30 Days of Scans, Day 2 - Favorite Male Character

[northstarfan]

Title: X-Men/Alpha Flight: The Gift (Marvel, originally 1985, reprinted in squarebound format in 1998, 96 pages)
Creators: Chris Claremont (story) and Paul Smith (art)
Availability: Available in multiple trades: Asgardian Wars (softcover), Asgardian Wars (hardcover), Essential X-Men v. 5


I'll give you one guess...



Northstar. A snarky, arrogant speedster who thinks that teamwork is something that happens to other people. And yet, still very loyal to those he cares about and capable of unexpected empathy once you get past the quills and razorblades. Makes for an interesting character, and one I've been intrigued by for the last fifteen years, give or take.

I didn't really start loving Northstar until I read the Byrne run of Alpha Flight and got a better feel for his personality, but the first time he turned up on my radar was in the 1985 X-Men/Alpha Flight cross-over. As you might have guessed, he made a good impression.

Before we start, I'd just like to draw your attention to the worst cover I've ever seen on a comic.



The back isn't any better.




Spark Notes version:

Cyclops, Maddie Pryor, and her crew are flying over Alaska when the weather starts to go haywire. Back at the X-Men's mansion in New York, Rachel gets a telepathic glimpse of her father's distress, and catches Cyclops mentioning how the weather reminds him of the atmospheric manipulations of Alpha Flight's Shaman. Even as he says that, the plane is struck by lightning and crashes.

The X-Men respond by heading off to Canada, tracking down Shaman at his clinic. Rachel immediately attacks, immobilizing Shaman and nearly causing his medicine pouch to eat Heather. The X-Men move in to try and call her off before she can do any damage.





Northstar had left Alpha Flight by this time, so the only reason for him to turn up during the fight was that he sensed his sister's distress through the bond they share and came to help (it's an aspect of their powers that tends to come and go as plot dictates).

Professor Xavier smacks Rachel down on the astral plane, after which the two teams confer. One of their own, Snowbird, had taken ill about the same time the plane went down, so the two teams decide to go in search of the missing plane together. Puck rustles up an aircraft big enough to carry both teams, and off they go. On the way, Wolverine and Heather catch up, with Heather filling him in on how Alpha Flight's been doing since Mac's death.



Dear Mr. Claremont,

Liking men does not mean being unable to bear the presence of women.

FAIL.

Anyway...







The sight that so stuns Nightcrawler is the sight of an enormous, golden palace tucked away in a summer valley. The X-Men are greeted by Cyclops, who has control over his eyebeams for the first time. They find that all of the humans who were on the plane, have manifested superpower, including Madelyne herself, who has become an extraordinary healer. She demonstrates her powers by curing Puck of his dwarfism, Sasquatch of his growing rages, and Aurora of her fragmented personality.

Then Rogue steps up.



At the time, I just thought this was a nice gesture -- he really didn't have anything to gain by offering himself up as a test subject for Rogue, but he did so anyway. I learned later that Northstar doesn't really do "nice" and that this was the first kiss Rogue ever had that wasn't traumatic or invasive on her part, so it resonates a bit more in retrospect.

Eventually, the X-Men learn about the Fire Fountain, the source of these new and extraordinary powers, and the teams go down beneath the citidel to investigate.





At that moment, Shaman realizes that Snowbird has vanished, but before he can begin a search, his medicine pouch goes haywire and demons spill out of it to attack him. Northstar and Aurora grab the pouch and take off, which causes the demons to follow them. They fling the pouch far away and head back to the others, just in time to hear Madelyne say that she can't heal Shaman, who is dying from his wounds.

Next, Madylene heals Wolverine of his berserker rages, and he sets out to find Snowbird (with Lockheed the dragon tagging along). He tracks her scent to a cave, only to be confronted by two of Maddie's crew, Pathfinder and Beastmaster, who's called a horde of wolves and wildcats to prevent Wolverine from taking Snowbird back to the citadel.







Wolverine returns, badly wounded, but healing, with a bleeding and unconscious Beastmaster strapped to his back. Pathfinder was killed in their confrontation.





The two sides square off.



During the battle, Northstar takes Talisman down to the Fire Fountain, where they're confronted by another of Madelyne's crew, an architect who was given the power to make even his most outlandish designs reality. Aurora finds his sketchbook, which is full of beautiful drawings at the front, but dwindles away to doodled stick-figures at the back. The architect throws the book away in anger and frustration, confessing that, since gaining his powers, he's lost the ability to imagine. He can replicate any design perfectly, but can't create anything new.

Knowing now that their paradise would come with an additional price, many more of the X-Men and crew who were advocating utopia agree that the cost is too high and stand down. Loki arrives then, reveals that the plan was all his doing, as an attempt to win a wager. When the gifts he's given the human crew are again rejected, he attempts to strong-arm them into acceptance, only to be thwarted by Those Who Live Above In Shadow, who claim that Loki has violated the terms of their agreement by refusing to allow the free acceptance or rejection of his gifts. Loki reluctantly abides by their decision, but tells the X-Men and Alpha Flight that they have made a dangerous enemy, and revokes all benefits granted by his gift -- Cyclops loses control of his eyebeams, Puck goes back to being a dwarf, Aurora loses her inner peace, and Rogue can no longer touch people. Even the citadel begins to collapse.

Everyone piles into the plane -- save Northstar and Snowbird, who go their own ways -- and they take off.

Not a bad story, and still one of my favorites, even apart from it being my intro to Northstar.

Comments

[stolisomancer]

Liking men does not mean being unable to bear the presence of women.

Did Claremont realize at this point that Jean-Paul was supposed to be gay?

[northstarfan]

Byrne wasn't shy about telling fans, artists, and other writers about JP being gay, so I'd say odds are good.

[icon_uk]

If he didn't, he was the only sentient life form who had come within 10 miles of a Northstar story who hadn't worked it out.

[eliyes]

I think that was actually Heather's bias, not necessarily Claremont's. A number of writers right from the beginning had her making snarky comments at him about hating taking orders from her because she's a woman.

[northstarfan]

I think this was Claremont working off of Byrne's notes, actually. But then later writers had to pull this shit:



So...yeah. Not so fond of Heather.

[eliyes]

Yep. Heather is a bitch to Jean-Paul quite often. But then, most of the team picked on him, especially in the beginning. I always felt that he could have been much crabbier than he was.

[northstarfan]

Pretty much. I think the fact that he stayed around at all just showed how much he cared about his sister, because Alpha Flight sure wasn't making it worth his while, especially considering what he had to give up to be near Aurora.

[bradhanon]

There is a certain amount of fail on the subject of Northstar's Big Secret in this story, but I have to admit, his face in that Big Kiss panel always makes me giggle.

AAAAGH OMFG COOTIES WTF!

[northstarfan]

He might not have had issues with women in general, but Rogue was really pushing her luck. ;)

[angelophile]

Snarky speedsters really are the best subgroup of mutants, aren't they?

[hyperactivator]

Yes they are!

[northstarfan]

Absolutely and without a doubt! ;)

[psychopathicus_rex]

This is a pretty great story, all right. Someday, I may get around to posting some of the stuff from the 'sequel' to it - that stuff's great, too.

[northstarfan]

Which book is that? The only thing that comes to mind when I think "sequel" to this story is Alpha Flight #50, and I'm saving that for Day 10: Most Cracktastic Moment. ;)

[psychopathicus_rex]

It looks like the version you have is in a stand-alone collection, with only that story in it. Mine, however, is part of a TPB called 'X-Men: The Asgardian Wars', and it also collects the later X-Men/New Mutants stories where they go to Asgard and go up against Loki and the Enchantress. It's interesting stuff, because few of the heavy-hitting Asgardian types are involved - there's no Thor or Odin, for example; they're off somewhere else in another storyline. Instead, we get a good look at Asgard itself, and how big and varied a place it actually is.

[northstarfan]

I have the Asgardian Wars TPB (I own the XM/AF crossover in four or five different formats, actually). I just don't think of the New Mutants Special and X-Men Annual #9 as sequels to this particular story, so much as separate stories that are thematically related.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Except that it's actually stated in-story that the whole thing is simply meant to get the X-Men to Asgard so he can get his own back at them for what they cost him in the first storyline. The New Mutants are mistaken for the X-Men by the Enchantress due to the presence of Storm, so she kidnaps them on Loki's orders. "Ororo's comrades, the X-Men, have done me grievous hurt, but I am sworn to leave them in peace. I prithee, repay that insult, a thousandfold." Next issue, Logan refers to "what Loki said when we beat him last winter", and later, when captured by Loki after he discovers that the Enchantress did NOT do away with them, both Cyclops and Loki himself make reference to his earlier promise not to do them harm. All these references seem to imply that the later story is a direct sequel to the X-Men/Alpha Flight crossover - none of the mutants would be in Asgard if it weren't for the fact that Loki was still pissed off at them over that earlier affair.