Sasquatch assembles new members for a rebooted Alpha Flight, written by Scott Lobdell who already wrote a bad AF AF book back in the ’90s. (And the double AF in the prior sentence is intentional–you figure out what it means.)
It’s billed as “all new” but…It’s really not. A bunch of characters are introduced, most of whom are pretty similar to older members and some of whom share former members’ names/identities (Puck and Nemesis). A bunch of the scenes are “homages” (which means they’re derivative) and the cover to issue #12 is yet another “tribute” to #12 of the original series. Issue #9, at the top of this post, is also a tribute.
The series even brings back the terrible Plodex race as a threat. They kidnap the original Alpha Flight team and Langkowski assembles this crew to save them–instead of going to the X-Men who (a) have lots of experience with space adventures and (b) are cooler and, of course, (c) would have actually sold some comic books.
I have nothing against tributes. I even have an entire tag devoted to them (see bottom of this post). But when that’s ALL there is in a comic book, you get a borefest. It was billed as a “funny” or “satirical” book, but it’s not funny and satire is more than mere repetition and reference.
There is a Big Hero 6 appearance, though. That’s not bad.
The entire AN AF AF team dies in New Avengers #16, coming in a few years.
I’m not going to cover the stories in these twelve issues; instead, I’ll briefly cover the team-members.
First: Major Mapleleaf (guess who he’s supposed to “make fun” of?) is the son of the original Major Mapleleaf.
He’s actually been seen before this series.
He is strong and has a horse named Thunder. Over the course of the series, he and the new Puck (daughter of the original) get to kissin’ and have a baby.
She doesn’t get much to do in this book because compared to everyone else, she’s simply out-powered.
As for the rest, there’s, a new version of Nemesis who is basically the same as the prior version. She’s given the tech by Sasquatch. Third, there’s Centennial. He’s basically black Superman. He and Nemesis fall in love but get separated, but we’re told in the wrap up at the end that they find each other in the future.
Yukon Jack is this version of Shaman, I guess, although he’s got powers instead of magic. He gets to marry Snowbird at the end (see below). Oh, and there’s “Mar,” the green bug-eyed dude who looks (and sounds) like he’s supposed to be Marrina, but that’s never really explained. And unsurprisingly, I don’t care. I’m actually grateful that I don’t have to read a bunch of retrofitted continuity flashbacks about a stupid little character.
None of these folks are seen after issue #12.
At the end of the issue, we get a wrap up…
