John Byrne - Alpha Flight #26 p30

As a team book, Alpha Flight never really worked. The team was split after a couple of issues, only to be reunited for Guardian’s death, before being split again until his so-called “resurrection” (more on that later). Graphically, the serie was not without flaws either : the art was plagued with panels drawn with no background (although I guess few artists were ever able to draw two team books month after month as Byrne did).
Despite all this, despite Alpha Flight often leaving a sense of unfinished business, it remained over the 28 issues Byrne lasted on the title a fresh, fascinating dive into a brand new collection of heroes. The characters were complex in nature, more mature than most of their US counterparts at the time.

While Byrne often claimed that Guardian was the least interesting character of the team, his death was certainly meaningful. It only took a couple of pages for the Alpha Flight leader to meet his end in an abrupt, unexpected turn of events - leaving his wife and readers alike in a state of shock. With such an unexpected death, Guardian’s apparent return one year later was met by most fans with a definite sense of relief (even if the resurrection story with the Quwrlln aliens felt silly in retrospect :).

And then, only one tiny episode later came the nail in the coffin. That gut-wrenching moment, the realization that James return was damn too good to be true - and that this robot b.tch named Delphine Courtney was behind this all the time.

This final splash page was the shocker of #26 - and it may well be the shocker of Byrne’s entire run on the serie. While a couple of other splash pages may be considered superior graphically (page 4 of #10 being a serious contender), the piece remains a testament of Byrne lasting impact on the title.

And today, I feel just grateful to stare at this distinctive art piece of the Canadian super-team drawn by my favorite artist.

Thanks to Frederic for his kind assistance with that matter (I owe you one! :).