"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'....
[I meant (and probably should've added) that with 9-to-10 main Alpha Flight characters*, Madison's inclusion right away isn't essential. I can't speak to whether Madison has been written well recently, but I do agree that he has incredible potential...either in an Alpha Flight series or elsewhere. G/A-F]
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.
[I was really referring to the brain-washing from volume 2, which was way too easy (IMO) and far too often. Assuming Judd still has an influencer, what makes Heather so susceptible? I don't think she was ever given one. And once they (finally) remembered what their own government did to them, Judd & Heather are two people who probably wouldn't just let it slide without consequences and repercussions] 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.
[I agree, wholeheartedly] 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 .... 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.
[no disagreement, there]
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