Alpha Flight

Alpha Flight is a Canadian team of adventurers, most of whom have superhuman powers, which was organized under the auspices of the Canadian government's Department H. Roughly ten years ago James MacDonald Hudson, an engineer, resigned from the Am-Can Petro-Chemical Company in Canada when he learned that a special super-powered suit he had built for the company for use in geological exploration was going to be used by the United States military instead. Hudson secretly destroyed Am-Can's copies of the plans for the suit and made off with the psycho-cybernetic helmet that was necessary to make the suit work, and which he could claim as his own property with legal justification. Shocked by what happened to Hudson at Am-Can, Heather McNeil, the executive secretary to Hudson's immediate superior there, Jerome Jaxon, also resigned from the company. McNeil arranged for herself and Hudson to meet with officials of the Canadian government, who heard their story and settled with Am-Can for any damages incurred when Hudson reclaimed his helmet. Hudson was then invited by the Canadian prime minister to participate in the creation of Department H, a top secret research and development agency within the Canadian Ministry of Defense. Soon afterwards Hudson married McNeil, and within the next few years Hudson had recruited the mutant called Wolverine as one of the Department's special agents.

Reading a newspaper account of how Reed Richards and three of his friends became the Fantastic Four inspired James Hudson to create a team of superhumanly powerful agents to go on missions for the Canadian government. Wolverine aided Hudson in the initial phases of the creation of the team, which would be called Alpha Flight, and it was planned that Wolverine would lead the team. However, Wolverine eventually left Department H for his own reasons and joined the X-Men. Hudson continued to develop his super-powered suit, and it eventually became the costume that he himself wore as a member of Alpha Flight. As a costumed agent Hudson at first called himself Weapon Alpha, later changed his code name to Vindicator, and finally settled upon the name Guardian. Hudson reluctantly became the leader of Alpha Flight himself after Wolverine's resignation.

The standard procedure for recruits for Alpha Flight was that they would begin as members of a training team called Gamma Flight. Upon successfully completing their initial training, recruits would move into a transitional team, Beta Flight, to receive more advanced training. Those who proved to be successes in Beta Flight as well would finally join Alpha Flight, the team of agents who would participate in major missions.

Alpha Flight had six members when Department H was disbanded by the Canadian government for financial reasons: Aurora, Guardian, Northstar, Sasquatch, Shaman, and Snowbird. However, the six members decided to continue acting as a team, performing altruistic missions, and were joined by two trainees from Beta Flight, Marinna and Puck. In practice, however, the majority of the members undertook the same mission infrequently after the team became independent of the government, simply because the various members lived in different parts of Canada.

James Hudson was presumed to have been killed in the course of Alpha Flight's first major battle with a group called Omega Flight. Alpha Flight, however, continued as a team despite the loss of its founder, and the members chose Hudson's highly capable wife Heather to act as their new leader. Heather adopted her husband's costume and his codename, Vindicator. The Canadian government resumed funding Alpha Flight, and the team established a headquarters on Tamarind Island off British Columbia. Other members who joined Alpha Flight were Wildchild and Windshear. Funding problems plagued this group and it was then forced to disband once again.

Now they have been brought back together by a more stable and powerful Department H with deeper secrets yet to be revealed. The present Alpha Flight team consists of the following members:

GUARDIAN/VINDICATOR I
Real name: Dr. James MacDonald Hudson
Former aliases: Weapon Alpha
Identity: Secret, known to certain Canadian government officials
Occupation: Adventurer, engineer on Alpha Flight support team
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: No criminal record
Place of birth: London, Ontario, Canada
Marital status: Married
Known relatives: Heather McNeil Hudson (wife), Ramsey McNeil (father-in-law), Claire McNeil (mother-in-law), Becky (sister-in-law)
Base of operations: Department H
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight, Gamma Flight (engineering sciences specialist)
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #109

History: Hudson is the petrochemical engineer and inventor who founded Alpha Flight. Former leader of the original team and once believed to have been dead, James MacDonald Hudson has surprisingly returned to reclaim his role as team leader.

Height: 6’2"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Known superhuman powers: None
Weapons and paraphernalia: Battlesuit which serves as exoskeleton, magnifying the strength of its wearer. It can create a protective force field that absorbs energy. The battlesuit can shoot beams of concussive force, electromagnetic pulses, and plasma bolts.

VINDICATOR II
Real name: Heather McNeil Hudson
Other current aliases: None
Former aliases: Guardian II
Occupation: Adventurer, leader of Alpha Flight
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: No criminal record
Marital status: Married
Place of birth: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Known relatives: Ramsey McNeil (father), Claire McNeil (mother), James MacDonald Hudson (husband), Becky (sister), seven other siblings
Base of operations: Department H
Group membership: Alpha Flight
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #139

History: Wife of James MacDonald Hudson, Vindicator/Guardian I assumed his role and wore his battlesuit as leader of Alpha Flight after his apparent demise.

Height: 5’5"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
Known superhuman powers: None
Weapons and paraphernalia: Vindicator’s new battlesuit, which draws its power by tapping into geo-thermal energies, amplifies her strength, creates a protective force field, and enables her to fly and to fire beams of concussive energy, plasma, and electromagnetic pulses.

PUCK
Real name: Eugene Milton Judd
Occupation: Professional adventurer, former solider of fortune, sometime bouncer
Identity: Secret
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: Has a criminal record
Former aliases: None known
Place of birth: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Marital status: Single
Base of operations: Alpha Flight headquarters, Tamarind Island, British Columbia, Canada
First appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT (first series) #1

History: Eugene Milton Judd was a former espionage agent for the Canadian government before he joined Alpha Flight in its latter days. He became dwarfed in trapping the demonic being Razer within his body. Later, Razer was freed from his body, but Puck again became dwarfed but was now gifted with superhuman strength, speed, durability, and agility. Team members quickly regarded him as the heart and soul of Alpha Flight.

Height: 3’6"
Weight: 225 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black (bald on top)
Unusual features: Puck’s right ear is misshapen, presumably due to an old injury
Strength level: Puck can now lift roughly 10 tons.
Known superhuman powers: Puck ages very slowly due to the mystical presence of Razer within his body. He is gifted with superhuman strength, speed, durability, and agility.

JEFFRIES, MADISON
Real name: Madison Jeffries
Occupation: Adventurer, machinesmith, former soldier and mechanic
Identity: Known to the Canadian government
Legal status: Citizen of Canada with no known criminal record
Other aliases: None known
Place of birth: Unrevealed location somewhere in Canada
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Lionel (brother, deceased)
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight, former member of Beta and Gamma Flight
Base of Operations: Department H
First appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT (first series) #10

History: Through an act of will, Madison Jeffries can "phase" into the newly designed humanoid combat robot called Box in order to control it from within. He began as a trainee in Department H’s Gamma Flight program before being recruited into Alpha Flight. He had a brief relationship with Heather a while after Mac had apparently died.

Height: 6’1" (in Box, 10’)
Weight: 195 lbs. (in Box, 520 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Known superhuman powers: Superhuman psionic power to manipulate metal, plastic, and glass.

SASQUATCH
Real name: Walter Langkowski
Other current aliases: None
Former aliases: Box III, Wanda Langkowski
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Adventurer
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: No criminal record
Place of birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Marital status: Divorced
Known relatives: Veronica Langkowski (ex-wife)
Base of operations: Alpha Flight headquarters, Department H, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #120

History: Canadian physicist who unwittingly freed the Great Beast Tanaraq in an experiment. Tanaraq enabled Langkowski to transform into an enormous, fur-covered, superhumanly strong being in the form of the legendary Sasquatch. After Tanaraq took control of him, Sasquatch was killed by Snowbird. Langkowski’s spirit entered the Box robot, and eventually took over Snowbird’s body, giving him the ability to exist either in his Sasquatch form or a human body identical to his original one. His physical appearance and mental capacity seem to have been mysteriously altered, making him a savage creature whose intellect has been reduced to the level of a beast.

Height: 6’4", (as Sasquatch) 10’
Weight: 245 lbs., (as Sasquatch) 2000 lbs.
Eyes: Blue, (as Sasquatch) Red
Hair: Blonde, (as Sasquatch) Orange
Other distinguishing features: Body covered in thick orange fur, anthropoid ape-like physique, clawed hands and feet
Strength level: Sasquatch can lift approximately 90 tons
Known superhuman powers: Vast superhuman strength and durability.
Source of superhuman powers: Formerly, gamma-radiation experiment which unleashed energy freeing Tanaraq, one of the Great Beasts, which transformed and possessed Langkowski; currently, his mind has been transferred to the body of the late Snowbird, a shape-changing demi-goddess who had taken on the form of Sasquatch.

MURMUR
Real name: Arlette Truffaut
Other current aliases: None
Occupation: Adventurer
Citizenship: France
Legal status: No criminal record
Place of birth: Paris, France
Known relatives: Mother (name unrevealed)
Base of operations: Department H
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight
First appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT (first series) #1

History: Arlette Truffaut is the daughter of a Canadian woman and, it is rumored, the famous filmmaker, Francois Truffaut. Beyond the fact that she was born in Paris, Arlette doesn’t remember much of her life before she came to Hull House (an orphanage in Orloo, Ontario) except what she learns from intermittent letters from her mother. It was at Hull House, along with Jared and Adrian Corbo (see Flex and Radius), where she first began to manifest her superhuman powers. She was contacted by Department H and brought in to become one of the founding members of the new Alpha Flight.

Height: 5’8"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Eyes: Violet
Hair: Black
Known superhuman powers: Artlette Truffaut has the ability to control other people’s actions with her merest touch.

RADIUS
Real name: Jared Corbo
Other current aliases: None
Occupation: Adventurer
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: No criminal record
Place of birth: Hamilton, Ontario
Marital Status: Single
Known relatives: Half-brother, Adrian Corbo
Base of operations: Department H
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight
First appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT (first series) #1

History: Little is known of Jared Corbo before his time in Hull House, an orphanage in Orloo, Ontario. All he does know is that he was left there along with his half-brother, Adrian Corbo (see Flex). Radius was pretty much a loner and a bullly during his time at Hull House, and was never one to avoid trouble, much to the chagrin of Adrian, who always hung around with his brother despite the verbal abuse he received.
Radius only became more dangerous when he, similar to his half-brother and Arlette Truffaut (see Murmur), began to exhibit superhuman abilities. Like Murmur and Flex, Jared was contacted by members of Department H and recruited to join the new Alpha Flight.

Height: 6’0"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Known superhuman powers: Radius emits an ever present force field which he can manipulate into various shapes around his body.

FLEX
Real name: Adrian Corbo
Other current aliases: None
Occupation: Adventurer
Citizenship: Canada
Legal status: No criminal record
Place of birth: Hamilton, Ontario
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Half-brother, Jared Corbo
Base of operations: Department H
Group affiliation: Alpha Flight
First appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT (first series) #1

History: Adrian Corbo was brought to Hull House at a young age. He has little knowledge of his childhood and no memory of either of his parents. Unlike his hot tempered half-brother, Jared, Flex is quiet and shy and not much of a fighter. In fact, he spent much of his time at Hull House trying to keep Jared and Arlette out of trouble.
About the same time as Radius and Murmur began to exhibit super powers, Adrian discovered his ability to transform parts of his body into a super-hard metal. Department H contacted him and he became one of the founding members of the new Alpha Flight.

Height: 5’8"
Weight: 155 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Known superhuman powers: Flex has the ability to transform his limbs into razor-sharp blades of organic steel.