Random Happenstance

We saw the previous issue just over a year ago (bet you thought I'd say "some time back"!) so better get the conclusion now! From 1998, Alpha Flight #11, "Microcosm" Written by Steve Seagle, plot assist by Joe Casey, pencils by Ariel Olivetti, inks by Pier Brito.

The narration of this one, on the concept of a 'microcosm,' tries to make this one a bit more than it is: Alpha Flight is confronted by the Micronauts freedom fighters opposing Baron Karza Zebek. (Rann later tells AF they had previously defeated another baron, so Zebek wasn't Karza, but...) Zebek and his dog soldiers attack, with Rann having a moment mid-firefight to explain the dogs were trying to earn their immortality through the body banks, and perhaps not evil as such. That may be a little too charitable...The heroes flee in the Endeavor (the original, which Marvel could still use since it never had a toy!) and regroup. We get a moment with new Micro Dexam, a cyborg whose original limbs had been harvested (that is, stolen) in the body banks; and Mac and Heather have a little talk: Heather had seen Murmur kiss Mac, but Mac says she kissed him, and means nothing to her, which of course Murmur hears. (Mac was also much younger than he had been when married to Heather, which would eventually be explained in the series.)

After a brief interlude with Diamond Lil, a prisoner somewhere in Department H; the teams fake a prisoner capture to break into the body banks and rescue oddball Alphan Manbot. He had been safe enough, though, since he explains he had no organic matter to be harvested, which Heather finds surprising. They rally the indigenous ant-people to overthrow the Baron, as Mac and Rann lead a group against Zebek to stop his "quarkarion" weapon. Zebek catches Rann with one of Karza's old tricks, a launching fist, but when Puck helps him fight it off, they realize a reverse magnetic charge would do a number on Zebek. (A nice callback to the magnetic features of the original Baron Karza action figure!)The centaur Zebek is defeated, and the scientist somehow next in line to be in charge says they will have him turned into just a horse, before they close up the body banks: you can decide if that's cruel-and-unusual or let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime.

Dexam stays behind with the ants, to help them rebuild; as the rest of the team prepare to keep protecting the Microverse. But for Alpha Flight, Manbot announces an emergency retrival, as Department H was being destroyed!

Taking a look at the above panel, and I think Marionette is the only recognizable one there! Heather was using a different green suit as Vindicator, with geothermic powers that might as well have been magic. This stretch of Alpha Flight reminds me of John Arcudi's Doom Patrol, which was four-fifths new guys, and also didn't take off. There's at least four new Alphans here that are rarely mentioned again. This wasn't the last appearance of the former Micronauts, though: They would appear next in 2000's Captain Marvel #6.