Alpha Flight #7 [Canadian]

(February 1984)

The Importance of Being Deadly (Table of Contents: 1)

Alpha Flight / comic story / 15 pages (report information)

Script

John Byrne

Pencils

John Byrne

Inks

John Byrne

Colors

Andy Yanchus

Letters

Michael Higgins

First Line of Dialogue or Text

My thanks to you, Doctor Bosson.

Genre

superhero

Characters

Alpha Flight [Aurora; Northstar]; Dr. Bosson; Raymonde Belmonde (death); Danielle Belmonde; Deadly Ernest [Ernest St. Ives] (introduction); Alec Thorne; Delphine Courtney (introduction); Meg

Synopsis

Northstar takes Aurora to a psychologist to see what can be done about her having two separate personas. He then takes her to see a good friend of his, Raymonde Belmonde. There they find out that the restaurant is being blackmailed by local crime lord Deadly Ernest. When Ernest's thugs barge in, Ernest kills Belmonde with a touch and kidnaps Aurora. Northstar does not dare reveal his powers before Belmonde's daughter Danielle, but swears revenge. Meanwhile, Delphine Courtney invites Alec Thorne to join her and her employer in a new project.

Reprints

• in Strange (Editions Lug, 1970 series) #186 (5 juin 1985)
• in Secret Wars (Marvel UK, 1985 series) #17 (October 26, 1985) [Pages 8-15. Pages 8-11 are in colour, and pages 12-15 are in black & white. Page 8 reduced in size to add a title & side banner with a depiction of Alpha Flight]
• in Superaventuras Marvel (Editora Abril, 1982 series) #53 (8 Novembro 1986)
• in Der unglaubliche Hulk (Condor, 1980 series) #26
• in Alpha Flight Classic (Marvel, 2007 series) #1 ([April] 2007)
• in Marvel Héroes (Panini España, 2012 series) #56 - Alpha Flight de John Byrne (Septiembre 2014)
• in Alpha Flight by John Byrne Omnibus (Marvel, 2017 series) (2017)

Indexer Notes

The title is a play on The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde, 1895). The adjective is used as a pun as it is interchanged with the name ‘Ernest,’ given to the antagonist in this issue.

John Byrne had to misread the spelling of ‘Raymond’ phonetically. Unlike French, the English pronunciation uttering the ‘d,’ [/de/] and Byrne indeed anxious to respect the use of French for his Quebecker characters, he added an ‘e’ at the end of Raymond, feminizing by mistake the first name.

Let A Child Be Born (Table of Contents: 2)

Alpha Flight / comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

John Byrne

Pencils

John Byrne

Inks

John Byrne

Colors

Andy Yanchus

Letters

Michael Higgins

Genre

superhero

Characters

Professor David Camperton; Doctor Efford; Richard Lawrence Easton; Ruth; Nelvanna; Hodiak; Lars; Carmichael; Snowbird (unnamed, origin); Shaman [Michael Twoyoungmen]

Synopsis

At an archeological dig in the Arctic Circle, an ancient headband is discovered. At night, it beckons to its finder and puts him in contact with two gods, who ask him to give up his "seed of humanity". Accepting, the man finds himself returned to earth fifteen years later. A year later, Shaman feels himself summoned to the site, where the goddess Nelvanna reveals herself to him, pregnant. Shaman performs the role of midwife to the goddess and a young infant is entrusted to his care.

Reprints

• in Superaventuras Marvel (Editora Abril, 1982 series) #31 (Janeiro 1985)
• in Strange (Editions Lug, 1970 series) #186 (5 juin 1985)
• in Der unglaubliche Hulk (Condor, 1980 series) #26
• in Alpha Flight Classic (Marvel, 2007 series) #1 ([April] 2007)
• in Marvel Héroes (Panini España, 2012 series) #56 - Alpha Flight de John Byrne (Septiembre 2014)
• in Alpha Flight by John Byrne Omnibus (Marvel, 2017 series) (2017)

Indexer Notes

Although it is clearly a separate story, with separate story title and cast, this story continues the page numbering of the main Alpha Flight story.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 3)

Alpha Waves / letters page / 1 page (report information)

Script

Denny O'Neil

Letters

typeset

Indexer Notes

Letters of comment from readers Suzanne Crawbuck, Mary Reeves, Jay Tuttle, Jay West and Anthony Famularo, with replies from Denny O'Neil.