•••

Gladiator.

In the sentinel storyline we saw some Alpha Flight action, which of course didn’t occur in the “real world”. Mac may have been deflected onto a different path.

Whatever the case, at this point he’s still got some years in him!

•••

As Kurt Busiek put it, the golden age of comics is 12

•••

When he was my fan character, Guardian was so named in reference to a verse in the Canadian National Anthem, “we stand on guard for thee”.*

When I brought the character to Marvel, the Powers That Were declared there were “too many Guardians” already, so he made his debut as “Weapon Alpha”. Around the Office it became terribly amusing to call him “Major Maple Leaf” (which, in the way of such things, eventually became the name of a different character).

Unable to come up with anything suitably Canadian and concerned Major Maple Leaf would stick, I let Chris name him, and he came up with “Vindicator”—which made no sense. What did Canada need to “vindicate”?

When Marvel coaxed me into doing an Alpha Flight** series, I made it a condition that I could restore the Guardian name.

—————

* Sung by many as “we stand on God”.

** Another Chris name I didn’t like.