Alpha Flight (and therefore Guardian) cameo in Fantastic Four #643

The images below were revealed exclusively on avclub.com on February 19th.

The book's villain (whose name escapes me now) has unleashed a worldwide invasion of some sort (bear with me, I don't read the book) and we are shown the impact in various parts of the world. Naturally, that means that we get a brief window on Canada and therefore Alpha Flight, and therefore Guardian.

Looks like two-page spread...

...and here's the page with Guardian specifically (third panel, to the left):

Based on the 2-page version, looks like Guardian is getting a save from the wife. Or ex-wife. Who knows anymore?

May as well take the opportunity to display another such occurrence. The partial page below is from the third issue of the Citizen V and the V-Battalion mini series from mid 2002.

Lol...I never really read this book so I didn't really acknowledge that Flag-Smasher is a part of it. Pitabow Comics has spoiled that character for me forever (not that it would have taken an awful lot, since F-S is not particularly accomplished in villainy). Flag-Smasher is a recurring villain in Pitabow's Alpha Flight comic strip and he's not very successful in that, either. Blow up the image below for an example.

Check out more Alpha Flight strips here.

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.

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.