The focus of this series was on Department H's consistently hidden agenda and Alpha Flight's reluctance to comply thereto. The conspiracy plotline saw Weapon X allowing an incarnation of the Zodiac Cartel to kidnap Madison Jeffries, who was subsequently brainwashed into becoming the group's "Gemini". To keep the group from interfering with their "deal", Department H employed its own brainwashed onto the membership of the team into forgetting Jeffries' kidnapping. Also, Department H employed an actual sasquatch as the new team's version of Sasquatch, without telling the team that it was not Walter Langkowski as their teammate. Department H also arranged the kidnapping of Diamond Lil, another former Alpha Flight member and Madison Jeffries' wife, when she began to enquire about the location of her husband, with the intent on using her as a test subject for illegal medical experimentations. Despite initial positive buzz, the series never took off and the conspiracy plotlines were downplayed for the remaining six issues of the series. The series itself ended with issue #20 with most of the major storylines (such as the identity of the younger version of Guardian) unresolved, until Wolverine V1 #140-142, when the plotline was resolved with the return of the real Guardian and the heroic sacrifice of the clone version. [edit] Volume 3: "All-New, All-Different" Alpha FlightIn 2004, Marvel started a new volume of Alpha Flight, with the "All-New, All-Different" prefix and a more lighthearted feel. The first six-issue story arc, which shows Sasquatch attempting to construct the new team, is called "You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me." The new team recruited by Sasquatch includes:
The second six-issue story arc, entitled "Waxing Poetic," saw the return of some original team members as both the original versions visited in the past, and temporal copies brought to the present. These members were Guardian, Vindicator, Puck, and Shaman. The series was cancelled with issue #12 due to low sales. [edit] Omega FlightMain article: Omega Flight Sasquatch, Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, Major Mapleleaf II, and both Pucks are attacked by a new villain, the Collective (inhabiting the body of U.S. postal worker Michael Pointer), in New Avengers #16. Pointer continues on to the United States, leaving their bodies in the Yukon Territory. Though writer Brian Michael Bendis heavily implied the deaths of the above-mentioned roster of Alpha Flight at the hands of the Collective, later writers backpedaled from this sweeping declaration. Sasquatch resurfaced alive and well, with only Shaman and Guardian officially being acknowledged as being dead. Further complicating things is the status of the temporal doppelgangers from the above-mentioned third Alpha Flight series, were amongst the roster that fought the Collective. The Alpha Flight title was relaunched as Omega Flight in April, 2007 as a five-issue mini-series.[2] The new series was written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Scott Kolins. The current roster includes Beta Ray Bill, U.S. Agent, Arachne, Talisman, and Michael Pointer in a suit that resembles Guardian's uniform. Sasquatch appears as the group's recruiter and leader. Since the mini-series the team has remained active though has lost Beta Ray Bill, USAgent (joining Hank Pym's new Avengers team) and Pointer, now calling himself Weapon Omega, who has joined Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men. [edit] Alternate versions[edit] Ultimate Alpha FlightUltimate Alpha Flight debuted in Ultimate X-Men #94 with Vindicator, Shaman, Jubilee, Sunfire, Sasquatch, Snowbird and Aurora. The team ambushes the X-Men in the middle of a friendly baseball game. All of its members appear to use godlike powers; they easily managed to take down the X-Men and kidnap Northstar. It is later revealed by Wolverine, who apparently has a history with them, that they used a drug called Banshee to enhance their abilities, making them more powerful than normal mutants. Vindicator claims that Alpha Flight is the first internationally sanctioned mutant team made powerful enough to take on any "considerable" threats such as the Liberators, the Brotherhood, and the Ultimates, as Vindicator sees the latter as loyal only to America and Alpha Flight to the world. They are defeated by Colossus's team of X-Men, who were also being powered by Banshee. [edit] Marvel AdventuresIn issue #4 of Marvel Adventures Iron Man, Tony Stark travels to Nunavut to try and find his father Howard. As he is flying through a series of mountains, he is attacked by Alpha Flight after Northstar and Aurora mistake him for a training robot built by Guardian. After the real drone appears, Sasquatch and Guardian make some hasty apologies before Iron Man continues on his mission. Later in the issue, Alpha Flight aids Iron Man in a battle against the Living Laser. [edit] Marvel ZombiesA zombified version of Alpha Flight, consisting of Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Puck and Snowbird, appeared in the first issue of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, attacking the X-Men at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, and killing Professor X in the process. They are later killed by Magneto, who uses his powers to make various metallic objects pierce their brains. [edit] Spider-HamIn a back up story, appeared the Awful Flight. [edit] Notable villainsAlpha Flight has fought many criminals and malevolent entities. Many were unique to them as they were based in Canada. Notable examples include:
[edit] Biography
[edit] Collected editionsTheir appearances have been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:
[edit] Other media[edit] Television
[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit] References
[edit] External links
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