A look back at Alpha Flight

Having bought Alpha Flight #56 yesterday, which was an early comic drawn by Jim Lee, I decided to look up the series on the GCD (Grand Comics Database).  Shown below are the covers of every Alpha Flight issue from #1 (Aug. 1983) to its cancellation with #130 (March 1994).  

When I first learned that the series would be debuting in 1983, I got myself a mail subscription.  I assumed that my sub would begin with #1, but unfortunately it began with #2, and I wouldn't actually buy a copy of #1 until the next decade.  

I was a fan of writer-artist John Byrne, and bought his Fantastic Four run semi-regularly at this time.  However, my tastes in comics were radically changing in 1984 and that year I dropped all of my mail subscriptions, and stopped buying most Marvel comics entirely.  Alpha Flight #16 (Nov. 1984) was the last issue of my subscription.

In late 1985, John Byrne left the series, switching creative teams with the Incredible Hulk (I had also let my Hulk sub expire the year before) with Byrne's final Alpha Flight issue being #28 (Nov. 1985).  With the following issue, Bill Mantlo became the book's writer and Carl Potts became the book's editor.

I bought Byrne's short-lived Hulk run, but I continued to ignore Alpha Flight, which was now being written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by artists I had no interest in (like the then-unknown Mike Mignola).  Alpha Flight, like most Marvel comics of the mid-to-late 1980s, looked boring to me -- a typical mediocre Marvel superhero comic -- at a time when the exciting comics were being done over at DC and the new independent (direct-sale only) comics publishers.  

An unknown artist named David Ross became penciler with #35 (June 1986), and in retrospect I think the series at this time had a tastefully elegant look.  Whilce Portacio, who would become well-known for his work on Uncanny X-Men and one of the founders of Image Comics, became the series' inker with #39 (Oct. 1986).

With #51 (Oct. 1987), the then-unknown Jim Lee became the series' penciler.  #51 was in fact the very first comic book story drawn by him.   However, I was unaware of all this at the time, not only because I had given up on "collecting" Alpha Flight when I let my subscription lapse back in 1984, but because with #52 (Nov. 1987) the series went direct-sale only.  

Back then I bought the majority of my comics at the local drugstores and 7-11s, since the nearest comics shop was a few towns away and I only went there a few times per year.  In the early 1980s when Marvel titles like Micronauts and Moon Knight went exclusively direct-sale, it was announced as big news, but I was unaware that Alpha Flight went direct-sale only with #52 until looking it up on GCD yesterday.  

The change can be seen in the covers below with the absence of the UPC barcode from the front covers.  (#63 is an odd exception, for some reason being available on newsstands.  Was this done to test the waters again?)  

Another change was the cover price.  The last newsstand issue, #51 (Oct. 1987), had the standard 75-cents cover price.  The first direct-sale-only issue, #52, raised the cover price to $1.00, although without an increase in page count.  With issue #61 (Aug. 1988), the price was raised to $1.25 and the interior ads were dropped.  With #65 (Dec. 1988), the price was raised again, to $1.50.  So, within 14 months' time, the cover price had doubled!

The final issue that Jim Lee penciled was #64 (Nov. 1988) although he continued to ink some of the covers for a little while longer.  Bill Mantlo's final issue as writer was #67 (Feb. 1989), replaced by James Hudnall.   Danny Fingeroth replaced Carl Potts as editor with #79 (Dec. 1989).  

Fabian Nicieza, who came out of nowhere to write a lot of Marvel comics at this time, took over as writer with #87 (Aug. 1990).  Danny Fingeroth left as editor with #97 (June 1991), replaced by Bobbie Chase.

Scott Lobdell took over as writer with #102 (Nov. 1991) and left with #108 (May 1992).  The cover price went up to $1.75 with #105 (Feb. 1992).  Rob Tokar became editor with #107 (April 1992) who brought back the look of the series' original title logo.

In its final two years, many of the issues were written by British author Simon Furman and drawn by Pat Broderick.  The final issue of the series was #130 (March 1994).  By this point, to these eyes, the series (like many 1990s mainstream superhero comics) looks like a mess -- no longer dull or boring perhaps, but ugly looking and far astray from its early days.  

In 1997, the series was revived with a new #1, but it ended with #20 (March 1999).  While Alpha Flight has reappeared in Marvel comics periodically ever since, presumably to keep the trademark active, the concept of the Canadian superhero team never really took off, even during its 1980s heyday where it struggled to remain interesting in the crowded comicbook marketplace.