Sneak Peak: Wolverine First Class #5

[Fred Van Lente]

We're sending this one to the printers this week... Soooo exciiiiited...

Due to the vagaries of the publishing biz, this happens to be the first Alpha-centric comic I wrote, but has wound up being the last one published...

[varo]

omg fred, you went all "first flight" on us. i do believe thats stitch, st. elmo and groundhog, as well as smart alec? is that mac he's talking to?

listen fred, we (me) love what you are doing with alpha and respect your detail to its history, we also know that marvel has something cooking that (hopefully) will be closer to the originals, i demand that your the writer!!

[-K-M-]

Oh wow I can't wait for this, and art from Clayton Henry?...gold

[varo]

but has wound up being the last one published...

am i reading to much into this, or is that a hint?

[Legerd]

DAMMIT! I swore not to buy anymore Marvel comics until they bring back AF in their own series! You're screwing that up for me Fred.











Thanks!

[Dfense75]

Lookin good Im gonna have to pick this up. Varo is right Fred. If Joe Q doesnt believe your the man for Alpha than send him here. We'll help convince him.

[Mokole]

Wow, great start Mr. van Lente. Sure is good to see and read! Good luck with Alpha Flight, if you get the opportunity (can't be bad letting Henry have a fair shot at AF, eh?)

[Fred Van Lente]

Thanks for kind words, all! Just happy to share with fellow Alpha fans...

am i reading to much into this, or is that a hint?

Sorry, you're reading too much into this.

[birdygirl]

This looks very promising. Interesting script and beautiful artwork. Can't wait to buy it. Thanks for showing us this, Fred.

[rplass]

Who's bottom right, is that Walter? Doesn't look exactly like Clayton's Walter. It could be Kyle, dunno.

When does this story take place? The costumes are confusing the continuity for me. Snowbird, Shaman and Aurora were still wearing their Gamma Flight costumes in that flashback in AF #92, and Logan had already left Dept H. by then, so how could they be shown wearing those costumes?

Also, Marrina wasn't in Alpha Flight back then. She was certainly in Beta Flight, but maybe Mac is showing Logan everyone in Dept H.

Ok and this must be after Northstar joined up but maybe he's just not shown on this set of screens.

But I still can't understand when it is supposed to take place.

Love,
rplass

[mos_def]

Fred,
we are not worthy to have your feel for Alpha Flight. Its good that you are around and will definitely pick this up

[varo]

that is definitely kyle bottom right hand corner. i'm thinking this is taking place soon after first flight. mac must have been working on a list of recruits.

[Loki]

Who's bottom right, is that Walter? Doesn't look exactly like Clayton's Walter. It could be Kyle, dunno.

When does this story take place? The costumes are confusing the continuity for me. Snowbird, Shaman and Aurora were still wearing their Gamma Flight costumes in that flashback in AF #92, and Logan had already left Dept H. by then, so how could they be shown wearing those costumes?

Also, Marrina wasn't in Alpha Flight back then. She was certainly in Beta Flight, but maybe Mac is showing Logan everyone in Dept H.

Ok and this must be after Northstar joined up but maybe he's just not shown on this set of screens.

But I still can't understand when it is supposed to take place.

Love,
rplass

I can handle these - first, it is Kyle. Walter didn't get his powers until after Wolverine left, so he wouldn't be an available field operative.

Second, the screens are showing all the available individuals in Dept H, they've not been split into the separate teams yet. The First Flight disaster showed the need to do that, but it still took a little while for the decision as to who went to what team, and in a crisis like this they just gave Wolverine his choice.

On the costumes - we know from First Flight that Snowbird had her full costume, but we saw in the AF #92 fb that she reverted to a training costume. Same deal - the others had their costumes, but they also had training costumes for when not in the field, and those who got assigned into Beta and Gamma after the decision was made as to who went where presumably got told to stick to the training costumes.

As for Northstar, maybe he isn't a member yet - there's at least a small gap between Aurora joining and them recruiting her brother. Or maybe there's not space to fit everyone on the one screen (maybe the screen is giving scrolling options, but since we are watching a static frame we don't get to see that), or maybe he simply wasn't fully inducted yet. If he had agreed to join at this point, there's the time between agreeing to join and actually joining - remember, Dept H was government run, and we all know what bureaucracies are like.

[Loki]

that is definitely kyle bottom right hand corner. i'm thinking this is taking place soon after first flight. mac must have been working on a list of recruits.

Yup, it's not long at all after First Flight, hence Groundhog and St. Elmo still being on the screens, albeit with qualifiers regarding their status listed. If it had been a longer period, they wouldn't be shown on a screen depicting operatives available to Wolverine.

[varo]

i got to give fred a ton of credit for this isuue, not to many people (besides us around here) even remember first flight, let along reference it.

thanks for the info loki.

now when is joe q going to announce the new ongoing alpha flight with the originals written by fred and drawn clayton?

the cats out of the bag, we all saw it on wikepedia, so it must be true