A little bit of time left in the year, so let's see if I can knock out another couple looks at another couple last issues. From 1994,
Alpha Flight #130, "No Future, part 3 of 3: the Hollow Man!" Written by Simon Furman, pencils by Dario Carrasco, inks by Ian Akin and Frank Turner.
I know I had read a bit of
Alpha Flight back in the Byrne days, then some around issue
#100, where I legitimately forgot 'Mac' Hudson sacrificed himself. Seriously, I blogged that issue, but until I went back and looked I thought he was just MIA, not presumed dead. Anyway, he's back today, seemingly bleached of all color and the pawn of the Master, who explains he convinced Mac that mankind was doomed and didn't need a Guardian, but an Antiguard. Could've workshopped the name a bit more, Master, but whatever. Alpha Flight had, apparently collectively, having premonitions of their deaths; and Antiguard and Omega Flight could be the cause. (I did have to look it up, because the name "
Omega Flight" had been used more than once, and I thought it was originally the cadets or trainees for Alpha. No, that was
Beta Flight; I had thought there was a couple tiers of trainees. Wait a second...)
The fight doesn't go well for Alpha, since they thought they had already seen their defeat; but that was not the intended effect of the premonition: it had been the sending of another of Alpha's old villains, the Dreamqueen, who did not want the Master's "sterile" and dreary future to come to pass. She sends dreams to some of the heroes: Puck sees Heather in danger, and himself riding in like a knight to save her; Heather sees the future of Canada if they fail; Sasquatch sees all the lab work and discoveries he'd never get to make. (As I scanned it, Puck's dream seemed really parochial, seeing Heather as something to be saved; while she has to sweat the future of all of Canada; but Puck was much older than he appeared, and probably a bit conservative on that front. Not quite 'get in the kitchen and make me a sammich' but I suspect he had to work at it.) Others, like Northstar and Aurora, seem to rally themselves; Northstar because he's contrary as all get out, Aurora because she enjoyed her life and wasn't willing to let it go. Alpha turns the tide, until the Master gets in there, taking down Sasquatch, Wildheart (the former Wild Child,
Age of Apocalypse fans) and Shaman easily. Better call in the reserves then, as Beta Flight makes a go at it: they had beat him in a
previous issue, although they had been Gamma Flight then: it's nice the Master knew about their promotion and addresses them accordingly.
Finally, Heather gets through to Mac, who turns on the Master, which a speech I hope letterer Janice Chiang got a bonus for. It's not brief...the Master seemingly lets himself be killed; Mac says he had been tired of his long life. Of course he would return; I think next in Busiek's
Avengers run. Alpha Flight is triumphant...for about a page, before their operations are suspended by the Canadian government, who wants to bench them until the heat goes down from an earlier issue's outcry. An injured Northstar storms off, tearing off the government's colors; he had a
limited series to get to. But for now, Alpha Flight's story was over: they've had, what, maybe
three series since? Not even counting Omega Flight or anything.
Bad day for the mid-tier titles: looking at the checklist,
Sleepwalker was cancelled that same month. No promises, but I'm 90% sure I have that somewhere...
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