"Madison isn't essential to the team"

So what? If you ask me, this is a kind of snobbery in the AF fandom that doesn't help. Team line ups in other more consistently successful books get shaken up all the time, and the fans don't automatically 'quit' because one character they're less familiar with 'confuses them'. There is no 'essential team'. If you ask me, if anything will prevent new fans from connecting with AF, it's insisting that the team be Byrne's AF, the way Byrne set them up, written the way we think Byrne would write them, decades after Byrne left AF v1. (Not to mention, Byrne was the one who established how important AF was to Madison) Maybe Madison Jeffries isn't YOUR favorite Alphan, but he has exposure in the MU and has a ton of untapped potential and unique powers. Give me a good reason he can't fit in with the team.

As for him being well written elsewhere, is he? I hadn't noticed. *sarcasm*

I agree about Heather needing to be top priority right now. As for 70 issues of continuity, I'm saying retcon some of the wrinkles out along the way, not dwell on every hickup in their continuity in every issue. I really can not enjoy books with unaddressed continuity issues, I can't suspend my disbelief, it's a deal breaker for me. But when a writer fixes something we hated in the process of telling a story, said writer gains a new fan, for sure.

At least the brainwashing in the Omega Flight story arc from V1 made some semblance of sense. Courtney didn't just magically make them do her/his/it's bidding like so many villains later on did, nor cause their personality to change completely. Courtney exploited mentally and emotionally fragile heroes in training during their time of need, and then simply enhanced that reaction they had to being thrown out of the Flight program. Each character was still themselves, but would they have still turned to villainy without the extra push from the behavior modifying technology? We'll never know, and that grey area made Omega Flight more compelling than say, the Weapon X villainous mind washing from the early 2000s, or the Master's ability in v4 to make people his obedient drones. So in short, I'm ok with Byrne's 'brainwashing' because it wasn't even completely brain washing, if that makes any sense. But man, how many characters from AF have been brainwashed/mind controlled, in many cases more than once, now? I just think that kind of has to be addressed if Heather's going to be saved from what Master did to her.

Now, Madison Jeffries is just that guy in the corner who tinkers with tech for other people right now... not much of importance is being done with him, we're lucky he's been useful enough not to be treated as cannon fodder like poor Lil. I think it's time for him to hear about Mac being back and what happened to Heather, a former flame of his, and find his passions for being a hero reignited. See him say '**** you' to all the people using him as a freaking tool, and rush off to try to help people who were once there for him. I think hearing about the horror of Heather's mind control victimization would really do it. He's been there, he knows what that's like. Hell, you could potentially even have a stand off between Madison Jeffries, a guy who can control technology with his mind, and Mac, who relied on a technological suit to have any powers. Can you imagine the epic cliff hanger a good writer could build up to? The character development, the drama, the action, seeing the powerful rendered powerless at the hands of a man who's been a nobody for a long while now. That moment where the readers hold their breath and wonder if Madison is even sane, god, throw some PTSD in there, goodness knows Madison's trauma needs to be dealt with. I wouldn't want him to kill Mac, personally, but imagine that narrative!