By Ronald Byrd
As part of Department H’s efforts to create Canadian super-agents, Walter Langkowski subjected himself to a gamma-radiation treatment designed to give him super-powers similar to those of Bruce Banner,a.k.a. the Incredible Hulk,with whom Langkowski attended college. Unknown to Langkowski, his experiment briefly established a mystic link between himself and the extradimensionally exiled Great Beast named Tanaraq, enabling him to assume the form of an incarnation of the Beast, which Langkowski mistook for a transformation similar to that of the Hulk’s.
As Sasquatch, Langkowski became a member of the Canadian super-team Alpha Flight, but his career took a dramatic turn when the efforts of Tanaraq and his fellow Great Beasts resulted in the expulsion of his soul from his body, which was possessed by Tanaraq and subsequently destroyed; temporarily inhabiting the robot Box, his soul was later transferred to the body of his female teammate Snowbird (whose own soul was at the time believed to be dead; she has since returned, although precisely how she obtained a new body is as yet unrevealed), which was itself in bestial form at the time. Sasquatch was surprised when his transformation back to human left him in Snowbird’s female body (a turn which, unsurprisingly, had a detrimental effect on his relationship with female teammate Aurora), in which form he used the name Wanda Langkowski. Sasquatch eventually regained his male form and evidently never explored any romantic possibilities while in Snowbird’s form, but his experience remains relatively unique in the annals of Marveldom. Temporarily replaced on the team without his knowledge by a genuine sasquatch while he was conducting scientific research, he is an active member of Alpha Flight to this day.
Sasquatch has the ability to change into a large, shaggy, bestial form (actually an incarnation of the Great Beast Tanaraq) in which he possesses immense super-strength, durability, and reflexes; when in human form he retains none of these abilities. It is possible that, considering that he occupies the body of the demigoddess Snowbird, he may have the potential to utilize her own more extensive shape-changing abilities and other powers, but this is unclear.
Sasquatch was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120. The character’s gender transformation happened in Alpha Flight #45.
Art by June Brigman, Whilce Portacio, and Bob Sharen from Alpha Flight #45.
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