Issue(s): Alpha Flight #107
Cover Date: Apr 92
Title: World Tour '92: "Rage against the dying of the light!"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Tom Morgan - Penciler
Tom Morgan - Inker
Rob Tokar - Editor

Review/plot:
With very little fanfare and certainly no build up in previous issues, Alpha Flight begins a three part "World Tour". Part one only takes them as far as the United States. They go to Washington DC to meet X-Factor. A mix-up with their costumes means they have to borrow spare suits from the mutant team.

Since Heather Hudson (i can't remember if she's Guardian or Vindicator again at this point) derives her powers from her costume, a contrived explanation is given where she chose to wear the interior microcircuits but not the outer costume layer because Windshear convinced her "it would be rude to show up in costume" but she has a fear of flying in planes so she wore the powered portion of the suit anyway.

The explanation for the World Tour is given pretty much in passing.

While Alpha Flight is visiting, X-Factor is sent on an assignment and Alpha tag along. The story is basically a ghost story, with a woman having returned from the dead to try to force her fiance into going through with their wedding. It's speculated that the woman is really a mutant, except that her powers were triggered upon death instead of at puberty.

The combined teams fight zombies for a while, but the situation is resolved when the husband agrees to go through with it (at Aurora's Jean-Marie personality's suggestion), and after the wedding the woman dies for real.

And it ends that abruptly. The Tour is, i think, an interesting idea, but it feels entirely undeveloped. The tour could have been about Alpha figuring out their relationship with their government, or establishing ties to create a kind of world network of super-heroes, and presumably that sort of stuff can be happening behind the scenes, but the stories themselves, as we'll see, are basically an excuse for random team-ups and even more random stories.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: I've pushed this forward in publication time to coincide with Weapon Omega's appearance in Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #32, which happens during the World Tour. This issue is meant to take place on Valentine's Day, so i will make a half-hearted effort to line it up with other Valentine's Day books (i have She-Hulk #38-39 in mind). X-Factor have to appear here after they formed (obviously), but we have to watch the fact that a lot of their early issues take place within a short period of time. As AF notes in the comments, Quicksilver doesn't appear in this issue. That could work out to mean that he's spending time with Luna per the scene in Avengers #343 where it was said that he's getting custody of her for the weekend.

References:

• While making introductions, Havok says that most of Alpha Flight have met Wolfsbane. There is a footnote to "X-Men/Alpha Flight Special Edition", which sounds like a reference to X-Men/Alpha Flight #1-2 except Wolfsbane didn't appear in that. It may be that Lobdell is confusing that story with New Mutants Special Edition #1, which also featured Loki as the villain? Both stories were reprinted in a 1988 trade paperback called Asgardian Wars, but they are separate stories. As far as i know, the only time Alpha Flight were ever in the same comic as the New Mutants up to this point was in Secret Wars II #9 and the circumstances of that wouldn't have allowed Alpha to recognize Wolfsbane. So Havok must be referring to some behind-the-scenes meeting and the footnote is just wrong.
  
• Heather Hudson says that Alpha Flight accepts funding from the Canadian government but they haven't functioned as an official Canadian team since funding was cut way back in Alpha Flight #1. I'd argue their relationship with the government has been much more complicated than that, but i guess that's the simplified elevator speech version.
  
• Heather says that she has experience with people coming back from the dead, and the footnote says that her husband returned from the dead "at least once". I'll link to Alpha Flight #87-90.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It sounds like Havok's reference to an Alpha Flight-Wolfsbane meeting may be a reference to a comic that was never published. That's just my idle speculation, though.

I don't know about any long lost Wolfsbane stories so I'm inclined to believe Lobdell and/or his editor got confused.

They probably didn't realize the "Asgardian Wars" covered two separate storylines and the New Mutants never met Alpha Flight. Doesn't help that the trade paperback cover shows the X-men, New Mutants, and Alpha Flight all together in a group shot.

Poor Pietro. Not only does he get left out of most the team shots, he also gets left out of their crossover appearances!

"Poor Pietro. Not only does he get left out of most the team shots, he also gets left out of their crossover appearances!"

Do you really need Pietro when you have Northstar to cover the "arrogant, obnoxious, tactless speedster" role?

But that could have been kind of funny:
Pietro: I don't believe Northstar! How could Alpha Flight put up with an arrogant, obnoxious speedster who's overprotective of his sister?

"How could Alpha Flight put up with an arrogant, obnoxious speedster who's overprotective of his sister"

...HIs sister, who John Byrne made mentally ill.

Wow, they really are similar.

This is also the first meeting of Havok and Northstar, who would later serve on the same X-Men squad during the Chuck Austen era of "Uncanny."