Wednesday Morning Quarterback – THEY KILLED MEDIOCRE MAN???? WHY, GOD, WHY?????

By Mike “blackmore” Maillaro

Warning! This rant contains spoilers, including New Avengers, Starman, and Dixon-era Green Arrow.

Holy crap!!! Can you believe what those bastards over at Marvel did??? THEY KILLED ALPHA FLIGHT!! I just can’t believe that Marvel would do such a horrifying thing!!!

What’s even more horrifying is that SOMEONE ACTUALLY CARES!!! Within minutes of people hearing that Alpha Flight got their butts kicked in New Avengers, I suddenly I hear them called “fan favorites” and begin seeing posts ranging from:

“I loved Alpha Flight and that actually made me sad.” “Lame writing to get rid of good characters, but then again, it's Bendis. He's never written anything even remotely coming close to halfways-decent.”

to

“I've been a closet Alphan, and have been rather interested in the characters…I've been even trying to get a job to buy the Alpha Flight series, beginning to end…What a ****ty way to go…Congratulations, Bendis. You've managed to pull off one heck of a contortionist act: putting your foot in your mouth and your head up your ass at the same time. However, and I think the vast majority will agree, most people speak neither Foot nor Ass, and thus cannot understand why you would kill off decently popular characters. WHO ELSE WANTS TO SEE BENDIS' HEAD ON A SILVER PLATTER?”

There were a lot more of these comments, but for mental health reasons, I just stuck to reprinting those two. I could really have some fun with these comments, but that would be just too easy.

Alpha Flight was always the comic I could not believe was still coming out. I am not knocking Bryne’s work, but these characters just are not popular…hell, they are barely even on C-List. Kathy Giffen looks down on these guys! They work best as X-Men supporting characters, and even then, I’d rather see the Starjammers.

I have many, many issues of Alpha Flight, but if I was asked to name 300 comic characters, I wouldn’t even think of Alpha Flight until way down on my list. Young Heroes in Love members would come to mind quicker. That is just how it is with Alpha Flight.

I find it really hard to believe that Alpha Flight is really someone’s favorite, much less several someones. If this was the case, you’d think that their last two series wouldn’t have sold fewer copies than iCandy. Oh man, now I just went and pissed off the millions and millions of people who loved iCandy!!! That book was a fan favorite too, right?

The funny part is that no one even knows if Alpha Flight is really dead. They got their butts kicked by a major threat, which is typical comic book fare. All we know for sure is that someone really laith the smacketh down on Canada’s greatest superhero team…not like the competition for that title was all that stiff. Besides, if they killed off the new Alpha Flight members from Lobdell’s run, I think most people would be relived.

I’ve come to bury Blue Beetle, not to praise him!

Alpha Flight is only the latest example of comic characters to suddenly receiving an infusion of fandom after they were dead. Blue Beetle, Firestorm, Jack of Hearts, Hawkeye, and Scott Lang are a few more non-A list characters who suddenly became beloved after they died. Hell, I remember people complaining that DC killed Jason Todd…EVEN AFTER PEOPLE VOTED TO KILL HIM!! The death of Superman didn’t bring out as many mourners as Blue Beetle.

As I said last week, I don’t like characters dying for shock effect, and even more so when they get brought back within a few months. There are a lot better ways of creating shock value, especially since death is a revolving door in comics.

But, I think we all understand that sometimes things like this are necessary in order to build up a big threat. It happens in comics, movies, novels, etc, etc. Yes, Alpha Flight was killed off panel, but if the entire comic was spent showing Alpha Flight in action just to lead to a pathetic demise, that would have been even worse. I’d rather see the entire set up of the bigger story and not just focus on some jobbers doing what they do best: GETTING THEIR ASSES KICKED!

BTW, Joey Q. has already commented that Marvel has plans for Alpha Flight in the near future, so obviously, they aren’t all dead. But, I guarantee that the new characters from Lobdell’s abomination of an Alpha Flight series will not be showing up anytime soon. I can also guarantee that a new Alpha Flight series, even if it starred the originals, would not last more than 18 issues.

Comic fans have no clue what they want. They want change, but when the slightest hint of change happens, they get pissed off. How dare DC create a new Blue Beetle or new Firestorm??? Because, you know there was so much being done with the old Blue Beetle and Firestorm.

The vocal minority complain that death in comics is cheapened by characters coming back. But, as soon as a character, ANY CHARACTER, is killed, they demand the head of the writer, editor, and colorist who was responsible for their death. They want the character brought back to life immediately, just so they can complain about how lame it was that he was brought back.

Personally, I have no problem with characters I love get killed or have their careers ended for various reasons. I loved Green Arrow as a kid, but they killed him off, and I was cool with that. Same goes for Jack Knight, who is by far my favorite character now. I loved how Jack retires at the end of the Starman series. It would be terrible to cheapen that ending by bringing him back as a full time hero. Jack’s story is ended, and it should stay that way.

I’d rather the characters I love be dead or retired than stuck in a rut, which Alpha Flight obviously was. I’m sorry for the MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of AF fans, but you’ll get over it. Probably as soon as the next character no one cares about is killed.

LETTERS

There were a lot of positive comments about my last column over on GameFAQs even from people who disagreed with, so thanks for that! If you send me an e-mail, I promise that I will post it and respond…for example, this one comes from Chris:

Mike,

It's great to see you writing about comics again regularly. We miss you over at The Nexus, but your new home looks great.

As for your comments, well, I can't agree with you more. DC Comics has blown it completely. For just the same reason I stopped reading mainstream superhero comics in the '90s I'm doing it again. Bad storytelling that's overly reliant on death, multiple part crossovers, and cheap stunts are what killed comics as mainstream entertainment before, and it's poised to do the same thing again. I had just gotten back into the mainstream stuff over the past 4 or 5 years. It's truly deja vu all over again.

Marvel isn't free of blame either. Their slate has been absolutely cluttered with one meaningless mega-event after another. All these events do is clutter the shelves and make it harder for books from smaller companies to find an audience. They're a gimmick and one that will eventually backfire since the powers-that-be at Marvel and DC never seem to realize when enough is enough.

I feel so slighted by the "Big Two" that I won't go back to reading their mainstream comics, with a couple of exceptions, again.

It's still amazing what the industry did to their sales levels after the dreadful mismanagement of the '90s. I anticipate another major crash for the comic industry in the next few years. This time the industry doesn't have very far to fall. After all, where can sales really drop to when they're already in the toilet? The city dump or a cesspool are about it. Either way, they stink.

In any event, your column has been great so far. I'm as anxious to read it as I am to pick my books up every Wednesday. Thanks for giving me something else to enjoy each week. :)

Best,
Chris Delloiacono

Chris is one of my oldest friends and a published writer in his own right (Contagion: War Stories, go check it out). So when he sends me praise, it is a very good thing. Especially since he can be pretty lazy ;)

It is nice that the industry is FINALLY on an upswing. But, I think it is for all the wrong reasons, and that it won’t last. Look at what happened when the speculators jumped ship in the 90’s. As soon as Marvel and DC stop the EVENT POSTURING, I can see another huge drop off in sales. But, if they keep doing events, longtime fans will get pissed off and drop the books anyway. It’s a wonderful Catch-22, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

One thing that Chris and I agree with fully is that there are a lot of terrific books off most people’s radars that really should get much more attention. I think that is what my column next week will be focusing on. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Also, Thomas Houston had a terrific positive take on Infinite Crisis over on his House of Ideas column, so check that out! Can’t say I agree with a lot of what he says, but it was a great article.

And, as always, nice work by my sister, Patti Maillaro, for her artwork. Pretty sure she’s going to be a regular contributor in that department. Thanks, sib! You are amazingly talented, and I am proud to be your brother. That might be the only nice thing I’ve said to her in 22 years ;)

All right, that wraps it up for this week. As always, please e-mail me any questions, comments, or whatevers to jackknight@gmail.com. I do read all my e-mails, and I’ll post them with my column. Also, remember to swing by GameFAQs and check out Eisner Cup season 3!

Now, go out and read some comics, you slacker!