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| Vindicator | |
|---|---|
 Vindicator. Art byClayton Henry | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | As Heather Hudson: The Uncanny X-Men #139 (November 1980) As Vindicator: Alpha Flight #32 (December 1985) As Guardian: Alpha Flight #90 (September 1990) As Nemesis: Alpha Flight vol. 5 #1 (August 2023) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont John Byrne |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Heather MacNeil Hudson |
| Species | Human |
| Place of origin | Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Earth-616) |
| Team affiliations | Department H Alpha Flight Alpha Prime Alpha Strike[1] |
| Partnerships | Guardian |
| Notable aliases | Guardian Nemesis |
| Abilities |
|
Vindicator (Heather MacNeil Hudson) is afictional superhero appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. Following the apparent death of her husbandJames, Heather inherits his leadership ofAlpha Flight and battle suit, taking on the codename Vindicator, a previous codename James used. Following James' return, she takes her husband's mantle ofGuardian while he uses Vindicator for a time before the two switch back to their original codenames. After a long hiatus from Alpha Flight, Heather rejoins the team as the fourthNemesis.
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Heather Hudson first appeared inThe Uncanny X-Men #139 (November 1980) and was created byChris Claremont andJohn Byrne.[2]
Heather was born inCalgary, Alberta,Canada. She was originally a secretary at Amcam corporation, where she fell in love withJames MacDonald Hudson.[3] After he had stolen his power suit to prevent it from being used as a military weapon, Heather discovered his secret and decided to share it with him. Soon after they were married.[a]
Heather supported her husband in the forming ofDepartment H and his becoming a superhero. She also assistedWolverine in recovering from the trauma of having been infused withadamantium-laced bones and claws,[4] and was later reunited with him.[5]
After Department H is dissolved, Heather brings members of the disbanded Alpha Flight together to battleTundra of theGreat Beasts. With this initiative creating a spectacular success, the team decides to continue operating Alpha Flight as an independent group.[6] Heather witnesses the apparent death of James Hudson,[7] but because no one else saw him die and there was no corpse, James remains legally alive and no funeral could be held for him, making it more difficult for Heather to get through her grief.[8] She is injured attempting to rescue a child from an alienPlodex.[9]
Heather is asked by the members ofAlpha Flight to take over leadership of the team from James. She accepts, though initially she leads purely as a non-combatant.[10] She leads Alpha Flight on a mission with the X-Men, and is transformed by the mystic Fire Fountain into a stateLoki refers to as a 'demi-god'. She has increased leadership abilities along with vague powers that put her above all other humans. She rejects these powers when all involved learn it would come at the cost of humanity's creativity and the lives of anyone magical, such as her two friends Shaman and Snowbird.[11] She is briefly reunited with the robotDelphine Courtney while it was impersonating James.[12] Her body is temporarily distorted byScramble,[13] and then she is captured by Deadly Ernest.[14]
These dangerous encounters lead to Heather adopting a copy of her husband's battle-suit.[15] Through extensive training by Wolverine, Heather is able to hold her own in a battle.[16] Heather teams with Wolverine againstLady Deathstrike, and takes the name Vindicator.[17] She becomes stranded in theSavage Land, and forms the mutated natives into a team called Alpha Prime.[18] Some time later, Heather defends Alpha Flight in aParliamentary hearing.[19]
Eventually her husband returns and her suit is altered to manipulate geothermal forces and she takes the name Guardian.[20] Soon after that, she battles theFantastic Four.[21]
Heather and James have a baby (an as-yet-unnamed girl) and travel with their child and several other members of Alpha Flight to return a clutch of Plodex eggs to their homeworld. In addition, an accident brings temporal copies of most of the original Alpha Flight – from a time before her husband's "death" – to the present. This group includes a copy of Heather. While she is not a member, this "new" group is active as Alpha Flight while the originals are helping to rebuild the Plodex homeworld.
Alpha Flight (the team consisting ofSasquatch,Guardian, Vindicator,Shaman,Major Mapleleaf II, and bothPucks) are brutally attacked by a new villain "the Collective".[22] They are killed and their bodies are left in theYukon Territory as the Collective continues on to the United States.[23]
During theChaos War storyline, Vindicator (alongside Guardian, Shaman, andMarrina Smallwood) are among the heroes that return from the dead after what happened to the death realms. Reuniting with Aurora, Northstar, Sasquatch, and Snowbird, Alpha Flight gets back together to fight the Great Beasts.[24]
During theFear Itself storyline, Vindicator helped Alpha Flight in fightingAttuma in the form of Nerkodd: Breaker of Oceans. When Alpha Flight returns to their headquarters, they are betrayed by Gary Cody and his newly elected Unity Party. Vindicator sides with Cody.[25] It is shown that six weeks earlier, Guardian and Vindicator were unable to regain custody of their child. While bringing Guardian to the Box Units for imprisonment, Vindicator is ambushed by Puck, who knocks Vindicator out.[26] After reclaiming her daughter Claire from her cousin, Vindicator assembles Alpha Strike (consisting ofPersuasion, Ranark, aWendigo, and a brainwashed Citadel) to spread the Unity program and take down Alpha Flight. It is later revealed that Vindicator and Department H had fallen under the mental control ofMaster of the World.[27] While at a beach in Ontario with Claire, Vindicator is visited by Wolverine who states that the people in the United States are starting to be concerned about the Unity Party's actions, and when he saw Vindicator call the rest of Alpha Flight traitors Wolverine decided to investigate. Vindicator then accompanies Alpha Strike into attacking Alpha Flight,Taskmaster, and Wolverine. Vindicator fights Guardian, who tries to get through to Vindicator by stating that Master of the World is controlling her.[28] At the end of theAlpha Flight series, Vindicator (still under the influence of the Master) helped Alpha Flight against Alpha Strike and then Master of the World attempts to kill their child Claire. He was killed by Alpha Flight, but Vindicator escapes with Claire. After the Unity Party is abolished, Vindicator leaves Canada with her daughter Claire.[29]
Heather and Claire spend months on the run until Guardian, who never lost track of them, reluctantly follows orders to bring them to Department H on the condition that Heather and Claire would remain unharmed and safe. Through the use of virtual reality and neuro-stimulants, Guardian tricks Heather into believing she is being rescued by mercenaries and taken to a safehouse inBritish Columbia, when in reality was being taken to a prison and subjected to more mental brainwashing to trust Department H again.[30]
During the "Fall of X" storyline, Heather escapes confinement and after leaving Claire with Marrina andWalt Samson, assumes the identity ofNemesis and rejoins Alpha Flight to help protect mutant refugees from Department H, who has allied withOrchis. While most of her teammates are aware or her secret identity, Heather refuses to reveal herself to James, believing that she would do so when ready.[31] Guardian eventually discovers Heather's identity after she is grievously wounded and falls unconscious following a battle with Department H'sBox Sentinels.[32] When Department H attacks Krakoa North to capture the mutant refugees, Heather uses her remaining life-force to teleport her mutant teammates and the refugees to the Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station. Heather ultimately survives but falls into a coma and is taken into Department H's medical care while James and the remaining Flight members are arrested for treason.[33]
Formerly, Vindicator wore theGuardian suit that her husband currently wears. Currently Heather's suit, which she first employed inAlpha Flight vol. 2, taps into a different source for its power. Instead of manipulating electromagnetic energies, this suit allows its wearer to control geothermal energy, allowing Heather to melt rock and manipulate the resulting lava, create jets of lava, create both hot and cold jets of water, including jets of steam and cooling sprays of water. The suit can absorb heat into its power cells, provides its wearer with a personal force field, and enables feats of super-strength and super-speed.
Heather is a master combat strategist, and received training in hand-to-hand combat fromPuck andWolverine.
While as Nemesis, Heather wields the mystical sword Scell, granting her ability to teleport herself and others[34] and superhuman durability, protecting her from serious injuries.[35] However, using Scell's abilities without taking a life drains Heather of her life-force. Due to Scell requiring the life-force of its victims to sustain itself, Heather's lack of victims with Scell causes the sword to drain her of her own life-force whenever she uses its teleportation abilities, worsening depending on the distance traveled and the number of people being teleported. As Heather's predecessors were undead and able to bypass Scell's requirement, Heather's continued use would result in her death.[36]
Ablack Canadian version of Heather Hudson, who served as her Alpha Flight's version ofSasquatch, was a member of theExiles, recruited against her will to replace a brain-damaged Thunderbird by the Timebroker.[37] A brilliant scientist and physician, she became Sasquatch after being accidentally exposed to gamma rays. She was recruited to Alpha Flight as the team's muscle and medic, and shortly afterwards met Wolverine when he was found wandering the wilderness after escaping from the Weapon X facility. Heather successfully restored Wolverine to sanity, and the two fell in love and married. Two years later, Weapon X activated a hidden trigger in Wolverine's mind, forcing Heather to kill him when he went on a rampage. After years of mourning, she remarried Alpha Flight commander James Hudson, who had comforted her in her grief.[38]
In the series ofUltimate Comics: X, theUltimate Heather Hudson appears. Heather resides in Florida and as the non-powered wife of James Hudson, who she was introduced to byWolverine, and is adoptive mother of Wolverine's sonJames Hudson Jr. who was killed inUltimatum.[39]
The Vindicator name was used byJohn Wraith.[40]
A loose depiction of Heather Hudson appears inX-Men Origins: Wolverine, portrayed byJulia Blake. This version is an elderly woman who is married to Travis Hudson (portrayed byMax Cullen) and is later killed byAgent Zero.[41]