Sasquatch + Usagent= Marvelous

Now that Captain America is dead, can a Canadian superhero series win the hearts and minds of American comic lovers? Marvel is counting on it.

Ian Daffern
Weekend Post


When Captain America was killed by sniper fire in March, it made headlines around the world. His death was even marked on late-night television when Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada presented Stephen Colbert with the Cap's shield, which now resides in the trophy room of The Colbert Report.

You may not know it, but Canada had a cadre of Marvel superheroes, too, called Alpha Flight, but when the group was virtually wiped out last year, there was nary a ripple: no news stories, not even a modest presentation on The Rick Mercer Report.

The members of Alpha Flight were a sweet, slightly silly bunch, every bit as weird as the X-Men crew but with a palpable Northern touch. There was a massive creature named Sasquatch, the nom de guerre of physicist Walter Langkowski. And Guardian, a.k.a. James Hudson, who designed a suit, emblazoned with a maple leaf, to facilitate the collecting of natural resources. Then there was Puck, a powerful midget who said "eh" a lot and could mow down people by performing cartwheels with the speed of a hockey puck. Aurora and Northstar were super-speedy Quebecois twins. There was an aboriginal member named Shaman, who hailed from the Prairies. From the Arctic came Snowbird, an Inuit blond who could transform into any creature indigenous to the North.

Alpha Flight was written and drawn by John Byrne, whose two-year run, from 1983 to 1985, defined the original characters. The series ended when Alpha Flight -- with the exception of Sasquatch -- was blown up by Michael Pointer, a.k.a. the Collective, an out-ofcontrol mutant from Alaska.

But all is not lost: well, sort of not lost, depending on your sensitivity to matters of cultural imperialism. The first issue of Omega Flight, a Marvel Comics revival of the Canadian-based superhero team, hit the comics stands this month.

But it's a very different group of superheroes. Sasquatch, tormented by the loss of his fallen comrades, now leads the team. He is joined by a magic-wielding Talisman, an aboriginal, who strives to protect her Sarcee tribe. Northern mythology was an important inspiration for the Alpha Flight series, so her character is a nice nod to the precursor series, even if the artist decks her out like a buckskin Pussycat Doll. And there's a new Guardian, who has acquired the red-and-white maple-leaf uniform that confers the power of flight. (He was formerly Michael Pointer, the out-of-control Alaskan who decimated the original Alpha Flight and is getting a second chance to fight for good.)

Omega Flight is a spinoff of Marvel's mega-hit series Civil War, in which the normally amiable Marvel heroes have split into two fighting factions over the issue of government registration, echoing real-world security fears over loss of freedoms, privacy and terrorism. It's a tense political allegory of a divided redand- blue United States that culminated in Captain America's shooting. This has implications for Canada, as is always the case with U.S. domestic policy. By the end of Civil War, supervillains have headed to Canada with evil intent, escaping the newly instituted superhero army that now defends the United States. The question is, how will the three-member Omega Flight protect the world's longest undefended border? With help from our neighbour, it turns out.

Sasquatch finds himself sharing an office at CSIS headquarters in Ottawa with three non-Canadian members. The first is Arachne, a female version of Spider- Man, who fires psychic webs. There's USAgent, the arrogant successor to Captain America. And Beta Ray Bill, an orange- skinned horse-headed Thor from outer space. (Let's file him under Landed Immigrant.)

Having Canadian and American superheroes in Omega Flight is obviously designed to set up a culture clash that will appeal to fans in both countries: Think Due South with tights instead of huskies. More to the point, the economics of comic-book publishing demands that any title has strong appeal in the United States.

"To be frank, if we want the book to sell to self-centred Americans, which is most of the market, we have to cater to that, pure and simple," says Omega Flight writer Michael Oeming, who is based in New York. "Americans are isolated, and we don't realize how little interest we actually have in the rest of the world. Not a good quality, but there you go."

Alpha Flight certainly taught that lesson, though it took a while to sink in. After John Byrne left, the series went downhill. By the late '80s, it was cancelled, though over the years there were two unsuccessful revivals. The last one, written by Scott Lobdell in 2004, treated the idea of Canadian superheroes as a joke. But the early days are remembered fondly.

"You can't beat that first year of Alpha Flight!" Oeming says. "Omega Flight may have some more resonance, as I'm trying to show the difference between Americans and Canadians, both in comics and in the real world here, whereas Byrne had much purer intentions -- just telling damned good stories."

Ben Wells, who runs alphaflight.net from his home in Prince Edward Island, has high hopes for Omega Flight.

"This series is important for reasons other than just what fans want," he says. "In the United States, there has been a stigma about Canada for far too long. The premise behind Omega Flight is one that represents real history for Canada with the Vietnam draft dodge and the Underground Railroad. Oeming plans to show Canada as an escape from the growing tyranny developing in the United States."

Marvel itself has hopes for the Canada- U.S. project but is hedging its bets. The original plan to publish Omega Flight monthly has been cut back to a five-part series. Does this suggest that Americans can sustain interest in Canada for only a short span, and then only as a novelty? Wells, for one, is fighting for its survival. He has launched "Fight for the Flight," an online campaign petitioning Marvel to continue the series. Marvel says the future depends on sales. So far, there's cause for optimism. The first issue has already sold out and a second printing is coming in May.

Sales may continue to be brisk in Canada, anyway. The first issue features contentious relationships between us and them; criminals from the United States running amok on our streets; patronizing U.S. law-enforcement officers; Canada piggybacking on U.S. defence spending. Omega Flight seems to feature all those themes we love to hate.

- - -

GO WHERE?!

In addition to three Canadian superheroes, Omega Flight introduces the arrogant USAgent, who is seconded from SHIELD, the U.S. superhero security agency, to CSIS headquarters in Ottawa. Marvel's New York-based writer, Michael Oeming, says of USAgent: "He's such a jerk, but he has a pure heart. He's a true hero, but his mouth gets in the way." It's fair to say he isn't happy being sent to the frozen north. Here he is in Choosing Sides, a promotional book for the Civil War spinoff, in which he discusses his new mission with Tony Stark, director of SHIELD: USAgent: "Screw you, Stark!Canada? You want to assign me to freakin' Canada?" Tony Stark: "Canada supplies the U.S. with 20%of its oil ... their security is a top priority for SHIELD. We need you to protect those interests." under Dudley Do-Right, you're insane!"

--Ian Daffern

© National Post 2007

www.canada.com/nationa...mp;k=77993

Is Omega Flight selling? I'm not from Canada, but I thought Alpha Flight was pretty cool. Too bad it's one of those concepts that never seems to do very well. There seems to be too much of that in comics, people should read more of a variety of stuff.

Alpha Flight is the best book that can't stay running. I hear Canadians all the time saying how they want a new AF book, but when they make one it doesn't do very well. Alpha Flight has a serious case of Serenity-itis.