A scary but needed story to be told in today's climate. As I am reading this, I truly hope that I will not see a day where something like this happens. This story needs to be told and is a glowing example that comics are a valuable art form that can give commentary to our societies. Read Full Review

With constant callbacks to the team's history,Alpha Flight #1 has a lot of love for the source material, and it shows. The book combines classic elements with modern stakes to provide some heavy emotional scenes. While it struggles to introduce its premise in a fluid way, the rest of this book should be a brilliant adventure. Read Full Review

ORCHIS and Department H, two of the most sinister organizations thats ever existed in the Marvel Universe have combined forces to destroy the mutant menace, but will the government sponsored team, Alpha Flight go along with it? Brisson and Godlewski have started a tale thatll hopefully resonate with fans and readers, because this team deserves their time to shine. Read Full Review

I wasn't expecting much going into this since I'm both decades out of date on the characters and everything that the mutant side of Marvel is doing just makes no sense to me. The unwieldy nature of what the Marvel comics universe has become makes a property like this not really make a lot of sense with sliding timelines and all that. But it was fun to reconnect, even briefly, with old favorites like Snowbird and Mac and to see another generation coming on board. Trying to wrap my head around the logistics of it all isn't easy and basically seeing more sentinel-related stuff in it doesn't exactly prove to be a draw. I do like the reveal that we get about the team toward the end as that helps to shorten some problematic areas for the group and I'm curious to see where it'll go from here. Read Full Review

Alpha Flight #1 is a good start. I'm not sure if it's a series to read with each issue or collected based off the first issue, hence my “read.” I think the first issue is a bit too predictable in that way so if there's more twists and turns to come, then that'd change things in the long run, but, it's a fun and entertaining read and solid addition to Fall of X. Read Full Review

Alpha Flight #1 piggybacks off the events of 2023's Hellfire Gala to explore how Canada's newly re-formed super team is tasked with protecting their citizens from the “mutant threat.” Brisson's take on the team is consistent with their history, and using the mutant dilemma as an excuse to bring the team back to the fore is a smart play. I'm not sure where this story is headed, but I like what I see so far. Read Full Review

Alpha Flight has been a tricky team to get right. Its not often that the teams delicate balance between politics, emotion, and action has been placed on the page in a way that makes any kind of sense. John Byrne did a brilliant job with the first run on the first series back in the early 1980s. The series has been hit-or-miss since. Thankfully, Brisson and Godlewski are doing a good job of bringing it all to the page.  Read Full Review

An interesting introduction brings Canada into the 'Fall of X.' Read Full Review

I went from being somewhat passive about a standard story with good art, to engaged in what story this series is telling. I'm more interested in this than any other Alpha Flight story to date just thanks to a perfectly executed page turn. Read Full Review

This is a pretty strong start overall. Read Full Review

This was a delightful surprise. I didn't know a new Alpha Flight series was coming out so I picked it up going in blind. I've always enjoyed Alpha Flight and this is a good start from a writer that seems to understand the characters. I'm not a fan of heroes fighting other heroes unless there is a very good reason (most stories just end up making the characters look like childish idiots) so we'll see how that turns out in the end but so far it's working for me.

This was a really solid first issue that does a nice jo of establishing the story for the rest of the miniseries. I think the twist regarding who the team is working with was executed well, especially. Another stronger point of this book was Godlewski's art, in my opinion.

Glad Alpha is back. Nice setup and though the beginning is somewhat headscratcher knowing the characters past it does end nicely.

It was bound to happen — we finally hit a small bump in the Fall of X road. That’s not to say that ALPHA FLIGHT #1 was bad by means, it was actually a good comic on it’s own! It’s problem lies in just how consequential other X-titles have been so far in this new arc. The scale and stakes of this issue didn’t match what we’ve seen in X-MEN #25, IMMORTAL X-MEN #14, or X-MEN RED #14 yet this might be exactly what we need in order to keep those stories feeling so important.

In this debut issue featuring the Great White North’s premiere team of superheroes, Ed Brisson re-frames political and societal concepts that have shown up in past Alpha Flight titles for the current reality in a post-Hellfire world. Throughout the book, Brisson’s story hits on notes of xenophobia, prejudices, fascism, and self-identity that feel all too similar to our own non-comic book world.

The mutant-less lineup of Guardian, Snowbird, Shaman, and Puck are introduced as Canada’s strategic response to keeping the country safe from the mutant threat hysteria fueled by Orchis. It’s revealed that Canada actually has a program to create their own army of sentinels with the help of Roger Bochs Jr. and the Alpha Flight team is merely the face of the program to create a sense of goodwill with the nation’s population. However, the team “fails” their first mission when a team mutant former members of Alpha Flight, Northstar, Aurora, and Nemesis, along with Daken (who now goes by Fang), show up and “save” the rogue mutant. You’ll notice I’m using quotations here as I’m trying to avoid spoiling the surprise twist at the end — you’ll need to read the issue to find out!

Brisson’s story also includes a meta-analysis of personal redemption for the core four Alpha Flight members. Throughout the team’s history, Alpha Flight has oscillated between a semi-serious and flat-out farcical group of superheroes depending on what Marvel has needed them to be. The issue sees this foursome making decisions with the goal of redeeming their reputation and it’s all written in a very sincere way. Another touching storyline is realized through the side-plot involving Albert Louis/Feedback dealing with the consequences of trying to hid his mutantdom from himself and how it affects his family and job.

Scott Godlewski’s designs, Matt Milla’s colors, and Travis Lanham’s lettering offer a vintage take on the art throughout the book while keeping things modern for the time. In a lot of ways, the costumes and scenery make it appear as though it’s all taking place during the team’s hay-days of the 1980s, but there’s enough technology and context to keep things centered in today’s timeline. Feedback’s display of power and the fight sequence between the two Alpha Flight factions are particularly memorable.

While ALPHA FLIGHT #1 may not have been the most revelatory or tense book in recent weeks, it serves a purpose to remind readers that there are problems Orchis for mutants stuck on Earth and that governments have become even more complicit. This is additional world-building for the dire state mutants find themselves in and though it might not be a necessary piece of the puzzle that gets us to the conclusion of Fall of X, the series appears primed to explore topics that are relevant beyond comic book pages.

Rating: 7.5/10 more

So glad it ended like it did or it would’ve made no sense at all. I’m intrigued if not totally impressed.