(Sorry. I know I said Alpha Flight, but my wife's been watching the Harry Potter films, and I got sucked in, so I'm going with a contingency comic instead!)
It's not often that one sees an unabashed protest comic, but this one wears its intentions on its sleeve, so to speak, as it features a photograph of one of the atomic bomb explosions in Japan at the end of the Second World War. Throughout the comic the alien race that is travelling to Earth is highly concerned with the destructive capability the planet possesses. One member of the alien council wants to take over the planet before the violence spreads to the stars, another wishes to educate the people of Earth and ease them out of their destructive ways.
Of course, the optimist wins, travels to Earth, and is subsequently shot down by the US Air Force. He leaves behind an Astro Boy-looking progeny who, I'm assuming, is destined to save the planet. That's just how these things work.
I remember being uncontrollably freaked out by the idea of nuclear war for most of my childhood. I think by 1990, things had quieted down a bit. The wall in Berlin was down, the Soviet Union seemed to be done, and Capitalism had won. If only we'd known where it was all going to lead.
Onward.
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