Witchfire in Fear Itself: The Fearless

[Chris]

I was picking up Fear Itself: The Fearless because I am a huge Rom fan. Rom is not in it due to copyright issues, but a Dire Wraith is in the story, and I ran across Witchfire. She appears in a panel in issue 8 and also in a panel in issue 10 (which are now on Phil's Updates List). Glad she survived the events of Project Purgatory.

It was Rom #56 - 57 that sparked my interest in Alpha Flight. After reading those issues, I picked up AF #14 and Alpha Flight has been my favorite super team since.

rplass twisted my arm and so I joined the board today :p

[rplass]

I twist thee! Thanks for the tip on the Witchfire appearance.

For the record, they are on Phil's list because I tweeted it after Chris emailed me and Phil (who has been the twitter feed for alphaflight.net) follows me on twitter. Follow that? No? Eh, well whatever, welcome to alphaflight.net!

Love,
rplass

[Phil]

Yeah, it's what I love, and missed, about this community.
I don't have the money or the time to get every Marvel comic and while I try to at least flick through as many as I can I didn't bother with The Fearless, and definitely wouldn't have picked up the #8 appearance.

Thanks! And welcome!

[Flightpath07]

Welcome, Chris, thou of the masterfully twisted arm! Nice job, rplass!

[Le Messor]

Ah, Chris, that explains Turbo being your avatar!
Welcome aboard.

And thanks for the heads-up.

- Le Messor
GI: "I can take torture."
Klan: "Take him... to Detroit!"
GI: "No! Not that! I'll talk!"
~ Kentucky Fried Movie

[DelBubs]

Human Torpedo :-)

[Le Messor]

Human Torpedo :-)
Driftwood: Well, I got about a foot and a half. Now, it says, uh, "The party of the second part shall be known in this contract as the party of the second part."
Fiorello: Well, I don't know about that...

You can't fool me! There is no sanity clause!

Also, you're right, of course. I'm used to Turbo from her (& his) appearances in New Warriors and forgot that the original had a different name.

[DelBubs]

According to other sources it was just Torpedo II with 'Human' not part of the name, so smugness mode off. I only remember him because of his appearance in Daredevil and then appearances in ROM. There was also a Marvel Series which highlighted second stringers such as 'White Tiger', 'Thunderbolt', '3-D Man', Torpedo etc. Really enjoyed reading the stories, but cannot remember the title? :-(

[Le Messor]

Marvel Comics Presents had stories for each of those characters, didn't it?
Or was it the Marvel Super-Heroes specials? (a quarterly series iirc, pretty thick.)

[DelBubs]

It might have been an early version of MCP, but IIRC each issue was dedicated to just one character. I know the stories that caught my eye were a couple of years before Alpha first came out or around that era.

[Le Messor]

There was a Marvel Presents series in, what, the 70's? One of the Guardians of the Galaxy's first appearances (if not the first) was in it.

- Le Messor
"If it were done, when it is done, then it were well it were done quickly."
~ Macbeth

[Chris]

The comic featuring second stringers such as Torpedo would be the bimonthly Marvel Premiere which ran from 1972 to 1981.

Michael Stivak originally created the Torpedo Suit because the Dire Wraiths wanted a suit of armor to defeat Rom. Stivak got killed in a mighty Marvel misunderstanding with Daredevil. Brock Jones was then the second person to wear the Torpedo suit. He later appeared in Marvel Premiere 39 and 40.

I picked the late Torpedo as my avatar because:
1) Torpedo was my second favorite super hero until his death in Rom 50.
2) Bill Mantlo wrote Rom and then 3 years of Alpha Flight.
3) I didn't want use yet another avatar of Guardian, Sasquatch, Puck, Northstar, Jeffries, etc on the forum.

I am also a fan of Turbo (Mickey Musashi) and the New Warriors. In the first New Warriors series, Mickey Musashi and Michael Jeffries (no relation to Madison Jeffries) had acquired and shared the Torpedo suit until Michael got killed by Volx the Dire Wraith queen. You old school New Warriors fans should already know this ;)

So is anyone else glad that Cullen Bunn, Matt Fraction, and Chris Yost remembered Witchfire and decided to include her in Sin's group of magically powered baddies?

[Le Messor]

Thanks Chris.
I knew the New Warriors stuff, but not the rest.
Indeed, that's how I recognised your avatar.

- Mik
"I'm not frightened of the darkness outside. It's the darkness inside houses I don't like."
~ Shelagh Delaney

[DelBubs]

The first volume of the New Warriors still gets a regular read, so know the Warriors stuff. As to Witchfire, while it's good to see her appearing, kinda sad that she's gone from what could have been a really good character into a generic demonic type.

[Chris]

Yeah, I prefer characters like Purple Woman and Witchfire to have remained heroes. I'm assuming Purple Woman was debrainwashed off panel in AF 8 and is good again. I know some people prefer Witchfire as a villain though.

What's even sadder is the lack of use of characters that were created after Byrne left Alpha Flight. If you don't count non continuity books like What If or Exiles, characters from the first series like Manikin, Goblyn, Pathway, and Feedback have not been used in other books since 1994. And Windshear, Murmur, Flex, and Radius are still depowered.

Maybe after this Avengers vs X-Men story is over, all the depowered mutants will get their powers back and will be used again.

[Chris]

And one more note, if you recall Alpha Flight 122 - 124, at least Witchfire becoming evil is not totally out of character. And if she remained good, she would probably still be in comic book limbo (and not the Belasco limbo) ;)

[rplass]

And one more note, if you recall Alpha Flight 122 - 124, at least Witchfire becoming evil is not totally out of character. And if she remained good, she would probably still be in comic book limbo (and not the Belasco limbo) ;)

Good point. I think Witchfire has appeared about as many times as a villian as a hero at this point.

[Flightpath07]

She makes a better villain than a hero.

[Le Messor]

FP: But she is becoming more generic.
I found that, in X-Infernus, you could've replaced her with any demonic villain and it wouldn't even have made a difference. They never even brought up that she used to be a hero - even though that was a major theme they played with for Illyana.


What's even sadder is the lack of use of characters that were created after Byrne left Alpha Flight.

Interesting you say that in a discussion of Witchfire and Purple Girl's use...
But it is a good point.

A lot of people gave up on AF after Byrne left, and I don't think people know much about the later stories.

(Box as he is played is definitely the post-Byrne version. No longer a blue-collar worker, with the later version of the robot.)

- Le Messor
"If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked and dry cleaners depressed?"

[Garry/Al-Fan]

Geez Louise, it's like you all are reading my mind! I've been thinking that a gradual reintroduction of Alpha Flight might be more successful than trying to sustain an on-going, right off the bat. My initial thought was a new(er) MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS, but with at least two different stories/characters/teams, to give something for everybody. Maybe a team-themed issue with a New Warriors story in addition to an Alpha Flight story. Value-added if both stories are 15 to 20 pages for $3.99. I'd buy it...when I had some money.