2.121 (486) Alpha Flight vol 3 #3 ... Marvel ...

Volume 2 is so painful that we decided to give you loyal readers a break and skip to volume 3 issue 3. Basically volume 3 is yet another failed chapter in Alpha's revival lasting a mere dozen issues. Why did this fail? Well, firstly, Marvel decided to do a 360 making the content humorous and introducing formerly serious characters now behaving weirdly comical. However, the actual storyline itself is serious. Thus the highly uncomfortable, non-synergy of character versus storyline ... if they had done this in all ages format ala Power Pack's later volumes, that would probably be more palatable

I mean look at the cover lower left with the elderly bloke half sleeping away and you know what we mean

Storywise, Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch takes the lead this time around in recruiting new candidates for a revival of the Alpha team and now that he has a team of sorts, this issue wastes an entire issue in explaining the villains ... I kid you not ... it is a new race of alien-like creatures and we get to see them grow and destroy and conquer ... as all their interactions are with races that were not the norm in the Marvel U, again, readers could not connect

Therefore this issue fails ... utterly ... old guy with super strength ... maple leaf bloke who is naïve and super enthusiastic ... and a girl who is the daughter of Puck, potential or otherwise (really?) ... I mean who is going to care, right?

Ratings: 3/10 (saved a bit by the artwork)

2.120 (485) Alpha Flight vol 2 #2 ... Marvel ...

The biggest disappointment in this series so far is actually artist Scott Clark. After having enjoyed his work in Image titles a few years ago to suddenly encounter him here in this series producing this kind of work? Ugh! Of course it could be the paper or the production quality or the inker but if so, he should have gotten himself out of this triple quick

Anyway, story wise, writer Seagle continued weaving his paranoia fuelled mania as we see hidden agenda after agenda where everyone is not what they seemed and Alpha members are nothing more than brainwashed zombies being activated ...

In issue 2, as the  cover indicates, we see a return of the Master of the World, a supervillain debuting and primarily plaguing Alpha Flight in their first incarnation ... in other words, inspite of his rich history, he is potentially lame ... even that costume of his

Here, after the opening sequences of supposedly Master breaching Alpha head office, we are left wondering and grasping at clues similar to the Alphans ... intentionally set up by writer Seagle supposedly creating intrigue to the plot. However, thanks to the artwork, I found it a chore to plough through this issue and thus never bothered to collect it on a regular basis until it ended up in the quarter bins. I guess a lot of other readers agreed with me

Other supposedly mysteries added in this issue is the many shapes of the Master, what or who is this Sasquatch in the new Flight as he is more monster than human as all he does is growl and thus needs to be chained amongst others ... sigh ... reminds me of those old Hong Kong movies with unnecessarily complicated plots pretending to be sophisticated storytelling elements

Ratings: 2/10

2.119 (484) Alpha Flight vol 1 #6 ... Marvel ...

Look at that cover! Plain, simple, no over rendering but Byrne just totally kills it! Such an awesome image and that title? Perfect and that's how from lame old Puck we move on to awesome gal, Narya aka Snowbird

Quick background ... as this is a review ... Narya is not entirely human but rather offspring of the Northern Gods i.e. half and half and has the ability to shape shift into any creature of the North. She also has a few other abilities though for some reason or other, she doesn't ever uses them. And as she is such an awesome character, she keeps a recurring role as one of the main characters that drives the stories forward especially in the first 50 or so issues! Several story arcs are because of her/ her human husband (cutie)/ and baby (nasty)

In this tale, we see Snowbird in trouble from her bosses because for some stupid reason, she decided to work for the police and naturally disappearances from work is to be frowned upon until they even locked her up. Not too sure about that

Unfortunately some even bigger idiots did some work and inadvertently (isn't that always the case?) freed one more of the "Great Beasts" Kolomaq (great name, right?) ... and before you know it, Snowbird is on the case ... the cover you see? It is actually part of the storyline once Snowbird encounters Kolomaq ... it's probably the only time or the first time that several pages of a comic book has panels, word balloons and other text but literally no artwork ... I kid you not!

And as for the flipside, we see Michael Twoyoungmen finally coming into the power of Shaman as he accepted his spirit ancestors advice and learnt the mystic arts

Ratings: 7/10

2.118 (483) Alpha Flight vol 1 #5 ... Marvel ...

It has been a while since we did an Alpha review. So we figured it was time to go back to that particular box and dig up yet another golden oldie from creator John Byrne's catalogue and so here it is: issue 5 featuring one of the lamest ever hero in the Marvel Universe: Puck

For those who are wondering, Puck is in all likelihood taken from a Shakespeare play?

Anyway this guy's main ability is ... that he is short like a midget (due to a magical malady - yes you read that right), he can fight well but like a regular guy and for some unknown reason, he loves to do somersaults and bounce everywhere though he is nowhere near the abilities of the Toad (that mutie) or faster than even 3 D (yes such names do exist) man

So ... one more quick fact and that's waaaay back in the early days of Alpha, John splits the book with a main story and a back up story exploring the history of the characters which is actually great and highly entertaining and what's this issue about? Why it's about ... Puck hahahahahaha!

Anyway let's start with the back up story. Why you ask? Because it is not about Puck (sorry couldn't resist it). It features way cooler magic man, Shaman in his younger days when he was a rebellious bloke rejecting old world mysticism for modern day medical school and learning to be a doctor/ surgeon. We get to see him fall in love and have a daughter who will one day be Talisman and how his path way back then already overlap into Guardian Heather's live ... it's all rather well down if a bit rush

And for the main piece of this comic? Well ... Puck is recovering from the last few issues of adventure and when his Alpha mates left his bedside ... he feels that something is wrong and goes to investigate ... to discover (gasp) that the hospital has a crew that is selling some of the meds (drugs) to others ... and goes out to stop them because they are not really that big a gang so a few hops and punches and kicks and everything is hunky-dory

See? Puck is ... lame ...

Ratings: 5/10 (1 point for that cover)

2.117 (482) Cyerforce Ongoing vol 1 #4 ... Image ...

Well we skipped one issue ie 3 the ending chapter of Killer Instinct because we just want to avoid any more comparison to WildCATS, okay? And what a great thing too ... I mean check out this awesome nasty cover of Ballistic, right?
That's the great thing about Cyberforce. You don't have to be officially inducted into their team to get in on the action and here Miss Ballistic takes center stage as the original sub plot from issue 1 builds up take the limelight. Or at least you would think so thanks to that cover but unfortunately inspite of the cover and the title, Assault with a Deadly Woman, this is not so

In fact the opening scenes are great especially where we get that guy dropping from the roof - awesome art - Silvestri at his best!

And then we get great background scenes on what is potentially the early life sequences of both Caryn and Ballistic ... with both then zapping to the present when our dear speedster does her stumbling best by stumbling into a new drug cartel's activity where you have a guy who has horns and his cabal is called the ... well you read it and you will see

Anyway, this is a great opening issue for a multi-issue arc as we see lots of action while both sides are driving the plot in the same direction ... with Cyberforce and Ballistic on a collision course

Ratings: 6/10

2.116 (481) Cyberforce ongoing vol 1 #2 ... Image ...

Before you read this, I do strongly suggest you get WildCATS #6 as that is the official starting point of this great crossover. And if you ask me to choose, I have to admit that the 'CATS have better art thanks to Jim Lee (sorry, Marc, I do like yours too but just for comparison ...)

Anyway, remember our gripe from the last review? Well, because this is part of a bigger story arc, it finally feels like a proper comic of sorts because there is fast paced development, character moments and slam bang action  yes yes yes!

But like his Marvel counterpart, this story arc is all about Wolverine wannabes because it stars Ripclaw from Cyberforce and Warblade from WildCATS, both claw characters with temper except Rip is more the animal and here in this issue, we feel like reading an X-Men Comic because almost the entire issue is only on Ripclaw SPOILER ALERT

We open with a sequence of Rip and the Blade together with SHOCS on a mission for cyberdata and what-not only to be ambushed and through one page after another of subterfuge and action, we felt the betrayal and "death" of Rip ... only to be told that it was a flashback because in the here and now, Rip is controlled by former love, Misery who has, for her own reasons, set him off against Blade. And so another round of battle ensues ...

And this eats up the entire book except the last 2 pages where the rest of Cyberforce finally makes an appearance. See what I mean?

Still a decent read though

Ratings: 6/10

2.115 (480) Cyberforce ongoing vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Enough of the negative reviews, eh? Let's move on ... to Marc Silvestri's first title at Image! I was not a huge fan of Silvestri's X-Men but for some reason I collected every single issue I can get my hands on when the limited series came out (started with three and in time got the 2 back issues) and actually liked it enough to look forward to this

I still remembered when it was announced that they said there will be no more special covers which to me is quite sad as I actually loved the gimmicky enhanced stuff hahahaha!

Anyway, if you are ever a fan of Silvestri you will love this as his work actually looks less rush and more polished! And the interiors (dare I say it) has better work than the cover especially on the colours!

Now on to the tale ... we basically picked up where the limited series left off with Mr Claws doing his Wolverine bit while the speedster is young Kitty Pryde hahaha! Seriously ... here we see Ripclaw doing a training session with Velocity yet losing his control every now and then until Heatwave literally has to take him down ... and I guess Heatwave is the Cyclops figure then, eh?

On the sub plots ... we have Mr Four Arms Stryker trying to get Ballistic bad babe to come back and join Cyberforce instead of letting her move off on her own ... however, unbeknownst to him, she has a debt to repay to an old mate and hence she gave him one in the nuts!

And naturally to ensure there is some sort of connection to future issue ... i.e a set up ... we see guys that appear to have claws leaping and attacking ... in silhouettes ... and we see Ripclaw waking up in cold sweat after having a nightmare about an old flame and arch competitor ... a member of WildCATS ... which means you know it's guest star time to come! Yippeeeeeee!

See? Not a great first issue but at least enough to make us think if we want to try 2 or not ... I am glad I did!

Ratings: 5/10