About Heroes

Author: Michael Avon Oeming
Artist: Scott Kolins
Colors: Brian Reber
Letters: Cory Petit

I'm not going to waste time and space telling you how much I enjoyed Alpha Flight as a kid, because A: if you read as a kid you probably have your own reasons why you liked it or hated and B: if you are a new reader to comics (do they still make your kind?) you're not going to care. Let's say you are a publisher and you have tried to resurrect a popular title from the 80's not once but twice with a huge failure. What do you do? Well, if you are Marvel Comics, you say: let's do this one mo' again! Although it doesn't share the same title as its ill fated predecessors, it's still a stepchild of the Alpha Flight family.

So what happens when your team is completely wiped out by an ass of a storyline in New Avengers. You bitch about how you miss Shaman and agree to go and lead a team of three Americans, two Canadians (Walter included), and of course one Korbinite to pick up where your friends left off. Especially if it’s being funded by Shield!

By the end of the first issue we only see three of the possible members (some in just snapshots) and Sasquatch, being the only real active member of the team get his ass kicked by the Wrecking Crew, who figured out that Canada doesn't have as many heroes as the US. Holy shit! Did it really take Civil War to make them realize that Canada was lacking in heroes? I always thought the reason that most villains didn't head to Canada was the value of the Canadian dollar wasn't worth the trip.

I've enjoyed Oeming's Thor run and his Stormbreaker mini, but I'll be damned if this issue didn't feel like his Powers buddy didn't influence his writing style. I've said it once before when describing Reed's and Meltzer's writing technique; there is only room for one decompressed writer and right now Brian Michael Bendis has that title. This issue packs in so much information that it's boring for old readers that already know these things and I'm sure its confusing for new readers that could give a rat's ass who the original Omega Flight were. I think he is making it pretty clear that this is not only Canada's last attempt at a Superhero team, but also Marvel. Hell, at times while reading Walter's dialogue it feels like the sales representatives at Marvel are watching him too.

Kollins has become one of my favorite artists since his run on Flash. His dynamic style can make any book fun to read. He's the best thing this book has going for it, but unfortunately it's not up to par with his previous work. I can't tell if he is trying to add something new to his style with the shading on faces, but in a way it takes away a bit of the texture he usually puts in his art.

This book is okay at best and just judging from the first issue of this five issue limited series; the team won't be put together until the very end. I wasn't expecting much because of those shitty preview pages showing us that the Collective is going to be the new Guardian. When you have a shitty set up like that, it doesn't matter who the writer is. However, I would love to be proven wrong....after all I have seen plenty of writers take C-list characters and bring them to stardom. The only person that has made Alpha Flight ever work was John Byrne; hell bring him back, he might know what to do with this mess of characters. C No one bothered to mention Puck!