The superhero from North Pole
Thursday, May 24, 2007
From FBX Square. Unedited copy.
In February 2006, North Pole was destroyed by a bolt of energy from space.
It wasn’t the aurora, some freakish new symptom of climate change, or a side effect of the missile defense system at Fort Greely. It was the combined power of several million superhuman mutants, and it transformed a North Pole Post Office employee into both a supervillain, and a superhero.
Confused yet? You might be, because the story of the first superhero from North Pole gets pretty convoluted. After all, he’s an Alaskan mutant who has ended up on a Canadian superteam, in a costume based on the Canadian flag.
There are already Marvel superheroes from Alaska – Cyclops of the X-Men and his brother Havoc were both born in Anchorage – but Michel Pointer is the first Marvel hero from North Pole. Pointer first appeared in Issues #16-20 of the Marvel Comics series New Avengers as a villain called the Collective, and he was just introduced into the five-issue miniseries called Omega Flight, replacing a dead hero called the Guardian. Omega Flight is a Canadian team, and his inclusion in it isn’t some silly “isn’t Alaska part of Canada?” mistake. He’s on the team because he’s the reason Canada’s last superteam died.
Pointer was introduced in February 2006 in New Avengers – at that time, Marvel’s flagship superteam comic, features heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Iron Man. Recently, most of the world’s population of several million mutants (people born with superpowers that usually trigger around puberty, for those of you who didn’t see the X-Men movies) permanently lost their powers. Many of those mutants controlled various forms of energy. And since energy can’t be created or destroyed, all that extra mutant energy combined into a big ball and shot into space, before crashing back to earth – on North Pole.
The entire population of North Pole was presumed dead in the blast – except Michael Pointer. Pointer was a life-long North Pole resident, and before the blast he had a girlfriend and a job at the post office. He didn’t know he was a mutant – until he absorbed the energy that destroyed his hometown.
New Avengers editor Tom Brevoort explained more about Michael Pointer’s creation. “Brian’s [series writer Brian Bendis] concept for the character was that he was a mutant who had the power to tap into the abilities of other mutants,” Brevoort said over e-mail. “But because he lived in some remote location, he was unaware of the fact because he’d never come into contact with any other mutant.”
Pointer needed to live someplace isolated, but not so far away that he couldn’t encounter the Avengers. Marvel decided that Alaska fit the bill. Bendis found out about North Pole while he was researching the state, and deemed it a colorful locale to set the story.
Destroying North Pole had another benefit for the comic. “Dropping him on Santa Claus’ hometown was about the nastiest thing we thought one could do,” Bendis told the Anchorage Press shortly after New Avengers #16 debuted. “It was in no way a dis to anyone in North Pole.”
Bendis provided photo references of North Pole for New Avengers penciller Steve McNiven. Most comics have a heavy division of labor, with one artist penciling each comic, another inking it, and a third coloring it. And for series colorist Morry Hollowell, the destruction of North Pole literally hit home.
“I would have never guessed I’d color my birthplace,” said Hollowell.
Hollowell was born in North Pole in 1976. His family has roots there; Hollowell Road and Victoria Lane are named after his family. Hollowell and his parents moved away in 1980, first to Anchorage and then to Eagle River, where Hollowell lived until 1995 when he left for art school.
After attending the prestigious Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Hollowell broke into the comics industry and was paired with penciller Steve McNiven. The two have provided art for some of the most popular Marvel Comics in recent years, including 2006’s company-wide story Civil War.
Hollowell had no forewarning that he was going to help destroy North Pole. “I first found out when I read the script,” Hollowell said over e-mail from his home in Florida. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a weird coincidence.’”
Hollowell has an aunt and uncle who would’ve been killed in North Pole’s destruction, and another aunt and uncle he describes as being “on the outskirts” of the explosion. “Thank goodness it’s a fictional story!” he adds. Hollowell said his family thought the story was great.
Inside the big ball of power that Michel Pointer absorbed was a mind, a mutant whose brain had been made of energy. The mutant, Xorn, had briefly been a member of the X-Men before be betrayed the team, committed himself to the subjugation of normal humans, and took New York City hostage. Xorn’s mind possessed Pointer’s body, and as the Collective, the two ended up fighting the Avengers before the team figured out a way to remove Xorn and most of the mutant energies from Pointer.
Pointer’s mind had been submerged beneath Xorn’s, and he woke up to discover that he was a mutant, that his home town was destroyed – and that while Xorn possessed his body, he’d murdered Canada’s national superhero team, Alpha Flight.
But now Pointer is getting a chance to redeem himself, as part of Canada’s replacement for Alpha Flight, a new team called Omega Flight.
In 2006 and early 2007, Marvel’s universe was rocked by Civil War, a story that spilled over into most of Marvel’s books. Civil War saw Marvel’s heroes at each others’ throats over a new law passed by Congress, the Superhuman Registration Act. Every superhero in the U.S. is now required to register their secret identity with the government, pass a training regimen, and become part of a new federal force in exchange for a paycheck and benefits.
The new national hero force the Registration Act created had an unexpected side-effect: A super-crime wave in Canada, when America’s supercriminals decided our neighbor was an easier target.
Between Alpha Flight’s death and the global decrease in the mutant population that led to Pointer getting powers, Canada was left with few superheroes. So with the help of the American government’s national hero force, Canada formed a new superhero team.
Launched in a five-issue miniseries in April, Omega Flight features a combination of American heroes and Alpha Flight’s survivors – plus Michael Pointer. Pointer has replaced the Guardian, the Canadian flag-clad leader of Alpha Flight that Pointer killed while he was possessed by Xorn.
“Michael has to deal with a huge amount of guilt,” Omega Flight writer Michael Avon Oeming said about Pointer’s character. “He was used as a weapon to kill Alpha Flight, and now he’s on the team! Everywhere he looks he’s reminded of this.
“He’s a hugely redemptive character,” Oeming added, “but he has a long journey ahead of him to find that redemption"
Pointer may soon be joined by more Alaskan superheroes.
The Superhuman Registration Act, the law that tore Marvel’s hero community apart in Civil War, also created a new way for superheroes to operate: The 50 States Initiative, a federal program which stations a superteam in every single state of the union.
And in the Marvel Universe, Alaska could use some protection
The (fictional) Alaska town of Coot’s Bluff was ravaged by crash-landed alien criminals in 2005’s Drax The Destroyer miniseries. Over in Wolverine that same year, a mutant death cult called the Dawn of the White Light used an oil rig off the Kenai Peninsula as their headquarters. And back in the ‘70s, Alaska was even attacked by Godzilla, who smashed a hole in the Pipeline. Marvel’s since lost the licensing rights to the character, ensuring that the Terror of Tokyo will never menace the Last Frontier again.
Right now, there are no set plans for an Alaskan team. “While we’ll no doubt see the Alaskan superteam at some point,” Marvel editor Tom Brevoort said, “right this second, we haven’t done anything with it yet. Forgive us, we’ve got 49 other states to deal with as well.”
Hopefully, Alaska will get our own team of heroes soon. And maybe some day Michael Pointer will change out of the Canadian flag, and come protect the state he was born in.
In February 2006, North Pole was destroyed by a bolt of energy from space.
It wasn’t the aurora, some freakish new symptom of climate change, or a side effect of the missile defense system at Fort Greely. It was the combined power of several million superhuman mutants, and it transformed a North Pole Post Office employee into both a supervillain, and a superhero.
Confused yet? You might be, because the story of the first superhero from North Pole gets pretty convoluted. After all, he’s an Alaskan mutant who has ended up on a Canadian superteam, in a costume based on the Canadian flag.
There are already Marvel superheroes from Alaska – Cyclops of the X-Men and his brother Havoc were both born in Anchorage – but Michel Pointer is the first Marvel hero from North Pole. Pointer first appeared in Issues #16-20 of the Marvel Comics series New Avengers as a villain called the Collective, and he was just introduced into the five-issue miniseries called Omega Flight, replacing a dead hero called the Guardian. Omega Flight is a Canadian team, and his inclusion in it isn’t some silly “isn’t Alaska part of Canada?” mistake. He’s on the team because he’s the reason Canada’s last superteam died.
Pointer was introduced in February 2006 in New Avengers – at that time, Marvel’s flagship superteam comic, features heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Iron Man. Recently, most of the world’s population of several million mutants (people born with superpowers that usually trigger around puberty, for those of you who didn’t see the X-Men movies) permanently lost their powers. Many of those mutants controlled various forms of energy. And since energy can’t be created or destroyed, all that extra mutant energy combined into a big ball and shot into space, before crashing back to earth – on North Pole.
The entire population of North Pole was presumed dead in the blast – except Michael Pointer. Pointer was a life-long North Pole resident, and before the blast he had a girlfriend and a job at the post office. He didn’t know he was a mutant – until he absorbed the energy that destroyed his hometown.
New Avengers editor Tom Brevoort explained more about Michael Pointer’s creation. “Brian’s [series writer Brian Bendis] concept for the character was that he was a mutant who had the power to tap into the abilities of other mutants,” Brevoort said over e-mail. “But because he lived in some remote location, he was unaware of the fact because he’d never come into contact with any other mutant.”
Pointer needed to live someplace isolated, but not so far away that he couldn’t encounter the Avengers. Marvel decided that Alaska fit the bill. Bendis found out about North Pole while he was researching the state, and deemed it a colorful locale to set the story.
Destroying North Pole had another benefit for the comic. “Dropping him on Santa Claus’ hometown was about the nastiest thing we thought one could do,” Bendis told the Anchorage Press shortly after New Avengers #16 debuted. “It was in no way a dis to anyone in North Pole.”
Bendis provided photo references of North Pole for New Avengers penciller Steve McNiven. Most comics have a heavy division of labor, with one artist penciling each comic, another inking it, and a third coloring it. And for series colorist Morry Hollowell, the destruction of North Pole literally hit home.
“I would have never guessed I’d color my birthplace,” said Hollowell.
Hollowell was born in North Pole in 1976. His family has roots there; Hollowell Road and Victoria Lane are named after his family. Hollowell and his parents moved away in 1980, first to Anchorage and then to Eagle River, where Hollowell lived until 1995 when he left for art school.
After attending the prestigious Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Hollowell broke into the comics industry and was paired with penciller Steve McNiven. The two have provided art for some of the most popular Marvel Comics in recent years, including 2006’s company-wide story Civil War.
Hollowell had no forewarning that he was going to help destroy North Pole. “I first found out when I read the script,” Hollowell said over e-mail from his home in Florida. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a weird coincidence.’”
Hollowell has an aunt and uncle who would’ve been killed in North Pole’s destruction, and another aunt and uncle he describes as being “on the outskirts” of the explosion. “Thank goodness it’s a fictional story!” he adds. Hollowell said his family thought the story was great.
Inside the big ball of power that Michel Pointer absorbed was a mind, a mutant whose brain had been made of energy. The mutant, Xorn, had briefly been a member of the X-Men before be betrayed the team, committed himself to the subjugation of normal humans, and took New York City hostage. Xorn’s mind possessed Pointer’s body, and as the Collective, the two ended up fighting the Avengers before the team figured out a way to remove Xorn and most of the mutant energies from Pointer.
Pointer’s mind had been submerged beneath Xorn’s, and he woke up to discover that he was a mutant, that his home town was destroyed – and that while Xorn possessed his body, he’d murdered Canada’s national superhero team, Alpha Flight.
But now Pointer is getting a chance to redeem himself, as part of Canada’s replacement for Alpha Flight, a new team called Omega Flight.
In 2006 and early 2007, Marvel’s universe was rocked by Civil War, a story that spilled over into most of Marvel’s books. Civil War saw Marvel’s heroes at each others’ throats over a new law passed by Congress, the Superhuman Registration Act. Every superhero in the U.S. is now required to register their secret identity with the government, pass a training regimen, and become part of a new federal force in exchange for a paycheck and benefits.
The new national hero force the Registration Act created had an unexpected side-effect: A super-crime wave in Canada, when America’s supercriminals decided our neighbor was an easier target.
Between Alpha Flight’s death and the global decrease in the mutant population that led to Pointer getting powers, Canada was left with few superheroes. So with the help of the American government’s national hero force, Canada formed a new superhero team.
Launched in a five-issue miniseries in April, Omega Flight features a combination of American heroes and Alpha Flight’s survivors – plus Michael Pointer. Pointer has replaced the Guardian, the Canadian flag-clad leader of Alpha Flight that Pointer killed while he was possessed by Xorn.
“Michael has to deal with a huge amount of guilt,” Omega Flight writer Michael Avon Oeming said about Pointer’s character. “He was used as a weapon to kill Alpha Flight, and now he’s on the team! Everywhere he looks he’s reminded of this.
“He’s a hugely redemptive character,” Oeming added, “but he has a long journey ahead of him to find that redemption"
Pointer may soon be joined by more Alaskan superheroes.
The Superhuman Registration Act, the law that tore Marvel’s hero community apart in Civil War, also created a new way for superheroes to operate: The 50 States Initiative, a federal program which stations a superteam in every single state of the union.
And in the Marvel Universe, Alaska could use some protection
The (fictional) Alaska town of Coot’s Bluff was ravaged by crash-landed alien criminals in 2005’s Drax The Destroyer miniseries. Over in Wolverine that same year, a mutant death cult called the Dawn of the White Light used an oil rig off the Kenai Peninsula as their headquarters. And back in the ‘70s, Alaska was even attacked by Godzilla, who smashed a hole in the Pipeline. Marvel’s since lost the licensing rights to the character, ensuring that the Terror of Tokyo will never menace the Last Frontier again.
Right now, there are no set plans for an Alaskan team. “While we’ll no doubt see the Alaskan superteam at some point,” Marvel editor Tom Brevoort said, “right this second, we haven’t done anything with it yet. Forgive us, we’ve got 49 other states to deal with as well.”
Hopefully, Alaska will get our own team of heroes soon. And maybe some day Michael Pointer will change out of the Canadian flag, and come protect the state he was born in.
Labels: Alaska, comics, Cover Story, FBX Square
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