The last time Vincenzo Natali spoke to MTV, he announced his candidacy for a currently-nonexistent “Swamp Thing” movie. Once again, promoting “Splice,” Natali, who must be some kind of supernerd, threw his hat in the ring for another comic adaptation. When asked point blank about making a comic book movie, Natali replied, “I have thought about that a little bit. I’ll put this out there: maybe Alpha Flight.” Bombshell.
Alpha Flight, for those of you who do not have a geek degree (some of us proudly wear such a medal on our chest) is a government-sponsored Canadian supergroup made up of mutants who have flirted or outright participated in the Weapon X program* that birthed Wolverine. In earlier years, this was a very exclusive club, though the movies would have you believe the Weapon X program is run like a walk-through clinic. Of course, there was a brief period where Wolverine was actually in Alpha Flight before angrily denouncing them, which would make the easiest path for a ‘Flight’ movie if continuity wasn’t so wrecked by the film universe already. Of note to us? Flight member Northstar, Marvel’s first ever openly-gay character.
“I thought that would be interesting, to give a little Canadian angle on the superhero mythology,” Natali said. “It’s an interesting group and it had a lot of different members, so you can take it in a number of different directions. I think it would be cool.” He then came to his senses, lamenting, “To be perfectly honest, I’m a little intimidated right now,” said Natali. “I feel like the world is slightly overcrowded with superheroes, and maybe I’d like to wait a little while before putting my toe into those waters.” “Alpha Flight” is pretty fringe-y, we think, and not likely to be a movie anytime soon, but we’d like to think someone would be trying to do something new with the superhero formula at some point, and if Vincenzo Natali’s “Alpha Flight” came up in conversation, we wouldn’t be against it. In fact, it’s one of the few stronger Marvel franchises left and certainly would be more compelling than “Dazzler” or some of the C-list properties Marvel’s been rumored to be discussing (though Feige recently told Collider that Dazzler is 20th Century Fox and not one of their properties, we guess CHUD’s intel was wrong there).
*In recent stories, the latest Alpha Flight is comprised of major American heroes who didn’t want to participate in the Superhero Registration Act, with Avengers outcasts like U.S. Agent and Beta Ray Bill, characters with very complex, continuity-laden backstories. We’re guessing this version will never be adapted.