Reload month is finished, and the X-books are starting to settle into their new status quo.  But there's a raft of other X-books still to come, a prospect that suggests Marvel are trying to kill me.

Fortunately, they're throwing me a bone - Alpha Flight #4 is the final issue that was solicited as an X-book.  The later issues were solicited in the general "Marvel Heroes" category.  Since Alpha Flight was always an X-book in name only, I'm more than happy to play along with Marvel on this one.  So this is going to be the final Alpha Flight review.

We're now two thirds of the way through the first storyline, and the glaringly obvious weakness is the plot.  Or, more accurately, the lack thereof.  The Plodex are up to... uh, something.  Alpha Flight have been captured.  Sasquatch rounds up some newbies to go after them.  And.  That's.  It.  We don't even know what the villains are trying to do, or for that matter how Sasquatch's Alpha Flight managed to track down the Plodex in order to go after them.

Granted, the book seems to be focussing its efforts on light comedy.  But you still need to have some kind of a plot - there's really no sense here of any progress being made.  Lobdell does start dropping hints about the back story of his characters, and appears to be suggesting some kind of hidden story that the guy with the really long name is keeping from the others.  Major Mapleleaf gets an abusive childhood backstory to round him out a bit.  These ideas are basically okay, but feel very much at odds with the tone Lobdell's trying to establish.  Mapleleaf's back story also begs obvious chronological questions - he really doesn't look old enough to be the son of a World War II veteran.

The jokes are a mixed bag as well.  Mapleleaf's grating enthusiasm works quite well, but a sequence of Sasquatch playing dancing video games is horribly forced.  Admittedly, artist Clayton Henry gets quite a nice visual out of it - and the art is generally nicely matched to the story.  But it all seems like it's trying a bit too hard to be funny, and not really pulling it off, when it should be spending more time on the plot.

Rating: C+

back | continue