ALF # 22
“X Marks The Spot” & “Food For Thought”
Writer: Michael Gallagher
Penciller: Dave Manak
Inker/Colorist: Marie Severin
Letterer: Rick Parker
Cover Date: Mid-November 1989
Rating: 
This week, I’ll look at ALF # 22 which features a humorous spoof on The Uncanny X-Men and a backup feature that sees ALF getting Willie Tanner into trouble as usual.
The main story sees ALF telling Willie about his time on Melmac and how he came across the “greatest superhero team” on Melmac- The Uncanned X-Melmen! Good ol’ Gordon Shumway (That’s Alf’s real name) joins the team as they face off against Magmeato (You heard right!); The second feature sees Lynn Tanner get a job working for a caterer, but ALF soon fills Willie’s head with thoughts that Lynn’s boss might be taking advantage of her so ALF drags Willie into another hilarious but over-the-top situation that leaves the latter embarrassed as usual.
The X-Men spoof is flat-out funny thanks in part to Michael Gallagher, who probably had a ball writing this story, as he took everything that Len Wein, Chris Claremont, and John Byrne made special about Marvel’s favorite mutants and spoofed them in the most comical way that might get a chuckle or two from any X-Men fan; The ongoing gag of Psych-Major (The Melmac version of Cyclops) being in constant agony over the death of Dark Kleenex (Jean Grey) is by far one of the highlights of this story. The rest of the X-Melmen which consists of Brouge, Michigan Wolverine, Hagen-Dazzler, and Molossus, not to mention Professor Xylophone was just great and made this another fun flashback to Melmac. The second story felt like something straight out of the sitcom because I always love the whenever ALF would get Willie into a sticky situation that he always tends to cause and the latter has to get himself out of it. I also like how the ALF/Willie chemistry works just as well in the comics that it did in the T.V. series.
Michael Gallagher, Dave Manak, and the legend herself, Marie Severin worked their magic for ALF’s first comic book series (a total of fifty issues and three annuals) which truly made him a very polarizing figure in Pop Culture that left his mark in the 1980s and beyond.
Well, that’s it for me this week. Thanks for sticking around and will see you all next time.
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