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Reload is finally here, and what better
comic to start this week's reviews than... uh, Alpha Flight
#3.
Marvel don't seem terribly sure any more
whether Alpha Flight even counts as an X-book.
Inexplicably, this issue is listed as one of the Reload books
in this week's letters columns, despite being part 3 of a
six-issue storyline. But upcoming solicitations have
bumped the book into the Marvel Heroes section. Perhaps
they figured that the sales for issue #1 were okay, and it
didn't need to clog up the X-Men's solicitations after all.
Or maybe they just can't make up their minds.
Anyway, this issue is a flashback to the
history of the Plodex. Really. That's it.
Sasquatch tells his new team about the Plodex, and they act
alarmed. Quite why they're alarmed isn't really clear,
since he doesn't tell them quite what the Plodex have actually
done (other than capture the real Alpha Flight), and he ends
by making a couple of cryptic allusions to Marrina without
actually explaining who she is and why she's remotely relevant
to the title.
The issue does its job so far as
introducing the Plodex is concerned. They're a bunch of
violent bastards who spend most of their time punching one
another and occasionally pull together to get something more
productive done (usually, declare war on the neighbours).
Lobdell trots happily through their established history and
works in some fairly decent gags, albeit that stories of
genocidal warfare don't really lend themselves to the comedy
tone he's been aiming for in previous issues.
But, even after an entire issue of
exposition, it's never made clear what the hell the Plodex are
actually up to and what Sasquatch wants his new team to do.
Well, other than rescue Alpha Flight. We're halfway
through the opening storyline now - by this point, we really
ought to know more about the villains than their name.
An entire issue of history lessons is overkill - the idea
could have been set up just as effectively in half the space.
The pacing is going badly awry here.
Rating: C+
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