Walter Langkowski

Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #120 (April 1979) and was created by John Byrne and Chris Claremont.

Langkowski is a scientist turned into a Sasquatch-like being through a controlled gamma-radiation experiment which linked him to the god Tanaraq. He is a long-term and founding member of 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, British Columbia, Canada, renowned physicist, and professor at McGill University. He was also a professional football player for the Green Bay Packers. In the 1993 miniseries ''The Infinity Crusade'', it is revealed that Langkowski is Jewish.

As Sasquatch, he possessed the ability to change into a massive, super-strong and orange-furred beast. In this form, Langkowski had immense physical attributes and natural weaponry.

Origin

This alternate form was due to Langkowski's 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,''Incredible Hulk'' Annual #8 (December 1979) to test his own physical limits, then fought alongside the Hulk against the Wendigo.

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. On his own, he faced the Super-Skrull.''Alpha Flight'' #9–10 (April - May 1984) and then rejoined the team to fight Omega Flight in New York City, where the team lost Guardian.

Alongside Rom, Alpha Flight fought the Dire Wraiths. and then joined the X-Men on a journey to Asgard, where they clashed with Loki.

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.

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.

Return and "White Sasquatch"

However, Langkowski wasn't dead. He returned 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. Now biologically female, she called herself "Wanda Langkowski", and fought to be recognized as legally alive. Snowbird's spirit later altered her former body to be identical of his original self. After this, Sasquatch regained his original orange coloration.

Among his later adventures with Alpha Flight, Walt battled Llan the Sorcerer, then joined the Avengers, and the People's Protectorate against the Atlantean army, the Peace Corpse, and the Combine. The team also helped defend Her against the Consortium.

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. 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. 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.

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. When in the custody of the Unity Party, Sasquatch's gamma energy is drained enough for him to revert to his human form.

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. 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.

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. It was revealed that Brian's possession of Sasquatch was caused by the One Below All.

General Reginald Fortean nearly charged Walter for the deaths he caused but changed his mind; instead, he had Captain Marvel send the Avengers after Hulk. After Hulk escaped from Fortean's custody, Walt and Puck formed a new version of Gamma Flight to go after Hulk.

Walt and Gamma Flight arrived at the area where the gamma bomb first turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk. As Hulk fought Gamma Flight, Absorbing Man absorbed the leftover gamma radiation that enabled the One Below All to plunge New Mexico into its Below Place. After Hulk defeated the One Below All, Walter and Gamma Flight were returned to Earth, where Absorbing Man joined the group.

With Titania as its latest member, Walter and Gamma Flight ran into Doc Samson, who revealed Hulk's plan to wipe out human civilization.

Arriving in Reno, Nevada, Walt and Gamma Flight found the Subject B husk in which the U.S. Hulk Operations placed Rick Jones' body. They took it to the Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station for study. Wearing the Redeemer armor, Fortean raided the station to reclaim the Subject B husk. While taking out Gamma Flight, Fortean shot Walter to avenge the deaths Sasquatch caused.

Doc Sasquatch and Walt Samson

In the Below Place, Samson discovered that gamma mutates had a way back to life by means of a green door opened by the One Below All. Anyone with gamma radiation could self-resurrect this way, so long as the door was open. However, the Leader had learned how to manipulate the doors, including figuring out how to close them.

With his door in the Below Place obstructed, Doc Samson searched for an alternative. He discovered one and resurrected himself by inhabiting Walt Langkowski's body, taking the alias "Doc Sasquatch". Meanwhile, Walt returned the favor by occupying Samson's body and named himself Walt Samson.''Immortal Hulk'' #40 (January 2021)

Although Reed Richards promised to restore them to their own bodies, Walt Samson was still with Alpha Flight when the team pretended to work alongside the anti-mutant group Orchis. In reality, they were rounding up mutants to evacuate them from Earth. He was part of the support team helping with the evacuation and was not apprehended along with Guardian, Puck, Shaman, and Snowbird.

Powers and abilities

As Sasquatch, Langkowski possessed abnormal strength and stamina, as well as resistance to injury (in an early appearance, he fought the Hulk for "fun" in order to test his limits). He is strong enough to pull a naval destroyer ashore for repairs, as well as hold a DC-10 cargo plane against the thrust of its engines and then hurl it over 1,000 feet backward. Thanks to his thick fur, he can survive easily in extreme arctic environments. Sasquatch is able to jump vast distances, but not as well as the Hulk. His claws are sharp and durable enough to cut through stone, wood, and even some metals. Though his human body requires corrective lenses, Langkowski's vision as Sasquatch was better than human. He also heals with unnatural speed, as demonstrated when Walt's arm, broken by Super-Skrull, healed when he changed into Sasquatch.

As Walt Samson, he has all the powers of Doc Samson.

Early in his career, switching between forms at will caused Langkowski considerable physical discomfort. To alleviate the pain, he recited a mantra while focusing on his body. However, after many months of practice, he could effect the transformations with relative ease, without the need for meditative yoga.

Langkowski is a professionally trained scientist with knowledge of both physics and biophysics. He has experience dealing with many forms of experimental radiation and their mutagenic properties on lifeforms under controlled settings. As a former football player, Langkowski has athletic strength and endurance, though he is no longer in peak condition. Sasquatch also has learned some combat skills, although he relies chiefly on brute force.

Other characters named Sasquatch

Sasquatch race

A race of Sasquatches were discovered to live in the forests of British Columbia. They are first seen in ''Alpha Flight'' vol. 2 #1.''Alpha Flight'' (vol. 2) #1 (August 1997) Once a year, the Sasquatches gather at the City of Sasquatches in secret, where they worship their forgotten gods and breed with one another.

One Sasquatch named Murkfoot that lived in the 1000s was the Sorcerer Supreme and a member of the Avengers of 1,000 AD.

Sasquatch II

One of these Sasquatches, a barely intelligent monster, is mistaken by Langkowski's teammates to be a highly degenerated Langkowski, but it was an actual Bigfoot that had been captured by Department H. He is kept in control by the touch of the superpowered Murmur, though not always successfully. This Sasquatch dies in a conflict with Department H's corrupt leadership and the Zodiac.

Howling Commandos' Sasquatch

Another Sasquatch appears in the 2005–2006 ''Nick Fury's Howling Commandos'' series as a member of that titular group. What, if any, connection this character has to Walter Langkowski or the Sasquatch from ''Alpha Flight'' volume 2, is not revealed. He is first seen helping the Abominable Snowman

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