"Alpha Flight" Topic

Canada: home to Niagara Falls and the great Bob Murch. But did you know that Canada has their own team of superheroes?
Of course you did! You're on a Superhero board!

I repainted some Heroclix Alpha Flight miniatures over at Dead Dick's Tavern. (I don't know why.) Drop by and take a look!

angrypiper.com/gaming/?p=780

Comments welcome, there or here.

Alpha Flight! That's a blast from my past. I briefly collected a few issues of their title comic. Nice to see the gang all painted.

Alpha Flight is kinda a big deal with miniatures gamers into supers if I can tell by the amount of chatter from them. They are a darling of the Lead Adventure Forum supers board. I'm a huge fan, but I like quirky things, like most of us on here.

Nice job on the repaints!

Alpha Flight – mostly interested because the wife is adopted from Canada.

It was my gateway to awareness of comics outside of the USA and UK.

Nice.

I am curious in why they were called "lame" by the OP because, honestly, aren't most superheroes (dare I say all?) "lame" to those outside the "club"?

There can only be so many Batman/Superman/fill in the blank with over the top powered characters before it becomes derivative or testosterone based one-ups-manship.

Some of the Alpha Flight were pretty cool (especially the diminutive Puck) but Sasquatch was a bit too dirivitive really.

They have a nice balance to the team though.

In fact, I put Puck in my little team:

TMP link

Well, allow me a little heresy here, but aren't most supers at least somewhat derivative or at least "types"?

Bricks.

Brawlers.

Speedsters.

Gunners/Mentalists/Archers/Casters.

Stretches.

Gadgeteers.

Generalized "Supers" with flight.

More detailed view here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero

Fergal: Really? I'm struggling with converting some of the team to SS3. Not because I can't, but because once I do they're really not all that interesting to play (like Snowbird). I'll have to check out LAF.

Insomniac: Your sculpts are terrific. I especially love the Juggernaut.

Mute Bystander: Why is Alpha Flight lame? Well, that's only my opinion, and I'm sure there are many who would disagree with me. But let's break it down a bit.

(Disclaimer: I'm going by information that was true back in the 80's. I'm sure a lot has changed since then.)

Snowbird has the ability to change into "any beast of Canada." Like a wolverine or a grizzly bear, for example. She's also confined to Canada, so she loses her powers and starts to die if she leaves it. She also has the eminently useful power of "postcognition" which is knowledge of an event AFTER IT'S ALREADY HAPPENED. Don't we all have that to some degree?

Puck's claim to fame is he cartwheels into people. He looks and acts like a hockey puck, hence his name. He has no powers.

Northstar and Aurora can both fly really fast. When together, they can generate a bright flash of light. Oh, and Aurora also has a personality disorder.

Guardian was a guy in a power suit. Kinda like every other guy in a medium-level power suit. Nothing to get excited about.

Shaman could pull objects out of his magic bag.

Sasquatch's role on the team is pretty obvious.

Marinna was practically useless unless she was in water. Oh, she could exude some kind of oil that blinded people too. And she's an animalistic killing machine under the right circumstances (which only one villain knows how to trigger.)

Again, my info may be out of date, but this was the team back in the 80's.

So…uh…yeah. Lame. But they were fun to repaint and I will use them for SS3 t some point.

Strictly IME (in My Experience) when I was on LAF there were some forum members who saw most anything "Not-USA" as a plus.

Still, a Canadian super team pleases my wife (French-Canada born in Quebec City.)

Also the usefulness might depend on the rules used.

Finally some of us are not players but painters (reverse for me truth be known) so the power of the "powers" may be secondary.

Was there, BTW, a range limit on postcognition? It might be useful if it was long range, even if unpredictable.

from Wikipedia:
She also has the ability of "postcognition", to envision events that happened up to six hours in the past in her immediate present vicinity. She can replay events in the area, but only she is capable of seeing them.

Not so useful in Supersystem 3. So, yes, I suppose the rules used would make a big difference.

I'm contemplating a game using all the characters except Snowbird and Marinna. The other heroes are more workable, even if somewhat limited.