Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 14: “Friday, Marrina Is Depressed”

We’re doing something different this episode as we venture away from Alpha Flight proper and address Marrina’s appearance in Power Pack. To help us understand what it is we’re reading, we’re joined by Jeff and Rick of The Unpacking the Power of Power Pack Podcast. In this issue of Power Pack, Marrina teams up with the Power Pack to handle Snake-Eyes, the giant snake The Collector had on his ship, and manages to not…really…contribute, but my goodness does she mope.

Jeff and Rick are great, WE have a great time, they give us the cliffsnotes on the Power siblings, “the big guns of the Marvel Universe” (no, really: Spider-Man said so and given their abilities, he ain’t wrong), and we think you’ll enjoy the shenanigans committed, jokes made, and friendships forged along the way.

In this episode, Chris:

• learns that Black Bolt is a brony
• and agrees that Northstar would find Black Bolt’s stand-offishness…interesting
• gets to properly nerd out about how great Louise Simonson is

and Tom:

• now knows for a fact there are some fun books out there that don’t involve…Walt
• doesn’t do voicework, but hears some of the best he’s heard from Jeff and has a new standard to strive toward
• seriously, the lack of Walt is liberating

Issue covered:
Power Pack #10 - “Sea Hunt!” - cover date May 1985
Written by Louise Simonson
Penciled by Brent Anderson
Inked by Bob Wiacek
Colored by Glynis Wein
Lettered by Joe Rosen
Edited by Carl Potts and Jim Shooter as Editor In Chief

And for more from Jeff and Rick, here are some links!:

• Facebook
• Jeff and Rick Present (@jeffandrickpresent.bsky.social) — Bluesky
• Jeff and Rick Present – Unpacking the Power of Power Pack – Analyzing awesome and amazing adolescent adventures and absorbing alcohol!
• Tales of Tails! – Jeff and Rick Present
• The Hero Initiative

If you like what we’re doing you should absolutely give their podcast a follow on your preferred podcatcher. And if you like them and are now meeting us: WELCOME! We hope you’ll stick around!

Our good buddy G also gets a mention in this episode. We’re behind (currently) in releasing the playlists he’s made for the podcast, but do give him a follow on Spotify.

Why Not?! is brought to you by the Excelsior Embroidery Company! Come check out the nearly 100 new items listed. Get a jump on Christmas shopping with a variety of classic and cheeky designs. See these and more at excelsiorembroidery.etsy.com.

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment or email us at [email protected]; we love to (try to) answer your question

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 13: “...Worth Two Twoyoungmen in the Bush”

In which almost everyone has a heart-to-heart except for maybe the people that really should (Shaman and his daughter; Aurora and Northstar). We also manage to hang out in 4-5 cities across Canada, so, you know, normal-AF.

In this episode, Chris:

• suggests #waltwasright and isn’t totally wrong
• …until #waltisanass becomes the better hashtag
• comments on Walt’s…laissez faire?...attitude?...re: university equipment

and Tom:

• is very much proven right about Walt
• goes in on Walt’s ethics (seriously, the guy is barely in these issues and yet somehow still manages to suck. A lot)
• unveils some amazing voice work, which almost kills Chris

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #17 - “Dreams Die Hard…” - cover date December 1984
John Byrne is credited as Creator / Chronicler
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Joe Rosen
Edited by Denny O’Neil with Jim Shooter as Editor In Chief
And some credits to Chris Claremont and Terry Austin for the pages reprinted from their work on X-Men

Alpha Flight #18 - “How Long Will A Man Lie In The Earth ‘Ere He Rot?” - cover date January 1985
Written and penciled by John Byrne
Inked by Bob Wiacek
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Rick Parker
Edited by Denny O’Neil with Jim Shooter as editor in chief

Why Not?! is brought to you by the Excelsior Embroidery Company! Come check out the nearly 100 new items listed, including a full line of Halloween themed towels and wall hangers.  Get a jump on Christmas shopping with a variety of classic and cheeky designs. See these and more at excelsioremmroidery.etsy.com. 

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment or email us at [email protected]; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 12: “See No Crystar, Speak No Spider-Man, Hear No Marrina”

SIDE QUESTS! This episode we dig into two issues that present more…ephemera(?!) in Alpha Flight’s history. And while the second issue discussed is just plain bizarre, the first one featuring everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood superhero is an absolute delight. Oh, and we added more sound effects.

In this episode, Chris:

• is really into the idea of an Aunt May podcast (you can make this happen!)
• may or may not want to make a throuple with the Simonsons
• goes on another helmet related rant, which Tom promptly crushes
• delights in what an absolute pro Louise Simonson is. Seriously, she crushes it

and Tom:

• “adjusts” the Marvel cosmic-being pantheon
• makes Chris sad by imagining a world where Louise Simonson took over Alpha Flight after Byrne
• imagines another, better world where Brian K. Vaughan writes a version of The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior
• wonders right along with you, dear listeners, why opera gloves are a thing Chris would even mention

Issues covered:
Marvel Team Up Annual #7, - “The Collected Spider-Man” - cover date Halloween 1984
Written by Louise SImonson
Penciled by Paul Neary
Inked by Dam De La Rosa
Lettered by Joe Rosen
Colored by Christie Scheele
Edited by Danny Fingeroth and Jim Shooter as Editor-In-Chief

The Saga of Crystar Crystal Warrior #11 - cover date February 1985
Script and Plot by Jo Duffy
Art by Ricardo Villamonte
Lettered by Janice Chiang
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Edited by Ralph Macchio with Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Designs: an Aunt May face patch and a DOOM! sound effect patch from the Walt Simonson run on Thor!

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment or email us at [email protected]; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 11: “Runaway Fiance”

In which Marrina (and some other AWOL characters) waltz back into our lives…and waltz right back out. And Walt doesn't waltz at all. Hell, he isn’t even in any of these issues…or is he?!

In this episode, Chris:

• makes a compelling case for the soap opera nature of AF and how distinct that makes it from other superhero comics
• clearly wishes AF had Doom as a nemesis and not The Master of the World
• is ok with saying “Alphan” but “broodmate” gets his hackles up
• really wishes Tom wouldn't make some of the speculations he does

Tom:

• cops to watching a lot of Dark Shadows
• makes a Hemingway title recommendation for probably the first time in his life
• says “Box” in a, somewhat, peculiar manner
• speculates on Walt's hobbies

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #14 - “Biology Class” - cover date September 1984
Written and penciled by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Denny O’Neil
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

Alpha Flight #15 - “Blind Date” - cover date October 1984
Written and penciled by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Rick Parker
Edited by Denny O’Neil
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

Alpha Flight #16 - “And Forsaking All Others” - cover date November 1984
Written and penciled by John Byrne
Finished by Bob Wiachek
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Rick Parker
Edited by Denny O'Neil
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: spooky season embroidered towels!

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 10: “Have It Your Way”

We discuss the immediate aftermath of Issue 12 and its series-altering, explosive finale. From there we move onto something much worse and far more scarring: ROM the Space Knight!

In this episode, Chris:

• waxes poetic about Larry Hama’s run creating THE LORE for G.I. Joe as part of a licensing deal with Marvel
• wants some poutine from JoJo’s
• gives Mantlo some credit…for now

Tom:

• remembers reading Marvel comics online when the panels would pop out at you (it was a weird time on the internet)
• wishes we could work in more Warhammer 40K content
• likes saying “ROM”; isn’t so sure about the comic itself

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #13 - “Nightmare” - cover date August 1984
Writing and art by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Dennis O’Neil
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

ROM 56-58
Written by Bill Mantlo
Art by Mark Bright
Inks by Mel Candido
Letters by Janice Chiang
Colors by Ben Sean
Edited by Ralph Macchio (yes the one you’re thinking of, not the 80s movie star)
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: ROM and Starshine!

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 9: “...and then there were…”

Well, it’s the big one. The capstone to the first arc of Alpha Flight and the comics by which most folks know AF. We take you through the comics and, well, kind of let them do their thing. And make some…allusions to contemporary political figures.

In this episode, Chris:

• notes (via Fark) the attention to detail Byrne pays to women’s fashion, which is a nice way of pointing out ALL the detail Byrne builds into his narrative art: just a neat point
• offers a brief but interesting digression on Captain America and…Nixon?!
• channels one helluva Bob Barker
• really digs Wildchild’s hair

Tom:

• asserts the similarities between pro wrestling (specifically of the WWE persuasion) and Alpha Flight
• absolutely nails some voice work
• makes some frankly wild assertions about who has the power to make a death squad
• doesn’t see Guardian’s suit’s powers making a…pleasant transition to the big screen

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #11 - “Set-Up” - cover date June 1984
Writing and art by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Dennis O’Neil and Linda Grant

Alpha Flight #12 - “...And One Shall Surely Die” - cover date July 1984
same team as #11

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: an oversized Wolverine skeleton skull and crossbones patch!

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?! Episode 8: “Is SASLD Walter Langkowski Actually Boring?!?!”

It’s a short one this week folks! (Don’t worry we’ll make up for it with…however long Episode 9 will be (very long).) We cover a two-issue solo adventure for Sasquatch (which probably should’ve been a single issue…at most), Snowbird’s origin, and Sasquatch’s origin! A lot of Walt and yet hardly much at all to say about it. Despite the length, there are more than a few opportunities to toast death, sex, failure, and team-ups!

In this episode, Chris:

• almost starts a conversation about when life begins (specifically regarding the pregnancies of gods)
• does some incredible work fitting everything into the timeline

Tom:

• really wants to bring back the concept of conferring “boons”
• suggests that JMH should be careful about throwing stones re: the age of one’s partner (not that he does! But he should still be careful)

Issues covered:

Alpha Flight #7 & #8 - (specifically the backup story) - cover dates February and March 1984
same creative team as #9 & 10 below

Alpha Flight  #9 and 10, cover dates April and May 1984
Written and drawn by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Denny O’Neil and Jim Shooter

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: the Marrina face patch! 

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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It’s a loose (very loose) drop-in episode this week. Just thought we’d offer some thoughts on Deadpool & Wolverine. Main takeaway: so much fun. If you don’t know what fun is, this will cure you of that affliction. Pure. Unadulterated. Bolivian Marching Fun.

And some stray thoughts for here, the written bit:

• Chris and Short Kings: why this podcast exists
• we spend a lot of time waxing poetic about Blade: which is right and just
• we get maybe a bit too deep into the meta of it all (tbf: Tom gets a bit too deep into the meta of it all)
• chat about the Fan 4 more than one may have expected all things considered
• and Chris offers an excellent perspective on comics: sometimes they suck, so focus on what you like and keep on trucking
• he also claims that Tom argues for Fox’s version of comics movies, which he maintains he didn’t. But he probably did.

We’ll do these from time to time so we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did recording it!

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 7: “Borealis; or The Twins”!

As you may have guessed by the title, this is the one we’ve been talking about, where we “chat” about Aurora and Northstar and…a lot of what’s been going on there.

So! We called in some backup and are joined by Sara Netzley! Sara is a professor of communication by day and a romance author and freelance entertainment writer by night. Her first exposure to comic books were the X-Men posters on her brother Chris' (this is how we were able to get her) walls in the '90s, but since then she's read a bunch and watched a whole lot more. Sara teaches classes on journalism, fake news, conspiracy theories, and representation in the media, and she definitely has an opinion about your favorite TV show. You can find her on all the socials under Sara Netzley (Instagram and Threads), and she publishes her rom-coms as Sara Whitney (Instagram and website).

In this episode, Chris:

• almost pulls a Jean Reno (listen to the outtake)
• makes fantastic points re: how we understand characters and stories and how reading the things we love at different points in your life can really peel back some layers
• has a great time interacting with his older sister (like, folks!, it’s really quite sweet)

Sara:

• wonders why she agreed to come on here
• gives a crash course in media theory, specifically re: queer representation
• brings up the appropriate amount of information vis-a-vis slash fiction (Tom here: I never thought I’d write such a phrase but here we are)

Tom:

• does his favorite thing: a lot of accent work
• engages in some unfortunate internet research
• also wonders why Sara came on here
• really wants a livestream of Thanksgiving at the Baker household this year

Issues covered:

Alpha Flight #7 - The Importance of Being Deadly - cover date February 1984
Written and drawn by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Denny O’Neil and Jim Shooter

Alpha Flight #8 - Cold Hands, Cold Heart - cover date March 1984
same creative team as #7

Alpha Flight #9 - A Stranger In My Mirror (specifically the backup story) - cover date April 1984
same creative team as #8

Alpha Flight Issue #10 - Family Ties (again, the backup story) - cover date May 1984
same creative team as #9

We jump around a fair bit in this one as we pull from 4 different issues to build this tapestry of Aurora and Northstar. We get into queer coding, possibly some incest coding, and address the use of Aurora/Jean-Marie’s split personality. So there’s a lot we talk about but damn if we don’t keep it as light as possible!

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: the Sasquatch face patch! You can see this and more at the

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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Welcome to Why Not?!, Episode 6: “The Full Mufasa”! In this episode we dig into our first solo adventures with the team members. And y’all officially meet one of our team members, Chris’s cat Athena.

In this episode, Chris:

• has issues with…hair
• really thinks oil companies need to rethink their Canadian projects
• compares Stan the Man to J Jonah…on an Alpha Flight podcast

and Tom:

• lays out the existential grounding of the narc
• thinks Byrne really borrowed from Tolkien in issue 6
• agrees that Snowbird is likely the least…complicated of the team
• and that Shaman could crush it in the Instagram/fitness influencer field

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #5 - What Fools These Mortals Be - cover date December 1983
Written and drawn by John Byrne
Inked by John Byrne and Terry Austin
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Tom Orzechowski
Edited by Denny O’Neil and Jim Shooter

Alpha Flight #6 - Snowlbind! - cover date January 1984
[all the same as issue 5 except!:
Lettered by Michael HIggins
Edited by Linda Grant]

Issue 5 is a focus story on Puck as he recovers from his unexpected surgery vis-a-vis Marrina’s claws and stumbles across…well, just listen to the episode. (NB: we totally miss making a point of the Shakespearean reference in both Puck’s name and the issue title: we’ll do better, promise.)

Issue 6 focuses on Snowbird and includes a very, very smart artistic choice.

The backup feature for both issues tells the origin story of everyone’s favorite Canadian doctor (eat it Langowski!-Tom): Michael Twoyoungmen aka Shaman! Who gets hit with a full Mufasa.

And we’re starting to include some outtakes! So please listen to the end for a peak behind the curtain.

Art Clips for today's episode are up on Imgur

We’ve had a lot of fun making this and we really do hope you enjoy it, too. And even if you don’t, a great rating and review costs you nothing. Literally nothing. Not even five seconds, right? Less time than it takes Guardian to cross Canada. (Still can’t believe they did the math that…wrong.)

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here's this episode's Featured Design: the Shaman face patch! You can see this and more at the GeekCraft Expo in St. Louis on July 27 and 28.  Mention the podcast and Chris will have something nice for you. 

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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