Heather McNeil Hudson

Origin

Heather was born into a large family in Calgary, Alberta. She has several siblings of whom she is the oldest. Her path in life was not at all geared towards heroics and had it not been for her employment at the AmCam corporation she likely would have lived out her life in relative obscurity. While she worked there, however, she met a man several years older than her and fell in love with him. This man was James MacDonald Hudson, who had been assigned to a project at the company. He was in charge of developing a mechanical suit which could be used for geological exploration. James eventually became opposed to the idea as he became aware that the suit would be eventually taken over for military purposes. He stole the suit and Heather soon found out that he had done it. The two were soon after married and Heather fully supported his goal in forming Department H and his goal of becoming a costumed hero. During this time she also aided Wolverine.

Creation

Heather Hudson was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men issue 139 (1980).

Character Evolution

She has evolved from the support staff for a group of heroes, to a hero herself and finally a leader of heroes.

Major Story Arcs

Alpha Flight

Heather was involved with Alpha Flight and Department H for the majority of her superhero career and even before it. After Department H was eventually dissolved, Heather brought the members of Alpha Flight together to battle Tundra. After a resounding success for the new team, the group decided to continue acting as Alpha Flight without government sanction. Soon after the team was re-united Heather witnessed the apparent death of James Hudson. She enters a period of deep mourning. She is also injured soon after attempting to rescue a child from the alien Plodex .After the apparent death of James, Heather is asked by the members of Alpha Flight to take over leadership of the team. Though hesitant to take on this responsibility, she eventually agrees. Despite this she takes a background role as she chooses to lead as a support staff and not one that could be involved in combat. During this time she led Alpha Flight on a mission with the X-Men when Loki tried to endow ordinary humans (including herself) with godly attributes for the supposed aid of humanity. She was thus for a time transformed into a being with superstrength and with a high degree of fighting prowess. Soon the heroes realized it was a plot by Loki to control all the magics of the Earth for his own ends. After defeating him she relinquished her powers.

For a time she thought she was reunited with James Hudson but it was later revealed to be Delphine Courtney. Her body was temporarily distorted by Scramble, and then she was captured by Deadly Ernest.

Heather eventually decided that as a member of the team and in danger to her high profile that she should have some degree of protection. Because of this she decided to wear James’ battlesuit. With the aid of Wolverine, she is able to learn the practical application of tactics in combat. She would later team with Wolverine against Lady Deathstrike and a group of ninja and would subsequently take the name Vindicator.

Savage Land

Alpha Flight would next be trapped in the Savage Land. She banded together a band of mutated natives into a group called Alpha Prime. Upon returning home she had to defend the team to the Canadian government. Unexpectedly James Hudson also returned and revealed he had not in fact died. This caused great stress for both Heather and her estranged husband. Her suit is modified to manipulate geothermal forces and she changes her name to Guardian. After a battle against the Fantastic Four she gains a deeper appreciation of the international relations among heroes from different countries and regions.

Disbannding Alpha Flight and the Regrouping

After many more adventures, the government sponsored team was disbanned and the team fell apart. This would however not last long, as some months after it’s disbanneding, Alpha Flight was again formed, this time with Heather’s husband Jimmy Hudson firmly established again as it’s primary leader.

A Daughter

Heather and James are also reunited and begin their relationship again. It was then that Heather and James where finally expecting their first child. Although a happy time for both of them, it was during this period that James was abducted by an old acquaintance whom had a grudge against him. While Heather was in labor and was surrounded by her good friends from the X-Men, James was assaulted and beaten. He managed to escape however, and with the help of the X-Men managed to defeat the assailant. After the fight, James seemed badly beaten, and was even thought he would not make it alive. When he however heard of his child being born, he regained strength and made a full recovery. Heather and James now finally had their very own family. This did not stop them from being heroes in Alpha Flight.

New Alpha Flight

They travel with Alpha Flight to return a clutch of Plodex eggs to their homeworld. Following this an accident brings copies of the original Alpha Flight members, before her husband’s death, to the present. This group becomes active as Alpha Flight.

The Collective

With the rampage of the villain known as the Collective, Alpha Flight matches up against this team in the Yukon. Severely outmatched, many of the team members are defeated easily and Heather is killed.

Chaos War and Return

During the events of the Chaos War, many deceased characters from the Marvel Universe where brought back to life by an ancient God for a short period of time. This included Heather and her perished teammates from Alpha Flight. However, when the evil god was defeated, some of the resurrected teammates remained alive, among them Heather and her other teammates. The group re-assembled again and started working as a superhero team again, with renewed strength and happy they got a second chance in life.

James and Heather had a difficult time returning from the dead, especially when they learned they no longer had custody of their child Claire Hudson. The custody was given to family after the two of them died. The two even had to go as far as go to court to get their child back. The defense told the judge that the child would have an extreme amount of risk being parented by people whom fought as superheroes.

Their assumed deaths was an example of this. Sometime after that Heather was recruited by Gary Cody´s Unity Party program, she claimed her daughter from his cousin (killing him and his wife in the process) and assemble a new Alpha Strike with Persuasion, Ranark, a Wendigo, and a brainwashed Citadel in order to spread The Unity program and take down Alpha Flight, betraying the team. It was later revealed that Heather and the Department H had fallen under the controll of Master of the World (This was noticed by Wolverine after he paid a visit to Heather after The United States started to get worried about the Unity Party actions). Eventually Heather lead Alpha Strike to fight Alpha Flight, but, after a confrontation against Guardian, Heather turns to Master of the World, helping her former team. Alpha Flight kills the Master, and Vindicator flees from Canada with Claire.

Return to Alpha Flight

Wolverine answers Heather´s call of help when James disappears. It is unknown when James and Heather got back together and She starts to wear her green and white costume. She and Logan get caught by some Wendigos and they ended up being transformed in Wendigos themselves.

With the help of the X-men, the Wendigo plague is stopped and Heather is reverted to her human self. She end up taking care of a wounded James.

Manipulated by the Master of the World

After the events of Feat Itself, Heather was brainwashed into working with The Master of the World, which caused her to fight against her husband James and the other teammates of Alpha Flight. She even killed Claire’s guardians in order for her to retrieve their daugher! When she eventually was freed from the Masters’ influance, Heather was horrified of her actions and fled with her daughter from the law and Alpha Flight, being afraid of reprocussions. She vanished for some time.

True North

Many months later, Guardian tracked down Heather and his daughter while seemingly helping them avert capture by the Canadian government. He brought them to a safehouse. There, Heather told James that, although she loved him, the two of them would never work. James told her he was not doing this for them to get back together and left them in the safehouse. After leaving, it turend out that the safehouse actually was a jail for them. With mental manipulation, Heather was unaware of this and felt safe. Guardian stated to his government superiors that the only reason he helped them capture Heather was on the condition that they remained unharmed. He needed Heather to trust him once again.

Powers and Abilities

As Vindicator, Heather employs a battlesuit that enables her to tap into the geothermal energy of the Earth, which enables her to fire blasts of heat, summon geysers and create volcanic eruptions. She can also manipulate gravity, and adequately enough to fly. For a period she was also given superhuman powers by Loki which included a heightened fighting ability and superstrength.

Other Media

Television

• 

  A non-powered version of Heather appears as an old friend of Wolverine in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode “Repo Man.” In flashbacks, it is shown that she and her husband were the first people to encounter Logan after his escape from the Weapon X facility years ago, and befriended him while helping him recuperate from his ordeal. She also has also ties with Alpha Flight, being the wife of Guardian, and is involved in a plot to lure Wolverine back to Canada so Department H can examine his skeleton. However, she rebels against her husband and his superior after realizing that they plan to kill Logan, despite previously having promised her they would not harm him. She was voiced by Rebecca Jenkins.

Film

• 

  A radically different version of Heather Hudson appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Logan ends up at the home of the Hudsons after escaping from the Weapon X facility, and takes refuge there. Heather and her husband befriend Logan, but are soon murdered by Agent Zero. Unlike her comic counterpart, this version of Heather was an elderly woman. She was portrayed by Julia Blake.

Games

X-Men Legends II

Heather appears in her Vindicator persona in M, voiced by Marsha Clark.

X-Men: Battle of The Atom

Vindicator appears as a support card in the mobile game X-men: Battle of the Atom. Her cards are:

• Vindicator
• [Originals] Exiles

Toys

• She is part of a two-pack with Sasquatch as part of 1999 ToyBiz Alpha Flight line.
• Vindicator was released in the serie 14 of the Mini-Mates Collection in a Two Pack with Box.
• Vindicator is part of HeroClix in the “Ultimates” wave.
• Heather is part of the Marvel Universe Bust collection from Diamond Select.
• Vindicator was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Alpha Flight box set, which was an online exclusive.