The "God Squad," from The Incredible Hercules #117She's back! Forgive me for having a pseudo-patriotic moment here, but Alpha Flight is one of my favorite John Byrne creations, and Snowbird is such a visually stunning character she was always one of my faves. In Snowbird, Byrne deftly synthesized the cultural myths of "the Great White North" with Inuit oral tales that were already once-removed in early Canadian comic book heroine Nelvana of the Northern Lights. Plus: she looks really cool.
It wouldn't be difficult to critique the cultural politics of the Snowbird character, or of Alpha Flight more generally. But I don't have the heart for it today. I thought of Snowbird as the Canadian version of my favorite New Teen Titan, Raven. Still kinda do, I guess. I hope this means more Alpha Flight Classic trades.
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4 comments:
Double Woot!
I have mixed feelings about Alpha Flight these days (hell, who doesn't?), but there was definitely a time in my youth when I'd put on some Guess Who, crack a Blue, light up an Export A, and gleefully peruse the only aggressively Canadian super-comic since Richard Comely's company had its glorious day in the sun...
It was annoying, and stereotypical, and all those things, and I ate it up. Not to mention, it was a fabulous accomplishment for its time. Byrne burned it all up before he left, but while it was there you had superheroes with family lives that included sex, superheroes who figured, well, so you had to kill the guy, well what the hell he was comin' right AT ya...who can think that fast...
Trudeau's government "nationalizing" Vindicator...
Poor Joey Smallwood (or whatever his name was) becoming a Canadian Lana Lang...
And superheroes with gay FLQ contacts.
Well, how in the hell can you lose, with all that stuff. Plus, it seems to me that Langkowski must've played for the Lions...so suck it, Esks! Guess we'll have to wait for Shiver-Man or Still-Missing-Gretzky-Lass, or Block-Heater Boy, before we'll have a credible Edmontonian competitor to ol' Sasquatch...AND YES I KNOW IT'S A DUMB NAME, BUT WHAT COUNTS IS THE WIN...!
But, isn't the blue on Narya's costume a bit wrong?
Oh, but it probably isn't her anyway. She's probably still shacked up with RCMP Cpl. White-Canadian-Name somewhere near Tuk...
Woot!
I think I could write an awesome Alpha Flight, don't you, Jim?
Or maybe...
You could CAST an awesome Alpha Flight...!
Dare ya.
Plok--I want to read about the adventures of Block-Heater Boy in your new Alpha Flight, obviously! About casting that film, though...have I mentioned lately that you're a very bad influence???
The doctors say nothing can be done for me, sadly. I appear to be stuck this way.
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