Alpha Flight

Author: John Byrne

O Canada. Alpha Flight was another of Marvel's mutant team series that followed out from the X-Men. A team of Canadians, the series broke a lot of ground in the 1980s, dealing with ideas that had seldom been a part of the mainstream of American comics. Helmed by John Byrne, he gave Marvel its first openly gay regular character in Northstar, a Bigfoot-like creature called Sasquatch, a hero dealing with multiple personalities, and many more. The stories are fun, and every bit as impressive as those dealt with by the X-Men, but it's also dealing with the changes in society, much moreso than the bigger name title. While Alpha Flight was originally intended simply to be a part of Wolverine's backstory, the team took on a sprawling mythology of its own, and at various times was both at odds with and supporting the X-Men, as well as the other mutants in the Marvel Universe. While the title ended in 1994, the idea of Alpha Flight has continued, been given a couple of re-boots, and still remains one of the 1980s most impressive teams. Why it's on the list: Byrne's writing was top-notch, and it's not just an X-Men rip-off: it manages to do one better!