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This week's X-Men Monday column over at Adventures In Poor Taste features Ed Brisson talking about, and answering fan questions regarding, ALPHA FLIGHT #1 (including a couple from names that you might just recognise!), as well as some exclusive character designs from the series by artist Scott Godlewski. Go check out the link!
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AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Ed! Alpha Flight is the first time you’re writing in the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Universe since the Dawn of X. How does it feel to return for the Fall of X and do so while writing a team you love so much?
Ed: It feels great! Alpha Flight is one of those books/teams that I think just about every Canadian creator has on their bucket list, so to be given the opportunity feels like a real honor.
AIPT: Glad to hear. Now X-Fan Natty from the Krakoa server was wondering what qualities you think set Alpha Flight apart from the rest of the Marvel superhero teams — other than being Canadian, of course!
Ed: Good question!
I think one of the big things that I feel sets them apart is their struggle for identity and autonomy. It’s hard to discuss this without the Canadian-ness of it all, though. I think we sometimes get classified as “America North”. Most of the media here comes from the United States and that causes a lot of us to absorb it and, in a way, assimilate to that classification. At the same time, we recognize that we’re not Americans, that we do have our own unique culture and so there is this push/pull of being absorbed into one culture, while also trying to set ourselves apart from it.
I think this is something that Alpha Flight struggles with. They’re often seen as ‘The Avengers of The North’ or ‘The X-Men of Canada’, and both feel dismissive. Alpha Flight, more than either of those teams, is constantly in a struggle for autonomy. Given that they’re government-sponsored (though not always), there’s a level of bureaucracy that they deal with that other teams don’t. They’re just as often working against their own employers as they are with them, which makes them outlaws as often as it does heroes.
AIPT: X-Fan Phin wanted to know which character was the easiest to write and which was the hardest to write.
Ed: I’ve written Puck a couple of times before and have always found him a lot of fun to write, which in turn makes him easier to write. It never feels like work. His personality is similar to one of my uncles and so I generally just channel that energy into the character.
For the majority of this run, Nemesis has been the hardest. Primarily because she’s harboring secrets and it’s been difficult to keep those secrets secret and not show our hand.
AIPT: X-Fan Rob Plass noticed many characters are wearing their original costumes from their first appearances, some of which date back 40-45 years. Given the opportunity to change things up with a new start, what was the creative process that led to the decision to keep the Alphans in their classic looks?
Ed: This was something we discussed A LOT going into the book. I’m not going to name names, but someone hated the original Puck costume (specifically the giant P) and wanted to push away from it. I *love* that costume and pushed to keep it. We had a lot of back and forth on it and artist Scott Godlewski had even come up with some pretty great designs, but ultimately we went with his classic look.
With Snowbird and Guardian, there haven’t really been any successful redesigns in the past because those John Byrne designs are timeless. They work and there’s no reason to mess with them.
Since we were keeping Guardian and Snowbird in their classic garb, it felt only right to keep Puck and Shaman in theirs — though we did give Puck long pants instead of shorts. I’m a fan of Shaman’s look in Strange Academy, a more casual take on his usual Alpha Flight look, and had originally wanted to use that look, but given the above, we moved away from it.
Beyond our own aesthetic tastes, I think it makes a lot of sense to stick with classic designs given how Alpha Flight are presented in the first issue. Department H is putting forward this idea of a return to “normal”, which to them is a return to how things once were. And so, bringing out Alpha Flight dressed the same as when they first debuted feeds into their talking points quite well.
With the mutant side, we kept the Krakoan era of costumes because they look great. Beyond that, the mutant side represents change and so their look needed to reflect that — they can’t be decked out in their original garb. All of the redesign work had already been done on other X-Books, so we just rolled with it.
AIPT: X-Fan Phil said Shaman seems to have taken more of the leadership role in Alpha Flight #1 — was this intentional?
Ed: Interesting. I don’t see it that way and didn’t intend to write it that way. To my mind, he’s the second in command. That said, I do feel like he’s the member of the team that others might turn to with questions or concerns — Mac doesn’t have the best track record in this department — so that could certainly make it seem as though he’s sometimes the de facto leader. But, Mac is absolutely the leader in the series.
AIPT: X-Fan Craig was wondering why the Canadian government always appears to be much more sinister in Alpha Flight comics than in reality. What are your thoughts?
Ed: You know, this is something that I think about a lot and I’m not sure that I really have an answer. I think maybe because we have a reputation for being very polite and welcoming, it’s easy to imagine that there’s something more insidious behind it.
I do think that we, as Canadians, tend to see ourselves as above a lot of the ugly politics of our neighbors to the south, but we have an incredibly nasty history that we’re not always great at facing.
AIPT: X-Fan Delilah, Puck Fan said, if push came to shove, would Puck win in a fight against the rest of Alpha Flight?
Ed: Puck against Guardian, Snowbird, Shaman, Northstar, Aurora, Fang, and Nemesis? That is a pretty unfair, one-sided fight. You’re going to need to bring a bigger army if you want to beat Puck.
AIPT: Since you’re a longtime Alpha Flight reader, X-Fan Benson was curious if you have a favorite issue/character from the Bill Mantlo Alpha Flight era.
Ed: The one that immediately pops up is Alpha Flight #33. It’s the first appearance of Lady Deathstrike, who I have a soft spot for. The issue also gives us a nice glimpse into Alpha Flight/Wolverine’s past. I remember picking it up when it came out and being very excited by it all. Recently reread it as part of my read-through of the series and it still holds up quite well.
AIPT: We got an X-Fan question from someone named Scott Godlewski — not sure you’ve heard of him. Scott asked, when does the ongoing Alpha Flight series start?
Ed: Good to meet you, Scott. This is a very good question. Perhaps you can send in a request to the Marvel overlords to make this happen.
AIPT: Finally, what can you tease about what comes next in Alpha Flight?
Ed: We’ve still got lots of surprises in store. Things are about to get very, very bad for some of our heroes.
AIPT: “Very, very“? Yikes! Brace yourselves, Alpha Flight fans. But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday to talk, Ed! Now, we already shared an eXclusive Scott Godlewski Puck design sheet above, but here’s an eXclusive look at Scott’s designs for the Box Sentinel.
Ed: It feels great! Alpha Flight is one of those books/teams that I think just about every Canadian creator has on their bucket list, so to be given the opportunity feels like a real honor.
AIPT: Glad to hear. Now X-Fan Natty from the Krakoa server was wondering what qualities you think set Alpha Flight apart from the rest of the Marvel superhero teams — other than being Canadian, of course!
Ed: Good question!
I think one of the big things that I feel sets them apart is their struggle for identity and autonomy. It’s hard to discuss this without the Canadian-ness of it all, though. I think we sometimes get classified as “America North”. Most of the media here comes from the United States and that causes a lot of us to absorb it and, in a way, assimilate to that classification. At the same time, we recognize that we’re not Americans, that we do have our own unique culture and so there is this push/pull of being absorbed into one culture, while also trying to set ourselves apart from it.
I think this is something that Alpha Flight struggles with. They’re often seen as ‘The Avengers of The North’ or ‘The X-Men of Canada’, and both feel dismissive. Alpha Flight, more than either of those teams, is constantly in a struggle for autonomy. Given that they’re government-sponsored (though not always), there’s a level of bureaucracy that they deal with that other teams don’t. They’re just as often working against their own employers as they are with them, which makes them outlaws as often as it does heroes.
AIPT: X-Fan Phin wanted to know which character was the easiest to write and which was the hardest to write.
Ed: I’ve written Puck a couple of times before and have always found him a lot of fun to write, which in turn makes him easier to write. It never feels like work. His personality is similar to one of my uncles and so I generally just channel that energy into the character.
For the majority of this run, Nemesis has been the hardest. Primarily because she’s harboring secrets and it’s been difficult to keep those secrets secret and not show our hand.
AIPT: X-Fan Rob Plass noticed many characters are wearing their original costumes from their first appearances, some of which date back 40-45 years. Given the opportunity to change things up with a new start, what was the creative process that led to the decision to keep the Alphans in their classic looks?
Ed: This was something we discussed A LOT going into the book. I’m not going to name names, but someone hated the original Puck costume (specifically the giant P) and wanted to push away from it. I *love* that costume and pushed to keep it. We had a lot of back and forth on it and artist Scott Godlewski had even come up with some pretty great designs, but ultimately we went with his classic look.
With Snowbird and Guardian, there haven’t really been any successful redesigns in the past because those John Byrne designs are timeless. They work and there’s no reason to mess with them.
Since we were keeping Guardian and Snowbird in their classic garb, it felt only right to keep Puck and Shaman in theirs — though we did give Puck long pants instead of shorts. I’m a fan of Shaman’s look in Strange Academy, a more casual take on his usual Alpha Flight look, and had originally wanted to use that look, but given the above, we moved away from it.
Beyond our own aesthetic tastes, I think it makes a lot of sense to stick with classic designs given how Alpha Flight are presented in the first issue. Department H is putting forward this idea of a return to “normal”, which to them is a return to how things once were. And so, bringing out Alpha Flight dressed the same as when they first debuted feeds into their talking points quite well.
With the mutant side, we kept the Krakoan era of costumes because they look great. Beyond that, the mutant side represents change and so their look needed to reflect that — they can’t be decked out in their original garb. All of the redesign work had already been done on other X-Books, so we just rolled with it.
AIPT: X-Fan Phil said Shaman seems to have taken more of the leadership role in Alpha Flight #1 — was this intentional?
Ed: Interesting. I don’t see it that way and didn’t intend to write it that way. To my mind, he’s the second in command. That said, I do feel like he’s the member of the team that others might turn to with questions or concerns — Mac doesn’t have the best track record in this department — so that could certainly make it seem as though he’s sometimes the de facto leader. But, Mac is absolutely the leader in the series.
AIPT: X-Fan Craig was wondering why the Canadian government always appears to be much more sinister in Alpha Flight comics than in reality. What are your thoughts?
Ed: You know, this is something that I think about a lot and I’m not sure that I really have an answer. I think maybe because we have a reputation for being very polite and welcoming, it’s easy to imagine that there’s something more insidious behind it.
I do think that we, as Canadians, tend to see ourselves as above a lot of the ugly politics of our neighbors to the south, but we have an incredibly nasty history that we’re not always great at facing.
AIPT: X-Fan Delilah, Puck Fan said, if push came to shove, would Puck win in a fight against the rest of Alpha Flight?
Ed: Puck against Guardian, Snowbird, Shaman, Northstar, Aurora, Fang, and Nemesis? That is a pretty unfair, one-sided fight. You’re going to need to bring a bigger army if you want to beat Puck.
AIPT: Since you’re a longtime Alpha Flight reader, X-Fan Benson was curious if you have a favorite issue/character from the Bill Mantlo Alpha Flight era.
Ed: The one that immediately pops up is Alpha Flight #33. It’s the first appearance of Lady Deathstrike, who I have a soft spot for. The issue also gives us a nice glimpse into Alpha Flight/Wolverine’s past. I remember picking it up when it came out and being very excited by it all. Recently reread it as part of my read-through of the series and it still holds up quite well.
AIPT: We got an X-Fan question from someone named Scott Godlewski — not sure you’ve heard of him. Scott asked, when does the ongoing Alpha Flight series start?
Ed: Good to meet you, Scott. This is a very good question. Perhaps you can send in a request to the Marvel overlords to make this happen.
AIPT: Finally, what can you tease about what comes next in Alpha Flight?
Ed: We’ve still got lots of surprises in store. Things are about to get very, very bad for some of our heroes.
AIPT: “Very, very“? Yikes! Brace yourselves, Alpha Flight fans. But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday to talk, Ed! Now, we already shared an eXclusive Scott Godlewski Puck design sheet above, but here’s an eXclusive look at Scott’s designs for the Box Sentinel.
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