Alpha Flight: Bio, Origin & History

Name: Alpha Flight

Founding Members: Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Shaman, and Snowbird

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men 120 (April, 1979)

Created By: Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Did You Know: Alpha Flight was created to be Canada’s premiere superhero team and originally had Wolverine as a member.

A Little History

Alpha Flight is the top of a 3-Tiered Canadian Government program designed to neutralize threats to its country.

The program is broken down into three levels.

If they new recruits possessed powers that were unstable, they are put into the Gamma Flight program. Those who could control their powers but needed more training are assigned to Beta Flight. And those who could control their powers and were active in the field are placed into Alpha Flight.

The team was created after James MacDonald Hudson developed a helmet and suit that was to be used for underground exploration. The suit, of course, could do more. Hudson learned that the company he had developed it for was planning to sell the technology to the U.S. Government for military use.

In response, the Canadian Government activated Department H with Hudson at the helm. He and his wife quickly recruited Logan to their cause. The trio then began to assemble a team. Sadly, this team did not perform well and Logan left for the X-Men.

Under the alias Weapon Alpha, MacDonald tried to bring Wolverine back into the ranks. Unfortunately, Wolverine and his fellow X-Men proved to be too strong and he was made to retreat.

Alpha Flight came to the comic book scene with a strong showing. This was so much so that their initial run lasted 12 years and 130 issues. More recently, the team has taken a backseat to the bigger players in the world of Marvel. Hopefully, this will change and they will be back where they belong.

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