I love me some Alpha Flight! I got hooked reading the John Byrne back issues in the late 1980s. I’ve stuck with the team ever since. Sadly they were wiped out in early 2006 in New Avengers (vol. I) #16. In 2007 we did get a solid Omega Flight mini-series, but it didn’t spawn anything further.

Here we sit three years later and by golly we need Department H’s finest! If the rumor mill is to be believed, we might just get a new Alpha Flight series written by Jim McCann and drawn by Phil Jimenez. How freakin’ cool would that be?!?!? The Phil Jimenez portion of this rumor is being fed by a variant cover to Avengers #4. From Comic Book Resources…

CBR: And finally, Scratchy asked, “Rumor has it that Alpha Flight will be returning, under Jim McCann’s writing. How soon can we expect news?” Tom Brevoort: Scratchy, Alpha Flight is dead. Dead, dead, dead. I killed them. (Well, Bendis and I.) They are demised, dead, finished, decomposing, dead. They’re hanging out with Nightcrawler. However, if you happen to live in Canada (or are just visiting during the right weekend), the members of Alpha Flight are taking over for the Avengers, at least for one special variant cover to “Avengers” #4 illustrated by Phil Jimenez. This special extremely limited edition will only be available for purchase at the Fan Expo in Canada on August 28 and 29. And wait’ll you read the cover copy! Y’know, if somebody like Phil were to illustrate it, I bet we might be able to get an Alpha Flight series to sell at that…

Here is the amazing variant cover by Phil Jimenez! This thing is so gorgeous, I’m using it as my desktop wallpaper at work right now! Click the image to enlarge.

My thanks to Dan of It’s a Dan’s World for directing me to this. If you’re not already reading Dan’s blog, you really should. Great source for comics information!