Alpha Flight #8 and Justice League Dark #5

Well, another limited series comes to an end after having been changed from a limited series to an ongoing series and back to a limited series. Also, the first arc of Justice League Dark comes to an end. Both were good reads, although I think I liked Justice League Dark more than the Alpha Flight series.

Alpha Flight #8 comes to an end with the final battle between Alpha Flight and The Master (anyone else think they stole his name from Dr. Who?). Heather even finally pulls it together when she realizes The Master will sacrifice her daughter to save himself or just to hurt Mac.
Van Lente (writer) did a great job on the series. The writing brought out the old Alpha Flight that I loved with these fan favorite characters (even if they can never sustain sales well enough to get an ongoing series again) and at the same time introduced some newness to them at the same time. Marinna as a goth punk alien was an awesome take on a character that I think had grown fairly staid by the time they killed her off in the older series. Additionally, the final breakdown and what may at last be a cure for Jeanne Marie / Aurora was a fantastic bit of writing. The only issue I took with the writing is that it became pretty evident early on that The Master was going to be behind the whole debacle - while this did not detract from the story, I do think a new villain would have made a better story here.
Greg Pak's artwork was impeccable and the character's looked spectacular as did the scenery around them. I always like Pak's work though.
If you missed the series, watch for the trade that will no doubt be released and pick it up. If you're an Alpha Flight fan, it's definitely worth it. If you're not an Alpha Flight fan, I still think you can enjoy the story and the villain will be fresh for you, so you may not fall into the same trap that I did of knowing who it was before the reveal - unless of course you just read this.

Justice League Dark #5 closes out the first arc of these new 52 title with a twist. If this were a normal super hero team book, this would be the issue where all the heroes come togehter finally to form a team and stand united at the end. Considering the nature of these characters and this series though, the arc closes with the world saved and John Constantine voicing the feelings of everyone in the group as he tells Mme. Xanadu to sod off and storms out; the rest of the "team" walks out right behind him. It's interesting to finally see the reason Madame Xanadu seemed to be working for the opposite side at the end of this tale. Apparently, there is a dark future she is trying to prevent, and to do so, she needs this mystical version of the Justice League to come together as a team and be prepared to do what it takes to stop that dark future. Too bad she's not the tactician that Batman is, the inspiration that Superman is, or the people person that Wonder Woman is. It will be interesting to see how this non-team comes back together again for the second arc or if Madame Xanadu's cards lead her to organize a different team to try and halt the dark future.
Peter Milligan (writer) did a wonderful job crafting this tale and capturing the essence of these newly remodelled characters personalities, while Mikel Janin (artist) did a spectacular job depicting this dark side of the new DC universe. The two worked well together to tell a tale that bordered the creepy and helps to redefine magic in the new DC universe with artwork that made you feel how nasty that dark world of magic is without heroes to shine some light into it. The fact that the story wraps back around to reverse what Madame Xanadu did originally to trigger the events of this arc just adds even more of a twist to the whole tale and the dark and twisted nature of Justice League Dark.
I definitely recommending going back and picking up the series or if they do a trade, which I think they should, go pick it up and read the whole tale at once.

Thanks for reading!