2.175 (540) Alpha Flight vol 1 #24 ... Marvel ...

Back in the days, before all sorts of gimmicky covers (we love them here in fingerlicking central mind you), Marvel and to a certain extent, DC celebrated special issue numbers with double-sized extravaganza and here in hit comic Alpha Flight, we have it on number 24

For those who have been following, SPOILER ALERT, 23 ended with Snowbird realizing that Walter Langkowski is not transforming into Sasquatch but rather he is in a co-sharing relationship with one of the ancient evils that Snowbird's people have long been an enemy. And so in a fierce battle, she literally ripped his heart out!

Now, we are told that there is a chance to retrieve Langkowski from a mystical world before it's too late but to do so would require a journey to a place where the lines between dimensions are weak while magic is strong and so that's where Alpha is at the opening page and what an awesome opening page it is - crazy details in the artwork everywhere!

As for the team so assembled, not everything is going as expected with Heather the reluctant powerless team leader (goodness' knows why she thinks she is qualified), Puck (still short and still harbouring for Heather's affections), Shaman and his daughter (newly crowned Talisman who is tricked into her position by her father - awesome man that he is), Aurora who is grieving for Walter and Northstar, her super bitchy brother ... and a few others we will not bother much with hehehe

Anyway, as you can expect, the team naturally breached the dimensional walls and entered the home dimension of the Great Beasts. Well aside from being gigantic in size and ugly, their powers are surprisingly not that ... powerful? The Flight could actually survive. Hehehe! Of course, the Beasts also do not like each other which is a plus point and thus after a long arduous fight ... well naturally Walter's soul force is recovered SPOILER ALERT ... the one part we will not tell you is if he came back intact or not and if he did, in what form ... because we want you to buy the damn book and read it

There is a wee short end epilogue ... that seemed like a throwaway unnecessary bit ... almost like a love story style ending ... and that's what it is ... unfortunately if you are to read about a year's story later, you will see that this little bit will come to have disastrous consequences for a few members of the Flight. Such is the storytelling skills of Byrne. He seemed to have plotted everything out quite far ahead!

Ratings: 8/10