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Welcome to The Flight Stuff: a podcast about Canada’s premiere superhero team!
In 1983, comic book writer and artist John Byrne lifted his original team, Alpha Flight, from the pages of Uncanny X-Men and dropped them into their own, eponymous series. Over the course of 11 years, the Canadian super team — Guardian, Sasquatch, Puck, Snowbird, Shaman, Aurora, Northstar, and others along the way — battled foes large and small, with adventures steeped in social commentary and uniquely Canadian issues and themes.
Join comic book enthusiasts Liam, Adrianna and Doug as they make their way through the original series issue by issue, character by character, Byrnism by Byrnism, with occasional detours through Canadian cultural history. So sit back, listen up and get right with the Flight!
NOTE: The team spends the first half of this episode laboring under the misapprehension that John Byrne drew the cover art for Uncanny X-Men #109. The true artist is, of course, Dave Cockrum! Fortunately, we caught ourselves mid-episode and gave credit where it’s due. When you’re so entrenched in Byrneland…
In Episode 7, Liam, Adrianna and Doug try something a little different! First, the gang discusses issue #17, which sees Heather take up the mantle of Guardian to honor her fallen husband and former Alpha Flight leader, James Hudson. The majority of this issue, however, is flashbacks to adventures of Alpha Flight past, which gets a lukewarm reception from all three hosts.
For the second half of the episode, our usual format gets tossed as the team dives into Marvel Age #2 to discuss an interview with John Byrne published just prior to the launch of Alpha Flight. There’s a lot to unpack: he lays out his plan for the team and gives brief descriptions of each team member — but how much of it actually made it onto the page? It’s a fascinating insight into his creative process, and of course, we’ve got lots of opinions on it!
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please drop us a line at [email protected].
Follow us on Twitter: @flightstuffpod
3 Comments
James
Walter’s experiment wasn’t about Jeanne-MARIE’s MeNTAL HEALTH; HE WAS MODIFYING HER PHYSIOLOGY TO MAKE HER UNDETECTABLE AS A MUTANT.
JAMES
Snowbird’s blonde hair is an homage to her human father, the man who summoned Tundra in Alpha Flight #1 and later seen a few issues later in her origin story.
James
The twins used their ability to generate light in Alpha Flight #1 (against Tundra) and #3 (in Master’s lair), as well as a few appearances before the series began.