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Le Messor
09-01-2011, 07:50 AM
Consider this – when Alpha Flight had a guest appearance in Alpha Flight v2, towards the end of the run, many of us wondered what they’d been doing all that time, while we were focussed on a government mind-controlled team led by Heather.
In v4, we get Alpha Flight as a bunch of fun-loving criminals, running around robbing banks all wacked-out on Scooby snacks*, while Heather is running a government mind-controlled team.

V4 is V2 – from Alpha Flight’s POV.

It’s the same basic idea; the big villain is the mind-controlling government (though in v2, we were never given a motive behind that; in v4 there’s somebody even further back behind the guys behind the scenes – so maybe we’ll get a motive this time).
Look at Heather’s teams:
Heather is Heather.
‘Sasquatch’ ≈ Wendigo
‘Guardian’ ≈ Citadel (note the related meaning in the names, too). (Both power-suit wearers that’re the results of government experimentation.)
Manbot ≈ Boxbots.
Murmer ≈ Persuasion / Purple Woman.

Aurora in both has had special treatment (though in v2, she disappeared entirely, in issues of X-Man; in v4, we know where she is).

Okay, the ‘missing’ team is different, and Puck isn’t with the government group, so it isn’t entirely the same, but I think this works.

* This is still open to interpretation; maybe it isn’t AF robbing banks, but the government’s got somebody to set them up as criminals. Maybe they only do one bank heist, and it’s because the phlebotenum that could save the world is in that bank. Maybe they’re wielding guns because, like Sasquatch, they’re all losing their powers.


- Le Messor
"If a train station is where the train stops, what's a workstation?"
~ Roger B. Dannenberg

Flightpath07
09-01-2011, 08:24 AM
Er...you lost me.

That's okay, though, as I have been known to get lost in the most familiar of settings...

Le Messor
09-02-2011, 05:26 PM
Uh, not sure what to say... I'm giving a suggestion for an alternate reading of v4, that ties it together with what came before and kind of gives the feeling of filling in the gap. In v2, we didn't see Alpha Flight until #19 or so, but they'd been together the whole time. We just didn't see them; instead, we saw Alpha Strike.

Now, we're seeing Alpha Flight doing what they might have been doing during the events of v2.

I can't say this is actually what happened at that time since the team line-up is different, but it's a way to interpret the text.

- Le Messor
"Rubber bands have snappy endings!"

Ahab
09-02-2011, 06:14 PM
I can't say this is actually what happened at that time since the team line-up is different, but it's a way to interpret the text.

- Le Messor
"Rubber bands have snappy endings!"

This is definitely an interesting angle to take on this - never thought of it that way. But I guess my question is, why would you want to interpret the text this way when this isn't the intent?

Alpha Rider
09-02-2011, 09:46 PM
AF in V2 were seen throughout the series. Shaman was seen very early on working in the North. Northstar tried to commite suicide by flying into space but crashed down near a fishing boat, and then went looking for his sister, who was wakked out, in an abandoned school. So we did see them get back together eventully before #19.

The goverment has always had it's fingers in AF's pot. From the time they first were created to when they bugged Walter's great Aunt's (Gilded Lilly) house when AF was using it as a base. In V2 and V4 they just put the goverment more on the forefront as the bad guys. V2 was done in an X-Files type of way, where they wanted the goverment to manipulate and keep secrets from AF.

Flightpath07
09-02-2011, 11:30 PM
Ah, I get it now! Hm...it was almost like the government had wiped that interpretation from my memories...

Le Messor
09-03-2011, 12:40 AM
This is definitely an interesting angle to take on this - never thought of it that way. But I guess my question is, why would you want to interpret the text this way when this isn't the intent?

Why not?

Ahab
09-03-2011, 11:28 AM
Why not?

Sorry. When I first read your post, I thought you were suggesting to literally make this storyline into what the original Alpha was doing during Volume 2, which obviously wouldn't work at some point. I get it now - just another way of looking at a similar scenario but through different eyes. Cool idea to point out.

Le Messor
09-03-2011, 04:31 PM
Oh. No, it doesn't work if taken literally, I totally agree.
And, thanks.

- Le Messor
"The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive."

Flightpath07
09-15-2011, 07:36 AM
Having just read issues 2 and 3 (finally!) and posted my reviews on my blogsite, I really do beleive that the most obvious link between Volumes 2 and 4 is...the villain responsible in Volume 4 appeared in Volume 2!

Le Messor
09-15-2011, 08:02 AM
I'll pretend I don't know what you're talking about.

Uh, what are you talking about?

Flightpath07
09-15-2011, 08:29 AM
Um...people seemed to have missed some VERY obvious artistic clues in issues 2 and 3...its all about the eyes!

Phil
09-15-2011, 08:37 AM
I'm not saying a word.

Flightpath07
09-15-2011, 10:46 AM
I'm not saying a word.

But...you just said FIVE of them!

Phil
09-15-2011, 11:00 AM
No, no. I typed five of them.
I was silent as I did so.

Flightpath07
09-15-2011, 11:03 AM
But eye...saw your lips move...didn't eye?

Le Messor
09-15-2011, 09:57 PM
The answer has been revealed on another thread... and note that I haven't read #4 yet. Yep, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Read my lips.

- Le Messor
Angel: Still, not every dream you have comes true. I mean, what else did you dream last night? Can you remember?
Buffy: I dreamt... I dreamt that Giles and I opened an office supply warehouse in Vegas.
Angel: See my point?