Brawl Tells All: Alpha Flight #5

[brawl2099]

Alpha Flight #5
"Premier: A New World Administration Part One"
ma.bhyphen.com/alphaflight05.html

Gavin Devlin came out of nowhere a short time ago. I was first made aware of Gavin through an Amazing Fantasy issue at Marvel Omega and was impressed. Not long after, he came to us with his Winter Guard proposal. Shortly after that, he approached Erik about a short run on Alpha Flight, and I've got to say I'm pleased with the results.

Alpha Flight is a tough nut for me. I've always liked the characters, Sasquatch and Puck in particular, but I've never read the series regularly. Stepping into it, Gavin gives the reader a good feel of what's going on without going too exposition heavy. This helps quite a bit, because David Little's run (which I hadn't read) left the team in shambles. Two Alphans are dead while Sasquatch has gone completely feral. Dealing with these two points take up the bulk of the issue.

The Good: Gavin deals with two leftover plots without making it feel like you had to read the previous four issues. This is very much a transition issue, but it was a great jumping-on point. Although the scenes were short, they flowed very well and felt more cinematic and hyperkinetic than anything else.

The Bad: There was a big cast to deal with in this issue, and many members were cast aside. Everyone had a moment, but for characters like Flex and Man-Bot it was little more than that. Gavin resolved that issue by the end of the issue however, paving the road for a more streamlined cast. Although, beyond the strain in personal relationships, there was little to draw you back for the next issue, no promise of a new threat or conflict.

Overall: A very enjoyable issue, and I'm definitely interested in what will happen next.

Grade: 3.5 of 5 punches thrown.

[gavin]

Picking up from David Little's run on the series required a little extra effort to ease the transition from forgotten team to something that was reusable and I hope that my arc will Alpha Flight free for others who may wish to write the series. It was a difficult place to pick up, but it wasn't impossible for the series to recover.

The Good: I tend to see the images and scenes in my head so perhaps thats why I write with a more cinematic feel, with sweeping landscapes and somewhat melodramatic tensions between the teams. I'm glad you felt that it flowed well rather than jumping from character to character.

The Bad: The cast has certainly been refined into three streams. The regular characters (the main team of Alpha Flight, and Heather), the supporting characters (Flex, Radius, Murmur and the Villains) and then the minor characters (Man Bot, Gentry etc). Some will get very little page time but there should be enough to make their presence known. There were characters left in the title that I am unfamiliar with and other than misuse the character or entirely ignore their place in the series, I've limited their time in each issue. I didn't leave much but personal tensions to lure people back, I could have ended the issue with the introduction of the villains but there'll be more headway in the next issue (three more to go until the end of my run).

Thanks for reading and for the feedback. It's appreciated and lets me know what people want from this series.