ALPHACLAN
Membership: Fog, Gravitas, Kilamanjaro, Shamgar, Vandalo, "Vængir," Wraith
Purpose: Unrevealed
Aliases: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: New Warriors (Blackwing/Barnell Bohusk, Decibel/Jonothan Starsmore, Night Thrasher/Donyell Taylor, Ripcord/Miranda Leevald, Skybolt/Vin Stewart, Phaser/Christian Cord, Tempest/Angel Salvatore, Wondra/Jubilation Lee), S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate)
Base
of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: New Warriors IV#9 (April 2008)
History: (New Warriors IV#9 (fb), BTS) - Alphaclan earned the number twelve spot on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted list (see comments). Eventually, they encountered the New Warriors, and either a battle ensued, or the New Warriors had only recently finished another, earlier battle (see comments).
(New Warriors IV#9) - The older, more experienced Alphaclan, looking relaxed, confident, and ready to fight, faced off against the battle-weary New Warriors, who appeared to be tiring, were running low on power packs for their equipment, and were minus their absentee leader, Night Thrasher. The Alphaclan moved forward menacingly, and Wraith informed the Warriors that Alphaclan had no quarrel with them, and no one needed to get hurt, so long as the Warriors let them pass. Wondra responded on her team's behalf, making it clear there was no way the young heroes were going to let such notorious fugitives go, suggested Alphaclan surrender. Trying to stall by acting more confident than she really was, Wondra then added that she hoped they wouldn't.
With the two sides facing one another in battlelines separated by only a few feet, the Warriors quickly compared notes regarding how much power they had left. Smiling mockingly, Wraith pressed the Warriors, telling them the choice was theirs, and taunting them by calling them "children." Riled, Wondra told Alphaclan to look behind themselves, a warning Fog derided as an obvious, old ruse. Gravitas, however, glanced over her shoulder, and her obvious shock prompted more of her teammates to turn. Behind them stood a giant, blue, slightly transparent Decibel. Yelling that they had been warned, Wraith blasted the giant, which split into dozens of smaller Decibels of varying size, who then swarmed towards the Alphaclan. Seizing advantage of Alphaclan's temporary confusion at Decibel's illusion, the Warriors swiftly attacked. Striking the ground, Wondra caused a shockwave that left the Alphaclan stumbling, then punched Kilamanjaro to the ground. Ripcord struck Vandalo with an electrical blast, then her mechanical tentacles snatched a fallen Shamgar off the ground and threw him bodily into Gravitas.
However, when Blackwing fired an energy blast at Vængir, the winged man blocked it with his shield. Having recovered from her lucky blow, Kilamanjaro caught Wondra's next punch in his huge hand, then countered with a fist to Wondra's jaw, stunning her. Fog's cloud engulfed the choking Phaser, while Vængir strangled a gasping Blackwing with his left hand while slicing the hero's shoulder with the talons on his right. Walking up behind Wondra as she struggled onto her knees, Vandalo raised his heavy club and reminded her that all she had needed to do was let them pass, claiming Alphaclan were not responsible for what would now happen. With that, Vandalo brought the club down with a rock-shattering smash, as it passed clean through Wondra as if she was a ghost, much to both parties' complete shock. Vængir found his victim similarly freed, as across the battlefield all the New Warriors discovered they had turned insubstantial. The voice of the newly arrived Night Thrasher announced that he called it ghost mode, holding up the remote control which had activated phasing technology built into his teammates' armors. Seizing the opportunity while Alphaclan were distracted, Decibel emitted a sonic scream that incapacitated all the villains.
(New
Warriors IV#9, BTS) - The defeated Alphaclan were left for the
authorities.
(New Warriors IV#9) - The TV news that evening reported Alphaclan's capture.
Comments: Created by Kevin Grevioux (writer), Paco Medina (penciler) and Juan Vlasco (inker).
Alphaclan are very obviously homages to Hanna-Barbera's superheroes, specifically Space Ghost, Young Samson, Birdman, Mightor, Vapor Man, Meteor Man and Gravity Girl. None of them were individually identified in their single appearance, but Kevin Grevioux posted Paco Medina's designs for six of them on Twitter, and those included the original names; he couldn't locate the design sheet for one member, the Birdman homage, so the name used for him in the profile is unofficial, a placeholder to make it easier to follow their history section - I put it in quotes for the members list to show that, but didn't for the history, because it clutters stuff up too much to do it every single time. If they do ever come back, maybe we'll get his official codename. And maybe there will also be some more members corresponding to the other Hanna-Barbera heroes - Blue Falcon and Dynomutt, Jan and Jace, the Herculoids, Moby Dick, Captain Caveman, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles. There's enough of them to fill out the Beta and Gammaclans. I have to add that it is a nice change for a team composed of analogues of another company's characters to be based on non-DC heroes - we've already got one Legion of Super-Heroes "homage", a nod to the Freedom Fighters via the Crusaders, and at least five versions of the Justice League (although three of the five are alternate reality counterparts to one another) - the Squadron Sinister, the Squadron Supreme, the Supreme Power's Squadron Supreme, the Great Society and les Heroes de Paris. So we're well overdue for looking elsewhere for inspiration.
Since there seems to be a little online confusion over whether the team are the Alpha Clan, Alpha-Clan or Alphaclan: When the team is first named, the name is split over two lines, and hyphenated as a result. However, later in the issue a newsreader clearly identifies them as the Alphaclan, one word.
Most of the team, with the exception of Fog and Vandalo, have downward pointing, golden isoceles triangles on their costumes. Presumably there was some sort of significance to that, even if it was only a team membership symbol (but it isn't any version of the Greek letter alpha).
We meet the Alphaclan at the start of an issue, facing off against the New Warriors. The Alphaclan appear as you see in the main image above - fresh, uninjured, and not looking like they've been fighting at all. The New Warriors, by contrast, are drawn looking somewhat battle-weary and mention they are almost out of power packs for their equipment. Either they've been fighting the Alphaclan already, and have done so spectacularly badly that only one side looks like they've been in a fight, or else the New Warriors had recently finished another, unseen battle with parties unknown when they ran into the Alphaclan. I'm guessing it was intended to be the former, but it isn't all that clear.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Alphaclan should not be confused with
images: (without ads)
New Warriors IV#9, p1, pan 3 (main - team standing in line)
New Warriors IV#9, p2, pan 1 (team displaying some powers, preparing to
fight)
New Warriors IV#9, p9, pan 3 (Alphaclan falling to a sonic attack)
Appearances:
New Warriors IV#9 (April 2008) - Kevin Grevioux (writer), Paco
Medina
(penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
First Posted: 05/13/2016
Last updated: 05/04/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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