Super-Team Family Presents...

Ah, if only...

The imaginary cover above is the creation of Ross Pearsall, who describes his work as reflecting "The greatest team-ups that never happened... but should have!"

No kidding.

Ross has a long-running blog on which Guardian and Alpha Flight has made a number of appearances. Check out another example below.

Fun stuff, eh?

Wonder what Green Arrow's problem is? ;-)

There have been a few Marvel / DC collaborations but I'm more reminded of the Justice League / Justice Society team-ups that took place fairly regularly.  Typically, members of either team would pair up, or form small groups, and each grouping would complete a task towards a common goal.  It's neat to imagine teams of Green Arrow / Aurora, Green Lantern / Northstar or Batman / Puck. But Superman / Guardian would be a geekgasm for the ages.

Guardian sketch card by Mike Thomas

This is the e-bay purchase I made brief reference to a few days ago.

The card is from the 3rd series of Upper Deck's Marvel Beginnings set, issued in 2012.  Artist Mike Thomas has signed the back of it.  Thomas has a Facebook page specific to his sketch cards.

It is identified as being "1 of 1" so I didn't incude it on the Collectibles page since the only way to collect it would be to buy it from me and that's not going to happen. ;-)

I've seen one other Guardian sketch card from the Marvel Beginnings series on e-bay but did not pull the trigger on it because, honestly, I didn't particularly care for it.  It was essentially a mug shot in front of a Canadian flag. But there are a number of sketch cards displaying Alpha Flight characters so anyone who might be interested in starting a unique little collection has the opportunity.

Finally!! My friggin' Guardian Heroclix!

In the early morning hours today, the temperature began to dip to -26 "feels like -38" in Ottawa.  Yet I almost ran to the mailbox in pajama pants when I saw that the Guardian Heroclix I ordered was showing as "delivered" on the US Postal Service website.

Getting my hands on this thing has been a chore. I first ordered it in early November (on e-bay).  The person I purchased it from shipped it in no time, so I was pleased to see that.  I was tracking the package on the US Post site.  Everything seemed to be going fine.  Until it got jammed up somewhere.  It didn't move for over a month.

While seeing if I could order it from somewhere in Canada instead, I inadvertently ordered a second one from the States.  And then noticed that I did so from the same dude I bought the first one from.  Bloody hell.

Then the morning after my second purchase, I checked on my first more out of habit than anything.  Damned thing had apparently been released from the holding facility in which it was stuck and was on its way after all.  Bah.  Oh well, I guess at least I would get both rather than have one lost somewhere.

Not yet!  I looked closer and my first purchase has apparently ended up in Brazil.  In light of the temperature here though, I can kind of understand why it would do such a thing instinctively.

But my second one did make it, as promised by US Post!  I plucked it out of the mailbox this morning and I quite like it!

Except...

The front looks pretty great, at least compared to the original version of this game piece (shown on the Collectibles page above).  Here it is, blown up significantly.

Sure, there are slight paint flaws along his right arm.  But the actual piece is only about two inches tall so it's actually not very noticeable. On the flip side, the yellow eyes don't stand out very much on the actual figurine.

The problem is on the back.

Uhm...What the hell is that?  They'd done a pretty good job with the maple leaf in the front of the piece, how could they butcher it so badly on the back?  Gack!

If my first Guardian ever comes home from Brazil, I'll compare the two.  And as far as having two in the collection, I can paint a small red stripe on the above one's mask and pretend he's Mac's clone from volume two of Alpha Flight, and that the other one is Mac returned from being blasted into space by Department H. 

There.  Problem solved.

Save the date again.

Looks like Guardian will have at least a minor appearance at a wedding again this coming April.  Marvel has been releasing images of puzzle pieces displaying wedding attendees and Alpha Flight is among the guests.

It's a little surprising to see Mac's estranged wife in the shot. At the end of the fourth volume of Alpha Flight, Heather Hudson left the group with the couple's daughter and with clear intentions of not being found.  There was never any follow up to that storyline.  The next time we saw Alpha Flight was in Hulk numbers 53 to 57 and there was no mention of that incident.

Guardian and Alpha Flight do enjoy their weddings, mind you.  In the summer of 2012, they attended Northstar's nuptials to Kyle...something or other.  I forget his name now and couldn't care any less. 

Guardian didn't do much at that wedding, mind you.  He appears on the cover...

...and here and there in group shots inside the issue...

Way to dress for the occasion, Flight...

But the best among his very brief moments is his arm-wrestling match with Rogue.

Being that Alpha is the Marvel version of WWE jobbers, there's no way he won that even though he appears to have the better technique.

I have no idea who's getting married in April, and I suspect that Alpha Flight will have about the same amount of involvement in whatever book it turns out to be as they did in Astonishing X-Men 51 (if they have any at all), but it's nice to see that they're still on someone's radar, at least.