Issue(s): Alpha Flight annual #1
Cover Date: 1986
Title: "Homebody!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Larry Stroman - Penciler
Gerry Talaoc - Inker
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
The spirit of Gilded Lily wakes up to find strangers in her house (since it's been re-purposed as Alpha Flight's headquarters), and she takes control of the mansion and uses Alpha's computer system to contact her old lover, Diablo.

Diablo is going through a phase where he's afraid to fight super-heroes....

...but she threatens him enough that he agrees to transfer her consciousness into Aurora's body.

However, Aurora escapes and forces Lily to drink the elixer meant for her, and it forces her to age and die all over again, and Diablo is returned to prison.

Also in this issue, we learn that Shaman no longer eats.

Snowbird is acting suicidal this issue thanks to the loss of her husband and child, and she similarly risks remaining in the Sasquatch form for a long time.

We also see Aurora and Roger Bochs at their most relationship-y (although this causes chronological problems).

I wouldn't have minded seeing Shaman go up against Diablo but thanks to his state in this issue there's none of that.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Alpha Flight #40-41, in the same gap as Marvel Fanfare #28. The problem with that is Roger Bochs is shown phased out of his armor during a period where he's supposed to have the bends. But things get even worse for Roger after Alpha Flight #41, and any earlier brings us into the Pestilence story (where Aurora first expresses interest in Box) that goes right into the Avengers crossover. So we'll have to assume that he had a temporary recovery. Can you temporarily recover from the bends?

References:

• Northstar, disgusted by the fact that Aurora is showing affection for Bochs, has a particularly nasty taunt, mockingly asking Snowbird to transform into the form of Aurora's previous lover, Sasquatch, who died in Hulk #313, to remind her what a real man is like.
  
• Shaman took on the role of Talisman in Alpha Flight #38.
  
• It's said that Diablo was sent to prison after encountering the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #232, and that after that he swore to reform or at least not fight other super-beings. That ignores his appearance in Iron Man #159 (and, less importantly, Secret Wars II #7). So not only is it an unusual character development for him, we have to do some hand-waving (e.g., his defeat by Iron Man must have reinforced his decision) to make it work.
  
• Gilded Lily's story and her ties to Diablo were shown in Alpha Flight #20-21.
  
• Aurora escapes the clutches of Gilded Lily thanks to her light generating powers, which she gained the ability to use independently of her brother in Alpha Flight #17.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Those are some very point ears Aurora is sporting. Was she always drawn that way or is the elf thing starting to be foreshadowed?

"I don't eat... food". How omnious. Does he drink... wine?

Gerry Talaoc may have been removed from the book because David Ross thought he was overwhelming his pencils, as per Mantlo in Amazing Heroes Preview Special #3.

Wait, what, David Ross' pencils ever stood out in the first place?!