Contents 1 HistoryEdit 1.1 Unity 2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Strength level 3 ParaphernaliaEdit 3.1 Equipment 3.2 Transportation 3.3 Weapons 4 LinksEdit 4.1 Discover and Discuss 4.2 Footnotes 5 Recommended Readings

HistoryEdit

Heather grew up as a neighbor to the Twoyoungmen family. Michael Twoyoungmen's daughter Elizabeth was like a sister to Heather and moved in with the MacNeils after her mother died and Michael went in retreat, eventually becoming the mystical hero Shaman.

Because Heather's parents had seven children of their own to support as well as Elizabeth, Heather took a job as a secretary when she was just 17 in order to help support the family. Heather was working as a secretary to Jerome Jaxon of the Am-Can petroleum company when she met James Hudson, one of the company's research scientists. Hudson had invented a cybernetic suit for geological exploration. Heather learned Hudson had resigned from the company after learning his suit was to be sold as a weapon by Jaxon, and stole its cybernetic helmet, rendering it inoperable. Heather too resigned, and followed him. The two were attracted to each other and were soon married. Heather also explained that the Canadian government could help them, and they approached Department H, with a view to starting a superhero team, using Hudson's suit. The team came to be known as Alpha Flight, and Hudson became its leader.

While on their honeymoon in a cabin in a Canadian National Park, the couple encountered Wolverine while he was only known as a rampaging 'wild man.' Heather had a calming influence on Wolverine. Wolverine was eventually groomed to become the leader of Alpha Flight, and there was an obvious attraction between he and Heather. However, Wolverine left rather than cause difficulties in the Hudsons' relationship. Soon after, Alpha Flight had their funding revoked and disbanded.

After Alpha Flight's initial disbanding, Heather secretly called the members together first to battle Tundra, and later Omega Flight, a villainous team which was led by the Hudsons' corrupt former employer, Jerome Jaxon. James appeared to die in the battle when his suit's power pack was sabotaged by Jaxon.

After a subsequent battle with Omega Flight, Heather acquired Delphine Courtney's suit, which had been based on James's Guardian suit. Heather began to use it as Vindicator, hoping she could uphold his legacy by leading Alpha Flight. While James was missing presumed dead, Heather was involved for a time with her teammate Madison Jeffries, and was loved unrequitedly by another teammate, Puck. Under Heather's leadership, the team battled a number of enemies including the Dreamqueen, Pestilence, Scramble, Mesmero, the Sentinels, and Attuma, recruited many new members, and lost several in battle, including Roger Bochs and Narya. Upon James's unexpected return, he and Heather switched codenames, and she became known as Guardian.

While James was again presumed dead Heather was in command of Alpha Flight until a younger clone of Hudson emerged. She found it odd to be working with a much younger James until the real Hudson returned with several other Alpha Flight members to confront the current team about Department H's dealings.

Heather had proved herself as both a team leader and a capable combatant. The Hudsons continued to serve alongside each other, although his absence and cyborg conversion caused some difficulty in their relationship.

Heather recently gave birth to a daughter. Like the rest of Alpha Flight, She and James were temporarily abducted by the Plodex.

Heather is presumed dead after Alpha Flight's disastrous bout with the Collective. It was revealed that she had in fact died, when the Chaos King attacked Earth and basically all of reality, the gates to the Underworld opened and Heather managed to escape along with Guardian, Shaman, and Marrina as well as many other who returned to the land of the living.

Unity

Controlled by the Master of the World, Heather betrayed Alpha Flight to the Unity Party after they took over Canada. She was shown as desperate to regain custody of her daughter, and murdered the distant relatives of hers who had been Claire's foster parents.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Power Grid [1]
Intelligence	3
Strength	2
Speed	3
Durability	3
Energy Projection	6
Fighting Skills	3

Abilities

Heather was an excellent combatant. She also conducted research with her husband.

Strength level

Normal human female with moderate regular exercise; increasing to 25-75 tons while wearing her battlesuit.

ParaphernaliaEdit

Equipment

Electromagnetic suit

• Supersonic flight
• The ability to let gravity propel the suit westward at a high speed. The visual effect is confusable with teleportation and/or cloaking. It is most effective when used close to Earth's magnetic poles.
• Body armor
• Protective forcefield which automatically triggered if the anti-gravity ability was used
• Flares
• Ultrasound
• Concussive electromagnetic beams
• Electromagnetism for 'dispersal beams', electrostatic charges and other effects
• Ability to lift objects via 'graviton beam'
• Limited ability to generate and control plasma, often in the form of a funnel or vortex
• Able to interface with computers

Geothermal suit

* Flight: able to reach speeds above Mach 1

* Superhuman Durability: wears a body armor that projects forcefield capable of withstanding injury to a certain extent

* Heat Manipulation: the suit absorbs various forms of heat and is capable of projecting it as blasts.

* Hydrokinesis: ability to generate water in the form of hot steam or cooled spring water

* Geokinesis: ability to affect volcanic and seismic activity, such as a lava geyser or clouds of ash.

Transportation

Alpha Flight Omnijet

Weapons

No known weapons

LinksEdit

• 241 Appearances of Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• 30 Images featuring Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• 3 Quotations by or about Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Heather McNeil (Earth-616)

Discover and Discuss

• Search this site for: Vindicator · Heather McNeil Hudson · Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• Search the Forums for: Vindicator · Heather McNeil Hudson · Heather McNeil (Earth-616)
• Discuss this and other characters on the forums

Footnotes

1. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z hardcover Vol. 12

Recommended Readings

• First Appearances: (As Hudson) X-Men #139 (1980), (in costume) Alpha Flight (v1) #32 (1986), (as Guardian) X-Men and Alpha Flight #1 (1986), (as Vindicator) Alpha Flight (v1) #34 (1986)
• Origin: Alpha Flight (v1) #2-3 (1983), Alpha Flight (v1) #24 (1985), Alpha Flight: In the Beginning... #-1 (1997)
• Significant Issues: Reformed Alpha Flight (Alpha Flight (v1) #1, 1983); agreed to lead Alpha Flight (Alpha Flight (v1) #17, 1984); stranded in Savage Land, formed Alpha Prime (Alpha Flight Annual #2, 1987); forcibly recruited back into Alpha Flight, given new battle-suit (Alpha Flight (v2) #1, 1997); gave birth to daughter (X-Men Unlimited #45, 2003); deceased (New Avengers #16, 2006)