Alpha Flight #1, John Byrne Cover, Water Damage, Marvel '83

1st appearance of Puck and Marrina. John Byrne cover.

Alpha Flight vol. 1 #1 is the debut issue of John Byrne's celebrated Marvel series, launching Canada's premier superhero team into their own title with the August 1983 cover date. Byrne handled the full creative load here, writing and drawing the complete 48-page story 'Tundra!' himself, a format that gave the book an unusual density for its era and a unified visual identity from the first page. The issue introduces the Great Beast Tundra as the team's opening threat and establishes the core Alpha Flight roster in a standalone adventure that doubled as a character showcase.

The book marks the first appearances of Puck and Marrina, two of the team's most distinctive members: Puck the compact, acrobatic brawler who became a fan cornerstone of the series, and Marrina, the aquatic Plodex-origin hero whose arc would intersect with the Avengers in later years. Wolverine, Northstar, and Nightcrawler also appear, grounding the new series in the X-Men universe from the outset. First issues of long-running Marvel series from this copper-age period are among the more durable keys in any Marvel collection, and this one carries genuine first-appearance weight.