Lesser Known Marvel Characters: Who Is Sasquatch?

Everybody knows who the Hulk is, and some may know that there are other Hulks (or there were) in the Marvel Universe. Among these other Hulks are Abomination, A-Bomb, Doc Samson, and She-Hulk to name a few. But some of you don't know that there is a Canadian equivalent of the Hulk called Sasquatch. And today we are going to be going over who he is and what kinds of roles he plays in the Marvel Universe.

Sasquatch is a guy named Walter Langkowski who was a football player at Penn State University on a scholarship. But it was here where he met his roommate and friend Bruce Banner. Where Banner was the science genius who was there to make ground-breaking discoveries, Langkowski was a guy that developed an interest in science through Banner. Bruce Banner was at Penn State because he wanted to do research on gamma radiation, and Langkowski sort of just hung around Bruce. The two only really worked together on science experiments for one semester at Penn State. After that, they got into a fight of sorts, and never really talked. Bruce Banner went on to do more work with gamma radiation, and Walter went to M.I.T, McMaster Univeristy, and Simon Fraser University for either more school, work, or to do research. He also went on to play football for the Green Bay Packers.

Walter was mostly just a normal dude up until the point where he found out that Banner, during his time experimenting with gamma rays, became the Hulk. Walter saw that Banner would transform into the Hulk, but wouldn't be able to control it, so he decided that he would begin intensifying his research into gamma rays and the Hulk so that he could harness the powers that gamma radiation gives people, people like Bruce Banner, and become a Hulk that allows him to retain mental and physical control.

Walter did most of his research in the Arctic because that's where his research facility was. Langkowski was able to gain access to the facility with the help of Guardian's funding. Guardian is a man named James Hudson. Not James Hudson Jr., the son of the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) Wolverine. James Hudson is a Canadian Superhero that is the leader of Alpha Flight. Some say that Alpha Flight is like the Canadian X-Men, but I think really it's more of a Canadian Avengers than anything. Alpha Flight is Canada's Official Superhero Team in the Marvel Universe. They aren't really a relevant team that many people care about, me included. Essentially, Langkowski got funding from the leader of Alpha Flight which gave him a safe, isolated place to conduct his research should his experiments go awry.

Walter exposes himself to gamma radiation just like Bruce Banner did, and became a giant hairy monster. At first he was not able to control his abilities, but Alpha Flight later helped him learn how to control the Sasquatch. You may be wondering how it is that Walter is able to learn how to control himself while he is Sasquatch and Bruce hasn't done so. Well, the explanation for that is quite simple. Gamma radiation affects different people in different ways. For example, Doc Samson was exposed to large amounts of gamma rays, and his powers manifest through his hair. Yep. Doc Samson's hair is green from gamma radiation. And in the pictures above you can see him with long hair. Well, the longer his hair grows, the stronger he becomes. I understand that makes absolutely no sense, but I think I proved my point in saying that gamma radiation affects all differently.

After learning how to control himself with the help of Alpha Flight, he becomes a member of the superhero team. Langkowski is also a member of the Alpha Flight Space Program, which is just the Alpha Flight team in space. They aren't very relevant characters except for maybe when they hang out with Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), but even then they are very forgettable characters that aren't really up to much in recent comics.

The reason that I made this post is because Sasquatch is in "Immortal Hulk Issues #4 & 5," and having Sasquatch's origin story in my post on "Immortal Hulk #4" would be way too long for a post that anybody would want to read. This is really all that Sasquatch has been up to in comics, and I gave a basic origin of his character, so this concludes the post about the Canadian Hulk. I already read "Issue #4" of Immortal Hulk and it's amazing so you should go check out that comic, or you could just see the post about "Issue #4" when it comes out. I have quite a few posts planning to be released and a few that I'm currently writing up. So stay tuned for those. We are going to continue with Death of X, but we are also going to be following the Hunt for Wolverine spin-off titles, which give a whole lot of info as to who Wolverine was to various characters in the Marvel Universe.

The next post is likely going to be about "Immortal Hulk #4." I might do Hunt For Wolverine: "Weapon Lost" or "Adamantium Agenda" because those tie-ins are completed, and they're really good. But I haven't done a DC post in quite some time. I was thinking Red Hood and The Outlaws by Scott Lobdell. So that's what content I have scheduled. See you in the next post!

Note: I do not own any of the panels, texts, and images shown in this post. All panels, texts, and images belong to their respective owners.