SMART ALEC
Real Name: Alec Thorne
Group Affiliation: Former member of Omega Flight, Former Member of Gamma Flight
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #7
Last Appearance: Alpha Flight #45
Creator: John Byrne

        At the time that he first became involved with Department H Alec Thorne was recognized as the smartest man in Canada. Thorne's opinion of himself was much higher; he claimed to be the smartest man in the world. In a world with such intellects as Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom, it seems likely that Thorne was exaggerating his capabilities.

        Thorne was a part of the team involved in the adventure called First Flight. At one point he was called upon to disarm a nuclear device. Although Thorne possessed the knowledge necessary to accomplish the task, he choked under the pressure. It was this incident that convinced James Hudson that a tiered training program for his operatives might be a good idea. Thorne subsequently became a part of the second-level training team called Gamma Flight.

        After Department H was disbanded for the first time by the Federal government, Alec Thorne returned to private life. He earned money by such unconventional means as chess exhibitions where he took on multiple opponents. At one such exhibition he was approached by Delphine Courtney, a robot employed by Jerome "Jerry" Jaxon. Subsequently Thorne joined Jaxon's Omega Flight.

        During Omega's first altercation with Alpha Flight, Thorne managed to grab Shaman's medicine pouch. Trying to figure out the secret of the pouch's operation, Thorne looked inside, something that Shaman had been warned to never do. In the microseconds before his consciousness was ripped screaming from his mind, Alec Thorne learned why.

        Shaman reduced Thorne's body to approximately six inches in height and stored it in the medicine pouch, preserving it against the hope that one day he could restore Thorne's mind. As the pouch is a dimensional nexus, Walter Langkowski's spirit (which was wandering through various dimensions) was able to find the body and utilize it. After crawling from the medicine pouch, Langkowski transferred his spirit to the Box robot to battle the being known as Pestilence.

        Alec Thorne's body was crushed during the fight. It should be noted that Thorne's mind is still wandering the myriad dimensions of the medicine pouch, alone and quite afraid. And it will probably stay that way until the end of time.

        Alec Thorne was possessed of a genius level intellect, but there is no evidence to suggest that he had super-human abilities. During Omega Flight's first encounter with Alpha Flight he wore a helmet that raised his intelligence even higher. The helmet also possessed numerous scanning devices.