Who The Hell Are X-Men’s Alpha Flight Anyway?

The X-Men movies franchise is expanding like never before. The core X-Men series is still going strong. Logan will cap off a trilogy of Wolverine films.

Deadpool proved a total success last year. Gambit is still in the works, and The New Mutants is about to begin filming.

Yet still, the X-Men movies producers are looking for more characters to turn into movies.

One relatively obscure X-Men team that was recently mentioned by producer Simon Kinberg is Alpha Flight. There was a time when Alpha Flight was as commonly known as any other Marvel Comics team, at least among Marvel fans. The team enjoyed a 130-issue long series running from 1982 through 1994.

However, in recent years the team has been in the background at best, or disbanded or even dead at worst.

So what is Alpha Flight? Who makes up the team? Why would 20th Century Fox consider making it into a movie? Click through the slideshow for answers to all of those questions!

Alpha Flight’s Origin

The concept for Alpha Flight in the Marvel Universe begins with James Hudson, a scientist who was working for a petrochemical company in Canada.

Hudson developed a high-tech helmet and body suit that was supposed to be used for underground exploration.

Hudson discovered that his company was planning to sell the technology to the United States government for military use. Hudson took the technology to the Canadian government and was placed with Department H, an organization dedicated to defending Canada from supervillain threats.

Hudson and his wife, Heather McNeil, recruited the amnesiac Logan into Department H. Reading about the Fantastic Four inspired Hudson to create his own superhero team. The team was initially called The Flight and the roster included Wolverine.

The Flight did not perform well. Wolverine left to join the X-Men, and the Canadian government ordered Hudson to wear his own bodysuit and helmet as Weapon Alpha to hunt Logan down.i

The Flight was restructured into multiple teams, with Alpha Flight being the premiere team. Alpha Flight Had 6 core members.

Guardian

James Hudson is the catalyst for the very existence of Alpha Flight.

Using the helmet and body suit he himself developed, Hudson first operated under the codename Weapon Alpha and then Vindicator before taking the name Guardian.

Hudson helped Logan get his life back together after Logan escaped from Weapon X. Hudson felt betrayed when Wolverine left Alpha Flight, forcing Hudson himself to, reluctantly, take over as the team’s leader.

At one point in his career, Guardian was sucked into a spatial rift. He was found by an alien race who save his life but, knowing nothing of human biology, they believed his suit was a part of his body and transformed him into Cyborg. 

Guardian returned to Earth and to leading Alpha Flight. He had a falling out with Department H after discovering some secret plans. Department H sent Hudson back into space and replaced him with a clone, but Guardian returned again and was taken back in by Alpha Flight.

Northstar and Aurora

Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie Beaubier are twins who were orphaned at a young age and separated.

Jean-Paul was taken in by a foster, but led a lonely life and got into trouble as a teenager. He eventually joined the circus and then a separatist terrorist organization in Quebec.

Jeanne-Marie was sent to a strict religious school for girls. She was abused and suffered mental illness from a young age, attempting suicide and developing multiple personalities, one shy and timid and a second that was extroverted and dangerous.

The two were unaware of each other’s existence until they were recruited by Alpha Flight and became Northstar and Aurora. Both twins are mutants who move at super speed and can emit intense light, especially when they touch each other.

While Jeanne-Marie quickly found a new family and romance with Alpha Flight, Northstar struggled. He had grown arrogant from his earlier days as an athlete and struggled with the secret that he was homosexual.

Both left Alpha Flight after Aurora seemed to exhaust her powers using a healing light to cure Northstar of a deadly disease. Auror joined a convent, but eventually returned to Alpha Flight. Northstar wrote a memoir, but later joined the X-Men.

Sasquatch

Walter Langkowski was a scientist who originally served Alpha Flight in a support capacity. However, exposure to a portal to the Realm of the Great Beasts, which allowed the mystical being Tanaraq to enter his body and turn him into Sasquatch.

It is a struggle for Langkowski to maintain his personality as Sasquatch, but he manages and uses the increased size and strength to serve Alpha Flight in the field.

Sasquatch died, but his teammates managed to save his soul and give it a new home in a robot exoskeleton called Box. The hunt for a new human body accidently led Sasquatch into conflict with the Hulk, but Sasquatch did manage to eventually gain flesh again.

Sasquatch has been the bedrock of Alpha Flight through ups and downs and various lineup changes. His strength combined with his smarts make him a vital asset to the Alpha Flight squad.

(Marvel Entertainment)

Shaman And Snowbird

Shaman’s origin is similar to that of his ally, Doctor Strange.

Michael Twoyoungmen was a medical doctor who did not believe in magic. However, a vision he had of his grandfather after his grandfather’s death change his mind.

Shaman studied magic and helped in giving bringing Snowbird, the offspring of a human and a divine creature, into the world. He raises Snowbird as his own daughter, and she proves to be a powerful and capable shapeshifter.

Hudson seeks out Shaman and Snowbird when he begins recruiting for Alpha Flight and they join the team. Shaman later learns that he also has a biological daughter, who also joins the team under the codename Talisman.