Alpha Flight is a fictional team of Canadian superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The characters premiered in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979), and were created to serve as part of the X-Men member Wolverine's backstory. Marvel published an Alpha Flight comic book series from 1983 to 1994. The team serves as Marvel's premier Canadian superhero team akin to America's Avengers.
Created by British born Canadian raised writer and artist John Byrne, the team first appeared in a two-part story in The Uncanny X-Men #120 and 121. Byrne never intended the team to be an ongoing title. He created them "merely to survive a fight with the X-Men" for the purposes of that story. Marvel convinced Byrne to feature them in their own series as a way to capitalize on Byrne's soaring popularity with comics fans at the time, but he never found them to have compelling stories or backgrounds and left the title after writing and pencilling the first 28 issues. The series continued until 1994, lasting 130 issues as well as annuals and miniseries. There have been three short-lived revivals since then, most recently an eight-issue limited series in 2011–12, after the resurrection of the team in the one shot comic Chaos War: Alpha Flight during the Chaos War event.
Most team members have distinctly Canadian attributes, such as having Inuit/First Nations or French heritage. Throughout most of its history, the team has worked for Department H, a fictional branch of Canada's Department of National Defence that deals with super-powered villains.
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, James Hudson refined the purpose of Department H to find and/or develop Canada's superheroes. New recruit Groundhog joins Snowbird, St. Elmo, Stitch, Wolverine (as Weapon X) and Smart Alec in training. Within a week, the Flight is pressed into their first battle with Egghead's incarnation of the Emissaries of Evil (consisting of Rhino, Solarr, Eel, Porcupine, Power Man and Swordsman).