MIKE OEMING DISCUSSES HIS OMEGA FLIGHT PLAN

[MattBrady]

With news of Marvel’s plans for the post-Civil War/2007 Omega Flight ongoing series finally being revealed at this week’s Comic Book Expo, Newsarama thought it was time to catch-up with one half of the creative team of Mike Oeming and Scott Kolins for Oeming’s early thoughts.

In the following interview, Oeming discusses the origin of the series, explains what distinguishes Omega Flight from other team books in the Marvel Universe, and for the first time, talks about this promo image to your right…

Newsarama: Well Mike, we’re going to have to ask you about that preview image Marvel released, but before that … first of all, being that our comic book industry is U.S.-based and the Marvel Universe largely based in New York City, why a Canadian super-team? Why not a South American one? Or an Australian team?

Is it the history of the previous Alpha Flight you’re playing off of? Is it because Canada in an English (in addition to French) speaking country? It’s proximity to the U.S.? All of the above?

Mike Oeming: Well, I couldn’t see taking Alpha Flight outside of Canada, you know? Maybe international, that might be interesting. But it’s set in Canada and within Canadian culture because those are the roots of the team. Even with a mixture of Americans, they are still serving under the Canadian flag, primarily for the Canadian people, but clearly as we have learned from real-life terrorism, border concerns quickly overlap. I think we'll be seeing a team in Flight that works hand in hand, yet completely autonomous with America and the rest of the world.

NRAMA: So Omega Flight will be a Canadian national superhero team, as opposed to simply a “global” team happened to be based in Canada?

MO: First and foremost they must protect their borders, Canada in general, but clearly they are not restrained to such borders. I'd assume they would need some permission to enter U.S. airspace and all, but there are world concerns for sure, especially in Asia, which is very close to Canada.

NRAMA: In the Vietnam era, draft dissenters famously fled to Canada. Given we know this title spins out of Civil War, is that an angle that will play a part in this title?

MO: No. All I can say is that these guys are not dodging the Registration Act. We will see some of that, but not in the members of Omega Flight. A big part of the new book is a reaction or commentary on Civil War - how does the average American react to that? What about the villains? We'll be dealing with that here. When Mark Millar first sparked the idea of Omega Flight, it was never about "running to Canada" it was about a reaction to Civil War, especially from a world point-of-view.

NRAMA: We’ll follow up on this in a few moments, but first why “Omega” Flight, as opposed to “Alpha”? Does the title and its Latin translation play any significance?

MO: A bit. A few of us tried pitching “Alpha Flight” a few times before they died, and frankly no one was biting. The name leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth, there’s a bit of a giggle effect on some level even. If Flight was to come back and come back in a big way, we need to show people the old baggage is left behind. And yet, we are trying to be clear to past fans that while we are moving forward, we are not forgetting the past. While not “retconning” anything, think of it like the new Battlestar Galactica many old fans were pissed at first, but after a bit, they saw the respect and love for the old through the new. We want to do the same.

Marvel wants to give this the big push, they aren’t just bringing back Flight for the hell of it, and this isn’t a mini-series or some series they are tossing to the wall to see if it sticks. Marvel wants Flight to be a player in the Marvel Universe, which is why we felt the best way to do that was to start fresh. The name does a lot for that. Its done out of love and hope for the new book, not disrespect for the old. It is in many ways, "Alpha Flights" last chance for the foreseeable future.

NRAMA: Post Civil War, we assumed there will be two Avengers teams, a Heroes for Hire, a Fantastic Four of some line-up or another, and a host of other Marvel super-teams like the Runaways and Young Avengers. What role will Omega Flight fill in the big picture? What’s unique about their role or reason for being that distinguishes them from other teams?

MO: One of the things I want to do is comment on how America is perceived from the outside in the real world. Not to criticize it or be controversial, but to simply show some reaction to how we are seen by others. I think having a mixture of Americans and Canadians in Flight is a great way to do that, to comment on what is happening in the Marvel Universe from the outside and from their intermingling with U.S. teams in the future.

Also, while I promise every issue will have its fair share of superhero action, guys fighting in tights and such, I want to deliver more than that. I think it has to be more “character” based than “action” based. There has to be action in every issue, but it has to revolve around character. Flight at its best has always been about the characters. When [John] Byrne first did Flight, that’s what made it special.

Much like my run on Red Sonja isn’t about a girl in chainmail bikini killing men, anyone who has read it from the start can tell you that. The subtext to Sonja is more about humanity, about what it means to be a woman with power, about revenge and living in a world with highly different sets of morality than ours. Yet you still get your fill of girl-killing-men-in-chainmail-bikini each issue. I hope to do the same with Omega Flight, deliver a strong subtext the Marvel Universe as well as superhero action.

NRAMA: Where in Canada will the team be based, and are you doing research to make your depiction of the country seem authentic?

MO: I’m not going to lie, I don’t have a handle on that yet. I have a good Canadian friend who will stay on top of these things, editors, Scott Kolins who does lots of research and in time, I'll learn more and make the geography a stronger part of the book.

NRAMA: Before we get to the image, you mentioned Mark Millar’s role in the creation of this series a few moments ago. We interviewed Millar a few months ago and he told us, “There's some truth in the other rumor floated recently about the origins of the new Alpha Flight team. I pitched the idea to Marvel just as they were preparing a new Alpha Flight book (with an excellent writer I really like) and they were incredibly accommodating, working all my plans into their series and launching the whole thing from Civil War.“

Now assuming that writer was you, can you tell readers about your original pitch and how it’s changed and evolved due to Mark’s pitch and Civil War? What was the basic non-post-Civil-War pitch, and much has that changed since?

MO: Hmm, I'll try. I’m not sure if I remember correctly because things have changed a bit.

I owe Mark a ton, because it was he and Bendis who immediately named me to write the book and I was blown away. Basically, Mark had the idea, and said we can do anything we want with it. The basic idea was after Flight was killed, there clearly became a Hawkeye-Disassembled-like reaction to it, bring them back!

Actually, Alpha Flight fans need to thank Bendis. Sometimes, killing characters are the best things that can happen to them. Flight was dead in the water metaphorically, but once he really killed them, it sparked a whole new interest in the group. I pitched a Flight series before they were killed and was told flat out "no way". But kill ‘em off and suddenly there’s interest again. And that’s a good thing.

Mark thought that out of Civil War, there would be those heroes who for one reason or another, did not fit on either side, either because they became fugitives or they hated what’s happened to their superhero culture, or they were being deported, all kinds of reasons. But "running to Canada Vietnam style" was never in the picture. There will be characters like that, but they wouldn't be in Flight, you don’t put cowards on your team.

I haven’t said it enough publicly - thank you Mark!

NRAMA: Okay, we have to get to that line-up now...

MO: Alright, I'll do what I can, but I can’t give solid answers yet. The main reason is that fans and doubters alike are having a great time guessing and coming up with great reasons to why their guesses are right and I don’t want to ruin that yet. Also, I'll give a scoop here and now - some minor changes are still taking place that could affect the line up. Not in taking people out, but adding someone not in the promo already done!

NRAMA: Fair enough… So starting from the right, Joe Quesada told us straight away just a few weeks ago in New Joe Fridays that you’d be writing Beta Ray Bill again in a title (as opposed to a Beta Ray Bill), so that one is a lock and we’re not letting you off the hook.

What can you tell readers about his inclusion on the team? Was he someone you enjoyed writing so much you just wanted to include him, or does he have some sort of other logical connection to this team?

MO: Okay, I'll give this one up because I love you and Beta Ray Bill. Plus, 90% of the posts I read already guessed it and the other were thinking it was something like Thunderstrike or a robot Thor, no one fell for it as being Thor himself, however he is returning- so yes, that clearly is Beta Ray Bill!

Bill is a character I want to see become a mainstay in the Marvel Universe, not a C-level character who is treated as a joke. My god, he beat up Thor at his strongest!!! And he did it with his own hammer! Sure, he's from space and he has an orange horse skull, but Namor lives under the sea with wings on his ankles and Captain America wears his underwear outside of his tight! So what?

In Stormbreaker, the mini-series we last saw Beta Ray Bill (co-written by Daniel Berman of Blood River) I thought a good step to bring him more "in" the Marvel Universe was by giving him a partial human identity. That identity will bring him into Flight in some way.

Also, think of what he shares with Alpha Flight’s past? Beta Ray Bill’s people were nearly destroyed by an inter-dimensional demonic threat- Flight has the Great Beasts, both have mythological ties. I’m not saying they are the same, but there are more themes there than people realize when they see Beta Ray Bill standing in Omega Flight and go "What the f…?"

NRAMA: Okay, the character to his left obviously is supposed to remind us of Captain America, or “The Captain”, or U.S. Agent…can you tell readers anything about who this may be (Steve Rogers, John Walker, Clint Barton, someone else), and why he’d be based in Canada?

MO: Can’t say right now, too much speculation. I can promise his involvement is integral to the meaning of the book, and his presence in Flight becomes the glue in more ways than simply tossing this cool character into the book.

NRAMA: Again, in that interview with Mark Millar a few months back, we asked about the then rumors of Captain America fleeing to Canada in the wake of Civil War to be part of Alpha Flight, and he said, “Well, the two big questions are whether Cap flees for Canada and whether I'm writing the Alpha Flight spin-off book. To answer the first, no, Cap doesn’t flee for Canada because that's just bloody stupid and completely out of character.”

Now, you’re already addressed this subject somewhat, but just to be sure. Guess the question we have to ask here is, do you agree with Mark? Any thoughts on this subject?

MO: Well, Cap's future is still in the air... Will he win the war? Will he loose? I can’t say much about him without accidentally commenting on what happens with Civil War. I do agree that the idea of Cap picking up his skirt and running away is way out of character and silly.

NRAMA: All right, moving along… Is that Guardian, Vindicator? Is it James Hudson, or someone else?

MO: It’s the Guardian/Vindicator outfit that’s for sure [laughs])

NRAMA: So what can you tell readers about this character?

MO: I’m not sure the timetable. Things are way early. I’ve been mostly working on research with Scott, writing outlines and doing lots of research. We don’t have a release date yet either. Once those things line up, I'll be more free to talk about things and won’t be so secretive. A big problem now is that many of these questions either answer or hint way too strongly the outcome of Civil War and what the Marvel Universe will look like after, and no one wants me accidentally saying that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.

NRAMA: All right, but still moving through the characters in the image…How about the next one over…We’re assuming its a Spider-Woman-ish character..? Julia Carpenter? Mattie Franklin? Tell us what you can and why you choose her?

MO: I can give this one away too - it's actually Aunt May. Doctor Octopus shoots her up with some crazy stuff, trying to use Parker DNA to reverse engineer Spider-Man and actually creates a stronger, younger Aunt May in this new incarnation of Spider-Woman. Aunt May will finally kick ass!

NRAMA: Finally, the last character… speculation has ranged from Storm, to Talisman, to Snowbird…what can you say at this juncture?

MO: I'll say that she is the strongest link to Flight’s past, spiritually inheriting the team... Oh crap, that could be either character, cant it? Or maybe that’s really the Aunt May character?

NRAMA: Now, assuming this is the line-up – though perhaps minus an addition or two - a lot of characters associated with Alpha Flight in the past aren’t present. What role – if any – will characters line Heather Hudson, Puck, Sasquatch, Northstar, and Aurora, etc… play in this series?

MO: Oh, we will be seeing them again soon enough. I will say this - part of the idea of moving on is that they are done with Flight. Imagine being in an epic rock band, and a few of your members dies. A year later people demand your reunion and the group is being reformed... you might not like that. Your band is gone, young memories lie in the past, for you, its time to move on and hope the new band either falls off a cliff or they carry on and honor the name. We'll see both reactions.

NRAMA: And how about Marvel’s most famous Canadian?

MO: I’m sure I'll drag Wolvie into the book at some point... the best thing would be that his appearance would actually be called for [laughs].

NRAMA: Okay, any parting thoughts, first impressions you want to leave readers with for the next few months while they await the debut of the series?

MO: I guess I just want to impress on the reader that Marvel is really behind this. They don’t just want another Alpha Flight book, this isn't about nostalgia, they want Flight to be a success, be as strong as their strongest books, not just a strong “filler” series.

So keep in mind, if you don’t pre-order at least 25 copies, Joe Quesada will come down to my part of Jersey and break my typing fingers [laughs].

Seriously, everyone on board is very jazzed about this, and its being done with reverence for the past and excitement for the future. Excelsior..! Or something like that!

For daily dose of Mike Oeming check out POWERS DAILY right here at Newsarama.

[Scorned1]

Holly mother of, I am sooo hyped for this series. Omega Flight looks and sound great.

[HartyPotter]

the book sounds like it's in good hands. Go Beta Ray Bill! An old fav or mine.

[VirgilHopper]

While I'm very excited about the new series, especially now with this teaser image, I can only assume this is going to lead to further inconsistency in the Powers release schedule. Which is kind of the black lining on the silver cloud, I guess.

[Ace]

Said it in the other note, but if it's really USAgent(maybe put there as an act of good will by Canada for the US Gov't since there might be a registration outlaw like Arachne on the team), Julia(who had the whole Manhunter thing of a single mother superheroine going long before Manhunter and is a GREAT GREAT character), and Bill, then I'm so on board for this.

Yeah, I like Alpha Flight well enough. I like Purple Girl and Puck and I actually really liked the new Major Maple Leaf, and Murmer and the brothers from Seagle's run, but I'll take a more inclusive Marvel team anytime.

And I've loved Oeming's Thor stuff.

And I love that they're doing research.

So bring it on. Best Marvel news I can think of in months.

[TheMadGenius]

I was never a big fan of Alpha Flight, but there's something about this book that has my interest piqued. I'll definitely be checking this out.

[dollman]

Even though I'm Canadian, I've never been a fan of the previous incarnations of Alpha Flight, other than their appearances in Uncanny X-Men. My biggest problem was that none of the writers ever "got" the Canadian perspective, there was nothing distinctly Canadian about any of the Alpha Flight books. You could inter-change the characters with non-Canadian Marve U characters and no one would noticed.

This was especially frustrating with Byrne, an ex-Pat who supposedly grew up in my home town. But at least he got around to creating a Canuck super-team.

I like this concept of a mix of Canadians and Americans forming Omega Flight, and the fact it's based in a Canadian city. It seems to mirror real life in which a lot of the significant miltary decisions are tied into what Washington is doing, and is a natural outgrowth of Civil War. Edmonton would be a great locale, even though it has no strategic border significance...hint, hint.

Even though Oeming says it won't totally be about dodgers of the registration act, I hope this angle does get significant play. And I truly hope that Oeming accomplishes what predecessors on Alpha Flight could not, prevent a Canadian perspective on America.

[Scott King]

I think I'll wait till the first trade is out before trying the book.

[Layters]

Okay first off i will chekc out this book.

Secondly this isnt Alpha Flight. This really isnt an Alpha Flight books.

Marvel seem to have some issue with the orginal team. Its only when the orgina teamed was messed with that things started falling apart.

They can say it always fails but they keep bringing it back with a bunch of new characters.

The orginal Alpha Flight is classic and iconic and killinf them off and then making out they hadnt died when he obviously intedned them to be dead is another reason why Bendis annoys me sometimes.


You want an Alpha Fligh book?

Snowbird
Marrina
Northstar
Aurora
Puck
Snowbird
Guardian/Vindicator
Shaman/Talisman


Several of these should be at the heart of the team.


Hawkeye (my bets are hes Guardian)
USAgent
Spiderwoman
Talisman
Beta Ray

is more Force Works than Alpha Flight.

Stop saying Alpha Flight doesnt work when Marvel havent made any effort to do the characters justice in years. Of course it wouldnt work.

[KyleCowstar]

All cool comics fans love Beta Ray Bill...however Oeming's mini series really blew it on the last issue.

[Mr. B]

Ack, they kept spelling it "boarders." (Bugged me )

This sounds interesting, although he made it a point to say none of the characters would be "running" away to Canada because they weren't cowards. Does it necessarily make you a coward to move to a place to have rights you think you should have? Were the Pilgrims cowards for moving to America for religious freedom?

[innocentboy]

interesting ....

[Don Mega]

I really like the line-up.

Never cared about Alpha Flight being the third-rate Avengers they were. (Maybe I was just a little bit jealous cuz there was a canadian team and no german team. Come on "The Krauts" would have rocked! ).

The could have named that book Crap Kickaz and I´d check it out that´s how interesting this line-up is.

[Number 6]

The guy with the shield that looks like Captain America or the US Agent is actually (my guess anyway)
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Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier

[Nobody]

I'm not a Scott Kollins fan, but I may check out the first issue.

[BanMan]

Originally Posted by Layters

Okay The orginal Alpha Flight is classic and iconic and killinf them off and then making out they hadnt died when he obviously intedned them to be dead is another reason why Bendis annoys me sometimes.

Firstly, I think iconic is MUCH too strong of a word for Alpha Flight. I mean the first time I heard about 'em was in the 90s X-Men cartoon, iirc. Then a whole lot of nothing, then when I got back into comics yea there was and AF series that nobody liked.

Secondly, Bendis got people talking and clamoring for an AF book. Smart move if you ask me.

[BanMan]

Originally Posted by Number 6

The guy with the shield that looks like Captain America or the US Agent is actually (my guess anyway)...

OOOO! I like that guess.

[kennyab]

Originally Posted by Mr. B

Ack, they kept spelling it "boarders." (Bugged me )

This sounds interesting, although he made it a point to say none of the characters would be "running" away to Canada because they weren't cowards. Does it necessarily make you a coward to move to a place to have rights you think you should have? Were the Pilgrims cowards for moving to America for religious freedom?

There's a difference between running away because you're afraid to fight and leaving because you have strong political disagreements with your country, and I hope this is the point that Oeming is making.

[Jed Saxon]

Originally Posted by Don Mega

(Maybe I was just a little bit jealous cuz there was a canadian team and no german team. Come on "The Krauts" would have rocked! ).

Uh... Schutz Heiligruppe with Hauptmann Deutschland/Vormund, Zeitgeist and Blitzkrieger?

[Mr. B]

Originally Posted by kennyab

There's a difference between running away because you're afraid to fight and leaving because you have strong political disagreements with your country, and I hope this is the point that Oeming is making.

Exactly. Millar stated that Captain America wouldn't "run away" to Canada. The difference stated above doesn't necessarily prohibit Captain America from joining Omega Flight.

[Uchiha_Prodigy]

I hope Bendis NEVER touches this book. Alpha Flight's death was quite possibly the worst off-panel death ever.

[Gordon McAlpin]

But "running to Canada Vietnam style" was never in the picture. There will be characters like that, but they wouldn't be in Flight, you don’t put cowards on your team.

Hopefully this comment was unintentional, but the insinuation that anybody who "ran to Canada Vietnam style" was a coward is incredibly stupid and offensive.

EDIT: Whoops. Looks like someone else beat me to this point.

[Don Mega]

Originally Posted by Jed Saxon

Uh... Schutz Heiligruppe with Hauptmann Deutschland/Vormund, Zeitgeist and Blitzkrieger?

Well, if you put it that way......

A good example for the "Be careful what you wish for" category.

I´ll go and buy Alpha Flight back issues now.

[Xero]

Actually, Alpha Flight fans need to thank Bendis. Sometimes, killing characters are the best things that can happen to them.

I want that framed and signed for the next time there's a debate over DC killing off characters.

[BEANS65]

Im betting that this team is canadas pro reg team. Im betting canada adopts a registration act (along w/ shield). in turn shield helps them pick out a team (maybe that's how USAgent is involved). maybe they're supposed to not only protect canada but also hunt down registration dodgers.