Appearing in "Rub-Out"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Talisman (Elizabeth Twoyoungmen) ⏵
- ⏴ Heather McNeil ⏵
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Pink Pearl (Pearl Gross) (First appearance)
- Bones (First appearance)
- James Hudson Impersonator
Other Characters:
- Walter Langkowski (Only in flashback)
- Clementine D’Arbanville (First appearance)
- Rhonda
- Maurice
- el Mystico (Photo)
- Hindu (Photo)
- Samson (Photo)
- other circus performers
- Shaman (Mentioned)
- Hulk (Mentioned)
- Collector (Referenced)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Sol
- Earth
- North America
- Canada
- Quebec
- British Columbia
- Vancouver
- Strait of Juan de Fuca (Only in flashback)
- Saskatchewan
- Canada
- Europe (Mentioned)
- North America
- Earth
Items:
Vehicles:
- R. Boch Electronics' van
Synopsis for "Rub-Out"
While returning from Tamarind Island, Aurora lapses into her Jeanne-Marie persona and is horrified by Walter, whom she doesn't even recognize, attempting to kiss her. Without realizing it, she flees flying eastward at super-speed, ending up at her brother's house in Quebec. Jean-Paul looks after her and decides her latest shift is a blessing in disguise, allowing him to renew his partnership with his sister outside of Alpha Flight. The next day he takes her along to a circus managed by one of his old friends, Clementine D'Arbanville. Clementine has contacted Jean-Paul for help because she's been having trouble with her new sideshow fat lady, Pink Pearl, seemingly arranging for other performers to meet with "accidents" and for her own people to fill their positions. As Clementine is filling Jean-Paul in, Pink Pearl makes her move and bursts into the room along with her crony, a contortionist named Bones. Being at a disadvantage in the small space, Northstar, Jeanne-Marie, and Clementine are all knocked out and taken to the big top, where Pink Pearl reveals her plan to detonate a bomb at the site of a meeting between the Canadian and American leaders to establish plans for an anti-nuclear weapon laser defense network. Pearl's group uses the circus as their staging ground since it will be easy to deflect suspicion for the attack to Clementine due to her secret history as a militant separatist. When Jeanne-Marie comes to, she's back in her Aurora persona and remembers nothing since leaving the island with Walter. From Pearl's gloating, she's able to pick up enough to know who to fight when she breaks free, demonstrating her altered powers to a surprised Northstar. Clementine leaps in to throw off Bones' aim with a throwing dagger, which ends up in Pearl's chest. It doesn't go deep enough to kill, but it knocks her out and wins the day for the heroes. Afterwards, Aurora expresses her disappointment with Northstar, having pieced together that he met Clementine when they were both terrorists, and threatens to tell the rest of Alpha Flight about his dark past.
Meanwhile in Vancouver, Heather and Elizabeth are walking through the city when Heather catches a glimpse of a man she could swear is her dead husband. She chases after him, but he disappears in the crowd.
And in Saskatchewan, Bochs tests out his new Box armor built with the help of Madison Jeffries. Not only can it fly, but Bochs now interfaces with it by phasing into its living metal, a process he needs to make sure to limit lest he become merged with the robot permanently. As everything checks out, Bochs re-states his commitment to using the armor to hunt down and punish the people that used the old Box to kill his friend, Guardian.
Notes
- 1st appearance of the new Box armor model.
- There is a Mark the Jeweler insert variant for this issue.
- Bones’ real identity is unknown. It looks more like a nickname rather than an alias.
Trivia
- Northstar and Clementine's "Separtiste" movement is based on the terrorist activities of the FLQ between 1963 and 1970.
- The laser-based defense net being proposed here is based on the real world Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. "Star Wars", which was still investigating the use of lasers to defend against nuclear weapons as of 1985.