Fantastic thread by the way!  A quick question that's been bugging me since 1983 (and maybe THE CREATOR himself will have the answer):  How much older is Mac than Heather?

And, has this been shown here yet?  Are people boycotting it?  I never seem to see it in the mini bust displays

Ryan, I prefer John's "non-powered leader"-type Heather too, but in my mind, as far as the Alpha busts go, any Heather is better than no Heather (and if I had to have a "powered" Heather I would have preferred the mask/helmet that John provided for Heather for the Alpha team headshots for the Marvel Handbook, ie. No goggles.)

By the way, you have a fantastic collection of Alpha stuff.  And speaking of your stuff, do you know if there's a colored copy of this pic anywhere (or if anybody can color it)?  It's a truly phenomenal pic of Mac!

I haven't read much Alpha Flight but was there a reason why Aurora and Northstar had pointy ears during JB's run?  I know it was later revealed they were elves or something, right?

There was a storyline involving Loki where Aurora discovered they were
related to elves.

She cured Northstar of the illness the villain Pestilence had accelerated.
It was going to be HIV/AIDS but Marvel balked so the illness was
"caused" by them being elves. I vaguely recall the elf connection itself
was ret-conned away later.

As a reader, the elf thing never worked for me.

While it may have happened too soon after Mac died, at the time I loved
Heather taking up the battle suit and saw it as a logical arc for the
character based on what JB laid out during his run.