Mystery solved some more!

A couple of months back, I asked about an action figure of the half-man / half-machine Guardian character that appeared in issues 88 to 100 or so of the original Alpha Flight series.  Shortly thereafter, a reader named Sam Noir identified the collectible as a variant of a Toyfare mail-away offer for a Guardian action figure.

The only thing that seemed inconsistent with what I'd seen was the packaging.  I kept reading that it came shipped in a plain white box, while the one I'd seen about 15 years looked far more professional (like a display item).

While making an e-bay purchase (more on that later...specifically when I actually get the item in the mail) I was directed to an auction for the variant version.  Unfortunately, they only ship within the United States.  Here it is below.

I'm almost positive that THAT is what I saw in a comic book shop in the West Edmonton Mall years ago.  Being that the package is signed by then-Alpha-Flight artist Steven Seagle, they went a little fancier with the display than a plain white box.

The Alpha Flight / Fantastic Four connection

In the previous post (assuming you're reading this chronologically), I mentioned that Guardian has something of a habit of being starstruck, and that there was another example of it coming.

In reading the material again, starstruck may not be the right term.  It may be more accurate to say that he's a little quick to defer to those with more experience.  Or at least he was in his early days.  The partial page below is from Marvel Two-In-One #84.

Man alive.  When I read that, I wished that the next panel was of Guardian kicking The Thing right in the pebbles.  But no. Of course not.  Four panels later, Guardian is preparing to call the rest of the available members of Alpha Flight to help.  'Cause that's what he does.

But as was often the case back then, it ultimately leads to Alpha Flight being given the "rub".  Sort of. At the end of the book, Thing tells the team "Say, now that it's all over, I gotta say you guy really have it together...for a bunch of amateurs".

High praise indeed.  Weird way to sell one of your properties, Marvel.  But at least the possibilities of Guardian's suit are displayed a fair bit, including its ability to interrupt the effect of earth's gravity on the wearer.

Here's where we get another opportunity to flesh out Guardians' background somewhat.  Around the time that the second volume of Alpha Flight was coming out, Marvel Comics had a "Flashback" event by which they released "-1" issues of their books.  Alpha Flight received such treatment with a story specific to the events leading up to Mac and Heather's wedding.

Not surprisingly, Wolverine also had such an issue, and Mac and Heather appeared in that (briefly) as well.  But don't take my word for it, let Stan Lee describe it.

Good of ya, Mac!  Who's flying this experimental plane of which you speak?

Ha!  That's neat!

There actually was a small window of time in which Wolverine was found and the Richards family became the Fantastic Four.  Good job of working that in by writer Larry Hama.  I guess turning into a rock monster also turned Ben Grimm into a prejudiced prick, but who knows what kind of effect gamma rays can have?

Back to Marvel 2-in-1 #84, Alpha Flight's Shaman also has a bit of a fanboy moment when he speculates that maybe one day, his team might meet the Fantastic Four.  Before long, Sue Richards does pop up in Alpha Flight (first volume) #4 as does Namor, the SubMariner.  Of course, polite Canadian that he is, Guardian makes sure to refer to Namor as "your highness", bless 'im.  :-)

The two teams do meet much later during Alpha Flight's first run, in issues 93 and 94, while Guardian (using the Vindicator name again, if I recall correctly) is in the middle of his short-lived android phase.

I doubt that "era" is thought of fondly by Alpha Flight fans, but from a Guardian-specific perspective, there are at least some interesting tidbits within that two-issue storyline.

The story's villain, Headlok, has psionic abilities.  Guardian is half man half machine and Headlok can sense this. As such, Headlok provides some insight while scanning Guardian's mind.

"What do you have to show me, James Mcdonald Hudson?  Clean.  Precise.  Logical.  Like the rubber man's mind, but even MORE structured.  You see EVERYTHING in absolutes, James?  How limiting.  Even I pity you, your rigid, mathematical method of seeing life!"

"Peeking into your mind is like looking under the hood of a car, James.  You know what's going to be there, but you never know what's going to be wrong."

Not a bad way to work in a little character building in your stories by writer Fabian Nicieza. Why he chose to do away with Guardian again just half a year later, after seemingly putting in a certain amount of effort into explaining his personality, remains a mystery to me.  If anyone has any info or suggestions in regards to that, I'm all ears.

Alpha Flight in Marvel Adventures

While writing about the recently-released Guardian Heroclix from the Invincible Iron Man set, I questioned how Alpha Flight came to be considered among Iron Man's allies.  No doubt they've met but they've never had any significant ongoing interaction.

I was reminded of an Alpha Flight appearance in an issue of Marvel Adventures Iron Man (#11, published in March of 2008), however.  It's not in continuity; Marvel Adventures was geared towards a younger crowd.  But Alpha Flight and Iron Man do meet briefly in a story that takes place during a training session in Nunavut.

Writer: Fred Van lente

The Living Laser is back, and having merged with the aurora borealis, he's laying waste to the Great White North. Iron Man had better call in the cavalry! Wait, no--the Mounties! No, better yet--Canada's greatest super heroes, ALPHA FLIGHT!

Here's a page that features Guardian in particular.  You can read the first few page of the book here.

Alpha shows up later in the book as well to provide an assist to Iron Man in defeating the Living Laser (and continue to bicker).  And Guardian didn't die, so that's always a plus.

I've said before that I'm not usually into alternate versions of the character but that one is kind of fun and pretty consistent with the original.  Guardian has a history of being a little starstruck around some of the bigger names in the Marvel universe.  We saw it earlier in a brief appearance in a Fantastic Four book when he unexpectedly met Reed Richards and the next post, up in a day or two, will display another such occurrence.

New Guardian Heroclix

The "And One Shall Surely Die!" t-shirt from the previous post was not the only item solicited this past August to include Guardian. The other was the Invincible Iron Man Heroclix set.

Get armored up for action this autumn! Build-up your HeroClix collection with the latest Marvel set to focus on the armored Avenger, his allies, and some of his most dangerous adversaries!

Iron's Man's allies include Alpha Flight, apparently. I won't try to reason that out, I'll just appreciate that there's a second Guardian Heroclix (even though I don't even play the game) to add to the collection.

And it looks like a significant improvement over the first. I love that the piece includes Guardian's force field, in a pose reminiscent of when he burst out of the ground in his first comic book appearance. I also enjoyed the "If I can just bridge this circuit" name for one of his abilities, a reference to the countdown to Guardian's death in issue #12 of Alpha Flight (first series).

A digital image of the figurine had been released a while back but I wanted to wait for an actual picture of the piece before posting about it. I lifted the one above from this site and will add it to the Collectibles page shortly.

"And One Shall Surely Die!" T-Shirt

The shirt below appeared in the August Previews magazine among the merchandise that should be hitting store shelves (or racks) by the end of November.

It is unlikely that you would be here and not recognize this as the cover of issue #12 of the original Alpha Flight series.  It is not a personal favourite, admittedly, since the book concluded in the first of many deaths of my favourite character.  But it was undeniably impactful, if the fact that it generated a shirt almost 30 years after its release is not evidence enough.

So I'm a little undecided.

Mystery Solved!

About a month ago, I asked visitors to the blog whether they'd ever seen a Guardian action figure with the suit's colours reversed.  The character wore such a version of his uniform in issues 90 to 100 or so of the original Alpha Flight series.

In addition to making me aware of the Mego-style Guardian action figure that I posted about a few days ago, Sam Noir located the picture below for me.

It is identified on this page as a variant of the Toyfare mail-in exclusive from the late 90's (seen at right).

The website to which Sam directed me seems awfully familiar, though the specific action figure does not (I thought the one I'd seen was leaner).  I believe that I probably came across that site at some point while looking for an answer to my inquiry, but being that it is dedicated to custom action figures, I probably dismissed it.  I did not believe that the action figure I saw in 1998 was a custom, so probably that site did not seem likely to be helpful.

I now see that "flip" Guardian is specifically identified as a variant and not a custom on the site.  The only thing that caused me to still have some doubt was the packaging.  I had read that the Toyfare exclusive came in a plain white box.  My recollection of the action figure I'd seen was that the packaging was far more professional looking.  But honestly, the most likely scenario is that my memory is wrong.

I also recall (and mentioned earlier) that the action figure seemed unusually costly, and that would be consistent with a rare, variant mail-in exclusive toy.

So thank you Sam, I believe you nailed it and answered a question that had been on the back of my mind for about 15 years. :-)

"Octoyberfest 2013 Exclusive Retro Mego Style Guardian Figure"

Man, I have (accidently) broken the legs of so many of these action figures back in the day...I loved the Human Torch one in particular.

We are pleased to officially announce our next show exclusive, the limited edition (20 total) custom retro Mego-style Guardian 8" figure!

The leader of Alpha Flight is dressed for action in his distinctive attire, with a fully articulated body! Designed and built by Mego Ed, this true north hero fits in perfectly with the rest of your Mego Superheroes collection and features card art by Toronto artist Christopher Yao. Once again, this figure will be available only at Octoyberfest 2013 at the Mego Museum area.

Something I always look for on any merchandise (or art) involving Guardian is yellow eyes. It shows an attention to detail that I appreciate (like people who look to make sure that Northstar and Aurora are drawn with pointy ears, as they should be).  I find that any collectible that includes always implies a certain level of caring in the character and the workmanship.  Compliments to whomever built this.

The action figure sells for $50 at the show.

Now I didn't come across this on my own; I was directed to it in an e-mail in the name of Sam Noir.  I was provided info on another matter which I post over the weekend (gleefully).

Alpha Flight, Volume Two, Issue Two, Variant Cover

I've just added the trading card at right to the Collectibles page.  As stated there, it is from a Wolverine card set entitled "From Then 'Til Now" from 1992.

The art is Art Adams and I believe Terry Austin.  It served as the cover to Classic X-Men #16, a reprint of Uncanny X-Men 109 which featured the first appearance of Guardian, then known as Weapon Alpha.

The Classic X-Men series not only reprinted the early adventures of the new version of the team after its popularity had begun to soar, but also included a few pages of new material as well.  The point was to, in theory, flesh out the stories a little more and/or add depth to certain characters.  The additional pages from that issue, that involve Guardian, are displayed in this post.

While looking for information about that book/cover, I came across another variant cover that I'd totally forgotten about.  It was for the second issue of Alpha Flight second series.

I forgot about it for the simple reason that I don't have it and probably have not seen it since the book came out in 1997.  Also, it is unusual for a book to have a variant cover for its second issue only.  The primary cover for this particular issue is at right and features frequent Alpha Flight villain The Master.

The second Alpha Flight book was a hit and miss affair for me.  I personally found the art to be difficult to follow most of the time, particularly in the later issues when Duncan Rouleau took over those duties.

When the series started again, with Guardian prominent on the cover, I was excited to pick it up.  But it's quickly revealed that James MacDonald Hudson was "de-evolved" by Department H since his last in-comic appearance and is now a 19-year old.

That would take some getting used to on its own, but he's entirely, frustratingly incompetent as a leader.  He has no respect or authority from his teammates.

The adult Hudson returns later in the book but behind such an idiotic storyline that it's difficult to take it seriously.  In fairness to the writers (Steven Seagle, and I believe Rouleau was assisting in that function as well by then), it seemed as though they got the news of the series' cancellation with rather short notice and wanted to tie up all their loose ends.  Perhaps given the time they could have made Guardian "senior"'s return a touch more palatable.

The young Guardian is killed off in a "now let's never speak of this again" fashion in Wolverine #143.  And that I know of, it was never spoken of again.  Thank you writer Erik Larsen for removing that unnecessary burden from a team and character that already have rather complicated timelines.

Edit Sept 26th: As requested in a comment below, here's the back of the card that I began this post about before rambling off.  It's simple but I quite like it.  I should have thought to include it myself.

The Possible Mystery of the "Reverse" Guardian Action Figure

There have been a few quiet additions to the Collectibles page over the past few days.  None is particularly newsworthy on its own, since most items date back more than a decade, but a couple of them reminded me of a small mystery from a number of years ago.

The two items in question are a Toy Biz mail-in exclusive action figure and a card from the Overpower game.  Both were issued in the mid to late 90's.

The "negative" version of Guardian displayed on the card (at right) isn't in use for merchandise a great deal since it lasted only about a year within comics.  It was the results of Guardian's first of several returns from the dead and was the result of the Building Block storyline that ran from issues 87 to 90 of the first volume.  So the combination of that uniform and a rare action figure reminded me that I once saw an action figure of "negative Guardian" years ago yet have heard or seen nothing of it since.

If I recall correctly, I was at a comics store on the upper floor of the West Edmonton Mall.  I don't believe that the action figure was a custom piece because it seemed to be expertly packaged.  This would have been in the summer of 1998.  It was fairly pricey, which is why I chose against buying it at the time (now regretfully).

Does any of this ring a bell with anyone?  Is anyone aware of some such "exclusive" or rare piece?  If so, feel free to drop be a line at jf4nier@gmail.com and tell me what you know.  I'm not necessarily interested in buying it now (but not uninterested either ;-) ).  Either way, I'm certainly curious.

Guardian Statue by Arahom Radjah

Aw, man...

Most fans are aware of the Bowen line of busts and the Eaglemoss figurine/magazine combos.  As they relate to this character, you can click on the "Collectibles" button at top right for a quick look.

I found the small statue at right during an ebay search.  I was surprised to have never heard of it, but that is likely because there were only 20 made.

As I write this, there are just under 16 days left to bid on it.  I'm not going to link to it since the link will eventualy die anyway, but I found by simply searching "Guardian Alpha Flight".

I also won't include it to the Collectibles page because with fewer than two dozen made, finding it would probably border on the impossible anyway (plus the last thing I need is competition for an affordable one).  But I do want to stash the details about it for future reference, so...

• As stated in the subject line, the statue is the work on Arahom Radjah.  Radjha is the owner of ARH Studios.
• The statue was manufactured in Brazil in 2004.
• There was no box made for this item.
• 11" tall and the base is 1.5" high for a total of 12.5".

Let's have a closer look at that base.

Overall, this seems like a high quality product.  I wish the picture of the statue itself was more clear but using the close up function on ebay didn't reveal any flaws.  The Bowen status drops to #2, and this thing now becomes my new Holy Grail.

Edit: I've found a quality picture of the piece on a message board.  I include it below.  There are far more pictures on this page of not only that particular statue, but of the poster's collection, which is quite attractive.  Enjoy!

Guardian Year One

Not being particularly interested in Wolverine's early days aside from his interaction with James MacDonald Hudson, I was a little unsure as to how much I would enjoy this book.  Now that I've read it, I'm still not certain I do.

The book describes itself as a "contemporary retelling" of Wolverine's formative years, but since much of that period was spent with, and impacted by, the Hudsons, it is nearly inevitable that their history will be affected by any modification or modernization to Logan's.  That includes the sudden revelation of an early model of the Guardian armour.

Such "touch ups" don't have to be a bad thing.  For example, the "Hudson hunting honeymoon" has ceased to be.  The Hudsons don't shoot Wolverine in the wild and nurse him back to health, but rather recover him following his devastating battle against the Wendigo.  The hunting aspect is not specifically important to the scene so its  removal doesn't negatively affect it.  Really, it arguably improves it as the Hudsons have never shown an interest in hunting since, that I can recall.

What does seem out of place is Mac's dialogue throughout much of the book.  Many of his actions that appear to be out of character can be explained as the result of his patriotism being abused by his superiors.  That's historically consistent so not difficult to accept.

But his words towards Logan are often malicious and petty.  A lot of them are spoken after Wolverine has put Heather in harms way, so the anger is understandable at that moment, but it persists well beyond that point and is far worse than the trash-talking type of dialogue in X-Men 109.

The other inconsistency is in Mac's confidence.  Mac's reluctance to wear the battle suit is well documented.  In this story, not only does he do so without a second thought, he takes to it like a fish to water.  During a scrap with Wolverine in which he has the upper hand, he even states "I could do this all day".  He seems more comfortable with the suit in this book than he does in his next chronological appearance (again, X-Men 109).

While a lot of gaps in Wolverine's (and by association, Guardian's) background are filled in, because some of the story is inconsistent with other works, it feels like it's out of continuity.  But based on the pitch as a retelling (not re-imagining), it doesn't seem like that should be the case.

As a stand alone book, both the story and art are quite good.  If you're detail-oriented, those little inconsistencies may get on your nerves.  I found myself trying to consolidate parts of the book with what I know has gone on since that period in Wolverine's life until I realised that it's not my job to do that, it's the writers'.

To be fair, my focus was on Guardian.  Theirs was on Wolverine.  My criticism might be a touch more valid if this book had been "Alpha Flight: Season One" which, regardless of my opinion of this book, I would buy in a heartbeat.

Of Clothes Not Making The Man

I really don't like Wolverine.  This is why I had no idea that Mac (and Heather) are both quite prominent in the recently released "Wolverine: Season One" book until it was reviewed on alphaflight.net.  I sought out the book at Chapters and gave it a quick flip which, combined with the above review, convinced me that it was a worthwhile purchase.  I saved a few bucks by purchasing it online instead of in the store, so it's in the mail and I should have it by Monday.

The part of the review which was particularly attention-grabbing was the mention of a Guardian suit prototype being tested (click on the link above to see a small scan of one panel on which the suit is displayed).  I suppose it makes sense that the path from the original clunky mining suit to the micro-circuitry uniform that we've come to know would be achieved gradually, but it seems like this one came out of nowhere.  We'll see.

In the meantime, seeing another version of the Guardian armour triggered an idea.  Much like the "About Guardian" page was expanded to include information about the character's creation (and not just his fictional history), details about other armours worn by James MacDonald Hudson will be added to the "The Suit" page above.

Most of the alternative suits are completely brutal, true, but they are part of Guardian's muddled history so they should be acknowledged.  I guess.

Early Guardian (well...Captain America...) samples

Sometimes, things just fall right into place.

I was filling out the "About Guardian" page at above left.  There wasn't much information to add that hadn't been included somewhere else on the blog, so I had the idea to copy some of his "real" origin.

At first, my plan was to include quotes from John Byrne that appeared in the Guardian Eaglemoss magazine. In order to flesh it out some, I started searching for similar interview excerpts.

As you can now see on the page in question, I was able to access parts of Modern Masters #7.  This was a bit of a stroke of luck, because being a Google books preview only, many pages were deliberately skipped.  But the one I would have ripped right out of the book given the choice was readily available.

On that page, Byrne mentions that he drew "bad samples" when asked to display his skills for a Captain America story set to take place in Canada.  In the story, Cap was to fight a Canadian superhero that, we now know, would later become Guardian.

Other versions of Guardian's true origin usually ignore the Captain America aspect.  They do make reference to sending a Canadian superhero to bring back Wolverine, of course.  That this superhero is one that Byrne dreamed up many years before is often mentioned, but that Guardian-to-be might have appeared in a Captain America book beforehand tends to be left out.

By complete fluke though, I stumbled into what appears to be a copy of one page of those samples.

It was up for auction in 2005 so the image has been floating around for a while.  Maybe it's common knowledge to die-hard Alpha Flight fans, but I admit that this is the first time I come across it.

I do recall Byrne stating that "badly coloured" pages of that sample artwork were still owned by someone.  It seemed like a harsh assessment but, well, I can kind of see how he reached that opinion.

The "Eh-Team"

The piece below, of Guardian high-fiving Captain Canuck, was done by Darren Rawlings and was the final image in his "Little Friends" series on deviantart.

Fun deal.  Check out the rest of them here.

Pre-Alpha Flight look at Guardian

Courtesy of the "John Byrne Draws" tumblr account.

It's probably fairly obvious, but the second character from left was referred to as an early version of Guardian (quite early, since the sketch is said to be from roughly 1971) when I first came across this piece.  Viewing the page now, I see an asterisk next to "Guardian" but with no explanation as to what it signifies so I suppose there's a possibility that it is not the case, or at least not confirmed.

If you're a John Byrne fan, you need to follow that account, or the similar Twitter account "John Byrne says".  They display tons of rare art and quotes from the controversial writer/artist.

Gutters #207

Just came across this funny piece on Twitter, though it's about a year and a half old.

Lol...some harsh words there...Click on the image for the originating page, or right click to view the image in a separate tab.

It cracks me up that Guardian is pissed at a "cancellation".  Now I am actually far from a Marvel Comics fan.  In fact, if they didn't publish Alpha Flight (on occasion) I wouldn't buy any of their material.

However, I give them a bit of a pass on the "cancellation" thing.  I know a lot of fans were annoyed by that, but going back a little further in time, the last Alpha Flight series was actually originally announced as a mini anyway.  It got extended to an ongoing, then Marvel changed those plans.

When the book was first announced as a mini, Alpha Flight fans were happy at the news.  When it went from an ongoing to a mini, fans were irritated.  But the end results was the same.  Really, Marvel would have benefited from not making a decision on the length of the series until a few issues had been released.

In any event, with Puck in X-Factor and Northstar in the X-Men, at the moment I'd be perfectly happy with a mini-series that featured Guardian.  Even if it was extended, then returned to its original mini-series status.

Guardian in Super Hero Squad

I stumbled across this earlier this week while looking for new Guardian artwork.



Pretty cool. I've never played the game (and don't really plan to...I don't think I'm in the target age range) but the "power emote" segment was worth a giggle. If you're not up to watching the whole video, bring it to about 0:28 or so and check out the three "powers" that are credited to Guardian. They're silly, but I have to admit that the first one is pretty damn cool. I was pretty optimistic after seeing that one, but it got goofy real quick.

Whatever. Like with any action figure set, it's just good to see him included at all. And not, you know...killed. Again.

Guardian sketch by Dale Eaglesham

I haven't been able to find a date on this, but you have to assume it's from just prior to the most recent Alpha Flight mini which Eaglesham drew.  Its existence may also be common knowledge based on the 3.7 million Facebook "likes", yet oddly enough it was never tweeted.

I find it most interesting for the scribbled comments, particularly about Mac's little nicks/scars and toughness.  I guess when you return from the dead four (five? six?) times, you develop a pretty thick skin.

Future writers and/or artists could stand to use this as a basic character guide.

Edit: I did not remember it at the time that this post was written, but a small version of this sketch appears at the end of one of the early issues of the 2011 Alpha Flight mini-series.

Guardian in Fantastic Four #220 (July 1980)

This is a neat cameo.  Chronologically, it takes place after Alpha Flight's attempt to capture Wolverine in Canada, but before a combined X-Men/Alpha team work to capture the Wendigo in  X-Men #139.

There's only thing that burns me about it; when I was a kid, I saw this book EVERYWHERE.  Every department store had it, many times paired up with some other book in a plastic bag.  The Fantastic Four weren't really my thing so I overlooked it a number of times.  To have known that it would include a brief appearance by a personal favourite character that I would want 30 years later, I would have jumped all over it.  Ah well.

So what's the story here?  A mysterious worldwide power failure leads the Fantastic Four to investigate the possibility of a "polar disruption".  The FF fly north, through Canadian airspace, causing Guardian (Vindicator at this point) to do some investigating of his own, good little soldier that he was.

I like the fanboy moment during an otherwise professional exchange. As most Alpha Flight fans know, that team was inspired by the Fantastic Four.

It would have been cool to have Guardian tag along on this mission but this is the extent of his appearance in the book, unfortunately.

Guardian, Pixar Style

Well this is cool.

The above is a photoshop creation by one Phil Postma to simulate what a Pixar-made Marvel movie would look like (though many DC characters are included as well).  Check out the rest of the "cast" here.  It's quite impressive.

Warming up to Minimates

Minimates.  I'm normally stoked to see Alpha Flight included in any type of merchandise release, but I hated these on sight.  They just struck me as being brutally ugly.

As a result of adding the Guardian minimate on the Collectibles page, I looked into them a little more and I admit that they are winning me over. If you also heard of these 2" inch toys but dismissed them as I did, here's some cause to reconsider.

There is a degree of detail involved that I didn't appreciate at first.  The accessories are interesting.  Whomever designed these toys (this set, the first of two, includes Northstar, Marrina and Puck) knew his or her stuff or, at the very least, did the necessary research.

The helmet is removable, which I did not realize at first.  But not only can you reveal a rather surly looking Mac...

...you can also substitute the head of that evil metal bitch, Delphine Courtney, that impersonated him shortly after his death (huh...the first one) in the original series from the early 80's.

Neat!  Not that I would use that feature a whole lot, frankly, but the salute to history is appreciated.

The last-but-not-necessarily-least piece is the flight base (or whatever name it goes by) shown at left; a clear stand to give your minimate the illusion of flight.  The first thing that occurred to me when I saw it is that it may have worked better with a yellow tint to simulate the trail from Guardian's suit, but it's still a cool idea and handy for display purposes.

So I may find myself getting my hands of these after all. They offer more than the initial glance revealed.  And of course, it would be tough to get only half of Alpha Flight, so you'd be compelled to get the second set which includes Aurora, Shaman, Snowbird and Sasquatch.

What, no Heather?  Sure, she is in a separate set with Box.  Throw that in the cart too!

Note: Some of the pictures used for this post are cropped versions of images displayed on this Luke's Toy Store page.

The Guardian Fury Files

Does this happen to you?

You look for information on the internet and are unable to find it.  You give up.  Weeks later, you try again for the hell of it and find it within two minutes. I don't know how that can be.

It happened to me again a couple of nights ago.  My original failure took place while I was looking for  info on the action figure below while creating the Collectibles page.

I bought this guy on ebay and when I received it, the packaging looked like it might have been tampered with.

As indicated at the bottom left of the box, the figure came with a S.H.I.E.L.D. file and a "secret code".  It seemed as though someone had tried to slip the file out of the package then reseal it.  It wouldn't matter a whole lot, as the Fury Files website is no longer active, but nonetheless.  I had paid for the whole package and wanted the whole package.  So I went looking for what I might have been missing and crapped out until just a couple of days ago.

If you're already a fan of Alpha Flight in general or Guardian in particular, you are likely aware of the information below.  For those who refuse to take an action figure out of its packaging and who may have similarly struggled in a search to know what you're missing, I'll share my findings.

The images below are from the Cool Toy Review website.  I include them in case the page is taken down at some point (the toy is from almost four years ago now), but as long as it's active, you should visit it for a much greater variety of photography and scans.

The first is a fact card of dubious accuracy...

Wormholes?

The next is a communication between S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Maria Hill and some guy called Anthony Stark.

Apparently, based on a comment I've seen on a message board, entering the secret code into the furyfiles.com website would reveal a response to the message above.

I wonder if Stark took Hill to task for her terrible grammar and spelling?  This has the feel of something that was written in another language and translated to English.

I don't buy action figures often, but when I do I always find myself debating whether to take them out of the package.  The accessory ideas are neat for this one, but the execution is rather poor, so in this case I'm glad I left it as it.

Guardian subs for Iron Man for Alter Ego #71

The magazine below is described on the "essential reading" page of They Stand On Guard.  However, it is not particularly prominent, and I seldom see it referred to in terms of rare Alpha Flight sightings, so let's shine a bit of a spotlight on it.

Alter Ego, for those who may be unfamiliar with the publication, is a magazine devoted to the golden and silver ages of comics.  This particular issue was mostly devoted to Canadian comics (obviously) from the mid-40's.

Long time comic readers will find the poses somewhat familiar; the image pays homage to Jack Kirby's cover for What if? #9 with Guardian taking the place of Iron Man, appropriately enough.

If you have the slightest interest in the history of Canadian comics, use the link above to order that issue.  It is an excellent source of information.