John Byrne does the covers to #81 and #82. But he doesn’t help with the interior content. Which still sucks.
Northstar is trapped in Asgard, so Alpha Flight goes to save him. Talisman uses her powers to transport them between Earth and the Nine Realms.
As soon as they get back, we see that a bunch of other Alpha Flight members are also being held prisoner—by a bad dude who keeps them in test tubes. So now they go rescue them. Dr. Strange guest stars.
You can tell a creator is running on fumes when he tells two “rescue the heroes” stories in a row. These are James Hudnall’s final issues. Thank God. Let’s hope the next creative team can do something with this book, which has pretty much sucked for 60 issues.
Marvel is trying really hard to generate excitement in that last blurb—but by now, nobody was reading this book. Also, I’m not sure people knew who Fabian Nicieza was yet. He’s a good writer, but this is very early in his career.
Anyway, here’s hoping this title improves.
(It won’t.)