22 AMAZING FANTASY
had mystical powers of her own; Guardian’s wife Heather, who became Vindicator
after receiving her own supersuit; the original Box, a paraplegic who invented a robot
body that he could merge with; Madison Jeff ries, a mutant with the power to con-
trol machinery; he later became the new Box and used his powers to turn the robot
into a “transformer”; Diamond Lil and Wildchild, former members of Gamma Flight
who joined the villainous Omega Flight and them reformed; and the mind-controlling
Persuasion, the daughter of the villain Th e Purple Man who became part of the new
Beta Flight.
During the 130-issue run, many team members died, though some came back in
one form or another, complicating the shifting makeup of the team. Th e team also
went through two diff erent major reincarnations, with substantially changed lineups
of characters. Meanwhile, the various members of Alpha Flight have made appear-
ances throughout the Marvel universe including Northstar and Madison Jeff eries
appearing in X-Men and Aurora appearing in the new We a p o n X title. In New Aveng-
ers #16 (2006), a powerful force known as Th e Collective possessed a man named
Michael Pointer and began a rampage going from Alaska to the rest of the United
States. In Canada, the team (made up of members from various incarnations) tried to
stop him, and several were killed. Recently, a new government-sponsored team called
Omega Flight was formed. Sasquatch is a member along with Pointer, who was given
a Guardian suit to control the powers left to him after Th e Collective’s defeat. Join-
ing this new team were the American heroes U.S. Agent and Arachne (formerly the
second Spider-Woman). Talisman and Th or’s alien counterpart, Beta Ray Bill, have
also aided this new team. Th e next storyline in the series is currently unknown, but
Alpha Flight, no matter its line-up, will continue to make contributions to the Marvel
universe.
David S. Serchay
ALTERNATIVE COMICS. See Underground and Adult Comics
AMAZING FANTASY. Published by Marvel Comics in 1962, Amazing Fantasy was
the fi nal issue of a comic book series that anthologized short science fi ction and
fantasy stories. Th e series was originally published, starting in 1961, as Amazing
Adventures (AA), with contributions from Stan Lee , Jack Kirby , Dick Ayers and
Steve Ditko , among others. Starting with the seventh issue, the series was renamed
to Amazing Adult Fantasy (AAF) and was composed exclusively of stories co-created
by Ditko and Lee. Facing declining sales, the 15th and fi nal issue of the series was
renamed Amazing Fantasy (AF). Despite the various titles, the series maintained
continuous numbering. AF #15 is best known for introducing Peter Parker and
his superhero alter-identity of Spider-Man , who received his own ongoing title
( Th e Amazing Spider-Man ) starting in 1963. In the 1990s, Amazing Fantasy was
revived for three issues (1995–96, #16–18) to detail the events in Peter Parkers’s
life in between AF #15 and Th e Amazing Spider-Man #1. In the 2000s, a revamped
