John Ostrander: Alphas

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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4 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    Like you, I started to watch ALPHAS for Strathairn. I first saw him in John Sayles movies, and if you haven’t seen those, I recommendthem.

  2. Mindy Newell says:

    John, do you know if Marvel has made any complaints about ALPHAS?

    • John Ostrander says:

      None that I’ve heard but you can’t copyright concepts. It may be similar but I don’t think Marvel can really do anything about it. Of course, I COULD be wrong.

      Nah.

  3. Lucas Corso says:

    Alphas went from being an uneven but enjoyable program in season 1 to being and excellent program in season 2. It is suprisingly ambitious and sophisticated in its storytelling. It boldly explores the gray areas of morality like few shows are willing to attempt. And there is a wonderful subtlety to its presentation that grounds its over-the-top concept in surprising ways. The characters on all sides are pretty well-drawn. The heroes are likeable, but flawed. The villain is thoughtful and complex. Perhaps most surprising: the depiction of Alpha Gary is the most genuine and human depiction of autism you’ll see in TV or film. Dustin Hoffman’s Rainman? Effective, but too overwrought, in my opinion. Ryan Cartwright avoids the stereotypes so well. Marvelous performance by him. Gary should be a breakout television character. Sadly, not enough people see Alphas to make that happen. Hoping for a third season of Syfy’s best series since Battlestar Galactica.