FLASHBACK
Real Name: Gardner Monroe
Group Affiliation: Former member of Beta and Omega Flights
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #11
Creator: John Byrne

        Absolutely nothing is known of the history of the man called Flashback before he became involved with Department H. He was a member of the first-tier training team called Beta Flight when H went under for the first time.

        Flashback was recruited by the robot named Delphine Courtney for Jerry Jaxon's Omega Flight. Flashback was present for both of the original Omega's encounters with Alpha Flight, and during the second one tragedy struck.

        As Omega Flight were retreating from the West Edmonton Mall they were confronted by Madison Jeffries. Jeffries created a robot out of a car to battle the Omegans. As the robot was swinging a punch at the Guardian-disguised Delphine Courtney, Courtney grabbed one of Flashback's duplicates and shoved it in the way. The robot's metal hand stabbed the duplicate in the chest, killing it.

        As Flashback's "duplicates" were all versions of himself pulled from a future point of the timestream, the "main" Flashback quickly realized that he was going to die in the not-too distant future. He suffered a nervous breakdown at that point, and was arrested with the rest of Omega Flight.

        It's unknown how exactly Flashback was released from prison. Diamond Lil said at one point that he had disappeared from jail.

        In a storyline that violated every known "law" of time-travel in the Marvel Universe the outcome of the Omega Flight fight in New York was altered. James Hudson did not "die", and Delphine Courtney did not get a chance to arrange the fight at the West Edmonton Mall. Hence, Flashback's future self was never killed. Monroe learned from his mistakes in joining Omega Flight and retired from all super-human activity.

        However, the same storyline that saved Monroe's life created a duplicate team of Alpha Flight members. Marvel editorial has stated that the duplicates no longer exist. As the duplicates no longer exist, it's possible that all the time-tampering has been undone, and Gardner Monroe will indeed die at some point in the near future.

        [Compiler's Notes: I know that Lobdell was going for humour in Alpha Flight v3. But the final story-arc made absolutely no sense and makes my brain hurt. So I'm going into as few details as possible. If you want more details, pick up AF v3 #9-12.]

        Flashback is a mutant whose power is to create "temporal duplicates" of himself, by pulling back future versions of himself. Interestingly enough, the process changes the polarity of the colors on his costume. (White to black and black to white.) If Monroe is still alive, it's not known whether or not his powers survived the M-Day incident.

        [Compiler's Notes: The man believed to be Flashback in Generation Next #1 looks absolutely NOTHING like Byrne's version of Flashback in civilian clothes. As well, Flashback's powers were highly illogical, even for Marvel. If you're curious, email me. Interestingly enough, even if Flashback lost his powers in M-Day it wouldn't be enough to save him.]