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Thread: The Future of Department H

  1. #1

    Default The Future of Department H

    Something I’d like to see happen in the future of Alpha Flight;

    Mac builds his own Department H.

    With all the brain power of he and Walter, why can’t one of them build or design something and sell the patent for it, make mega-millions of dollars, and use that money to build their own research and design unit? Somewhere away from government eyes. Mac must have a FEW people in the old Department H he knows, he trusts, that he could hire to work for him.

    I’d enjoy seeing him puttering in his own lab on his days off, showing that he is every bit as smart as Reed Richards. Building stuff that the team could use (why can’t Alpha Flight have a flying car, like the FF did?). Finding ways to make things to better the lives of ordinary Canadians, and to continue to make money that would be pumped back into Department H, to keep it going.

    They could do this as the heroes of Alpha Flight, or as the guerilla unit that they currently are; with the second option, they'd have to hide who owned the company and have it be more underground and hidden, but that is okay too.

    What do you think? Would this idea work, and would you like to see it?
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  2. #2
    Harvester of Sorrows Department H
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post
    (why can’t Alpha Flight have a flying car, like the FF did?)
    What do you think? Would this idea work, and would you like to see it?
    The first: they've had a couple of their own planes, at least, like the FF, the Avengers, the X-Men.
    The second... it'd work just fine.
    Honestly, though, I'd neither like to see it nor want to not see it... Does that make sense?

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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post

    What do you think? Would this idea work, and would you like to see it?
    I do like the idea of them starting their own non-government related private version of 'H', even though I prefer a slimmer, less expansive version of Alpha Flight (hey...like we have right now!).

    However, I do not want to see Mac (or Walt, for that matter) elevated to the level of a Reed Richards-type intelligence. It makes it too easy for a deus ex machina in plots. If they need something related to electromagnetism, though, then Mac is your man. If they need some gizmo or expertise to deal with radiation, here's Uncle Walt.

    Though I love Reed and the FF (platonically, of course), and the ability to invent a gizmo to save the day works for them, for the most part I enjoy seeing heroes be creative in the use of their powers and their wits to win the day, not merely build a doohickey to drain the energy of The Malevolent Moose-Man. Heck, I even enjoy a fight ending with a good sock to the jaw (in comic book fantasy land, at least).

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Eberly View Post
    for the most part I enjoy seeing heroes be creative in the use of their powers and their wits to win the day, not merely build a doohickey to drain the energy of The Malevolent Moose-Man.
    Yep! One of the things I loved about Byrne's AF.
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  5. #5

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    How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
    Fish.
    "Do you have any 2's?"

    "No. Go fish."

    "I can't, I'm changing this lightbulb."

    "There. Are. Four. Lights."

    "No; There. Are. No. 2's."
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  6. #6
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    We also have no bananas.

    Not at these prices.

  7. #7

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    Though I love Reed and the FF (platonically, of course), and the ability to invent a gizmo to save the day works for them, for the most part I enjoy seeing heroes be creative in the use of their powers and their wits to win the day, not merely build a doohickey to drain the energy of The Malevolent Moose-Man.
    This was honestly not even in my thoughts when I came up with this idea. I just think that Mac, and Walter to a lesser extent, are scientists at heart. They were scientists before they were heroes, and became heroes only because of the circumstances surrounding their scienitific discoveries. I'd like to see them doing what they love to do, puttering around in the lab, helping humanity that way rather than always in pajamas or fur.

    Doesn't mean they need to invent a new doohickie to save the day every comic issue. But how cool would it be to see one of them invent a solar-powered toaster, or popcorn that doesn't get stuck in your teeth? I dunno...I guess I just want that feeling that they have lives away from Alpha, lives that still make a difference. Both of them have lost so much since becoming heroes, wouldn't it be nice to get to regularly see them doing what they love to do?
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post
    ...only because of the circumstances surrounding their scienitific discoveries.
    Well, that's a lot more true of Mac than of Walt... but it applies to both.

    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post
    I just want that feeling that they have lives away from Alpha, lives that still make a difference. Both of them have lost so much since becoming heroes, wouldn't it be nice to get to regularly see them doing what they love to do?
    I'd love that, too. Which is why I asked, and hoped they 'heard', the writers not to go the whole 'guerilla / underground' route. It makes all of that (having lives away from the team, making a difference, seeing them do what they love to do) next to unpossible.
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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post
    "Do you have any 2's?"

    "No. Go fish."

    "I can't, I'm changing this lightbulb."

    "There. Are. Four. Lights."

    "No; There. Are. No. 2's."
    What is: A conversation between two William Shatner impersonators?

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flightpath07 View Post
    This was honestly not even in my thoughts when I came up with this idea. I just think that Mac, and Walter to a lesser extent, are scientists at heart. They were scientists before they were heroes, and became heroes only because of the circumstances surrounding their scienitific discoveries. I'd like to see them doing what they love to do, puttering around in the lab, helping humanity that way rather than always in pajamas or fur.

    Doesn't mean they need to invent a new doohickie to save the day every comic issue. But how cool would it be to see one of them invent a solar-powered toaster, or popcorn that doesn't get stuck in your teeth? I dunno...I guess I just want that feeling that they have lives away from Alpha, lives that still make a difference. Both of them have lost so much since becoming heroes, wouldn't it be nice to get to regularly see them doing what they love to do?
    Well, when you put it all logically and heartfelt at the same time like that...no.

    Cerealously, I agree absolutely with what you put here. In comics, there is just too much of "scientist" meaning "I know everything". Once upon a time, Bruce Banner was 'merely' a nuclear physicist. Now he's building superconductive magnetic infindibulators out of ipods that can determine what Velveeta is actually made of. Or Tony Stark was once 'merely' an engineer, but is now a futurist who can well...predict the future. I would prefer, say, Mac building a car that uses electromagnetism as a perpetual motion energy source but not knowing why mixing mentos and diet coke causes a fizzy mess (though I know it is because the carbonation gnomes living in the bubbles have racist feelings about Dutch mints).

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Eberly View Post
    Mac building a car that uses electromagnetism as a perpetual motion energy source
    Madison's kind of already done that. (With Heather's father's car, iirc.)

    But, yeah, I agree it'd be cool if they had specialised scientists who actually specialised.
    Then again, this is comics; that's kind of not what I read for, either. Like villains who aren't a specific criminal, but are just 'criminals'. (ie: not thieves or murderers or whatever, just people trying to take over the world. Of course!)

    But it'd be nice to see an exception.

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  12. #12

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    Madison's kind of already done that. (With Heather's father's car, iirc.)
    Speaking of Madison Jeffires, this'd be a great time for him to show up, wouldn't it? Heather and Mac are not currently 'together', Madison has been brainwashed more times than a D&D Intellect Devourer in a dishwasher, the Unity team can always use one more powerful villain...

    Can you tell that i stopped being a Jeffries fan when Byrne stopped writing him? Since then...not a fan.

    I would prefer, say, Mac building a car that uses electromagnetism as a perpetual motion energy source but not knowing why mixing mentos and diet coke causes a fizzy mess.
    Exactly. Now, he might have people working for him, specialists in other fields, that would fill him in on those things. Rather than Walter and Mac being the 'scientific be-all end-all' all-knowing types, they'd just be two scientists working with others, in a Department run by and named for Mac...plus, they'd be the only two scientists who solve problems with their knuckles.
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  13. #13

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    What is: A conversation between two William Shatner impersonators?

    lol - I got THAT one right away!
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  14. #14

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    Funny thing: The tendency to use Richards-like characters only as plot devices when some crazy new threat occurs is where the "Reed Richards is Useless" trope comes from.

    That's part of why I never thought of Guardian as the "Canadian Richards", but more of a Canadian Tony Stark. His powers are science/tech based, yes, but his stories don't have quite the same need to rush back to the drawing board to design a new anti-new villain machine every month.

    So yeah, I'd like to see more of Mac and Walt being scientists, and I like the way Pak and Van Lente are handling them, (especially with how well they've done science heroes in the past, IE: Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho) but there are probably many different ways such a change could turn out.

    Also, seeing as most of Alpha Flight (except maybe Northstar and Puck) are more humanists than patriots, wouldn't removing the government influence also remove the need to set the stories primarily in Canada?

  15. #15

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    seeing as most of Alpha Flight (except maybe Northstar and Puck) are more humanists than patriots
    Not agreeing with this, sorry.
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