Warning: contains spoilers for The Immortal Hulk #42!
An offshoot of Hulk. Beginning with former Sasquatch Walter Langkowski, Gamma Flight grew to include Alpha Flight teammate Puck, villains-for-hire Absorbing Man and Titania, and Hulk ally Doc Samson. Together, the team repeatedly confronted the Hulk, oblivious until recently regarding his largely heroic intentions, and often complicating otherwise well-planned missions.
Recently, Hulk awoke imprisoned on the Alpha Flight Space Station, captured by the team. There, he met Gamma Flight's new boss, the infamous government agent Henry Gyrich. Gyrich's obssessive need for control and lack of research on the Hulk's new abilities allowed him to escape his restraints and the space station itself, risking the lives of a team who have already lost friends to their mission, and forcing a confrontation with Gyrich when the Absorbing Man refused to return.
In Immortal Hulk #42 by Al Ewing with art by Alex Lins, Adam Gorham, Rachel Stott, Joe Bennett and others, Gyrich begins a team meeting by abusing his authority in hopes of forcing the team to pursue all gamma mutates, threatening to have Absorbing Man arrested. Gyrich then swings that judgmental pendulum at the new Doc Sasquatch, telling him he should have been killed the second he returned to life. While Gyrich tries and fails to threaten the superhero psychiatrist, Doc Sasquatch begins to carve the reinforced windows with his claws, putting everyone in the room in danger of being sucked out into space and asphyxiating. When Gyrich tries to call his bluff, the hero claims his experience with death and resurrection has left him willing to risk his teammates for his own freedom, and Gyrich is forced to reluctantly let Gamma Flight go free. As the former government employees joke and return to being heroes, Gyrich plans on speaking to a "back-up team."
Gyrich's penchant for rules and obsessive agenda have not only forced him to be ed from position to position over the years but also made him very unpopular in the superhero community. With Gamma Flight, it was his fault that the Hulk escaped his incarceration, but instead of accepting blame, Gyrich projected it onto the people who had done their job correctly. Whether it was threatening to incarcerate the Absorbing Man for past crimes or threatening to incarcerate or even kill the rest of the team, Gamma Flight had had enough and wanted nothing more to do with Gyrich and his gamma witchhunt. Although Doc Sasquatch may or may not have been bluffing in the moment, the former of Gamma Flight will most likely continue their mission of locating the Hulk, but this time to forces with him and stop the One Below All.
Having dealt with many insurrections in his career, Gyrich quickly moves past Gamma Flight's resignation by talking to his back-up team, the U-Foes, who have their own history and bone to pick with the Hulk. Promising money, amnesty and plausible deniability, this new Gamma Flight is simply a reflection of Gyrich's obsession, the same obsession that consumed General Thunderbolt Ross and others like him: finding and capturing the Hulk with little to no regard of the consequences. Considering the current dilemma Hulk and his allies are dealing with, it looks like the former Gamma Flight picked the right time to quit as Hulk will need all heroes on deck to survive this incoming storm.
