Sasquatch. Bigfoot. Yeti. Walter Langkowsi. Wait, what? There are many names for the mythical Sasquatch but in the Marvel universe, there is Walter Làngkowsi, physicist Sasquatch. How did this human man become the hulking creature of legend? Let’s find out!
Dr. Walter Langkowsi was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada by Polish Jewish immigrant parents. He would grow up to become a professor in physics and biophysics at McGill University and even played football for the Green Bay Packers. His work as a physicist would have him attempting to recreate the Hulk and becoming one himself. Instead, his equipment ripped a whole into another dimension, the Realm of Great Beast, and the being known as Tanaraq quietly possessed and granted Walter the ability to transform into the mythical creature, Sasquatch.
Now a super powerful being, it wasn’t long until Walter was teaming up with a variety of heroes such as Wolverine and the Hulk to fight all sorts of monsters and villains. One such being is the Wendigo, in Marvel’s Canada you become a Wendigo if you ate human flesh, accidentally or not. Eventually, Walter would join the Canadian super team Alpha Flight to help protect his home country and the world. It was with the team that Walter would become fully possessed by Tanaraq and have to be killed by teammate Snowbird.
Alpha Flight would go on a quest to bring Walter back to life by possessing the bodies of comatose or dead bodies. He’d even possess friend and teammate Snowbird for a time until he was able to finally get his own body back. He’d eventually create a new Alpha Flight team to rescue his original team from aliens. During a different alien encounter, Walter would be the only member to survive and during the Civil War, Canada would hire Walter to leas a team called Omega Flight. When the Chaos War to stop the deadly god Amatusu-Mikaboshi, Walter would make a deal with Tanaraq for a one time free reign if he’d fight the dark god for him. During this battle, he’d be reunited with the now resurrected team members of Alpha Flight.
When the Serpent’s War occurs, an event where an Asgardian serpent god of fear battles to take over reality and destroy his brother Odin in the process, Walter and Alpha Flight would fight one of the many entities the Serpent would summon. When they return home, a new political party has taken over and arrest Alpha Flight. Walter has his powers drained forcing him to remain human. Walter learns that the injuries he experienced back in his football days may now affect his Sasquatch form. This is due to now experiencing life sans powers as an older former football player allowing all the damage to set in where his first transformation was when he was still young and more durable. This turns out to have been a totrue tactic and he suffers no long term I’ll effects once he is freed. When the government is back in working order, Walter and the rest of Alpha Flight become a space team ready to protect Canada from alien threats before they can even reach Earth.
There you have it folks! Sasquatch is Canada’s answer to the Hulk, the two can go toe-to-toe with one another in a brawl and both come out alive. Will we ever see Sasquatch and Alpha Flight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? One can only hope! See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Uncanny X-Men #120
Alpha Flight
Chaos War: Alpha Flight
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
