I swear I don't plan these.

We saw the next issue a couple years back--further back than I had thought. From 1986, Alpha Flight #39, "The Invasion of Atlantis!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by David Ross, inks by Whilce Portacio. Cover by Mike Mignola!

Returning to their base after taking a bit of a thumping from Pestilence, Alpha Flight has an unexpected intruder: Byrrah, cousin of Namor, the Sub-Mariner! He's there to request the Canadians' aid in recovering their lost teammate Marrina from Attuma. Longtime hanger-on Douglas Thompson, Snowbird's love interest and baby daddy, says they have to find their baby son, who had been possessed by Pestilence. Snowbird, on the other hand, seems to be having second thoughts: marrying Douglas and having a kid had made her mortal, which she didn't seem sold on. Calling everyone there "freaks," Douglas storms off to save his son himself, which pretty obviously was not going to end well for him; but despite nine team members there, none of Alpha Flight opt to go with him! Look, even the ones that hadn't met Marrina yet still liked her better.

After a brief interruption from their government liason eavesdropping electronically and trying to scold them out of an international incident, Alpha Flight takes off for Atlantis. Techies Jeffries and Bochs had looked up Byrrah, and point out he had been against Namor on multiple occasions, but Byrrah argues Namor had "royal blood" and Attuma did not. Jeffries makes pressure suits for his teammates who need them--but neglects to make one for himself, since he was afraid of water! Vindicator is mildly annoyed two of her team couldn't swim, the other being Puck, who later rides Snowbird's whale form as they battle the Atlanteans and Attuma's barbarians. (He also seems to be the only one concerned that Snowbird is borderline suicidal, at best.) But the battle is largely broken up by the arrival of Namor and the Avengers, and introductions for most of both teams.

Still, while they are able to fight their way to Marrina--who, still with a bit of monsterism, is ashamed to be seen by her love and her team--Attuma and his forces are able to surround them...And this wouldn't be concluded in the next issue; the Attuma stuff would wrap up in Avengers #272, which I think would end Namor's relatively short run on the team. (I was thinking of the issue with protestors against him!)