Old Man Logan 46/47

Please indulge me as I correct an error I made 18 months ago.

In a post from June 2019, I stated that the Alpha Flight special called True North was the first significant appearance by Guardian in the previous five years. That was actually not the case.

Guardian and a few members of Alpha Flight (the real one) appeared in a two-part story in the Old Man Logan book in 2018. I either whiffed on it or ignored it at the time, assuming that it would have been some future or alternate version of the team.

I'm glad I gave it a longer look, even if it was more two years later. It was arguably the character's best guest appearance (as opposed to a single panel cameo) in quite some time. And you don't need to know the Old Man Logan back story to follow it.

Here are some highlights, if you did too. As usual, click on the images to enlarge them. 

Mac shows up early on in the issue for a scheduled pick up of Logan.

Sweet ride! 

They head to the town of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia. It has been overwhelmed by some sort of purple plant creature. 

Mac finds the source and collects a sample from it to study on the ship. 

So he exits from the story for a spell. While he's studying away, the actions of the rest of Alpha Flight, Logan and a handful of remaining townspeople cause the creature to stir to life and lash out.

We move on issue #47 after Mac is called back down to help out. 

Whoa, slow down on the technical jargon, Poindexter! 😄

They discover that fire can cause the plant creature harm (that hardly seems like a leap of logic). Logan jumps in the middle of it and lights a number of gas cans in order to kill it.

Of course, getting out of the middle of that conflagration is a more difficult deal, unless you have the country's top petrochemical engineer and his awesome flight suit around.

In a number of ways, this book was similar to Alpha Flight's appearance in a few issues of Amazing X-Men in 2014. That one also started with the team investigating a mystery in a small town in Canada.

This Logan story, written by Ed Brisson, was far more coherent and, in my opinion, respectful. In the X-Men issues, you'd have sworn that the writers had no clue as to what Alpha Flight had been up to in the past decade, and didn't much care.

While I am personally not particularly crazy about the direction in which Brisson took Guardian in True North, that is not the case with either that story or these two Logan books. The team's recent history is acknowledged and built upon. I'm thankful to Mr. Brisson for keeping the character in circulation to some extent.

Guardian Cameo in The Hunt For Wolverine One-Shot

He lives!

No, not Wolverine...We all knew that and I couldn't care any less anyway.

But while searching for something else altogether I found out that Mac is still around to some degree. Yeah, Alpha Flight is some sort of space defense team working with or for Captain Marvel but apparently a Canadian superhero team is still using that name as well.

In Hunt For Wolverine, a group called the Reavers travels to "Alberta, Canada" to attempt to recover Wolverine's adamantium-encased body to sell off. If there was an explanation as to how they knew about its location, I overlooked it (and don't care). Their appearance triggered some kind of alarm, the X-Men show up, defeat the Reavers and hand them over to the Canadian authorities in the form of Alpha Flight.

That is all as far as Guardian is converned. The X-Men's leader (I assume) is Kitty Pride at this point and she seeks out the help of Daredevil and Tony Stark to help find Wolverine. Storm is standing in front of one of, if not the, best friends Wolverine ever had, but let's not let him in on this. He's only died about four times himself. Let's ask Daredevil.

Ah well. It had seemed like Mac had blinked out of existence again in recent months so I'll take whatever crumbs I can find. Maybe it's for best that Mac wasn't around when Marvel went around replacing most of its characters with shitty, shallow replicas.

Speaking of replicas, Alpha Flight appears in the Champions book this month but, sadly, Guardian does not seem to be involved. Too bad.

Guardian the Versatile Petrochemical Engineer

Because Guardian's appearance in Wolverine #91 is only about a page long, I didn't include it in the appearances page above. However, as soon as I finish this post, I'll be adding the subsequent issue.

In a story entitled "A Northern Exposure", Mac and Heather assist Professor Charles Xavier and Hank "Beast" McCoy in studying Wolverine's current state of mind. There remains some concern that Logan may struggle to maintain control of his more animalistic tendencies.

The book is written by Larry Hama, as was the previous issue, but art duties are handled by Adam Kubert and Dan Green this time around. It has a cover date of August, 1995.

Heather has a larger role than Guardian does,but even though their presence is strictly in a observational role, they are present throughout the entire story. They recreate the scene in which they found Logan in the woods and they monitor his activities after he runs out of the facility with the virtual-reality equipment still attached.

Mac does display some knowledge of the effects of having a metal spike driven through your head as the group discusses Sabretooth's condition as well. Again, Wolverine stabbed Sabretooth in the face with one of his claws a couple of issues earlier.

Well, for a petrochemical engineer, Mac's got the neurosurgeon lingo down pretty good, even if his conclusion is basically "I have no idea what's going to happen".

I praised Larry Hama in the previous post for his frequent acknowledgements that Mac and Heather are a huge part of Wolverine's life. Hama displays his understanding of Wolverine's past by again having him make reference to the couple as "the best friends I have in the whole world". So while Mac doesn't really get his hands dirty, this book belongs in the collection.

Guardian, The Distinguished Colleague

With Amazing X-Men's World War Wendigo recently completed, I turn my attention back to Guardian's past appearances.

Today, we're having a look at Wolverine (volume two) #91.  The book has a publishing date of July 1995.

The story takes place shortly after Wolverine has lost the adamantium that laced his skeleton (and from which his claws were made, of course). As a result, it appears that he's losing control of his "beast mode", something which happens about as frequently as Mac dying, but is worrisome nonetheless. It seems that he drove one of his claws through Sabretooth's head in the previous issue which, saying it "out loud", doesn't seem like such a terrible thing, when taking into account what a colossal asshole Sabretooth is.

A significant portion of the issue is your standard X-Men hand-wringing about how they should handle the situation. But as part of his fact-finding mission Professor Xavier takes the time to check in with "a distinguished colleague in Ottawa".  Nice rub, to appropriate a wrestling term.

I'm not sure that makes any sense even when applied as "comics science" but whatever...We'll let Wolverine bloggers deal with that.

Larry Hama wrote the book, and I appreciate how frequently he included Mac (and/or) Heather in the Wolverine series while it was in his care, even if it was in small roles. They're supposed to be among Logan's best friends so involving them is entirely logical. As I write this, Wolverine is supposedly dead and they have no significant involvement in the aftermath of his murder.  That doesn't seem right.

In the above page, I like the use of the proper honorific for Beast ("Dr. McCoy") while being on a more casual first-name basis with Storm. Not only would Mac know Ororo better, but the respect shown for someone's status is consistent with past meeting with Namor, Reed Richards, etc.  Nice touch, Mr. Hama.

There was another surprise in the credits.  Duncan Rouleau pencilled this story.  About two years later, Rouleau would take over pencil duties for the back half of the second volume of Alpha Flight (issue 12, then 14 through 20, which concluded the series).

I found his Alpha Flight work difficult to follow and personally disliked the exaggerated features on some characters (bulbous noses, protruding chins, huge flowing hair, etc). Comparing his AF work to the above, perhaps he changed his style to be more distinctive, but it may just be that some inkers are a better match for him. The inker for the Wolverine issue was Joe Rubinstein.

I Guess He's OK!

When last we saw Guardian in X-Men #8, he had been taken by surprise by a Wendigo in Forrest, Ontario, and not heard from by friends, family or employers since.  Or at least, that was Wolverine's interpretation based on how the town of Forrest...smells.

It was easy to assume that he had been bit and became a Wendigo himself, but that's not the case.  He was apparently busy doing what Heather was unable to do, and Puck was too stupid to do despite a direct instruction to do so; he gathered Alpha Flight.

He's been in a fight, that much his clear.  I guess we're to assume that he took two days to recover, based on the amount of time that Heather said he'd been gone.  But he did take the time to change his suit before joining the X-Men later in this issue (got one with a bigger leaf).  A leader's got to look good in front of his troops!

On a side note, Aurora at some point tells Northstar "They told me you were married...".  Did they?  Did they tell you that YOU WERE AT THE WEDDING?

While they were chatting, Guardian decided to put on his red pants.

Anyway, for the most part, this book blows.  It's nice to see the characters but there's very little consideration for their recent history.  Heather and Mac being together goes against the former's last on-page appearance, when she drove off with their daughter to parts unknown.  Aurora "forgetting" that she attended Northstar's wedding, mentioned above, is further evidence of shoddy research.

At least Guardian wasn't killed again (yet).  Apparently writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost have a history of killing off characters but so far so good for our flag-bearer.

The premise is pretty cool, though like the rest of the non-X-Men portions of the book, I'm not sure that it's supported by past events.  I don't believe that "accidental" cannibalism qualifies one for the Wendigo curse.  For that matter, I'm not sure that the Wendigo curse is transferable through biting or scratching. Bah, why be burdened with continuity when you think you have a neat idea?

Oh, and that kid the X-Men saved in the previous issue?  I predict she'll be revealed to be vegetarian.  I haven't somehow read ahead, it's just as predictable as the rising sun.  Otherwise, her parents are starving her, because she hasn't eaten in almost two days.  But these writers don't seem too concerned with details, so who knows?

Double Dose of Guardian in September

Marvel revealed their September 2014 solicitations this morning.

To begin, World War Wendigo continues in Amazing X-Men #11 (part four of five) and finally the members of Alpha Flight that are involved get a little cover love, Guardian included.

Mild love, mind you, but love nonetheless.

Something that was a bit more surprising was a mention of Alpha Flight in the solicitation for Deadpool #34.

DEADPOOL #34
BRIAN POSEHN & GERRY DUGGAN (W) • SCOTT KOBLISH (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
SPECIAL 3D Motion VARIANT COVER BY MARK BROOKS
• Flashback to the 90’s as we learn the darkest secret of Deadpool’s past!
• See the events Deadpool’s friends learned about it Original Sin FIRST HAND!
• Guest-Starring 90’s Sabretooth, 90’s Alpha Flight, and 90’s artwork!
40 PGS./Parental Advisory …$4.99

Argh...I hate Deadpool...

This does beg the question though...Which Alpha Flight's appearance and if so, which Guardian will we see?

We should get some Guardian content.  Despite his many absences from the Marvel Universe over the years, odds are pretty good if it's 90's Alpha Flight.

Guardian wasn't around much early in that decade.  The android version of the character died (or something) in 1991 but he returned ('cause that's what he does) in the series' final story arc, entitled "No Future" in the summer of 1994.

Team members popped up in other books from time to time until a second volume of Alpha Flight hit shelves in the summer of 1997.  And that one looked designed to fit in with what was considered hot at the time.

Gadzooks...You younger readers may not believe this, but at one time, that was actually considered pretty cool...

Now that's the cloned, or de-aged, version of Guardian.  "Mac Classic" didn't return until the following year.

But the story of Guardian being cloned, de-aged and shot into space to be later miraculously, randomly found by Sasquatch in the North Pole is so ludicrous that I can't imagine a comedic book like Deadpool avoiding it.  And because Alpha Flight resembled the typical 90's book most in that series, I'm guessing that that's the version we'll get.

I may not care for Deadpool, but the book will have my curiosity come September.

Guardian in Amazing X-Men #8!

It was pretty well confirmed weeks ago that Guardian would be included in Alpha Flight's guest appearance in Amazing X-Men, but the degree of exposure couldn't be determined until today.  I only saw him in one panel in the preview material that I'd been able to find but I'm pleased to see that he was involved in several pages and that he looked pretty sharp.

Hey, we can add Ed McGuinness to the short list of writer who can actually draw a maple leaf properly on this suit.

The solicitation for this issue made reference to an old friend of Wolverine's being missing.  Based on the ending of the 2011 Alpha Flight mini series, I assumed it would be Guardian's estranged wife, Heather.  But it seems that at some point the two reconciled to a certain degree. Heather explains to Wolverine that she and Mac split after a bad argument and haven't talked in two days.  He went on a mission for Department H a couple of days prior and has yet to return.  The rest of his involvement is told in semi-flashback as Wolverine pieces together what's gone on.

The Wendigo Wars will run for five issues.  Alpha Flight presumably will be in all of them (they are confirmed for parts two and three thus far) and that means more Guardian, unless he's gone and died again. It'll be great to have him on a regular basis again at least temporarily and while some of the Alpha Flight content seemed inconsistent, Mac himself seems to be in pretty good hands at the moment.

Wolverine / Cable: Guts and Glory

Guardian doesn't appear in the book below, but James MacDonald Hudson does.

In Guardian's early appearances, right up to his first "death" in Alpha Flight #12, he seemed like a decent guy.  Sure, he was considred the antagonist when he twice attempted to recover Wolverine for the Canadian government, but he clearly wasn't evil, he was just a good little soldier doing his job. In fact, he was doing a job he didn't really want.

But from time to time, that hasn't been enough.  Writers have, on occasion, painted Mac as being so concerned with making Department H work that he would make highly questionable decisions for any shred of success.

This is such a book.

Guts and Glory has a publishing date of October 1999, as if the exaggerated musculature and huge-ass firearms weren't enough of a clue that it came out in the 90's.  As stated on the cover above, Stephen Platt provided the pencils with seven (??!!!) credited inkers completing the art.

The story takes place prior to Alpha Flight really becoming a thing.  Wolverine appears to be the only official agent at this point.  He is in "Northern Canada" (that covers a lot of ground, doesn't it?) enjoying a cigar after getting laid (I'm serious) when Mac interrupts his afterglow.

The "disturbance" is caused by a big bastard called D'Von Kray who followed Cable through time to kick his ass. Wolverine takes him out in no time and Department H hauls him in. To what end?  Well...

Sure.  He wiped out Moose Jaw, but we'll just give him Canadian citizenship so he can be in Alpha Flight. 

But sure enough, just a week later...

That was one intense week of research!

As if you need me to tell you, D'Von Kray escapes and heads for the States to give Cable a good whuppin'. Wolverine is able to track him and the two heroes work together to take him down and...well...that's pretty much it.

As much as I dislike the notion that Mac might have done some pretty lousy things in order to keep his program going, I can't discount that it's happened a number of times in his history (always in flashback, mind you).  I suppose it's not outrageous that when the possibility of the department being dropped presented itself, Mac may have taken an "the ends justify the means" approach for the greater good, but it clashes with his personality as it was displayed by Chris Clarement in the early New X-Men books and by John Byrne in the first dozen Alpha Flight issues.

Enemy of the State II

A couple of posts back, I wrote about a cameo appearance by Guardian in the Wolverine book that was being published at the time.  In that appearance, the Hudsons announced to Wolverine that they were expecting their first child.

That same month (April 2002), Wolverine played a large role in a five-part story called Enemy of the State II in the Black Panther title.  Alpha Flight, and therefore Guardian, also popped in briefly.

Why are Wolverine and Alpha Flight involved at all?  Seems Black Panther produced old paperwork  which reveals that an island on Lake Superior actually belongs to Wakanda and he wants it back.  The following partial page is from issue 43, the third installment in the arc, and the cover to which can be seen at above left.

Alpha Flights' reaction to the above was actually displayed at the end of the previous issue:

I've seen people on social media and message boards be thrown off by the red stripe on Guardian's helmet. It seems to cause people to assume that the character being shown is the younger clone version from the second volume of Alpha Flight.

Highly unlikely; that Mac died almost three years before in Wolverine #143.  The "real" Mac wore it for a while too; I believe he ceased to do so in Scott Lobdell's brutally painfully dumb third volume of Alpha Flight from 2004.  At least something good came from that atrocity.

Back to Panther #43...The Wakandan king and Wolverine do end up meeting with Alpha Flight.  Showing a little consistency and continuity, Wolverine even takes the time to ask Heather how she is and she updates us on her pregnancy.  Nice touch.  Then they get down to business.

Can't get nothin' past our boy.

Unfortunately, that's about the extent of Guardian and Alpha Flight's involvement.  They do appear in one poorly drawn panel later in the story to interfere with Iron Man's plan to stop Panther's plan, but that's it.

Still, it's nice to see the team's existence acknowledged when something major happens in Canada (and not show up to be jobbed out), even if a blurb in issue #42 makes reference to "Sault Saint Marie".

Origin Recap in Marvel Saga #1

My folks were cleaning out their basement during the holidays and stumbled into boxes full of some of my old comics.  Many are filled with crap, but one box did include some Alpha Flight issues from late in volume one and the book below, which I'd forgotten I'd ever owned.

If you're unfamiliar with Marvel Saga, published in December 1985, its goal was to tie the various aspects of the Marvel Universe history chronologically.

A significant portion of the first issue was devoted to the origins of the Fantastic Four, and since the FF were the in-story inspiration for Alpha Flight, their segment leads to Guardian's own origin.  It is told by patching together panels from the back-up stories in the early issues of Alpha Flight that provided background details about each team member.  The installments in issues two and three focused on Mac and Marvel Saga summarizes them in three pages.

This Saga ran for 25 issues then spawned more character-specific series, such as Spider-Man Saga and Wolverine Saga. Since they figure prominently in his history, it's no surprise to see Mac and Heather show up in the first issue of the Wolverine book as well.

We'll just assume that Expos line is an attempt at humour by Mac...

The second issue of Wolverine Saga covers Guardian's (Weapon Alpha at the time) first attempt at recovering Wolverine for the Canadian government (originally depicted in X-Men 109), as well as the scrap between the X-Men and Alpha Flight in Calgary from X-Men 120 and 121.

The first few pages of the third issue recap Wolverine and Nightcrawler teaming with Guardian (still known as Vindicator), Shaman and Snowbird from Alpha Flight to stop the Wendigo (X-Men 139 and 140) in northern Ontario.

So no new material to speak of, just old panels/pages reorganized to abbreviate a little convoluted history.  Still, in light of how poorly treated Alpha Flight and Guardian have been in the past, it's nice to see their place in Marvel history recognized.

Guardian cameo in Wolverine: The Logan Files

Alpha Flight fans are likely aware of the team's appearance in Wolverine (volume 2) #172 in 2002.

The cover to the next issue (at right) does not display it quite so bluntly, but the book also has some decent Alpha Flight content.  It mostly takes the form of a heart-to-heart between Wolverine and Shaman, but there is also a significant cameo appearance by Guardian.

Quick back-story; the story opens with Wolverine's X-Man partner and friend Nightcrawler being attacked by two of Logan's long-time villains in Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike.  The villains get the best of him.

We flip to Shaman attempting to determine mystically who might have it in for Wolverine (this time) but failing.  As they discuss the issue, they receive a transmission from Mac and his wife Heather.

If the dialogue is difficult to read, you can view a larger version of the page by opening it in a new tab (right-click option).

So Heather announces she's carrying a l'il Guardian as an engine goes dead.  Turns out that Red and Deathstrike are disabling the jet from underneath.  It is next seen exploding in the mountains.

Lest you think this might be one of Guardian's many, many deaths, fear not!  It is revealed in the following issue (we're now at #174, if you were losing track) that Mac and Heather were able to bail.

Well done, James, you heroic bastard!

That's about all we see of Mac.  But we see plenty of the suit!  Wolverine has discovered that his healing factor is no longer working properly.  So he needs to give himself an edge if he's going to survive trying to save his friends and family from Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike.  And he gives himself the coolest edge of all. :-)

All right, I really don't like Wolverine, but I admit that I marked out at that (to use a wrestling term). That's pretty neat.  And it fits him perfectly, even though Mac is approximately 11 inches taller!  Wolverine still gets kicked around, but at least he looks sharp while having it done to him.

So not a lengthy appearance by any stretch, but nonetheless significant if only for the announcement of Heather's pregnancy.  Mac and Heather's daughter would be born 14 months later in X-Men Unlimited #45 (June 2003 cover date).  That must have been one difficult labour.

Guardian appearance in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse

Here's a neat thing I stumbled across this past weekend; Guardian had a brief appearance in an X-Men video game in 2005. Unfortunately, he's not available as a playable character, but it's still kind of cool to see him involved.

The clip I include below was lifted from the Mikkel Frost Gaming youtube account.  Mikkel basically walks us through the game. You'll hear the occasional comment from him

You'll note that this is part 27 of the game walk-through.  Heather McNeil Hudson (in the green version of her outfit) was included in the previous part.  She explains to Wolverine and the X-Men that Guardian was sent on a mission to something called the Infinite Factory and has yet to be heard from since.  And, you know, in light of how often he dies, that's the kind of thing that you want looked into!  So she asks the team to investigate because it's not as though she'd ever been in charge of a team full of superheroes and mutants herself.

When the X-Men finally locate Guardian, he needs little convincing to get out of the way. If the video does not start in the right spot, fast forward to 3:18 or so.



Guardian provides additional instructions further along in the game but never gets directly involved in the action (that I know of). He was voiced by Jim Ward for this game.

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, 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.

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.