Collecting Alpha Flight #1-8, written and illustrated by John Byrne.

The collections begins with Alpha Flight #1. After learning that Department H is being closed down, Alpha Flight's leader Vindicator, believes that Alpha Flight is done for good. However, a rampaging monster by the name of Tundra proves that Vindicator may be premature in discounting Alpha Flight.

We last saw most of Alpha Flight in Uncanny X-Men #140, when Wolverine and Nightcrawler helped them fight the Wendigo. This issue is the first appearance of Puck and Marrina. I guess they never appeared in the X-Men issue because they were originally members of Beta Flight, who were members in training. They must have been promoted between the X-Men issue and the start of this series. We also get to see future member Box, but we only see him in a single panel and don't get to see anything of his character. The same goes for the members of Gamma Flight, who will also go on to get fleshed out in later issues.

I liked getting a look into the private lives of the different members. Shaman works as a doctor and is torn between science and his people's mystical ways. Northstar is a champion skier. Aurora works as a teacher at a convent. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that Jeanne-Marie works as a teacher. Jeanne-Marie is the repressed personality while Aurora is the fun-loving wild personality. Puck might be short on stature, but he isn't afraid to rough up some tough guys causing trouble in his bar. We don't get to see much about Marrina, but I do love her chunky sweater.

Any way, it was a cool first issue. Just when you think the team has been broken up, they have to get back together to fight a giant earth monster. The team has a hard time fighting Tundra until the newest member, Marrina, arrives riding a waterspout that Shaman re-purposes to wash Tundra away. Poor Puck arrives too late and misses out on all the fighting.

In Alpha Flight #2, Alpha Flight member Marrina goes feral and almost kills Puck during a training session. Marinna flees into the sears around the North Pole and soon ends up in the clutches of a man calling himself the Master of the World.

There are also back-up stories in these first few issues revealing the origins of the various Alpha Flight members. This first origin story is about James MacDonald Hudson and how he created a cybernetic suit that he planned to use for exploration. However, Hudson's superiors want to sell the suit to the American military, so he has no choice but to steal the suit himself.

So much for Puck joining Alpha Flight. He arrived too late to join in the mission to stop Tundra, now he ends up almost getting disembowelled by Marrina. These are only the start of Marrina's troubles as well. It's almost as if the writers at Marvel didn't know what to do with her and fell back on the usual cliche of making her life hell. It really is disappointing to see comic book characters suffer all the time, especially somebody as cute as Marrina.

In Alpha Flight #3, Alpha Flight splits up to search for the missing Marrina. Meanwhile, the Master of the World tells Marrina of her true origin. Thankfully, Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Invisible Girl are on hand to help.

This issue's back-up story continues the origin of Guardian as James MacDonald Hudson and his new wife Heather get a job working for the Canadian government and meets the secret agent known as Wolverine.

I can't be the only one that is reminded of Vandal Savage when the Master of the World reveals his origin. Both men were originally cavemen that were empowered by alien artefacts. Vandal Savage was granted immortality by a meteorite while the Master was experimented on by an alien spaceship. It also turns out that the spaceship belonged to the Plodex and Marrina is one of them.

In Alpha Flight #4, Alpha Flight team-up with Namor and the Invisible Girl to rescue Marrina from the Master of the World.

There's no origin story back-up in this issue. That is unless you count the revelations concerning Marrina's alien heritage. It feels weird to call Susan Richards the Invisible Girl. Obviously, this issue is from the time before she started calling herself the Invisible Woman. John Byrne was also writing and illustrating the Fantastic Four's comic book at this point. I don't know where this issue occurs compared to the Fantastic Four's timeline though.

In Alpha Flight #5, Puck is in hospital recovering from the wounds he sustained at the hands of the feral Marrina. Trying to summon a nurse to help ease his pain, Puck instead unearths a plot to steal drugs from the hospital.

This issue's origin story back-up focuses on Shaman. Michael Twoyoungmen wanted to be a doctor and have nothing to do with his grandfather's mystical nonsense. However, his wife is terminally ill and Michael promises his daughter Elizabeth that she will be okay, a promise that will lead to Michael Twoyoungmen and Elizabeth to become estranged from each other.

We had a story arc with all the characters together, but now we have a series concentrating on their solo adventures. I'm not complaining, it gives us a chance to get to know the characters better, but it just feels unusual to have solo stories so early. I like Puck though, so it was nice to see what he has been up to while everybody else was off fighting the Master of the World.

The back-up story is also the first appearance of Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, who would later go on to join Alpha Flight as Talisman. We will get to see more of her in later issues, so I will talk more about her when I get around to the other volumes of Alpha Flight Classic.

In Alpha Flight #6, an oil rig unearths the Great Beast Kolomaq, the embodiment of winter. It comes down to Snowbird to stop the Great Beast's rampage.

This issue's back-up story continues Shaman's origin as Michael Twoyoungmen is confronted by the spirit of his deceased grandfather, who begins training him to embrace his people's mystical ways.

This issue was part of Assistant Editor's Month and the gimmick was having Snowbird fight in the middle of a blizzard, so we get several pages of blank panels with nothing but speech bubbles. I will leave it up to you to decide whether having pages of blank panels was a rip-off or not. Then again, it was only five pages. It was certainly less goofy than some of the other gimmicks in Assistant Editor's Month.

In Alpha Flight #7, Northstar takes his sister Jeanne-Marie to a doctor who warns him that she may develop a third personality. Later, an incident with a mugger triggers Jeanne-Marie’s transformation into her Aurora personality. The pair pay a visit to Northstar's friend Raymonde Belmonde and discover a man named Ernest St. Ives is pressuring him into selling his cafe.

This issues back-up origin story concerns Snowbird. A man by the name of Richard Easton finds a mystical headband at an archaeological dig and is confronted by the Old Gods. Easton spends the night with the beautiful Nelvanna, only to re-appear nine months later. The experience sends Easton mad, so Nelvanna is left to seek the assistance of Michael Twoyoungmen to bring her child into the world.

Knowing that Northstar will later come out as being gay, it is easy to see that he and Raymonde were more than just good friends. The writing is subtle enough that firstime readers might be able to miss the hints if they weren't directly looking for it. Writers weren't allowed to showcase homosexual relationships back in the day, so that's why we have subtle hints instead. I don't mind in the least as it means we have some diversity instead of yet another team full of straight white folks.

It turns out that the crazy old man from the first issue of Alpha Flight was Richard Easton. We finally find out his name and what caused him to go mad in this issue. He is Snowbird's father and went mad after his experiences with the Old Gods. I guess hanging out with the Old Gods was too much for a mortal's fragile mind.

In Alpha Flight #8, Ernest St. Ives has killed Northstar's friend Raymonde and kidnapped Aurora. Northstar wants vengeance for the death of his dear friend and the capture of his sister. Northstar must work together with a new hero by the name of Nemesis to avenge his friend and rescue his sister.

In this issue's back-up story, the newlywed Hudsons visit family friend Michael Twoyoungmen, who has been living in the wilderness with the young Narya. Learning about their strange abilities, James offers them a place with Department H.

There has also been a sub-plot about a woman named Delphine Courtney approaching Gamma Flight member Smart Alec. I don't know what sort of powers Smart Alec has. It seems like he is super-intelligent because he is seen playing several chess games at once. This sub-plot will reach its conclusion in later issues of Alpha Flight, so I guess I will talk about it more when I get around to reading the other volumes.

John Byrne has said that he wasn't particularly interested in creating a book about these characters, but he sure seemed to put a lot of effort into it. He certainly got me interested in Alpha Flight. I used to think they were a bunch of jerks for always trying to drag Wolverine away from the X-Men, but I can proudly say that I have changed my mind about Alpha Flight. I think they're an interesting lot. Well, everybody apart from Vindicator/Guardian. He just seems like a generic bland leader type. Maybe I will grow to like him more in later volumes.

My rating: 4 stars.

Next time: Batman No Man's Land- Vol. 4