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
