The Canadian hero known as Sasquatch had a long and storied history in Marvel Comics prior to his death. He was a member of Canada's premier super-team, Alpha Flight, saving the world more times than one can count. Sadly, Sasquatch was killed in The Immortal Hulk #22 when the new Abomination, General Reg Fortean, went on a rampage against the newly formed Gamma Flight team. It was a surprise when the Canuck hero stayed dead - something gamma-powered heroes are struggling to do lately - but Immortal Hulk scribe Al Ewing has now announced that readers can expect a new Sasquatch in the near future.

For the uninitiated, Sasquatch was Walter Langkowski. Bruce Banner’s roommate in college, and just as obsessed with gamma radiation, he later irradiated himself with gamma beams in order to transform himself into a new Hulk. In Langkowski's case, the beams came to the attention of the totemic Great Beasts, and instead of becoming a green monster, he became an orange-furred behemoth whose personality tended to remain despite his new form. A founding member of Alpha Flight, Langkowski recently joined Captain Marvel in space before joining a task force with the intent of bringing the Hulk in safely. It was in pursuit of this goal that Sasquatch met his untimely end.

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Speaking with Comic Book Resources, Ewing let the news of a new Sasquatch slip while keeping a tight rein on exact details:

He's similar in some respects but very, very different in others. He's very much not the Sasquatch we know and love… The new Sasquatch was an idea that came to me quite suddenly, so Joe didn't have as much time to prepare as he has in the past - but that fits with what we're doing with the character, in that he both is different and isn't. Joe's done an amazing job of bringing out the personality underneath the fur, but then he's been an absolute legend art-wise the whole way through this.

Hulk vs Sasquatch Immortal cover

Beyond this similar-but-different approach, not much is known about this new Sasquatch, other than his first appearance will be in The Immortal Hulk #40. There are a lot of directions in which Ewing could take Sasquatch's return. Recent events in The Immortal Hulk have seen the Leader develop an ability to hijack the bodies of gamma mutates, meaning that theoretically anyone could "become" the Sasquatch by literally taking over Langkowski's body. This would certainly fit with Ewing's comments, though he does also use the interview to confirm that events with the Leader will be brought to a climax, so it's possible that the new Sasquatch will enter the story by other means. Ewing's Immortal Hulk run has drilled down deep into the idea of gamma energy empowering different personas within the same person, so "bringing out the personality underneath the fur" could be meant a lot more literally than it first sounds, and the new Sasquatch may be a previously unseen aspect of Langkowski. Or perhaps it's just an all-new character!

For fans of the original Sasquatch and Alpha Flight as a whole, this is something new that might not exactly be wonderful news. The team has often been overlooked by Marvel, often serving as cannon fodder in larger stories, but like any other superhero, Sasquatch has been dead before, and he's always come back. Final judgment will have to wait for The Immortal Hulk #40, by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, which will arrive in December, but fans of the series can rest assured that the creators of this acclaimed series are showing every sign of being able to stick the landing.

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Source: CBR