The Fall of X is here. The X-Men have never been at a lower point in their history. Krakoa is sleeping, most mutants are lost, and Earth is uninhabitable for its mutant population. The X-Men are suffering. Alpha Flight, meanwhile, is at its best place in decades.
Canada’s superheroes are back in the field for Fall of X, and Ed Brisson, Scott Godlewski, and Matt Milla are leading them into a new era. The team is split into two factions as its mutants and non-mutants wage war for the heart of Canada. But who is really standing on guard for the True North?
SPOILERS AHEAD for Alpha Flight #1!
The plot of this issue is fairly straightforward. Canada’s new — and fascist — government gathers its headline team and sets them to gather mutants. Much like Orchis is putting together sentinels, Canada is developing the Box sentinels again with the help of Roger Bochs’ son. Guardian, Shaman, Snowbird, and Puck set out to hunt mutants, only to find themselves defeated by Northstar, Aurora, Fang, and Nemesis. Canada is disappointed, but that’s all right. Their Alphan team isn’t really working for them anyway.
It’s hard to understate how much Alpha Flight #1 feels like a love letter to the team. The book features numerous callbacks to moments from each of Alpha Flight‘s classic runs. Roger Bochs Jr., Nemesis, and Feedback are all callbacks to a time before Alpha Flight became the laughingstock of the Marvel universe. To make the book even better, it takes its team seriously.
Marvel Comics
The past two decades have been filled with a push-and-pull against Alpha Flight’s reputation. After the team was utterly slaughtered to pave the way for Omega Flight, it has been the butt of jokes in Earth-616. The previous run was a desperate bid to prove that Alpha Flight can still be cool, but Brisson, Godlewski, and Milla have proven that this team can be awesome even without trying too hard.
Readers will already be on the side of Northstar, Aurora, Fang, and Nemesis by the time this issue starts, so Brisson takes care to explore Canada’s official team. Without delving too deeply into the weeds and — even without giving away the twist ending too early — the team’s motivations are made clear. They want to rebuild their reputation, help those who need it, and they will stand against anything and everyone to do it.
The fight between the two Alphan teams is shockingly fun. The banter makes the stakes feel light because the characters are already privy to the twist. Yet Argent’s genuine pleading reminds the reader that the stakes have never been higher and the importance of their mission is lain bare.
Marvel Comics
Feedback’s plight also provides a heavy helping of that tragedy. A retired superhero that long-time Alpha Flight fans will already be familiar with, Feedback makes it easy to empathize with him. He is just a normal man trying to live his life, only to suffer untold devastation when he is outed as a mutant. Not only is his story painful, but it feels genuine, which is something that can be hard to find with stakes this high.
The scene with a human standing up for mutants is also something that feels very relevant to Fall of X. Some humans will be happy to see mutants fall, but after mutants spent the past few years working to better human lives, it makes sense that some will defend them. It adds realism to the universe and helps Alpha Flight feel connected to the other X-Men titles.
With solicits and Brisson’s own interviews shielding the book’s secret, the final twist at the end of the issue does take away from Alpha Flight‘s very premise, but it opens avenues for further exploration. It helps to ensure that Shaman, Guardian, Puck, and Snowbird are not permanently tainted by affiliation with Orchis, while also adding some nuance to their characters. Besides, there are still routes for conflict. That Nemesis doesn’t appear in the final reveal is a fascinating note and could be setting up for future revelations.
Marvel Comics
If there is a downside to this issue, it’s that much of it is devoted to exposition. Not all of that exposition is interesting. The series also suffers from feeling somewhat repetitive when compared to other Alpha Flight runs. Every single liaison for the team being a villain is just a tired trope.
There are also a few logical inconsistencies. Anyone familiar with the team will know that Alphans turning on the Canadian government is far from unprecedented. That Orchis and Canada are trusting them at all is somewhat of a stretch, given their history. Still, it doesn’t take away from the story too much, given that Canada’s Box sentinels are already a play to eliminate Alpha’s influence.
With constant callbacks to the team’s history, Alpha Flight #1 has a lot of love for the source material, and it shows. The book combines classic elements with modern stakes to provide some heavy emotional scenes. While it struggles to introduce its premise in a fluid way, the rest of this book should be a brilliant adventure. Alpha Flight deserves some love and attention, and it looks like the team is finally getting it.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login