This was a very sad "ending" to Marrina.  She seemed very spunky with her tomboy haircut, and I had hoped she'd turn out to be a fun character.  But it seemed like the two Master stories were it for her.  But at least she was still usable here until that horrid story in the Avengers came out much later.

The Master was a very intriguing villain, and I felt he had a lot of potential.  He may not have had kewl powerz, but his background was very original and his motivations compelling.  Probably the closest to a Vandal Savage vibe that Marvel ever had, but still very different.  I always hoped that someday there'd be a story about some underground "empire" in the Canadian north where the Master was preparing for his rise.  The fun thing about such a character is that the "now" need not be very important to him.  His real plans would come to fruition only centuries later - so it keeps him menacing despite defeats.

While I found the Alpha stories entertaining here, I did not feel that had the same zip as the first year.  AF would recover strongly in the last half year of JB's stories, but the momentum certainly wasn't there.  Still, this was a huge period of adjustment.  I think a major problem for me was that AF was still telling smaller stories with a divided cast.  I liked the individual character pieces in the first year as a way to introduce these characters, but I wanted more of a team at this time.

The ad that fooled people was cool too.

I'm still wondering about something...

Bochs was in the room when Jerry Jaxon's brain was fried, and yet here he seems to think Jaxon is still alive.

Was to more to that, story-wise? Was it an error (which I find unlikely)?

I thought the same thing Greg.