Real Name: Gardner Monroe

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: Actor

Affiliations: member of the first incarnation of Omega Flight, former member of Beta and Gamma Flights

Enemies: Alpha Flight, Madison Jeffries

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Canada

First Appearance: Alpha Flight #1 (Marvel Comics)

Powers/Abilities: Flashback can summon and command future versions of himself. He can make these future selves appear anywhere within his line of sight (allowing him to target flying opponents for instance), and disappear as easily. Flashback tends to rely overly much on this power, trying to defeat opponents purely by force of numbers. He has no real fighting skills however.

History: Gardner Monroe was an actor, a Canadian and a mutant. The latter two resulted in him being approached to enter Department H, a Canadian government project designed to utilise that nation's superhuman populace to their full potential (e.g. working for the government). Department H divided it's superhumans into three squads - Alpha Flight was the active, combat ready team; Beta the subs, nearly ready for active service, and Gamma the raw recruits. Gardner, dubbed Flashback because his powers allowed him to bend the timelines and summon future versions of himself under his command, started in Gamma, and worked his way into Beta, only for government funding to be cut, and Department H closed down.

Gardner presumably returned to civilian life and his former occupation. Like other members of the reserve teams, he discovered that Alpha Flight had decided to continue on without government backing, and even that two of Beta Flight, Puck and Marrina, had joined them. A few months later Gardner was approached by a woman called Delphine Courtney, who offered him a chance for revenge; perhaps, like some of the other former Beta and Gamma's, he felt slighted and abandoned, or perhaps it was something to do with her almost hypnotic powers of persuasion. Whatever the truth, Gardner agreed to come to New York to hear her plan. There he was reunited with most of the other former members of Beta and Gamma Flight, and introduced to Jerry Jaxon, a man with a personal grudge against Alpha Flight's leader, Guardian.

Guardian was also lured to New York, and then his wife, Heather, was kidnapped to lure him into an ambush. Guardian flew to the rescue, and was confronted by the former reservists, now calling themselves Omega Flight. The resulting battle was a partial success. Alpha Flight raced to the assistance of their leader, and in the end, Omega Flight fled, having lost one team member, Smart Alec, and the deaths of both Jaxon and Guardian. Courtney was revealed to be a robot.

Some months later Omega Flight tried another ambush. This time they used Courtney, disguised as the deceased Guardian, to lure their foes into an ambush in the West Edmonton Mall. The element of surprise allowed them to overcome Alpha Flight to begin with, but reinforements turned the tables, and Omega Flight tried to flee. Their escape was blocked by Madison Jeffries, the only Gamma Flight member not to be approached by Courtney for Omega Flight. Jeffries was specifically after Courntey, whom he blamed for the death of Guardian, a man he had admired. Jeffries used his power to manipulate machinery to transform a car into a robot he dubbed Rover. When Rover lunged to strike Courtney, the panicing robot snatched up one of Flashback's future men to use as a shield. This human shield suffered severe chest injuries and vanished, taking with it Flashback's other future bodies. Gardner was convinced this meant the future self had been killed, which in turn implied he would also die at some point in the near future. Flashback reasoned that if he never wore the costume again, which his future self had been wearing when he died, then he could never become that future self. He destroyed his costume and retired into obscurity, only to one day awaken to find it hanging in his closet. Deciding that he couldn't buck the inevitable so easily, he approached Alpha Flight (now consisting of virtually all-new members) for help,

Comments: Created by John Byrne.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• Flashback of the Blood Syndicate

• Legion of the Special Executive, who had similar powers and suffered a similar fate

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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