Real
Name: Dr. James MacDonald Hudson
Occupation: Petrochemical engineer, later government
agent, later freelance adventurer
Identity: Secret, known to certain Canadian government
officials
Other Aliases: Weapon Alpha, Vindicator (I)
Place of Birth: London, Ontario, Canada
Place of Death: New York City
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Heather McNeil Hudson (wife), Ramsey
McNeil (father-in-law), Claire McNeil (mother-in-law)
Group Affiliation: Alpha Flight
Base of Operation: Ottawa, Canada
First Appearance: (as Weapon Alpha) X-MEN # 109, (as
Vindicator) X-MEN #120, (as Guardian) ALPHA FLIGHT #2
Final Appearance: ALPHA FLIGHT #12
History: In the mid 70s, James MacDonald Hudson,
an engineer for the Am-Can Petro-Chemical Company in
Canada, invented an armored suit that would enable the
wearer to bore through the earth in exploring for oil
or other geological resources. Hudson resigned from
Am-Can when he learned that his superior, Jerome "Jerry"
Jaxon, intended to turn the exploratory suit over to
the American military, which would use it as a weapon.
Determined to prevent Jaxon from implementing his plan,
Hudson went to an Am-Can complex one night, secretly
donned the suit, and then used its power to destroy
Am-Cans plans for its construction. Hudson then
used the suits flying capability to escape. Hudson
abandoned the suit but made off with its cybernetic
helmet, which he had designed and build before going
to work at Am-Can, and without which the suit was inoperable.
Shocked by what happened to Hudson at Am-Can, Heather McNeil,
Jaxons young personal secretary, had also resigned
from the company. McNeil was strongly attracted to Hudson,
who was her elder by many years. The day after Hudson
committed the theft, McNeil visited him and learned
that he had taken the helmet. She told Hudson she had
fallen in love with him the first time she seen him,
and told him that she wanted to be his wife. Hudson
was taken aback by this confession of love from a girl
who was still a month away from turning eighteen, but
he acknowledged that he was attracted to her as well.
Hudson was deeply depressed about his future, believing
he would be sent to prison for stealing the suit. McNeil
decided to seek the Canadian governments aid for
Hudson, and she and Hudson spent two days speaking with
various government employees. Finally, the Canadian
government declared that Hudson had been a government
employee "retroactively" for six years, that
the helmet was indeed his property, and decided to compensate
Am-Can for all damages incurred by Hudson in reclaiming
the helmet. Jerome Jaxon, however, lost his position
at Am-Can as a result of Hudsons "theft"
of the cybernetic helmet.
Hudson was invited by the Canadian Prime Minister to participate
in the creation of Department H, a top-secret research
and development agency within the Canadian Ministry
of Defense. Within a year Hudson married Heater McNeil.
While visiting Canadas Wood Buffalo National Park,
James and Heather Hudson were attacked by a "wild
man" whom they later learned was named Logan, the
superhuman mutant who still later was given the codename
Wolverine. Logan had become savage and animalistic and
seemingly incapable of speech, apparently due to the
shock of having his skeleton laced with metal alloy
Adamantium and being given retractable Adamantium claws.
James Hudson shot Logan, but the bullet did not stop
him, and Logan physically assaulted him. Then Heather
fired a shot that felled Logan, rendering him unconscious.
The Hudsons brought Logan to their cabin, where James
tied him to a bed. Saying he was going to get medical
help for the wild man, James Hudson left heather alone
in the cabin with Logan. But a blizzard prevented James
from returning to the cabin for some time. Logan severed
his bonds and might have attacked Heather, but was horrified
upon seeing his claws for what he later claimed was
the first time he came remember. Believing that someone
had implanted the claws in Logan against his will, Heather
comforted the despairing Logan until James Hudson finally
returned.
Heather Hudson now suspects that James Hudson may have had
something to do with the Adamantium in Logans
body and giving him his claws. She also suspected that
Hudson might have known that they find Logan in the
national park, and that he may have left her alone with
Logan in the cabin in the hope that she could calm his
pain-maddened rage. But as yet Heather Hudson has no
proof of these suspicions.
The two Hudsons had Logan live with them and nursed him back
to health. They also worked Logan day and night until
he emerged from his state of shock and regained his
human sanity, although Logan was still prey to animalistic
rages at time.
It was shortly after his wedding that James Hudson learned
of the formation of the team of superhuman champions
called the Fantastic Four. Inspired by the news, James
Hudson decided to form a team of superhumanly powerful
agents to go on missions for the Canadian government.
Logan aided James Hudson in the initial phases of the
creation of the team, which would be called Alpha Flight,
and it was planned that Wolverine would lead the team.
Logan fell in love with Heather Hudson but at this time did
not tell her of his true feeling for her. Logan knew
that Heathers attitude towards him was maternal,
and he finally realized that she was too deeply in love
with her husband ever leave him. Therefore, wanting
to put his longing for Heather behind him, Logan quit
Department H when he received an offer from Professor
Charles Xavier to join the X-Men.
James Hudson continued to develop and improve upon his exploratory
armored suit, and it eventually became the costume that
he himself wore as a member of Alpha Flight. James Hudson
reluctantly became the teams leader after Wolverines
resignation.
At first James Hudsons code name as a costumed agent
was "Weapon Alpha." Under this name he attempted
to carry out his orders to bring Wolverine back to Department
H by force. Hudson failed in this task, but in the course
of this mission accidentally nearly killed the X-Mens
ally, Dr. Moira MacTaggert. The guilt-ridden Hudson
subsequently took the new code name "Vindicator,"
believing he now had to vindicate himself. Eventually,
the Canadian government accepted Wolverines departure
from Department H, and the Hudsons resumed their friendly
relationship with him.
Alpha Flight had six members - Aurora, Northstar, Sasquatch,
Shaman, Snowbird, and Vindicator - when it and Department
H were disbanded by the Canadian government for financial
reasons. But, shortly thereafter, when James Hudson,
as Vindicator, went to investigate what proved to be
the emergence of the mystical Great Beast called Tundra,
Heather, without her husbands knowledge, summoned
the other members of Alpha Flight to help him. The six
members afterwards decided to continue acting as a team
performing altruistic missions, and they were joined
by two trainees for eventual membership in Alpha Flight
from Department Hs Beta Flight, Marrina and Puck.
Having come to terms with his guilt over injuring MacTaggert,
James Hudson Took the new code name "Guardian."
Months later, Heather Hudson was taken captive by Delphine
Courtney, a humanoid robot serving Jerome Jaxon, who
had formed a team of superhuman agents called Omega
Flight in order to destroy Alpha Flight and gain vengeance
on James Hudson. Jaxon took remote control of the robot
Box and used it to battle Guardian during the ensuing
clash between Alpha Flight and Omega Flight. Hudsons
battlesuit was severely damaged in the battle, and,
in order to defeat Box, he tore circuits out from the
battlesuit and fed energy from his battlesuits
power pack directly into Box. Thus the Box robot was
destroyed and the feedback apparently killed Jaxon.
But then Hudson had to disconnect his battlesuits
power pack within seconds or else it would explode.
Heather entered the room just in time to witness the
explosion that killed her husband.
The members of Alpha Flight subsequently Heather Hudson to
become their new leader. Later, Alpha Flight again clashed
with Omega Flight, which this time was led by the Courtney
robot, which was wearing a reconstructed version of
Guardians battlesuit. Courtney was destroyed and
Omega Flight was defeated, but Alpha Flight salvaged
the Courtney robots battlesuit. Soon afterwards,
the Canadian government again began giving Alpha Flight
its official and financial support. Believing she herself
needed to become an active combatant in the team with
enough power to hold her own along side the other members,
Heather Hudson began wearing Courtneys recreated
version of her husbands battlesuit, with modifications,
in action. Heather has taken the code name "Vindicator,"
which was formerly used by her husband.
Height: 6 ft. 2 in.
Weight: 190 lbs. (without battlesuit)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Strength Level: Without the battlesuit James Hudson
possesses the normal human strength of a man of his
age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular
exercise. When his strength was augmented by the Guardian
battlesuit, he could lift (press) approximately 3.5
tons.
Known Superhuman Powers: None
Abilities: James Hudson was a brilliant inventor and
engineer and an above average athlete with extensive
training in hand-to-hand combat.
Weapons: Guardians superhuman abilities stemmed
solely from the steel-mesh battlesuit that he wore.
The suit contained an array of 1,200 miniature electromagnetic
projectors that generates a stress pattern within the
local area of the Earths electromagnetic field.
Through this means Guardians battlesuit could
tap into high order energies that the suit could utilize
for other purposes.
The suit served as an exoskeleton for Guardian that amplified
his natural strength The suit utilized a fast, large
capacity computer to channel energy through the exoskeleton
in lines of force that precisely paralleled Guardians
musculature, thereby magnifying his strength.
By directing dispersed beams of force towards the ground,
Guardian could fly at a maximum speed of up to Mach
1 (the speed of sound, about 770 miles per hour).
The Guardian could also use the battlesuit to form a protective
force field at a distance of about three inches from
his armor. The force field dampened inertia but did
not cancel it; Guardian could be staggered by a sufficient
impact. The maximum impact that the field could diffuse
was 1,750 foot-pounds per second; above that level residual
inertial effects became excessive. The field could also
absorb and shunt the energies of most incoming radiations
in the electromagnetic spectrum. The force field was
controlled by a cybernetic link and was left on during
flight to protect against high-speed winds and mid-air
collisions.
Guardian could shoot beams of concussive force from his gauntlets
with a force equivalent to 250 pounds of TNT. James
Hudson originally intended for the suits blasting capability
to serve as a digging tool. Using the battlesuits
blasts, Guardian could move through bedrock at a maximum
speed of 15 mile per hour.
Guardians battlesuit computer used a high resolution,
solid state, laser-interferometry navigation system
that could compute every component of Guardians
movement relative to the Earth. Guardian could trigger
the computer to fire a beam of graviton (the subatomic
particles that carry the force of gravity) in the exact
direction that would cancel the Earths rotation
relative to himself. This caused a nearly instantaneous
acceleration, which, at the equator, where Guardian
would reach his maximum speed, meant that Guardian would
reach about 1,000 mile per hour. To the unaided human
eye Guardian would have seemed to have instantaneously
teleported himself from one location to another, Guardians
force field automatically activated during this rapid
acceleration for safetys sake. The maximum distance
that he could "jump" by this means is not
yet known.
Guardian controlled all of the functions of his battlesuit
through the cybernetic circuitry housed in the cowl
of his battlesuit. This circuitry represented an improvement
over the cybernetic helmet he had originally used with
the exploratory suit he devised an Am-Can Petro-Chemical
company.