Comic Info
Comic Name: Alpha: Big Time
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artist: Nuno Plati
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2013
Alpha: Big Time #1 Variant
Reprints Alpha: Big Time #1-5 (April 2013-August 2013). Andy Maguire was one of the biggest superheroes to hit the scene. As Alpha he had unlimited power and abilities…but Andy screwed up. Depowered, Andy is finding being a has-been-hero is almost harder than being a hero. When Peter Parker decides to give him his powers back, Alpha is reborn, but just because Andy has learned responsibility doesn’t mean being Alpha is any easier!
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, Alpha: Big Time is a Marvel Comics limited series. The series spins off Dan Slott’s Alpha storyline in Amazing Spider-Man and features art by Nuno Plati. The issues in the collection were also included in Spider-Man: Big Time—The Complete Collection Volume 4.
I didn’t like Alpha and I don’t really know if Slott intended Alpha to be liked. It kind of felt like Slott was setting up Alpha to fail. With that in mind, an Alpha limited series likewise seems like a bad idea…and Alpha: Big Time is a result.
I do like that Alpha just continues to screw up. Like Peter Parker, he’s immediately challenged by his powers by almost killing a mugger. This action leads to a chain of events that has Andy essentially unable to go after the criminals in his new city with a threat of being exposed. It is pretty rotten “superheroing” and the fact that Andy is pretty bad at being a superhero is one of the redeeming factors of the series.
Alpha: Big Time #4
Unfortunately, the Andy character is missing most of the traits that make Peter Parker likable. This makes it a challenge to get into the character even if he is essentially dealing with many of the same problems Peter had in his early days. He isn’t irredeemable, but it is close.
I do think the relationship between Peter and Andy is interesting especially in this volume. By Alpha: Big Time, Peter has been possessed by Dr. Octopus. Andy doesn’t know this, but Dr. Octopus is playing Andy and he doesn’t know it. I like the idea of a mentor who is secretly working against his student or has a secret goal for his student.
Alpha fortunately hasn’t really done much since Slott ended his short tenure as a sidekick to Peter Parker. This story was a bit of aberration and was kind of surprising in that sense. Whenever Marvel is threatening to do a big “death” that is supposed to be shocking, I always kind of hope it is Alpha. It would be an appropriate end to an irritating character.
