Random Happenstance

I bought the first issue and read the twelfth off the racks, but I didn't read Alpha Flight regularly until later, and not for long. So, this one was new to me: from 1985, Alpha Flight #18, "How Long Will a Man Lie in the Earth 'ere He Rot?" Written and penciled by John Byrne, inks by Bob Wiacek, letters by Rick Parker.

I don't always mention the letterer, but it felt like a lot of dialogue this issue; opening with a bit of a fake-out. Heather Hudson seems to be eyeing the costume worn by her (then) late husband, Guardian; but she only has the body-stocking Canadian flag portion, not the battlesuit that actually had powers. Puck seems concerned that she was going to take her position as leader of Alpha Flight into the field; but she wasn't headed in that direction. Yet. A small editorial piece from Denny O'Neil on the letters page implies her role wasn't going to be a superhero, and she wouldn't be until after Byrne had left the book, but I wonder if she might not have eventually. Still, at this point Alpha Flight was Heather and Puck: attempting to get the team "more centralized," Heather calls Northstar, who completely blows them off. Worse, their next call, Shaman, was out of the office with a 'patient' who seemingly knew his secret identity!

Said patient was Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, Shaman's estranged daughter. 'Estranged' may not be entirely correct: after her mother was killed ten years ago, Elizabeth had lived with the neighbors and all but forgotten her father until recently when she saw a picture of him in the paper and remembered everything. Together they work a case involving a skull charged with supernatural energies, a particularly inhospitable old codger and his great-granddaughter, and nightmarish scrambled eggs! Elizabeth is impressed with her dad, who is in top form here; but she was starting to display mystic powers of her own.

The other plotline spinning this month was Snowbird's relationship with a co-worker from her secret identity, Douglas Thompson. He had declared his love for her, and she wasn't sure what to do with that; since she was only part human and neither 'Annie' nor Snowbird were her real face. Oh, and Snowbird was only six years old, even if she was fully grown and mature. That's weird. It's not going to go great for Douglas, but I'm like 60% sure Snowbird won't turn into a polar bear and maul him. Enh, maybe 50% sure...