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This thread is really a continuation of a conversation Ive been having elsewhere and spawned out of a largely unrelated topic but its so far down the page that it would be unreasonable to think anyone else could contribute to it, so I'm starting a new thread in the hope that I can get other people input on the discussion.
So, as the title says: Will we ever see a successful incarnation of Alpha Flight again? Can we?
To provide some history, Alpha Flight was first launched as a solo series in 1983. The book was piloted by John Byrne and ran for a total of 130 issues until its cancellation in 1994 - pretty good run by anyones standards.
The book was relaunched circa 1997 with a less than successful run of just 20 issues and was relaunched again in 2004 with an even less successful run of just 12 issues.
In 2007 most of the original team were killed in the New Avengers story 'the collective', Marvel then announced the imminent release of a brand new related title 'omega flight'. Originally this title was supposed to be an onging but prior to its release it was cut back to a five issue mini series with no real explanation ever being provided to the fans.
Prior to the launch of Omega flight Marvel had announced that this would be the last opportunity for the forseeable future for the Alpha Flight concept. Thus far they appear to have been good to their word as the team has officially disbanded and there have been no other attempts to revive the concept.
In the 16 years since the end of its first and most successful run the concept has spawned just 37 regular issues with the occasional guest appearence elsewhere.
I'll leave my own feelings aside for the timebeing because for the moment I'm more interested in the thoughts of others regarding whether they feel the concept can ever be successful again and if so how? If not then why not? Is the team high profile enough? Does it bring something to the table that other titles dont? Does the predominantly American audience want to read about a super team in a foriegn country, even a close neighbour like Canada? What appealed about Alpha Flight to make it a success in the first place and can that be replicated now or have times simply changed? Would you buy an Alpha Flight book if it were a choice between Alpha and the other team books currently availible? Are other concepts such as the X-Men, Avengers and Thunderbolts simply 'better' in principle than Alpha or is it the result of other factors that make those books successful whilst Alpha languishes in cancellation? Do Alphas characters (even the dead ones) appeal to a modern audience? Why/why not?
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Being the HUGE Alpha Flight fan I am let me get into this conversation since I do in fanfic and also drop by alot on (.net)
I think the problem with AF is that people always want the original Byrne team. They always want the originals and expansion of characters gets short focused. The AVengers expanded. The X-Men added Wolverine Storm and Banshee after the XFactor team left and even morphed into something more then that through the years. Thing is what characters and direction to you want to use. AF was one of the 1st series to "kill off" their leader and had the 1st gay hero. It might shock some people that I say this but how bout we be the 1st comic to keep people dead and build off that
Most people know the Department H came from Guardian but it was so wicked over the years that it a shame to be even associated with the Department. In the early years of AF, AF wasnt the government or Department H run team. They flocked on their own to disasters and it really turned after issue 70 of vol1. Vol2 (which I liked) wanted to take a different directions like any writer would and get deeper in Department H but everyone screamed for the originals who didnt appear till later when the series ended and then
BAMF...Dept H is dissolved into nothing offpanel. And it should be kept that way, a seperate entity from AF at the last.(Did you know Seagle actually wanted Gentry to be the real Guardian from vol 2, holla)
Vol 3 was a joke and OF was just something to satisfy us AF fans but I hated it. Marvel writers do tend to kill off AF characters recently cuz they have more shock value but not big enough to say, Oh my god, Nightcrawler died.
You can still have some characters ont he roster that would satify the AF fans. Sasquatch, Jeffries (I hated Lil died recently), Talisman, Snowbird make a solid core of true AF. Nemesis will never die and that could be a resurected Heather Hudson but I wouldnt keep bringing the others alive. Northstar is happy now in XMen cuz his sister is safe but we all know he follows his sister. If you want to follow Seagles idea, Mac Hudson is still alive as Gentry. The suit can be handed to anyone. You can make a new good Guardian as a government liason much how USAgent was with West Coast Avengers. Everyone else is Blist survivors at this point who wouldnt draw much attention:Manikin, Persuassion, Goblyn, Ghost Girl, Flex, Ouija, whose status' are unknown.We can try to add Elsie Dee and Alfred. But try to expand after you focus on the core concept of the group
PS: AF also did win the Bendis poll for which series would you want brought back recently
