Biography
In 1845, F. R. Crozier joined the famed Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin, on his quest to find the fabled Northwest Passage to the East Indies. Crozier signed on to the expedition as medical doctor and chief science officer. The expedition proved disastrous, however, as a mere six months in, the aptly-named Terror and Erebus ships became trapped in an eternal ice that closed in around the ships during the crossing of uncharted waters. Two years, later. Sir John set out seeking aid, only neither he nor any man from his party returned. A further six months after that, in 1848, the crew's supplies were running low, and Crozier was faced with no option other than to lead his starving crew across the solid sea which had become their prison.
Within five days, some of the remaining crew members began to die. Whether in their sleep or from exhaustion, they all went unburied. Roughly two weeks since setting out, Crozier lost any hope for salvation. However, he was determined that the ice would not claim his corpse and drank an elixir which he had prepared before departing on the expedition. This elixir would slow his bodily functions to a death-like state, preventing the need for food or drink. He hoped that his remaining crew members would leave him for dead, his body preserved in ice that would doom everyone else, until sunlight could eventually warm his blood and revive him.
According to Crozier's journal, he agonized over his decision to take the elixir. He had only enough for one person and felt he was betr
aying his crew, but his desire to survive overpowered any remorse he may have felt. However, what Crozier did not consider was his remaining crew's loyalty to him and, after he was pronounced dead, he continued to see and hear his crew. He was dead to them but, in truth, his elixir had worked. To his eternal dismay, his crew, probably out of a matter of respect, buried him deep within the permafrost. Spring would not come, nor would Summer. Crozier would spend eternity screaming a scream that no one would hear, as his remaining crew lumbered off towards whatever frozen fate awaited them. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #37]
Crozier's body remained deep within the Arctic for more than a century. Trapped between life and death, he became hateful and jealous. He despised the living. It was during this entombment that he unwittingly absorbed some mystic energies generated by an impending, unique planetary alignment which would eventually herald the return of the great Llan the Sorcerer. This process granted Crozier supernatural powers, enabling him to manipulate death and decay. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #37, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Mystic Arcana – the Book of Marvel Magic]
Crozier stirred one day by the arrival of super-powered beings who stood upon his grave. These beings were collectively known as Alpha Flight, who had sought out a place of great power for the goddess Snowbird to give birth. Shaman, Alpha Flight's resident mystic, had asked the spirits to locate this place for him. Despite Sno
wbird's human husband wanting to take Snowbird to a hospital, Snowbird's teammates explained to him that Snowbird must give birth in a place of power. Unfortunately, while Shaman could only implore spirits to do his bidding, his daughter, Elizabeth, currently wielder of the mystic title of Talisman, was vastly more powerful and could command the spirits to do whatever she wanted. Driven somewhat mad by her power and wanting revenge against her father for various transgressions, she forced the spirits to select a place of great power – great evil power. The hate Talisman felt for her father helped to fuel Crozier and, as Snowbird began to give birth, Crozier sensed this new lifeforce coming into existence.
As giant leeches rose from the ice, Talisman finally revealed her plan. At this place of death, she would humiliate her father and save the day, ensuring Snowbird's child was born safely. The members of Alpha Flight sprang into action to protect Snowbird and her child but Crozier's command over death and decay was now becoming clear. Northstar began to sink into the rotting ice, while Aurora plunged her hand into a leech, only to be repulsed when she pulled it out and found it was covered with maggots. Box began to rust and Vindicator was overcome by a swarm of flies, while Puck fell beneath some cracked ice into a watery grave. As Snowbird's child continued to come into existence, Crozier was reborn in the child's form. He appeared skeletal and evil and now calling himself Pestilence. He found some resistance from Snowbird's child, whose innocent soul held back Pestilence – but Pestilence was certain he would corrupt the child.
With Alpha Flight out of action, Snowbird in no condition to act and Shaman unwilling to act, Talisman stepped forward to confront Pestilence, now satisfied that her father had been humbled. Pestilence looked on as Talisman attempted to destroy him but what Talisman misunderstood was that Pestilence had never truly died. As Talisman was the Binder of Spirits, she discovered that she could not command Pestilence back beneath the ice, because he was not a spirit. Pestilence's horrific acts continued as he tore the Coronet of Power from Talisman's forehead, stripping Elizabeth Twoyoungmen of her power, but restoring her humanity. Pestilence then decided to kill Talisman, while her frail father looked on. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #37]
Pestilence's torment continued, as he took the appearance of Vindicator's dead husband, James Hudson, surprising Vindicator when she freed herself from the swarm of death flies and flew towards Pestilence to rescue Elizabeth. Pestilence was surprised in return when Vindicator saw through his ruse and knocked him backwards, freeing Elizabeth. Vindicator continued to confront Pestilence but knew she couldn't defeat him alone. Fortunately for her, Puck survived his fall into the icy water and he now pulled Pestilence down beneath the ice. Puck then pulled Northstar from the muck and the speedster then sped around Aurora, banishing the maggots from her. Aurora then created a brilliant light to repel the giant leeches attacking Box. Elizabeth planned to put the Coronet of Power on and become Talisman once more, but her father refused to allow her, and snatched the tiara from her.
Pestilence then returned, once more in the form of Snowbird's child. Planning to beat Pestilence at his own game, Snowbird assumed the form of the Sasquatch, the manifestation of Tanaraq, one of the Great Beasts. Unfortunately, Pestilence had learned of the Great Beasts and, as they were creatures of death and decay, he was able to command them. He summoned them to the Arctic, and Alpha Flight were forced to battle them.
In the midst of the chaos and confusion, Shaman placed the Coronet of Power on his forehead, and became the new Talisman. In doing so, he was able 
to take command of Snowbird and, despite the protests of Vindicator and Snowbird's husband, the new Talisman commanded Snowbird to slay Pestilence. Pestilence found himself set upon, as Snowbird, in her Sasquatch form, hacked away at him. He tried to trick her by appearing to her as her child, but the bestial nature of the Sasquatch prevented Snowbird from caring. Deciding he may have met his match, Pestilence slunk away back into the icy water below them. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #38]
Pestilence began to leave a trail of death and decay across northern Canada. Snowbird's human husband had tracked his movements, leading him to the mining town called Burial Butte. Snowbird and the new Talisman had also been tracking Pestilence and found their way to Burial Butte soon after, where they discovered Snowbird's husband near death, his body ravaged by a plague. He would die soon after, in front of the rest of Alpha Flight, who arrived at the request of the new Talisman.
By now, though, and despite his new appearance, Pestilence was growing weak, as the baby's innocence began to corrupt him. The new Talisman commanded Snowbird to slay Pestilence, who
was forced to divert his power by summoning various forces of evil to battle Alpha Flight as they searched the mines for him. Northstar was the first on the scene, and he flew down to Snowbird to try to prevent her from slaying her child. Pestilence could sense an illness within Northstar and kissed him, which enabled him to feed on the illness. Not only did this kiss give Pestilence renewed strength as he fed on the illness but it also sped the illness up within Northstar.
Pestilence saw his chances of success on the rise when the rest of Alpha Flight arrived. He challenged the new Talisman, who found himself no longer able to make a decision regarding how to stop the demigod, and as such he released Snowbird from his command. Chaos followed as Pestilence battled Alpha Flight, before appearing to Snowbird as her baby. Snowbird was reluctant to embrace the child, knowing that, should the child die, she would no longer be tied to humanity and could join her godly family in Paradise. Nevertheless, motherly instinct took over and Snowbird picked up her baby – only for Pestilence to appear once more. He had realized that staying in the child's form for much longer would corrupt him entirely and, sensing that he could control Snowbird, he forced her to transform into her Sasquatch form and commanded her to slay him.
The new Talisman and the others realized too late that this was Pestilence's plan all along – to be released from the child's body and then, once free, assume another, more powerful form. Pestilence looked on as Snowbird loomed over him. Time was running out on all sides and Vindicator, with no help from the new, mentally paralyzed Talisman, fired a powerful plasma blast at Snowbird's Sasquatch form. Unfortunately, Vindicator fired too late, killing Snowbird moments after she had sliced apart her child. Thus, Pestilence's spirit was free. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #44]
Pestilence's plan had worked and, after Alpha Flight mourned and buried their dead, Snowbird's soul entered Paradise, leaving her lifeless body, still in the form of the Sasquatch, behind. Late one night, that Sasquatch body broke free from its grave and launched another attack on Alpha Flight. This time, though, Alpha Flight had some powerful assistance, courtesy of someone who was inhabiting the Box armor – Walter Langkowski – whose soul had mysteriously returned. Pestilence revealed himself to the Alphans and immediately Vindicator was at a loss for what to do, feeling guilty that her previous indecision had resulted in Snowbird's death and Pestilence's freedom. However, Vindicator showed some quick thinking when she planned with Langkowski to have him jolt Pestilence from the Sasquatch form with an energy shock from the Box armor. It worked and Vindicator hurled Shaman's abandoned medicine pouch towards Pestilence's spirit, which became trapped inside. Presumably, the demigod’s spirit continues to exist in a state similar to his icy grave, neither dead nor alive, floating through the void within for eternity. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #45]