Flashback (comics)

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caption=
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Flashback
real_name=Gardner Monroe
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Alpha Flight" #1 (Aug 1983)
{identified) "Alpha Flight" #11
creators=John Byrne
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Beta Flight Gamma Flight Omega Flight
aliases=
powers=Ability to summon future counterparts and control them|

Flashback (Gardner Monroe) is a fictional mutant character in the Marvel Comics Universe. His first appearance was in "Alpha Flight #1".

Publication history

Flashback first appeared in "Alpha Flight" #1 (August 1983), and was created by John Byrne. He was unidentified in his first appearance, and was not named until "Alpha Flight" #11.

The character subsequently appears in "Alpha Flight" Vol. 1 #11-12 (June-July 1984), #28 (November 1985), "Alpha Flight" Vol. 3 #8-9 (December 2004-January 2005), #12 (April 2005), and "New Thunderbolts" #11 (October, 2005).

Flashback appeared as part of the "Omega Flight" entry in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition" #9.

Fictional character biography

Gardner Monroe was born in Manitoba Province, Canada. Flashback was once a member of Beta Flight who was then recruited by Jerry Jaxon into Omega Flight, a team put together to gain revenge on James MacDonald Hudson, Alpha Flight.

During Alpha Flight's second encounter with Omega Flight, one of Flashback's duplicates was killed by Box I after Delphine Courtney used it as a shield against the attack. Upon the realization that his duplicate's death would mean his death in the future Flashback was eventually imprisoned.

Some years later Alpha Flight was informed that Flashback had disappeared from prison. Alpha Flight took this to mean that Flashback's past had finally caught up with him. This was not to be, as years later Flachback resurfaced. Having sworn off his powers, he tried to destroy his costume, reasoning that if he didn't have his costume he couldn't be sent back to his death.

Then one morning Flashback woke up to discover his costume hanging in the bathroom. This version however had the same design as the ones worn by his duplicates. Flashback soon discovered that what ever he did he kept on finding himself in the duplicate suit.

In desperation Flashback contacted Sasquatch and his Alpha Flight team and convinced them to help him. The Alpha Flight member Nemesis came to the conclusion that she would have to kill him with her enchanted blade in order to stop him from dying in the future. After much trial and error Alpha Flight managed to keep Flashback from being sent to the past.

Powers and abilities

He was a mutant with the psionic ability to cause temporal counterparts of himself from alternate future timelines to appear in the present and to control them. Each duplicate appeared in a reverse-colour version of the original Flashback's costume. These counterparts vanished whenever Flashback was rendered unconscious.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Flashback was targeted by Apocalypse's purge of chrono-variant mutants. His fate is unknown, as Apocalypse's databases listed him as Missing in action.

External links

* [http://alphanex.alphaflight.net/index.php/Flashback AlphaFlight.Net Alphanex Entry on Flashback]