As you may have guessed by the title, this is the one we’ve been talking about, where we “chat” about Aurora and Northstar and…a lot of what’s been going on there.

So! We called in some backup and are joined by Sara Netzley! Sara is a professor of communication by day and a romance author and freelance entertainment writer by night. Her first exposure to comic books were the X-Men posters on her brother Chris’ (this is how we were able to get her) walls in the ’90s, but since then she’s read a bunch and watched a whole lot more. Sara teaches classes on journalism, fake news, conspiracy theories, and representation in the media, and she definitely has an opinion about your favorite TV show. You can find her on all the socials under Sara Netzley (Instagram and Threads), and she publishes her rom-coms as Sara Whitney (Instagram and website).

Having competent folks on this early in our existence is…gratifying? Neat? Sure? But, seriously folks, we have A LOT of fun.

In this episode, Chris:

• almost pulls a Jean Reno (listen to the outtake)
• makes fantastic points re: how we understand characters and stories and how reading the things we love at different points in your life can really peel back some layers
• has a great time interacting with his older sister (like, folks!, it’s really quite sweet)

Sara:

• wonders why she agreed to come on here
• gives a crash course in media theory, specifically re: queer representation
• brings up the appropriate amount of information vis-a-vis slash fiction (Tom here: I never thought I’d write such a phrase but here we are)

Tom:

• does his favorite thing: a lot of accent work
• engages in some unfortunate internet research
• also wonders why Sara came on here
• really wants a livestream of Thanksgiving at the Baker household this year

Issues covered:
Alpha Flight #7 – The Importance of Being Deadly – cover date February 1984
Written and drawn by John Byrne
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Michael Higgins
Edited by Denny O’Neil and Jim Shooter

Alpha Flight #8 – Cold Hands, Cold Heart – cover date March 1984
same creative team as #7

Alpha Flight #9 – A Stranger In My Mirror (specifically the backup story) – cover date April 1984
same creative team as #8

Alpha Flight Issue #10 – Family Ties (specifically the backup story) – cover date May 1984
same creative team as #9

We jump around a fair bit in this one as we pull from 4 different issues to build this tapestry of Aurora and Northstar. We get into queer coding, possibly some incest coding, and address the use of Aurora/Jean-Marie’s split personality. So there’s a lot we address but damn if we don’t keep it as light as possible!

As indicated in the bullet points above, we’ve started to include some outtakes! So please listen to the end for a peak behind the curtain.

We’ve had a lot of fun making this and we really do hope you enjoy it, too. And even if you don’t, a great rating and review costs you nothing. Literally nothing. Not even five seconds, right? Less time than it takes Guardian to cross Canada. (Still can’t believe they did the math that…wrong.)

Check us out at The Why Not Pod to leave us a comment; we love to (try to) answer your questions about Alpha Flight!

Special thanks to the Excelsior Embroidery Co. for helping make this project a reality.  Here’s this episode’s Featured Design: the Sasquatch Face Patch!! You can see this and more at the GeekCraft Expo in St. Louis on July 27 and 28. Mention the podcast and Chris will have something nice for you.

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