Editing Alpha Flight (section)

===The Flight===
Alpha Flight was preceded by a team called "The Flight". This team first appeared in ''Alpha Flight Special'' vol. 2 #1 (1992).

Inspired by the debut of the [[Fantastic Four]], [[Guardian (Marvel Comics)|James Hudson]] refined the purpose of [[Department H]] to find and/or develop Canada's superheroes.<ref>{{Cite comic | cartoonist=[[John Byrne (comics)|Byrne, John]] | story=Origin of Alpha Flight: Purpose | title=Alpha Flight | issue=#3 | date=October 1983 | publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] | location=New York, New York | pages=18–22 | url=http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=37852#2}}</ref> New recruit [[Groundhog (comics)|Groundhog]] joins [[Snowbird (character)|Snowbird]], St. Elmo, [[Stitch (comics)|Stitch]], [[Wolverine (character)|Wolverine]] (as Weapon X) and [[Smart Alec (comics)|Smart Alec]] in training. Within a week, the Flight is pressed into their first battle with [[Egghead (Marvel Comics)|Egghead]]'s incarnation of the [[Emissaries of Evil]] (consisting of [[Rhino (character)|Rhino]], [[Solarr]], [[Eel (Marvel Comics)|Eel]], [[Porcupine (character)|Porcupine]], [[Erik Josten|Power Man]] and [[Swordsman (character)|Swordsman]]). Egghead threatens the United States from Canadian soil with a [[Nuclear weapons delivery|nuclear missile]]. Smart Alec disables the missile's guidance system, but Egghead triggers the detonation sequence. Smart Alec panics, leading to St. Elmo transforming the missile and the bomb into light. St. Elmo succeeds, but loses himself in the process. Groundhog and [[Shaman (comics)|Michael Twoyoungmen]] scold Hudson for sending the team into battle while so inexperienced, with a near psychotic leader (Weapon X) and someone who folds under pressure. Hudson thus makes plans for a tiered team system, leading to the formation of Alpha, Beta and Gamma Flight.<ref>{{Cite comic | writer=[[Scott Lobdell|Lobdell, Scott]] | cowriters=[[Simon Furman]] | penciller=Broderick, Patrick | inker=Patterson, Bruce | story=First Flight | title=Alpha Flight Special | volume=2 | issue=#1 | date=1992 | publisher=Marvel Comics | location=New York, New York | url=http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=50616}}</ref>