Alpha Flight Vs. Brainiac

 

It has been announced that Brainiac with finally be making his big screen debut in Man of Tomorrow.  Decades overdue, I'd say!  I can't wait to see what design they go with for the villain, as there have been so many different incarnations.  

This cover required quite a bit of de-cluttering before I could add Alpha Flight in.  Here's a look at the behind the scenes progress:

Nightwing and Puck

 

Nightwing previously faced off against The Ringmaster with The Roustabouts in STF #2410, and with Nightcrawler way back in STF #68...

New Teen Titans and Alpha Flight

 

Presenting part One of a Three Part tale!  Looks like the NTT and Alpha Flight are participating in a hero exchange program.  Which two heroes will be involved?  You can guess now or just wait until part two tomorrow!

Puck and Captain Canuck

 This one looks kind of simple, but took some doing to be able to insert Captain Canuck in there.  Here's a look at the behind the scenes process:

Oberon and Puck

 

This cover is a tribute to my bygone acting days.  One of my big roles in school was Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Since my character transformed into a donkey in that play, I heard plenty of variations on "Ross is an ass" during that production, believe me!  While my desire to perform is long behind me, I still look back fondly on those times.

Doom Patrol and Alpha Flight

Alpha Flight is another team like the Doom Patrol that has gone through many changes and incarnations over the years.  Nothing has ever quite been able to capture the magic of the original team that was introduced in Uncanny X-Men for me though - the farther that Marvel strays away from that, the less it has worked for me.  Give me the original line-up any day, I loved the first few years of their comic.

The Teen Titans Enter The Marvel Universe (and more!)

It's too bad that anthology comics don't seem to sell well these days, because they were among my favorites growing up.  I loved when World's Finest became a dollar comic and would include back-up stories featuring some of my favorite characters that did not have their own solo series.  I also really dug Action Comics Weekly, which got me to sample characters that I might not have otherwise, like Wild Dog, Blackhawk or the original Secret Six.  Marvel released a bunch of anthologies they called Megazines at one point  that I was a fan of as well.  All of these titles felt like great values to me, and I'd love to see more of their kind in the current market.

The Atom and Puck

I was always usually one of the shorter guys in the crowd so I liked that both of these characters were able to dish out justice even if they weren't quite as tall as your usual superhero.  Of course Wolverine was known for his short stature as well, a point that was missed by Hollywood.  At least they haven't given the comic character a height increase to match him up more closely with Hugh Jackman.

Batman and Puck

I'm not so sure Puck would want this job, given the track record of other Robins.  Still, Batman has had four partners in rapid succession, what's one more?  Puck was always my favorite member of Alpha Flight, mainly because he was so different from the standard super-hero.  I liked his personality as well, Eugene Judd was a guy you always knew would have your back.  He resurfaces with the rest of his team for an Alpha Flight comic relaunch every few years, but nothing seems to stick.  They are great characters though, so I hope a creative team will find a hook with them that strikes a chord with today's readers.