Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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Alpha Flight #51
Issue(s): Alpha Flight #51
Cover Date: Oct 87
Title: "Friends in high places!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Jim Lee - Penciler
Whilce Portacio - Inker
Joanne Spaldo - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor
Review/plot:
Well, at least now we have Jim Lee.
The first fourteen pages of this issue is the new line-up showing off against a troop of Canadian soldiers for a training exercise.
It also shows off Jim Lee's art, not at all his characteristic style yet. and it also shows his disregard for sequential storytelling (where did that branch come from?) Actually Walter in the comments is right here: i missed that shadow and thought the branch was parallel to the bigger log. The panels below still aren't great, but Lee did set up the sequence properly.
The rest of the issue has Gary Cody worried about the fact that he's secretly keeping tabs on Alpha. Definitely feels like a primer issue (it would be a .NOW issue if published in the 2010s)...
...and it ends with Alpha completely unsuspecting of the fact that Gary means them any harm.
Note that the book is going Direct Market only after this issue.
Quality Rating: C
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Alpha Flight annual #2 takes place after this issue, and then Wolverine guest stars in issues #52-53, which have to take place before Uncanny X-Men #221.
References:
- Sasquatch came back in Snowbird's body in Alpha Flight #44.
- Madison Jeffries resigned the Box armor in Alpha Flight #49 after replacing Roger Bochs.
- There are actually a lot more references in all of Cody's flashbacks, but no footnotes and i'm not creating links to what would effectively be every issue of the series.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
The tree branch is at Knapp's foot, atop the trunk, in the panel beside the one where the branch hits the goon. Which isn't to say Jim Lee's sequential storytelling abilities aren't every bit as terrible as you suggest, but the editors may be reining him in here. Lee in my opinion is the worst thing to happen to comics: he's good but limited, but he absurdly gets raised to the gold standard for superhero art. But more on that when we get to X-Men circa 1990.
The last year on this title has just been awful. Even with the back up plan of direct sales only, why didn't someone at Marvel decide a new writer was needed? Was no one else interested?
After john byrne left the book went downhill I just couldn't get into it no matter how I tried. Under byrne there was a lot of character development, under mantlo not much went on
Jim Lee confirmed in Comics Interview #98 that this was his first Marvel work.
What month was this published? Because Lee also drew the Eel for issue #17 of the OHOTMU Deluxe Edition, which came out in August of '87. (And Rob Liefeld drew the human Zodiac for issue #20!)
Ah, i see i left out the cover date. Added it back. It was Oct 87, and the real release date was Jun 30th.
Reading through these entries sequentially... it's weird to my brain to see so-called "80s artist" June Brigman and "90s artist" Jim Lee on the same title in the same 12-month period (not to mention Portacio) since I was 12 when I started regularly reading comics in 1992, so 1986/87 seems positively ancient to me (or did back then). But it's interesting to see where the "superstars" came from.
