BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
However, Michael never actually got to oversee the training of Beta Flight. Right when both teams were called into dealing with an alien invasion, Beta Flight member Laura Dean woke up from a coma and accidentally teleported herself and everyone near her away. While it was assumed that Shaman was one of the people caught in her power signature, he actually had been protected by his mystic abilities. Using his own powers, he tried to follow his charges a split second later, but he lost their track at the Crossroads of Realities. Michael spent several weeks looking for them to no avail. Having yet another failure upon his conscious, Shaman grew even more withdrawn than before and stayed away from Alpha Flight. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #98, 125]
He only returned when the Elder’s of the Universe informed him of his presence being needed during the Infinity War, just like that of all other superheroes of Earth. Together, they fought Thanos, who had obtained the Infinity Gems. Alpha Flight was surprised to see Shaman again, but they couldn’t help but notice how much he had changed. Especially Heather Hudson was hurt by how he avoided her. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #110-111]
Ironically, while the heroes were away fighting Thanos, Beta Flight managed to return by a means of their own. This didn’t change Shaman‘s mood, though. While he returned to live in Alpha Flight’s building, more often than not was he unavailable for anyone, even his daughter, and so the job of Beta Flight‘s instructor was given to someone else. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #112, 115]
Shortly afterwards, a newly-born Goddess set out to reorder the universe in her spiritual order and she contacted those superpowered individuals with strong beliefs to follow her. Just like his daughter, Shaman was among these heroes in the Paradise, but Elizabeth sensed that he wasn’t dedicated to the Goddess like the others were. In fact, his presence was an error. While he believed in the higher orders of the universe, he was not convinced of their wisdom. Elizabeth threatened to expose him and urged him to run away, just like he had always done when he couldn’t handle the hand that life had dealt him. They briefly fought until Shaman tricked Liz and escaped.
Michael had sensed some other matter that needed his attention. A demon named Carcass had invaded the Land of the Dead. Michael gathered some members of Alpha Flight for the mission but actually betrayed them. For, to enter the Land of the Dead, one needed to be dead. After he killed his friends, they were quite mad at him, but had no other option than to fight for his cause and the chance for their spirits to return to their bodies. They were even angrier when Shaman was apparently the first to fail, not being able to stand up against his deceased wife. However, it was only a ploy by him to get close enough to Carcass to permanently get rid of him. Still, the encounter with Katheryn and Liz’s earlier accusations took their toll and he realized his folly. After apologizing to the other Alphans, Michael hoped for a chance to set things right with Talisman too. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #125-126]
Not much later, after the Goddess was destroyed by her own duplicity being revealed, the heroes that had been following her and those opposing her made up with each other. Still, both groups had learned something of the experience. Shaman and Talisman too made up and promised each other they would start anew and act like family again. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #127]
With anti-mutant / superhero hysteria rising in Canada, mostly due to the schemes of Joshua Lord, the Senator already responsible for the Superhuman Registration Act, it was decided to temporarily shut down Department H’s Flight programs and lay low for a while. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #130]
In the months that followed, Shaman retired from the hero business and joined his people in the reservation near the Bear Lake’s region, knowing that they would need a good shaman while there were more than enough heroes to protect the rest of humanity. When Department H later restarted, Alpha Flight was organized with an almost entirely new line-up. Michael learned of it only through a newspaper article. At first, he thought that, if they wouldn’t even consider contacting him, he was not needed, but not much later he felt the need to walk north towards Anchorage, Alaska. [Alpha Flight (2nd series) #3, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #359]
There, he was sought out by Walter Langkowski and James Hudson, who had learned about some strange things going on at Department H. They asked their old friend for help uncovering these secrets and, after recruiting both Northstar and Aurora, the original Alpha Flight confronted their group’s latest incarnation. In the meantime, the head of Department H had been replaced and the team’s new liaison was only too willing to help expose every dark secret his predecessor and some mad scientists had been scheming. [Alpha Flight (2nd series) #15, 17-20]
In the aftermath of that meeting, it was decided that the veterans remained together as Alpha Flight, while the newer members were downgraded to training status. With their leader, Guardian, kidnapped by A.I.M., Alpha Flight asked them to help liberate him. Strangely, they found a resurrected Snowbird in the labs of the organization as well. [Wolverine (2nd series) #142-143]
Alpha Flight met Wolverine again when he was fighting the ancient Mauvais, who had taken on the form of Wendigo and was creating havoc across the land. Using his mystical abilities and intelligence, Shaman helped save the day by contacting the Gods of the Great North, who banished Mauvais to the land of the Great Beasts.
The end of the battle left questions in Wolverine’s life and Shaman used his mystic abilities to try and decipher Mauvais’ last words, a prediction of some grave danger in his imminent future, but to no avail. Michael apologized that future visions were not his specialty. [Wolverine (2nd series) #172-173]
Feeling the need to teach a protégé in the shaman ways of life, Michael called upon a young man to join him at the Headquarters of Alpha Flight in Vancouver. Sadly, Michael found another problem to deal with first and he had to fight the spirit of a dead shaman to remove a curse that was on the headquarters itself. Using his shaman powers on the Astral Plane and the help of his ally, Wolverine, this demon was eventually defeated and Shaman‘s teammates, who had been possessed by this spirit, were freed.
A couple of hours after everything returned to normal, Shaman was met by his protégé, Chuck Moss. After teaching him some lessons himself, Michael asked Logan to train Chuck Moss in the way of a warrior, which he gladly did. During their trip into the woods, Chuck also discovered his totem - a worm, which, according to Sarcee mysticism, is a very powerful totem, as it meant he was an earthmover. [Wolverine (2nd series) #179-180]
This also becoming his codename, Earthmover took Shaman‘s place among Alpha Flight, while Michael Twoyoungmen remained in the background, continuing his teaching and staying good friends with the rest of the group. [X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #45]
Despite this apparent plan to retire, Shaman was brought into conflict with a Plodex spaceark and eventually captured, like most members of Alpha Flight. Once Sasquatch gathered an all-new all-different Alpha Flight to rescue them, Shaman and the original team decided they could be best served by returning the multitude of Plodex eggs on board the ship to the race's homeworld, and then live and work there, raising the new generation of Plodex away from the conquering drives of their predecessors. Michael was last seen leaving with Guardian and the others for deep space. Shortly afterwards, a time-traveling past version of Shaman was summoned into the present by magic, along with the rest of the original Alpha Flight. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #6, 12]