Vindicator victory roll

Heather McNeil was born one of eight children in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. To help make ends meet she eventually became executive secretary at Am-Can Petroleum Company to Jerome Jaxon. While working there she fell in love with scientist/inventor James "Mac" MacDonald Hudson, Jr. who developed an armored suit intended for use in geological exploration. When James found out that the company was planning to sell his invention the American military for warfare purposes he stole the power suit to prevent this and became a fugitive.

Heather quit her job in protest over James treatment by her superiors and entered into a serious relationship with him and helped him formulate a plan to remove his fugitive status. The couple went to the Canadian government who in turn retroactively made James a government employee and gave him full ownership of the suit he invented while working at Am-Can.

Heather then eloped with James and married him. During their honeymoon Heather and James were hiking when they came upon Wolverine, who had been reduced to a feral state from the trauma he experienced at the Weapon X Project that bonded Adamantium to his bones.

Heather managed to calm Wolverine down and comfort him and helped him recuperate mentally. During this time Wolverine secretly fell in love with Heather but never acted on it. When Heather and James founded Department H and the super team Alpha Flight, they chose Wolverine as the leader of the group. After their first mission Wolverine quit the team to join the X-Men leaving James to take the role of leader.

Taking the name Vindicator and then Guardian, James became leader of the new Canadian super team Alpha Flight.

After the original Department H was dissolved Heather brought the members of the disbanded Alpha Flight together to battle Tundra of the Great Beasts. With this initiative creating a spectacular success, the team decided to continue operating Alpha Flight as an independent group.

Alpha Flight had been back together for a short time before Jerome Jaxon formed the team Omega Flight to battle Alpha Flight and get revenge on the Hudson’s. During the battle James’ battle suit was damaged severely Heather witnessed his apparent death when his suit exploded.

Heather was asked by the members of Alpha Flight to take over leadership of the team which she accepted though she was a non-combatant. Heather then led Alpha Flight on a mission with the X-Men where she was temporarily transformed by the mystic Fire Mountain transforming her into a demigod which increased her leadership abilities along with other powers. When Heather learned the powers would destroy humanity's creativity and cost the lives of anyone magical, such as her two friends Shaman and Snowbird, Heather rejected the powers and reverted back to normal.

Heather was briefly reunited with what she thought was a returned James Hudson but “he” really turned out to be the robot Delphine Courtney. Surviving this ordeal Heather’s body was temporarily distorted and disfigured by the mutant Scramble, returned back to normal and then captured by the immortal killer Deadly Ernest.

Because of these incidents Heather realized she could no longer remain a non-combatant and led to Heather adopting a copy of her husband's battle-suit. Through extensive training by her old friend Wolverine, Heather became a capable warrior able to hold her own in a battle and defend herself against her enemies. After Heather teamed with Wolverine against Lady Deathstrike, she took the name Vindicator.

After years of thinking him dead, it was revealed James Hudson’s exploding suit shunted him into another dimension which he finally escaped from and reunited with Heather.
After his return James altered Heather’s suit to manipulate geothermal forces and the two lead Alpha Flight together.

Heather and James soon had a baby girl they named Claire and traveled with their child and several other members of Alpha Flight to return a clutch of alien Plodex eggs to their home world. While the original, an accident brings temporal copies of most of the original Alpha Flight.

After returning to Earth Alpha Flight was brutally attacked by the being called "the Collective" and most of the team, including Heather and James, were killed trying to halt the being’s march towards the United States. Because of this their daughter was adopted by distant cousins David and Yvette McNeil.

Following the death of the original team the event known as the Chaos War erupted when the reality warping Chaos King’s rampage caused many temporary resurrections across the globe including returning the deceased members of Alpha Flight to life. Reunited with the surviving members of the team and reformed Alpha Flight and once again stopped an invasion by the Great Beasts.

When Hercules defeated the Chaos King and returned reality back to normal Alpha Flight returned to being Canada’s number one super team. Despite their living status James and Heather were denied custody of Claire when the court ruled their superhero lifestyles posed a threat to the child’s welfare.

After this the terrorists Citadel and former Alpha Flight member Purple Woman tried to steal computer files from the government to prove the federal Unity Party was corrupt but they were captured and arrested by Alpha Flight who ignored their warnings about Unity.

Alpha Flight’s former liaison Gary Cody as head of the Unity Party won the election for Prime Minister and immediately instituted Martial Law and declared that Alpha Flight were traitors and outlaws. Cody then started putting people into work camps and those who resisted were put through “The Unity Process” which made them loyal to the Unity Party and its leaders. Putting captured super humans through the process Cody formed a team called Alpha Strike to hunt down the fugitive Alpha Flight.

Heather as Vindicator went through the Unity Process thinking that if she sided with Cody and his regime she would get her daughter back. Heather as Vindicator turned on Alpha Flight and her husband in particular who she felt failed her as a husband and failed their daughter as a father.

Vindicator led Alpha Strike in capturing her former teammates expecting to get her daughter back. A returned Wolverine and the remaining fugitive Alpha Flight members discovered the Unity Party Gary Cody and Department H were all being controlled by the immortal world conqueror known as The Master of the World.

Guardian developed a machine that could wipe out the Unity Processes effects and return people to normal. Alpha Strike then attacked their base in order to destroy the machine.

Vindicator battled Guardian who pleaded with her to undergo the reversal process he developed but Vindicator refused telling her husband he was a broken fool that failed Claire as a father because he still served the country that took her from them.

When the battle turned against Alpha Strike the Master flew to the scene in a giant ship that was formerly the Department H complex. Using copies of his original battle suit, Guardian had secretly suited up the people he freed and led them as an army against the flying complex.

Vindicator revealed to Guardian that the Master was on the ship along with their daughter. Putting aside their differences the two confronted the Master who was holding Claire hostage. When the Master, thinking he had total control over Vindicator smugly threatened Claire to taunt Guardian. Vindicator and Guardian simultaneously blasted the master killing him and saving Claire.

Vindicator escaped with Claire before Guardian could reverse the Unity Process on her. With Canada in a nationwide state of emergency a heartbroken Guardian led Alpha Flight in disaster recovery operations while Heather and Claire left the country.

Heather McNeil Hudson, Vindicator and above mentioned characters are all copyright Marvel Comics.

Special thanks to  for being the model for Vindicator