Nearly lost amid all the media attention over the upcoming wedding of Northstar and Kyle Jinadu in Astonishing X-Men #51, and the response by One Million Moms, is the revelation that the event was originally planned for another Marvel series -- albeit one canceled almost five months ago.

Responding on his message board to news of the impending nuptials, former Alpha Flight artist Dale Eaglesham wrote, "This drives me absolutely crazy: Greg [Pak], Fred [Van Lente] and I do all the work of bringing the series back and they cancel it on us. Why didn't they let US do the wedding 'event' which is clearly garnering attention, to stimulate readership [and] perhaps keep Alpha Flight going? This pisses me off. Oh no, let the 'X' books do it, as if they don't get enough attention. Sigh. ... This wedding was in the works on AF."

Marvel has not yet responded to Robot 6's request for comment.

Launched in July 2008 as an eight-issue miniseries, Alpha Flight was upgraded with much fanfare to an ongoing series a month later at FanExpo Canada, before its abrupt cancellation was announced in October. It was the third attempt to revive the title, which never been able to replicate the popularity it enjoyed under John Byrne's original 28-issue run.

Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told Comic Book Resources last month that Marvel began questioning how Northstar and other characters might respond to same-sex marriage when New York's Marriage Equality Act became law in July 2011. (Of course, same-sex marriage became legal in Canada six years earlier.)

"Marvel Comics has a long and proud tradition of reflecting the real world, and this is just the latest expression of that," he said. "The events in North Carolina and President Obama's statement of support for gay marriage merely underscore that this is a topical -- and controversial -- issue, and our story will reflect this. While Marvel Universe characters will attend Northstar's wedding, not everyone will accept the invitation or the validity of Northstar's vows."

UPDATE: Eaglesham has posted in our comments thread, clarifying: "I went back and checked the notes for upcoming issues and low and behold, the wedding was never slated for Alpha Flight. I would have really liked it to be but it was meant for the X-book all along. I was angry that an event that could have boosted our book (that was canceled) wasn’t given time to happen and instead turned up in an X-book. I misunderstood this. Well, if it was slated for the X-book all along then that is a different thing altogether and I am somewhat of a monkeys ass for my rant. Apologies for the confusion I have caused."

(via The Beat)