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.