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This week saw the release of Immortal Hulk #40, the latest issue in the title which has included Walter Langkowski and Eugene Judd as members of the government sanctioned Gamma Flight program, tasked with monitoring gamma mutates.
For those not following the Series, in #3 Walt set out to find his old college room-mate Bruce Banner because he'd been having difficulty with his transformation from Beast back to human form.
Unbeknownst to him, The One Below All and The Leader were slowly taking control of his body through the Green Door as a result of all the time he was spending as Sasquatch.
This would fit in with the reason Langkowski survived the attack of The Collective, with his "Immortal" status and Door being open back then.
This could well have been the first moment TOBA got into his body, and would also explain his trouble with transformation and savage state in AF Volume 4, Fear Itself.
After this Walt was rarely seen in his human form, including his time on the Alpha Flight Space Station where he was always shown as the beast, albeit seemingly in control.
However, in Immortal Hulk #4 whilst searching for Banner, Langkowski was stabbed and died.
This death was enough for TOBA to take full control of Walt's body while he was stuck in Hell.
The Hulk was able to absorb the residual gamma out of Langkowski, sucking TOBA into him, and enabling Walt to pass through the Door and take control of his body again, but permanently stuck in human form as a result of Tanaraq dying during World War Wendigo.
Even without his Sasquatch form, Langkowski went on to form the new Gamma Flight with his old partner Puck, and continued to hunt down the Hulk, until he was shot to death by General Fortean in #21, along with Leonard Samson.
In #22 Samson came back through his Door and returned to life however, inexplicably, Walt didn't, and so his body was put into suspended animation.
Samson was later killed again, and his Green Door destroyed by The Leader so he could not return through it and back to life.
In #40 Walt's body suddenly began to thaw out and Sasquatch emerged - however there was a difference; he was completely green! And in his body was none other than Doc Samson!
The reason for this new Sasquatch has not yet been revealed, but this would fit in with what we've seen so far:-
In the previous issue of the series, #39, one of the Hulk's alters - Devil Hulk - was killed. This could well have caused a release of Gamma, returning to Langkowski's body, and allowing it to transform once again.
But why did Samson come through and not Walt?
As shown in #10 and #13 Langkowski had trouble finding his way in Hell, and couldn't see anything.
This would hinder his ability to find his Door and return back through.
Samson on the other hand could still see the Doors and was working on a way to return to Earth to fight The Leader, and he returned through Walt's door.
As to why he came back Green; this fits in with the previous established body-swapping in Walt's life, and him remaining White-furred and haired, when he took possession of Snowbird's body back in Alpha Flight #45.
However, this raises the question of how TOBA was able to infect Langkowski in the first place at all, or how any Gamma was in his body if it were actually Snowbird's body, and why he had been referred to as being a Gamma-mutate in past stories such as Fear Itself, or Red Hulk: Mayan Rule.
These stories could well cause us to re-examine Snowbird's returning of Langkowski's form back in AF #68.
"Let your shift to manhood be complete."
At the time Talisman summed it up as "Narya, whose mortal body you possess, used your shapeshifting powers to make you a man again."
Could she have done more than that, and also returned him to the exact state at which he died, replicating the Gamma?
(This full change would also help Snowbird return to her "new" body that A.I.M. cloned in Wolverine #141-142)
And as well as that, Walt was shown experimenting on himself using Gamma, in Deadpool #1 and AF Volume 3, so either way he would definitely have Gamma in his body, allowing his connection to his Green Door to be reconnected, and susceptibility to TOBA.
Back to the Doc; the change looks to be sticking for a while, as the Solicitation for February's Immortal Hulk #44 still mentions "the new Sasquatch" but the way in which it has been written comes across as respectful and fitting in with established continuity as shown above, and definitely doesn't read as the end for Walter Langkowski and 'our' Sasquatch.
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