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Comic makes fun of CanadaNEW YORK (CP) - The opening scene is the war room of the Canadian defence department where a sinister-looking prime minister is demanding the return of asecret weapon code-named Wolverine.In the world of comic book super heroes, Marvel Comics Group devotes its April-May issues of the uncanny X-men to the battle on Canadian soil between two forces created in the laboratory — mutants with extraordinary powers for good or evil.Pierre Trudeau but his appearance in the comic strips is brief—only in the first two panels.Chaos in Canada is the story line for the April issue.The Alpha Flight mutants, working for the Canadian government, battle Wolverine and the uncanny X-men in Calgary right into the May issue. But in the end, Wolverine escapes back to the United States.There are some wild scenes of derring-do as the battle shifts from Calgary International Airport1 to the Stampede grounds and the Toronto-DominionMall.About 250,000 copies of each issue were published.“Twice as many people will read them,” said editor Roger Stern.The Canadian flavor came from the pens of John Bryne and Chris Claremont. The art work is surprisingly good but the story often gets confusing.Byrne is ah Englishman who lived in the Edmonton and Calgary areas for several years.In the comic pages, the war room is located in Ottawa, mispelled Ottowa.A superman type, Major Maple Leafs, is really Dr. Hudson, an unmad scientist who leads the Canadian government project that produced Wolverine, a mutant with super destructive powers.But Wolverine didn’t like it in Canada because Dr. Hudson thought he created a psycho. So Wolverine quit to work in the United States with other mutants, travelling afar to fight evil “in the savage land”—in the far Pacific.But nobody quits on the prime minister, especially when all that government money has been spent on the project.Dr. Hudson himself is a mutant and in the story he as-his .skin-tight space garb as well as Major Maple Leaf.“They’re dangerous in a flight,” Dr. Hudson tells the prime minister about the X-men. “They’re based near New York City and there are hints of a possible connection to the U.S. government.”But the indignant prime minister retorts:“I don’t care if they have definite connections with the Boy Scouts. They have weapon X — I want him back.”Northstar is Jean-PaulBeaubier, Olympic *;nd professional skiing champion on a promotional tour in Jasper National Park.Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen, staff doctor at the Sarcee Re-•serve Hospital outside Calgary, is Shaman of Alpha Flight.Then there is Snow-bird who is Cpl. Anne McKenzie of the RCMP, assigned to records in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.The most powerful Canadian super hero is Sasquatch—a civilian named Dr. Walter Langnowski, former all-pro linebacker turned professor of biophysics at McGill University, Montreal.And finally there is Jean-Marie Beaubier, a teacher in Laval, Que., who is Aurora.While Wolverine and his buddies are returning home from Tokyo after the “savage land” battle, Alpha Flight changes the world’s weather pattern, creating a giant storm that forces the X-men’s jetliner to land in Calgary, the only clear spot.At Calgary airport, Sasquat-ch grabs the airliner singlehanded and hurls it through a hangar but the X-men already have escaped.“Sasquatch, you incredible lummox—I told you to stop that plane, not smash it,” Vindicator says while buzzing the airport in his space dress.“Sorry about that, Vindicator,” says Sasquatch. “I guess I still don’t know my own strength.”The scenes of Calgary in the background drawings show many of the city’s modern buildings, including the Calgary Tower.And there are the digs at the RCMP.During one conversation, Wolverine says about Alpha Flight: “They ain’t villains ... they’re what I used to be—Canadian government agents.”, •-* ... V*;* I*-.:. .. v, v 'v W''• *lt; ' ♦.. .. ♦X'*,y- * ' ■ V.- V*V. //. '■*'V',p* * ■ *1*** -4 • ’lt;*-.3$ *■J AV * •V «lt;• iWv v'-lt;*w■cv;*’ ■; / .i'•. •. % '/- -y r. - .*;VV. ;r ' Ml •V c.fi..1... .» .' •sumes roles of Vindicator inTAKING A GOOD LOOK — Residents from the west side of the Hood Canal Floating Bridge walk out on what was left of the bridge after a windstorm battered the structure early thisweek. The bridge, 1.9 kilometres, links western Washington's Kitsap Peninsula with the Olympic Peninsula.—AP laserphotoA tape is slipped into a com-The Canadian prime puter to summon Alpha minister is strikingly like Flight, the super mutants,from their civilian jobs.
Newspaper Details
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Thu, Feb 15, 1979
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin S.
CA 17 Aug 2020
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