WOLVERINE #142 - September 1999

Reunion!

Credits: Erik Larsen & Eric Stephenson (writers), Lenil Francis Yu (penciler), Dexter Vines & Scott Kiblish (inkers), Glynis Oliver (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine teams with Alpha Flight to rescue Mac Hudson and his synthoid duplicate from AIM. Wolverine escapes as the team is gassed, and soon locates Mac and his duplicate in a lab. MODOK refuses to send more AIM agents after Wolverine; instead he calls upon the current Weapon X, Kane.

Continuity Notes: Inexplicably, Alpha Flight now consists of the original team. A throwaway explanation reveals that the previous incarnation of Alpha Flight has been downgraded to the training team Beta Flight. Heather Hudson also reveals that her relationship with Puck is now over, although they remain friends.

Creative Differences: Notice that the colorist has given Heather Hudson a more modest costume on the cover.

“Huh?” Moments: Wolverine uses “Crikey!” as an exclamation. Slightly more defensible is his use of “Criminey!” later in the issue, but that’s bizarre, too. MODOK also has this dialogue in his opening appearance: “Leadin’ them…that is the mutant Wolverine, is it not?” Since when does MODOK drop “G”s?

Review: Erik Larsen was pretty open about how much he hated almost everything Marvel did in the ‘90s, so it’s not a big surprise that he’s revived the original lineup of Alpha Flight (more famously, he wanted to reveal that the ‘90s Elektra had been a Skrull in a throwaway gag in Nova). Going about it in such an indolent manner is a mistake though, considering that a lot of continuity work would be required to fix all of the ridiculous changes forced upon the original cast. In this issue, we’re just supposed to accept the new-old team, which makes about as much sense as the X-Men suddenly reappearing in their 1963 forms next month. And even if you’re a hardcore Alpha Flight fan and don’t care how exactly the original members have returned, I doubt you’re too thrilled with the formerly demure Heather Hudson prancing around in an outfit straight out of a Penthouse cover. The only redeeming factors in the issue are Lenil Francis Yu’s intricate renditions of AIM technology and the striking new outfits he’s designed for AIM’s soldiers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give the fight scenes the same attention, so many of them are poorly choreographed and hard to follow.