New Eye Candy

I've added an "art" page at top right, something I've been meaning to do for some time.  I won't dwell on it much here since the content is explained at the top of the page itself.  I should, however, take the opportunity to point out that the saluting Guardian at the bottom of the right section of the page is by Ken Steacy, if the distinctive style wasn't enough of a giveaway.

It has, however, reminded me to make another addition to the blog roll at right with Phil's Alpha Flight Sketches.  Pretty self-explanatory; Phil posts scans and pictures of commissioned sketches that he's acquired of Alpha Flight characters.  The bulk of the art on display on the blog is of Sasquatch, but there are a few Guardian ones as well.  It wouldn't be right to copy them here so I'll link to that page instead.

And while we're talking about graphics and updates, a couple of trading cards have been added at the bottom of the Collectibles page, including the rather awesome Weapon Alpha one (with that Wolverine guy) at right which I just stumbled across today.  What can I tell you, I've never been a trading card guy where comic characters are concerned!  But I'll have to get my hands on that one for certain.

To this point, that page had only displayed busts and action figures and I wanted to add another aspect.  Other types of collectibles and merchandise will be added soon, such as Heroclix piece(s) and mini-mates (even though I personally find them hideous. To each his own.).

"I Strike for Earth!"

Shortly after stating that I would only include "significant" (in my estimation) Guardian involvement on the Appearances page (above right), I'm changing gears a little bit.

I stumbled into Super Mega Monkey's Comics Chronology page recently and was reminded of a couple of cameo appearances by Guardian / Alpha Flight from the early 80's.  They were, looking back, my first exposure to Guardian (Vindicator at the time).

It could be argued that they helped him and the Alpha cement their place in the Marvel Universe. They established that Alpha Flight didn't just happen to be present when the X-Men had business in Canada.

The following actually trigger some fond memories for me.  French is my first language.  I used comics to help me learn the English language.  I did buy some X-Men books at the time, but began to do so only shortly after Alpha Flight had made their debut.

I do recall getting Contest of Champions in 1982, one of the series that SMMCC fits into continuity.  In this 3-part book, all of Earth's heroes, Alpha Flight included, are gathered to basically act as gladiators for the Grandmaster and his mystery opponent.  Sasquatch is actually the most prominent Alpha Flight team member throughout the 3-issue series, but Guardian shows up in a couple of panels (one of which is at right).

Later that same year Guardian (still Vindicator) and Alpha Flight appeared in three Incredible Hulk issues, numbers 277 to 279.

In that story, the U-Foes make a very public attempt to kill the Hulk.  After managing to escape and defeat the U-Foes, the Banner-brained behemoth asks for help from his fellow heroes to petition for a presidential pardon.  And wouldn't you know it, the collection of heroes is attacked by aliens (or they appear to be) right on the White House lawn!  And that collection includes Guardian (although you may need to squint to see him in some panels).

Mac appears in other group shots and in a "diplomatic greeting" in the final issue with Alpha Flight behind him.

A selection of his early appearances is included on this page of the Comics Chronology.  Again for the sake of giving proper credit, the images above are cropped from scans that are displayed on the SMMCC pages.

They are only brief appearances, but potentially of interest to some.  Therefore, they (as well as an even earlier one from Fantastic Four #220) are now included on the Appearances page for the sake of being thorough, but are simply identified as cameos.

His Finest Hour

On November 20th, I wrote about what I thought was one of the most putrid Guardian appearances in the character's rather colourful history. It made me stop to consider which might be my favourite.  It didn't take me long to settle on the book below.

The two-part story came out in 1998, but in terms of continuity it takes place after the fourth issue of the first Alpha flight book.  Most of the team's adventures to this point had revolved around conflict with the X-Men as a result of attempting to bring Wolverine back to Canada.

The first issue is rather X-Men heavy, though the premise revolves around Guardian's back story.  The terrorist organization known as Hydra has swindled hundreds of suits of Guardian's original armour prototype from Department-H and uses them to apprehend the mutant team. Professor-X calls upon Guardian, and therefore Alpha Flight, to rescue his team.

Admittedly, there's an undertone that Alpha Flight is not on the same level as the X-Men.  Guardian is said to have the same leadership "potential" as Cyclops.  Guardian admits that without freeing the X-Men, getting out of the facility that they're about to infiltrate is near impossible.  And in battle, Alpha Flight is becoming overwhelmed right at the point that the now-freed X-Men join the battle and basically save the day.

Setting biases aside however, it is true that the X-Men were a far more experienced bunch at that point.  And ultimately, Alpha Flight is given some much-needed (and rare) respect.  Additionally, the team's relationship with the X-Men (and Wolverine specifically) is solidified.

There are a couple of odd moments. Strucker uses Guardian's suit-based ability to not be affected by the rotation of the Earth to "teleport" away.  I'm not convinced that making use of such a tool would be particularly wise indoors.  There are also a few pages in the beginning of Alpha Flight taking time to train in the X-Men's danger room.  Sure, what's the rush, with six members of the X-Men kidnapped by a terrorist group?  Just send out for pizza too while you're at it.

But those are relatively minor complaints in an otherwise entertaining story.  The books were written by Ben Raab and John Cassaday, the latter also handling art duties.  Steve Oliff did the colours on the 2nd issue (Jason Wright did the first).

The Alpha Flight Collector (Guardian tag)

Just a brief update today to draw attention to a link that has been added on the right side of the page.

I tend to keep my blog posts and Appearances page entries (see above) specific to what I consider to be significant involvements in books.  For example, I did not include Mac's attendance at Northstar's wedding among the appearances because he's really just crowd shot filler.

The Alpha Flight Collector blog, for those who may have not come across it, is pretty much the exact opposite.  It records cameos and rarities involving the various Alpha Flight cast members.  I have added it as part of the blog roll, but using the Guardian tag specifically (and therefore directing folks only to posts involving our man of the hour).

Credit where it's due, the panel scan of a devastated Alpha Flight in the previous post was actually from the Collector blog (though located through Google search and not lifted directly).

Hulk-Buster Guardian

Over the past few months I've been working on acquiring the Guardian appearances that are missing from my collection.

The difficult part is knowing when an appearance is actually worthwhile.  I don't want to buy a book if Guardian and/or Alpha Flight only appears in the background in one panel.  Or as corpses.

So confession time: On occasion I obtain "free" version of digital books to see if they're worth adding to the pile.

Now I was fully prepared to get the "Rules of Engagement" and "The Draco" storylines from the X-Men books in 2003 and 2004 respectively.  From what I could gather from reviews, Alpha Flight was prominent enough in them that they would be worth the expense.

I could also gather that the books, written by Chuck Austen, sucked.  It seemed like a near consensus among X-Men fans that this was a terrible period in that team's history.  Whatever.  It was just a couple of issues anyway and it's not as though all of the Alpha Flight books are gold, either.

Even approaching these books with that mentality however, it's difficult to conclude that these books are anything but crap.

Let's start with the atrocity at right.  You'd be excused if you didn't recognize him, but that is our Guardian in his appearance in X-Men #432 (2004).

We are meant to believe that, fully expecting to encounter Juggernaut, the team (Guardian, Heather as Vindicator and Sasquatch...where was everyone else??) wore specially-designed armour for the occasion.

The only thing dumber than Sasquatch wearing armour is Guardian wearing (traditional) armour, since his usual suit allows him to create a force field anyway.  So what is the point?

Well, there may have been one (does Marvel still award no-prizes for fixing their mistakes?).  In the team's earlier appearance (#422) Northstar completely punks Guardian.  He (Northstar) uses his familiarity with his former teammate to disable and strip Guardian's standard armour.

Let's give the benefit of the doubt, assume that Guardian reacted accordingly (which even if true, wouldn't explain why Sasquatch would wear armour too) and replaced his usual attire with an outfit that Northstar knows nothing about.  How did that work out?

Not so great then. In the previous page, Guardian gets a few solid shots in, but then a suit of armour supposedly designed to combat Hulk-type characters actually makes it easier for Juggernaut to whoop on Guardian.  "Convenient hand-grip" indeed.

Ah well.  I got to read this book for free and I got my money's worth.  Maybe I'll patiently wait to find it in a dollar bin one day.

Incoming! The Guardian Eaglemoss figurine!

But more importantly, the magazine that comes with it.

I didn't know much about the Eaglemoss figurine series until I gave the Snowbird one a try earlier this year.  I stumbled into that one while looking for information about the Alpha Flight action figures that came out in the late 90's.  I knew that there was a Guardian figurine as well one (among other members of Alpha Flight) but it took starting this page to get me to take the plunge and purchase it.

To be entirely honest, I really paid for the 20-page magazine.  The figure is almost an extra.  The Snowbird book either clarified, or tied together, a few parts of her history that I couldn't quite piece together (because I was unaware of some of her appearances in non-Alpha Flight books).  As...let's call it "unique"...as Guardian's background is, I could probably use the quick reference guide for him too.

Not that the figurine itself is so awful.  It's still quite cool to even have the option to buy it!  But I was disappointed in the paint job on my snowbird version.  It was a little sloppy.  I've seen other pictures of the Guardian edition and the same seems to apply to him.

I'm going to start working on a page of collectible soon that will display the various toys, cards, etc, related to this character. But before I do, I'd like to acquire a few of them so that I can comment on them from experience.  I doubt that the wife will buy that as a reason, but I'll do my best to make it sound logical. ;-)

The Life and Death and Life and Death and Life and Death and Life and Death and Life and Death and Life of James MacDonald Hudson

The panel below is from issue #2 of the most recent volume of Alpha Flight.

Mac is in court, with Heather at his side, asking to have custody of their daughter Claire restored to them.  Claire was placed in the care of distant relatives when Mac and Heather were believed to be dead.

I must have just glossed over it the first time I read the book because I almost had a spit take when I read if again the other day.  Mac has given his life for his country only twice??

Hasn't it felt like about a half dozen?  But then going over each apparent occasion, it was actually difficult to pinpoint which two occurrences Mac referred to in his outburst.

Mac didn't die in volume 1, issue 12.  He went through some space/time continuum thing and ended up being rescued by aliens.  Still a shitty day, granted, but not a death per se.

He didn't die in the second volume, when Department H fired him off into space (that's one way to hide a body...) because his suit kept him alive.  He thinks (literally) that he dies in X-Men Unlimited #45 but Shaman convinced the air to keep him alive (It's...hard to explain...)

The one time that seems concrete is New Avengers 16.  In the Chaos War special that followed some time after that issue wiped out the entire team, Shaman confirms that Alpha Flight did not survive, but the outcome of that event restored the team.  So that's an actual resurrection, I guess.

So what other "death" is Mac referring to?  Volume 1, issue 100?  I'm not certain how The Master brought him back in the "No Future" storyline in issues 128 to 130, so perhaps that's it.

Or maybe he's referring to his young clone from volume two, who clearly did not share his "source material's" ability to cheat death when he was blown up in an exploding battle suit (Hey, just like "dad"!) in Wolverine #143.  Not entirely sure.  Mac has appeared to die so often that I can't help but wonder if I'm forgetting (or unaware) about a story in which it happened.

Guardian's Sweet Ride!

I shared this picture on Twitter some time back, prior to creating this Guardian-specific blog.  That doesn't seem like a good reason to avoid including it here, too.

Ain't it great?  It was an entry in a livery contest based around the Forza Motorsport 4 driving simulation game.  There's another picture of it, as well as several other comic-based designs on this thread in the official forum.

Boulevard of Broken Teams

I had a little cottage time this past weekend and brought a few comics to read for chilly mornings and evenings.  Among my batch, three involved appearances by Guardian and they were all issues from Wolverine's book from the mid-90's; numbers 83, 84 and 95.

I've owned these for a while and I dig them up from time to time when I get on a Guardian and/or Alpha Flight kick.  They take place between that team's volumes one and two.  Heather also guest-stars in all three issues.

All are written by Larry Hama.  What is peculiar is that while Mac is written as the standard "ordinary guy" in the first two issues, he's actually quite the jackass in #95.

He and Heather are in Manhattan to keep an eye on Wolverine for fear that he might have lapses in self-control and become violent.  Mac is irritating throughout most of the book as he feels responsible for whatever damage Wolverine may cause by flipping out.  He seems entirely out of character, but at least this is acknowledged in how Heather is constantly telling him to calm down and trust Logan.

Personality discrepancies aside, I always get a kick out of this panel:

An apparent reference to Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I always forget it's coming and it cracks me up to see Mac and Heather in full gear in a coffee shop. Maybe Logan could have gotten the java "to go", eh?

No real sign of Mac's Antiguard persona, though Mac feeling slighted at being described as "distant" might be residue from that story.  I believe the next time we saw Mac, he had been de-evolved into a 19-year old at the beginning of the Alpha Flight, volume two, number one.

Guardian was most interesting...

...when writers weren't killing themselves trying to make him interesting.

In an effort to accurately fill the "Appearances" page, I've been marathon-reading Guardian's various incarnations.  While I don't hold John Byrne in quite the same high regard as many fellow Alpha Flight fans, it's easy to recognize that the team was at its best in his hands, Guardian included (Well...Killing him aside, of course...).  It's even more glaring when you read the material in quick succession.

Subsequent writers seemed to bend over backwards to give Guardian some quirk to make him more interesting, or unique.  Fabian Nicieza brought him back as a cyborg, only to have him "die" again less than two years later.  Simon Furman has him brought back as the Antiguard...

Whatever an Antiguard is, it's pretty chatty.

...then next thing we know, Steven Seagle has de-evolved him to a 19-year old as the second volume begins.

So note to future writers: There's no need for all crap. It might seem cool on the surface, but Guardian is not that type of character.  From his early X-Men appearances to his apparent death in #12, he progressed from a reluctant government agent to a more confidant leader who grew to enjoy his position as defender of the country.  This page from issue #6 underscores that very well.

Of course, in hindsight, he sounds like the "perfect partner" in the cop movies who is two days away from  retirement and gets blown away on his last assignment.

Still, it was far easier for the reader to relate to Guardian as someone out of his element growing into the role than it was to relate to whatever the hell an Antiguard was supposed to be.  Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente got that in the most recent mini-series.  Hopefully the next person to handle the character does too.

No Alternatives

Continuing to build on the Appearances page above, I want to lay out the (self-imposed) rules in regards to what qualifies and what doesn't.

Ultimately, I want to record significant appearances by the James MacDonald Hudson of the "main" Marvel Universe. In other words I have no interest in...

• What If? appearances.  I've never really understood the appeal of this book.  If it isn't in continuity, I couldn't care less.
• The Ultimate Universe version (or whatever other alternate realities Marvel has).  I think that's them on the right.  To quote from among the worst periods in Alpha Flight history, You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me.
• Speaking of the 3rd volume, the various alternate future versions of the character in the later issues will also be ignored (as should the book itself) for a reason similar to the What If? books.
• Repetitive flashbacks.  There are only so many times one can reference Mac's first meeting with Wolverine, when he (actually, Heather) shot him in the woods.  However, if said appearance adds something to the that event, then it would be included.
• Fact sheets.  The point is to record the character's adventures.  An entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe doesn't really fit that description.  Neither does an article in Marvel Age or some such.  It needs to be in a storyline.

On the flip side, though it's hardly a shining moment in the character's history, I can't help but feel that the young clone version from Volume Two should be in there.  I didn't like him much, frankly, but it was still intended to be Mac and is in continuity, so his appearances will be listed.

That's all I can think of at the moment.  So when the list is done, I will welcome anyone's feedback as to what might be missing from it so that I can make it as complete as possible.

Extra Material from Classic X-Men #16

The first thing I want to flesh out on this blog is the "Appearances" page above so I started on it right last night.  In doing so, I was reminded that the "Classic X-Men" comics reprinting the X-Men issues in which Alpha Flight was introduced included a few extra pages.

I don't know if this is common knowledge, or even if it is if many Alpha Flight fans would have bought Classic X-Men for the sake of those extra 3-4 pages.  In any event, one additional page from Classic X-Men 16, reprinting X-Men 109 (Guardian's first appearance, known as Weapon Alpha at the time) focuses on Mac as he prepares to confront Wolverine.

The other is post-battle hand-wringing.

Pencils are by Kieron Dwyer, inks by Terry Austin (wow, really?) and colours by Petra Scotese. Oh, and as you can probably guess by the rambling, bloated internal dialogue, writing credit goes to Chris Claremont.

Not sure where I'm going with this...

As described in the "About this Blog" page, this is essentially a notebook made public.  Past information about Guardian will be stored in the sections above and I'll use the blog to chat about new acquisitions (back issues, collectibles, that sort of thing), news about the character, page updates, etc.  For the most part, it'll be "thinking out loud" (just...in writing).

Directing my attention towards Canadian characters and publishers in recent months has rekindled my interest in comics as a story-telling format.  Most of that is expressed through my other blog They Stand on Guard, the growth of which I enjoy a great deal.  This is basically a branch off that tree.  An urge to research other characters (Alpha Flight or otherwise) may lead to other such branches.

I admit to not being crazy about the name of this thing so don't be surprised if it changes suddenly.  Trying to think one up was about the only thing preventing me from getting started, so I went with the one I hated least just to get going.  I wanted to refer to both Alpha Flight and a certain longevity so settled on that.  Meh.

It may be that the art in the banner is actually of Michael Pointer.  If that's the case, don't anyone point it out to me, I don't want to know. ;-)

The feedback I've seen/heard over the years would seem to indicate that the majority of fans consider Guardian's (currently estranged) wife, Heather McNeil Hudson (Vindicator), to be more interesting character and a better team leader than Guardian was/is.  I'll address that more fully later but I am not in agreement.  At least, not yet.

And yes, that's Puck in my avatar.  The reason for that is simple; In reality, I am far more similar to Eugene Judd than I am a 6' 2" petrochemical engineer/scientist. Therefore, the former is better representation.  Just keepin' it real. ;-)