Things are about to get sticky for Alpha Flight as their country begins to ramp up its efforts against them. How will one team mate handle the pressure?
The Good
I definitely enjoy the duality between Auroran and her French-speaking alter-ego. There's some great Gollum-like moments in this issue, and Van Lente and Pak really drive the character's history home. Hopefully this is something she can pull together before the end of the mini; I love seeing this kind of character development.
For being three issues into the series, the plot is actually moving along quite briskly. By any other standards, I thougth we'd be at this point in four or even five issues, and that's a testament to good writing. Either there's something big on the horizon, or there's a lot of filler coming up. Let's pray it's the former.
The Bad
Something just felt off about this issue; I got the feeling that certain points were either repeated from previous issues, or even from this very one. The whole "Puck was in hell, and saw some messed up stuff" line of dialog was repeated a bunch, and it just got stale by the time I put the book down.
Having the team be amazed that Shaman can throw a punch or quip just made those events seem all the more lame. I know he's largely a "support" character on the team, but the fact that this difference needed to be pointed out just felt a little hokey.
Having Vindicator's big plan be to go and get help from Wolverine just seemed... dumb. Alpha Flight should be able to handle this threat themselves; I mean, they are a capable super-team, right?
The Verdict
Well, we're at the three issue mark and things are starting to ramp up; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad, and there's little predicting what's actually going to be coming at the team. Things are going to get tough for our Canadian Compatriots, and I'm going to have to wait until next issue to see if the build-up from this one was worth it. Pick up this issue if you're not familiar with Aurora and want some good back-story.
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