I hope you all are enjoying these Throwback Thursdays so far. I know I am, as it’s a great way to revisit the past and learn some things that were either forgotten or not known with the rich comic book history we are now living in.
The focus for now is first appearances which I’m hoping to evolve into throwbacks to story lines and other prominent occurrences.
This week’s throwback takes us back to April of 1979 where we got a cameo appearance by the Canadian Super Hero team named Alpha Flight which made that cameo in Uncanny X-Men #120.
The first full appearance came a month later in issue #121 of the Uncanny X-Men.
This team and concept were created by the great John Byrne.
The first members introduced were Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Shaman and Snowbird. Very Canadian these names seem to be you say, eh? Sorry, I had to throw an “eh” in there since we’re talking about Canadians.
Guardian who is James Hudson made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #109 under the alias of Vindicator. Most of his powers come from his battle suit but he was later converted to be a cyborg.
Aurora’s first appearance was in the cameo appearance with the rest of the team in Uncanny X-Men #120. Her actual name being Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, her primary power is superhuman speed and flight.
Northstar is Jean-Paul Beaubier. If you’re not aware, yes, he’s the brother of Aurora, twin brother in fact. His first appearance was the same as his sister Aurora. His powers match his sisters.
Sasquatch was an original member of Alpha Flight but the details on his first appearance are fuzzy when reading up on the character. Appearing in Uncanny #120 with the alias of Walter Langkowski but as his beast form named also Sasquatch, the real Sasquatch (mythical beast) made it’s first appearance in Alpha Flight volume 2 #1.
You all might know of the recent story of Walter Langkowski in the hot new series Immortal Hulk.
Snowbird made her debut with the others in Uncanny #120 and has the ability to do arctic animal shape-shifting, has healing ability and flight without changing form.
Shaman made his first appearance along with the teams introduction and is a great sorcerer/magician with a range of powers.
Alpha Flight went on to have their own series title in 1983 and that lasted all the way until 1994 for its first volume. Don’t you all wish we could get nice long ongoing series titles like that nowadays? Must be nice to get a good decade in there before a reboot instead of the 1-3 year rotation they got going nowadays.