Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979) and was created by John Byrne and Chris Claremont. Walter Langkowski is a scientist who turns himself into a Sasquatch-like creature through a controlled gamma-radiation experiment that links him to the god Tanaraq. He is a long-term and founding member of the superhero team Alpha Flight.
Publication history
Sasquatch first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979) and was created by John Byrne and Chris Claremont.
Fictional character biography Dr. Walter "Walt" Langkowski is a founding member of Alpha Flight, a native of Vancouver, Canada, and a renowned physicist and professor at McGill University. He was also a professional football player for the Green Bay Packers.The Immortal Hulk #3 (September 2018) In the 1993 miniseries The Infinity Crusade, it is revealed that Langkowski is Jewish.Infinity Crusade #1 (June 1993)Marvel Holiday Special (February 2012)
As Sasquatch, he has the ability to transform into a massive, orange-furred beast. In this form, Langkowski possesses enhanced physical attributes and natural weaponry.
Origin Langkowski's alternate form is the result of self-experimentation with gamma radiation. In an attempt to replicate the process that transformed Bruce Banner into the Hulk, Langkowski bombarded himself with a gamma ray projector at an isolated laboratory near the Arctic Circle.
The experiment transformed Langkowski into a raging beast. He destroyed the laboratory and ran off into the Arctic wilderness before reverting to his human form. He was recovered by a Canadian search-and-rescue team and taken to a hospital for observation. While recovering, he told his colleague James Hudson (a.k.a. Guardian) to call him "Sasquatch."
Langkowski was baffled to discover his alter ego had orange fur instead of green skin (which is common to gamma mutates). He speculated that the gamma rays collected were contaminated by passage through the Aurora Borealis, which meant they might have included some cosmic rays as well.
However, unknown to Langkowski, it was not the gamma rays that turned him into Sasquatch. His lab equipment opened a doorway between their world and the "Realm of the Great Beasts," monsters from Canada's prehistoric past. When the gap opened, a mystical beast named Tanaraq switched places with Langkowski's body, granting him the beast's physical powers. These included superhuman strength and endurance.
His metamorphosis was triggered by willpower, sometimes requiring a few moments of meditation. Further, Langkowski had no difficulty maintaining his personality and intelligence while in Sasquatch form.
Alpha Flight As a founding member of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight, Sasquatch battled the X-Men in an attempt to capture Wolverine.Uncanny X-Men #120–121 (April - May 1979) The fight between the two teams caused a huge amount of property damage at the Calgary Stampede shopping area, as well as the loss of a DC-10 that Sasquatch flung into a hangar.
Sasquatch later battled the Hulk,The Incredible Hulk Annual #8 (December 1979) to test his own physical limits, then fought alongside the Hulk against the Wendigo.The Incredible Hulk #272 (June 1982)
Not long after, Alpha Flight was officially disbanded by its government agency, Department H. However, when Guardian called upon the scattered team members, he joined Alpha Flight to take down the Great Beast Tundra.Alpha Flight #1 (August 1983)
The team soon after worked with Namor, and the Invisible Woman, encountering the Master of the World.Alpha Flight #4 (November 1983) On his own, he faced the Super-Skrull.Alpha Flight #9–10 (April - May 1984) and then rejoined the team to fight Omega FlightAlpha Flight #12 (July 1984) in New York City, where the team lost Guardian.
Alongside Rom, Alpha Flight fought the Dire Wraiths.Rom #56–58 (July - September 1984) and then joined the X-Men on a journey to Asgard, where they clashed with Loki.X-Men and Alpha Flight #1–2 (December 1985 - January 1986)
Tanaraq While shopping with his girlfriend Aurora, Sasquatch encountered and fought a new armored villain, Calibre. Shot in the chest and seriously injured, Langkowski lost control, allowing the spirit of Tanaraq to inhabit Sasquatch. Tanaraq threatened to kill Aurora and wreak havoc. Confronted by Walt's teammate Snowbird, Tanaraq was killed when Snowbird transformed into a white-furred Sasquatch and ripped out the beast's heart. Upon the body's death, Langkowski's spirit was lost.Alpha Flight #23 (June 1985)
New Body and Identity After his death, Langkowski's teammates traveled to the realm of the Great Beasts to recover his soul. However, a preservation spell cast by Alpha Flight's sorcerer Shaman failed to prevent Langkowski's body from crumbling to dust.
Once in the land of the Great Beasts, they were attacked by the monsters' leader Somon, who summoned his allies Tundra, Kariooq, and Tolomaq against them. Snowbird battled Somon, eventually forcing him to relinquish control of the others; leaderless, the monsters turned on each other and ignored Alpha Flight.
Forcing the now-weakened Somon to reveal to them the location of Langkowski's spirit, Alpha Flight ventured to the Pit of Ultimate Sadness, located beneath the Great Glow-Globe of Phistash-Hasrak, where Somon explained that the souls of those who once inhabited the realm existed in torment. Somon told them that, to enter the Pit's Well of Sorrows, they must sacrifice love, hate, and power. Sending Aurora (representing love), Northstar (representing hate), and Talisman (representing power), Alpha Flight realized the Well was a trap set by Somon.
Snowbird killed Somon and three trapped Alphans were reunited with the rest of the team. Shaman deduced from Somon's trap that no actual souls still remained within the Well of Sorrows but rather, the only wandering soul (Walter's) resided within the Glow-Globe of Phistash-Hasrak.Alpha Flight #24 (July 1985) Containing Walter's soul within a globe of its own from his pouch, Shaman then transported Alpha Flight back to Earth, where they met with Heather Hudson and Box.
Lacking a body, in desperation, Shaman projected the soul into the robot Box, who had arrived as the Alphans returned to Earth. After searching for a habitable but mindless body, Langkowski and Box's creator, Roger Bochs, eventually found a nearly-mindless humanoid in another dimension. However, when the pair projected Langkowski's soul along an interdimensional "fishing line", it turned out to be the Hulk. Langkowski, unwilling to displace his colleague and friend Bruce Banner (despite Banner's pleas to the contrary), let his soul dissipate into the interdimensional void.Alpha Flight #28-29 (November - December 1985)
Return and "White Sasquatch" Langkowski survives and returns soon afterward by temporarily inhabiting the shrunken, mindless body of Smart Alec, which had been kept in Shaman's pouch. He then switched over to occupy Snowbird's then-deceased body with her permission. In Snowbird's body, Walt lacked Snowbird's shapeshifting powers and was limited to either Snowbird's (female) human form and a white-furred version of his Sasquatch form.Alpha Flight #44 - 46 (March - May 1987) Now biologically female, she called herself "Wanda Langkowski", and fought to be recognized as legally alive.Alpha Flight #64 (November 1988) Snowbird's spirit later altered her former body to be identical of his original self.Alpha Flight #68 (March 1989) After this, Sasquatch regained his original orange coloration.
Among his later adventures with Alpha Flight, Walt battled Llan the Sorcerer,Alpha Flight #71-75 (June - October 1989) then joined the Avengers, and the People's Protectorate against the Atlantean army, the Peace Corpse, and the Combine.The Avengers #320-324 (August - October 1990) The team also helped defend Her against the Consortium.Alpha Flight #97 (June 1991)
2000s: New Teams, New Troubles In 2005, Sasquatch assembled another incarnation of Alpha Flight to rescue the original team from an alien race known as the Plodex.Alpha Flight (vol. 3) #1 (May 2004) Sales were poor and the series was canceled with issue #12.
Along with Major Mapleleaf, Puck (both Eugene Judd and Zuzha Yu), Vindicator, Shaman, and Guardian, Sasquatch fights The Collective.New Avengers #16 (April 2006) He is later revealed to be the only member of Alpha Flight to survive the attack. Following the events of the 2006 "Civil War" storyline, Langkowski is recruited by the Canadian government to form a new team called Omega Flight. He goes out of control when possessed by the Great Beast, Tanaraq, but manages to recover. He also forgives Michael Pointer for the indirect role he played in the destruction of Alpha Flight and apologized for forcing him into the role of Guardian.
Along with American mutants Wolfsbane, Thornn, and Feral, Sasquatch went to Wakanda to help Wolverine against Sabretooth. Feral was killed by Sabretooth while the villain Romulus made plans of his own involving the group.
During the 2010 "Chaos War" storyline, Sasquatch made a deal with the Great Beasts, bringing them to Earth so they can kill Amatusu-Mikaboshi. Teaming up with Snowbird, Northstar, and Aurora, they reunited with a resurrected Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, and Marrina Smallwood.Chaos War: Alpha Flight one-shot (January 2011)
During the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Sasquatch was seen helping Alpha Flight fight Attuma (in the form of Nerkodd: Breaker of Oceans) while saving people from a cataclysmic flood. Once Nerkodd was defeated, Alpha Flight was almost immediately betrayed by former ally Gary Cody and his newly elected Unity Party.Alpha Flight (vol. 4) #1 (August 2011) When in the custody of the Unity Party, Sasquatch's gamma energy is drained enough for him to revert to his human form.Alpha Flight (vol. 4) #2 (September 2011)
At Parliament Hill--the heart of the Canadian government--Walt is told by Agent Jeff Brown that concussions sustained when he played football will cause him to act less human when he changes back into Sasquatch. Jeff also tells Walt that he will soon achieve Unity. Walt is later freed by Shaman who knocks out Brown.Alpha Flight (vol. 4) #3 (October 2011) The team was instrumental in exposing Unity as a front for a planned takeover of Canada.
As part of the 2015 All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, Sasquatch was as part of the Alpha Flight space program and was among the heroes stranded in space when Captain America (secretly a Hydra agent at that time) closed a force field around Earth.Captain Marvel (vol. 9) #1 (March 2016)
Immortal Hulk While taking time off from the Alpha Flight space program, Walt met a reporter named Jackie McGee and agreed to aid her in her search for Bruce Banner. After Walt was stabbed breaking up a fight between two men, he wound up in the hospital where he turned into Sasquatch that night. After killing doctors that were treating him, Sasquatch encounters Hulk who realized Walt was possessed by Brian Banner's ghost. Hulk freed Sasquatch from Brian's possession by draining enough gamma energy to depower Walt.The Immortal Hulk #3-5 (September - November 2018) It was revealed that Brian's possession of Sasquatch was caused by the One Below All.The Immortal Hulk #9 (January 2019)
Arriving in Reno, Nevada, Walter and Gamma Flight find the Subject B husk in which the U.S. Hulk Operations placed Rick Jones' body. They take the husk to the Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station for study.The Immortal Hulk #20 (September 2019) Reginald Fortean raids the station to reclaim the Subject B husk, killing Walter in the process.The Immortal Hulk #21 (September 2019)
Doc Sasquatch and Walt Samson