Sasquatch
I don't know how familiar you are with the legend of the Sasquatch, but I highly recommend listening to the song by Tenacious D, appropriately titled Sasquatch. OK, so this song has nothing to do with the comic book character, but it's funny and somewhat relevant. I'm sure you are familiar with the whole Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti thing - you know, large half-man half-ape thing that a bunch of people believe in but nobody's really ever seen except for some really badly filmed and most likely faked Super 8 movie footage. Yeah, they found footprints, got some audio, plenty of eyewitness accounts - but nobody's been able to definitively prove anything. This Sasquatch however, although he looks similar, is totally different.
In the comics, Sasquatch is a founding member of Alpha Flight - the Canadian Superhero team. He first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 along with the rest of the team who were on a mission to retrieve Wolverine, an ex-super agent from the Canadian Government who went AWOL to join the X-Men in the US. (I for one will certainly vote for the next Canadian Political Party that supports the creation of Superheroes!) Alpha Flight was created by John Byrne, comic book writer/artist extraordinaire who actually lived in Canada for a good length of time. As cool as Alpha Flight is, I should probably save the rest of the discussion about the team for another time.
Sasquatch started out as Dr. Walter Langkowski, renowned bio-physicist and contemporary of Dr. Bruce Banner (aka - the Hulk). Walter also played professional football with the Green Bay Packers - prior to receiving his super powers, no doubt. He attained said powers by trying to replicate the conditions which turned Banner into the Hulk. His laboratory was located near the Arctic Circle, and supposedly the proximity of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) had some sort of effect on the process, so instead of changing him into a green-skinned goliath, he was transformed into a much bigger, much cuddlier orange-furred ape-like beast. Langkowski also noticed that he was able to retain his human intelligence while in the Sasquatch form and make the transformation at will, unlike Bruce Banner, who changed into the brainless Hulk when sufficiently enraged. As ‘Squatch’, he had phenomenal superhuman strength and endurance, and was a perfect choice for a member of the newly formed Alpha Flight team.
Along with teammates Guardian (or Vindicator), Shaman, Aurora & Northstar, Snowbird, Puck and Marina, Sasquatch fought for truth, justice, and the Canadian Way. The team appeared in a few issues of X-Men, Marvel Team-Up (alongside Spider-Man), Marvel Superhero Contest of Champions and a few other books before they were given their own title in 1983. For me, this was the height of my teenage comic collecting career, and Alpha Flight #1 was my absolute favourite comic book ever for a long, long time. Being Canadian, how could I resist reading about superheroes from my own country? They actually even had adventures in Winnipeg now and again!
As time went on, Sasquatch found that he was becoming more prone to fly into bestial rages while in his transformed state. What he didn’t know then was that when he originally got his powers, his spirit was infused with Tanaraq, one of the Great Beasts of Inuit legends. The beast was slowly taking control of him, and in Alpha Flight #23 (which replaced issue #1 as my favourite of the series), Tanaraq took full control of Sasquatch in the middle of a battle with a super-villain on the streets of downtown Vancouver. In order to defeat him, Snowbird transformed herself into a white-furred Sasquatch (‘cause she can do that, eh?) and ripped out his heart, killing Walter Langkowski in the process.
But this was not the end – heck, no. In order to save Langkowski, Alpha Flight travelled to the mystical Land of the Great Beasts to retrieve his soul. His body crumbled to dust however, and they had to put his life essence into the robot body of Box (another future A.F. member). Later, when trying to find another host body for him, they happened upon the Hulk travelling through a dimensional portal. Turns out the Hulk didn’t want to be possessed by Walter’s soul, so he kicked the crap out of Alpha Flight and took off, leaving Langkowski’s soul supposedly lost forever (again).
From here it gets even more bizarre. About 20 issues later, long after writer/artist John Byrne quit working on the book, Walter came back from the dead, this time inhabiting the shrunken body of Smart Alec, a villain who literally lost his mind and was kept in Limbo inside Shaman’s magical Medicine Bag. Being only 6 inches tall kind of sucked, so the team decided to give him a new body – Snowbird’s. Now he could transform into Sasquatch yet again, only with white fur. The problem was, however, that Snowbird (who sacrificed herself) was female, and if Walter wanted to become human, he could only become a woman. At that point, he took the name of Wanda Langkowski. Although I for one was glad to see Sasquatch return, the storyline was just getting too ridiculous, and I think I quit reading it around this point. Apparently, things eventually came full circle and the comic book writers went back to the normal orange-furred, male Sasquatch.
In summary, even though some weird and outrageous stuff has been done with this character, he’s still one of my absolute favourites, along with Thor, the Hulk and Spider-Man. Being as powerful and cool-looking as I think he is, the main point of this post is to educate you in the ways of Sasquatch so that he gets the love I think he deserves. I know that I`m going to love photographing and making up stories about him. Right now I`m thinking of coming up with some sort of love triangle type of storyline involving him and Power Man and (of course) Barbie. Just like his comic book history, I`m sure it`s going to be weird.
Until next time:
May the Force be with you...
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