Alpha Flight #23 June, 1985

Description

‘Night of the Beast’

Snowbird is tormented in her dreams by the Nothern Gods, accusing her of betraying her duty to fight the Great Beasts. Snowbird pleads that she doesn’t know what they’re talking about, so they reveal the face of the Beast that she neglected. She awakens in Douglas’ house where she fled after her last attack of pain and realizes grimly that she will have to kill a friend.

In Vancouver, Alpha Flight heads out to fight an armored menace named Caliber. Sasquatch knocks the machine out of commission, but is injured in the process and begins to lose himself to his savage side. It’s then that Snowbird swoops in and shocks the team by attacking Sasquatch. The others try to pull them apart, but Snowbird’s actions are justified when Sasquatch’s personality is completely replaced with that of the evil Tanaraq, who begins attacking everyone. Snowbird explains that Langkowski’s experiment never transformed him, but rather penetrated the Beasts’ barrier and allowed his body to switch places with Tanaraq’s. Walter had been controlling the Beast, but Tanaraq’s will had been growing in power and had now completely surfaced. With not even Talisman’s power able to resist Tanaraq’s wrath, Snowbird uses her ability to take the form of Sasquatch himself to grapple with the identical Beast. Snowbird emerges victorious by ripping out his heart, killing the body of Walter Langkowski. The other Alphans are horrified, especially Aurora, but Snowbird points out that what she killed was only a vessel for the Great Beast. The soul of Walter remains alive in the Beasts’ imprisoned realm.