Issue(s): Alpha Flight #64
Cover Date: Nov 88
Title: "Where there's a will there's a way"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Jim Lee - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Marc McLaurin - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
Alpha Flight fled from the Great Beasts back in Alpha Flight #55, so i guess we ought to get back to that, huh?

Actually before we get to that, we have to get through the court battle wherein Walter-now-Wanda Langkowski tries to prove that he's still alive and that his ex-wife Veronica therefore doesn't get hir fortune. It's not the most orthodox of trials.

Eventually Wanda puts herself through a lie detector test, despite Veronica's lawyer saying that it's unreliable and should be inadmissible. After going through the polygraph test, the judge retires to her chamber to decide whether or not to admit it. And she's met by a national security official who wants her to deny the use of the polygraph because the Canadian government wants Alpha Flight to remain unfunded.

We pause there and circle around to all of the various former Alpha Flight members doing their thing now that the group has broken up. Purple Girl and Laura Dean going to school and dealing with anti-mutant pressures, Manikin working as an intern at a hospital and using his alternate forms to entertain child patients, and Madison Jeffries and Heather Hudson enjoying their relationship while visiting Heather's parents. We also check in with the Jade Dragon, who is still being interrogated by the Canadian government...

...while some Chinese operatives look on.

So it's not until we're more than halfway through the book that we get to the Great Beasts, and they come pouring through Sasquatch's head along with Snowbird and her godly relations.

While everyone else flees the courtroom, we see a nun approaching.

Sasquatch initially tries rejecting the entire mess of supernatural beings, but feels forced to act when Veronica gets in trouble. And then the nun touches her head to dispel the darkness.

She then very easily beats up the Great Beasts.

However, she still won't ally herself with Snowbird's gods. She also gives up trying to make any claims on her past, and therefore gives up on her money.

It turns out that the nun that helped her was Aurora.

But she's joined a holy order and doesn't want to stick around.

In an epilogue, Talisman finds something related to the Dream Queen.

If it wasn't for the MCP, i would have assumed that all of the supernatural beings that appeared in the courtroom were just delusions or something. What a waste of characters. Watching this Sasquatch wrap up all the Great Beasts like they were AIM goons is ridiculous. And this use of Aurora is bewildering. For someone who grew up reading the John Byrne issues in realtime, the characters here are just unrecognizable. And storywise it's a total bust. As Sasquatch notes, she already went through this identity crisis and rejected any ties to the Great Beasts, and the resolution of the inheritance leaves Alpha Flight in the exact same state it was in before. So from a development point of view, nothing happens this issue. Except for a mess of a fight. Jim Lee's art is ok (not the most spectacular thing he's done) but it doesn't make up for the (lack of) a story.

This is Jim Lee's final issue.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Based on statements in Alpha Flight #67 (and see Comments below as well), there's a strong possibility that the Great Beasts appearing here are really just an illusion created by the Dream Queen, but it's not definitive and i'm still listing them as Characters Appearing to maintain consistency with the MCP.

References:

• The lie detector test results in a lot of reference points back to Sasquatch's past, including:
  • His origin from the back-up feature in Alpha Flight #11.
    
  • Getting fully possessed by Tanaraq and losing his body in Alpha Flight #23-24, and getting transferred into Box.
    
  • Trying to find a new body and finding the Hulk instead in Hulk #312.
    
  • Coming back through Shaman's medicine pouch in the body of Smart Alec in Alpha Flight #43-44.
    
  • And from there transferring into Snowbird's dead body in Alpha Flight #45, turning him female and allowing him to transform into an (albeit white furred) Sasquatch again.
• Aurora was "reborn" after using her light powers to save Northstar in Alpha Flight #50.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It never ceases to amaze me that this book lasted as long as it did when it was so terrible.

Read Snowbird's dialogue in 67 very carefully- it makes it clear the Dream Queen was behind the Great Beasts but does that mean they were real or just duplicates she created? (The latter would explain why Sasquatch defeated them so easily.)

"It never ceases to amaze me that this book lasted as long as it did when it was so terrible."

What's hilarious is that we're just now reaching the halfway point for this series. I kind of love the run through the 30s and the 40s in a weird way, but past 50 the book just went into total creative flatline

(for the rest of Mantlo's run, I mean)