SASQUATCH

 

SASQUATCH

Real Name: Walter Langkowski

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #120, April 1979

Powers: Dr. Walter Langkowski was a physicist attempting to recreate the gamma exposure that turned Dr. Bruce Banner into the Hulk, but under controlled laboratory conditions. This resulted in a massive explosion in the northern Canadian wilderness. This explosion was severe enough that it briefly created a tear in the inter-dimensional barrier protecting Earth from the Great Beasts, and one of the Beasts named Tanaraq reached through to "touch" Langkowski. Awakening after the explosion, Walter discovered that he now had the power to transform into an orange-furred bigfoot creature. He reasoned that he had become a gamma mutate, and the normal green coloration caused by gamma radiation was altered by the methods he employed. In fact, Sasquatch was actually Tanaraq's body, and Walter was transpositioning his own mass with that of the Great Beast himself, and each time he did so, Tanaraq's influence on Earth was becoming stronger and stronger. As Sasquatch, Walter stood over 7' tall and was covered with shaggy orange fur. His strength level reached Superhuman Class 100, in addition to increased foot speed, agility, endurance, reaction time, and tremendous resistance to physical injury. He did possess some level of enhanced senses and his fingers ended in claws, but he was rarely interested in employing them. After Tanaraq eventually waxed full control over the Sasquatch body, Snowbird was forced to kill Walter's physical form in order to annihilate the Great Beast. His spirit was recovered and placed inside the Box Mark II robot for a time, but was later lost on the Crossroads to All Realities. Eventually, Walter's spirit found its way into the void inside Shaman's medicine pouch, and possessed the diminutive body of the brain-dead Smart Alec, who was being stored in there. Crawling out of the pouch, Langkowski then transferred his mind briefly into the Box Mark III to combat Pestilence, an evil spirit who had possessed Snowbird's body, which at that point was both dead and transformed into a recreation of Langkowski's Sasquatch body.

After Pestilence was driven out, Walter possessed the Snowbird-Sasquatch and impulsively attempted to transform back into his human self. Snowbird's power was that she always transformed into female, white-haired versions of different animals. By attempting to morph into his human self, Walter ended up transforming into a female version of himself with white hair. This process seemed to disrupt Snowbird's powers, and so Langkowski was never able to access any of Snowbird's other morphing or psionic powers. Now, the he//she combination could only morph back and forth from the white furred female Sasquatch to the white haired "Wanda Langkowski". In the end, though, Narya's patron gods intervened and remove all traces of Snowbird from Sasquatch's body, restoring him to his male human form and orange-furred Sasquatch form. Since that time, Walter has referred to himself as a gamma mutate again, so it seems that the gods transformed him into the very thing he originally thought himself to be. The second Sasquatch was an actual "missing link", one of a hidden race of creatures resembling Langkowski's altered form. He had considerable mass, standing over at least 7' tall, in addition to superhuman strength, running speed, endurance, and resistance to physical injury. He also possessed razor sharp claws and teeth, and presumably had enhanced senses as well.

Walter Langkowski holds a Ph.D. in physics and is also a genius-level intellect with expertise in the effects of radiation on human physiology. He also has extensive knowledge of physics and was a talented football player.