Alpha Flight I#24 (fb) - BTS) - A million years ago Ranaq and his fellow Great Beasts rose "on a planet in a universe outside our own". They pillaged and corrupted the land, taking it as their own even as they fought amongst themselves. Over time, the Great Beasts would set aside their hatred and join forces to conquer other realms.
(Alpha Flight I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Discovering Earth was the nearest realm in the mystic continuum, the Great Beasts staged three unsuccessful invasion attempts. During the final confrontation, they were opposed by the Ancient Gods of the North who beat them back and sealed the beasts behind a mystical barrier.
(Alpha Flight I#19 (fb) - BTS) - In 1864, the greedy cowboy Zebediah Chase and his young ward Lucas Stang learned of the existence of the powerful Great Beasts from the local natives. Intrigued by the promise of their power, Chase managed to get his hands on two magic negating amulets. Figuring these would render him and Stang immune to the Beasts' influence, Chase forced an elderly shaman to summon the Great Beasts.
(Alpha Flight I#19) - The mystic managed to reach the realm of the
Great Beasts and Ranaq was the one to answer the call. Initially
afraid of the disembodied, monstrous head of Ranaq, Stang shot several
rounds at him without doing any damage. Ranaq retaliated with a
magical blast, but the amulet protected Lucas. Convinced the Beast
couldn't harm them, Chase quickly came to the point and forced Ranaq
to fulfill the poor privateer's wishes of great wealth and beautiful
women. The sly Ranaq generated a massive gold treasure and a beautiful
willing woman but Chase was frustrated when he realized his amulet
prevented him from actually touching his new, magical acquisitions.
Chase fell for Ranaq's ploy and took off the amulet to hug his newly
created woman who instantly turned into a monster and bit him, thereby
letting Ranaq take over Zebediah's body. Moments later, Ranaq was
confronted by a time traveling Alpha Flight. Ranaq quickly dispelled
Snowbird, but was having a hard time fighting Talisman who simply
directed his magical blasts against him. It was Shaman who convinced
Lucas Stang to kill Chase by shooting him in the head with a bullet
containing a piece of the magic negating necklace. His host form
killed, Ranaq returned to his home dimension. Chase's body was buried
just outside Fort Calgary, with Alpha Flight returning to the present.
(Alpha Flight I#14) - Working on a dig near the original Fort Calgary, Elizabeth Twoyoungmen unearthed the skull of Zebediah Chase, thereby letting Ranaq's spirit loose.
(Alpha Flight I#14 - BTS) - Concerned about the encounter, Elizabeth decided to seek out the help of her estranged father Michael Twoyoungmen, better known as Shaman.
(Alpha Flight I#18) - Ranaq sought out Lucas Stang, eager to have his revenge on the man who killed his human form. Ranaq discovered Stang was still alive, well over a 100, and living with his great-granddaughter Emily. Ranaq began to haunt the house by possessing some eggs Emily was cooking for lunch. Using the eggs as a conduit to the spirit plane, Ranaq siphoned energies from the plane and transformed it to ectoplasmic matter, causing the pan of scrambled eggs to become a monstrous entity. Shaman teleported himself and Elizabeth to the Stang estate in time to fight the lunch creature. Shaman broke Ranaq's control over the eggs when he linked the rift to the interface within his medicine bag. The eggs exploded, but the threat hadn't ended: Ranaq managed to possess Emily who tried to assault and slaughter Lucas Stang, Shaman and Elizabeth, who to her surprise learned she could counter the mystical blasts Emily fired at her. While Elizabeth held the Ranaq possessed woman at bay, Shaman reached into his pouch and took out a handful of mystical baubles that exorcised Ranaq. However, this encounter led Shaman and Elizabeth to conclude they needed to visit the past to find out how or why Ranaq was raised in the first place.
(Alpha Flight I#38) - The spirit of Ranaq and the other Great Beasts were briefly summoned to Earth by Pestilence (F.R. Crozier) to battle Alpha Flight on his behalf. Ranaq was attacked by Vindicator, who hit him with her electromagnetic blasts. Ultimately, Michael Twoyoungmen donned his daughter's mystical talisman and forced the Beasts' spirit forms back to their native realm.
(Alpha Flight I#71 (fb) - BTS) - On the eve of the return of the immensely powerful sorceror Llan, Heather Hudson had a talk with Alpha Flight's resident mystic Talisman. She was concerned about the team's recent string of encounters with mystical and otherworldly menaces like the Great Beasts, Pestilence, and the Dream Queen. Talisman concluded that these events were a warning of a greater threat: the world was about to enter a phase of darkness during which evil gains the upper hand.
(Chaos War: Alpha Flight I#1) - Fearing the rise of the Chaos King (Amatsu-Mikaboshi) the Great Beasts summoned Sasquatch to their realm to request his aid in combating this threat. They even used their powers to resurrect his slain teammates from Alpha Flight (Guardian, Marrina, Shaman & Vindicator). The Beasts and Alpha returned to Earth to fight the Chaos King and his demon armies, but ultimately the Beasts were killed by the deity slayer.
(Amazing X-Men II#11 (fb) - BTS) - Tanaraq grew
increasingly more powerful after an incident in
Canada led to the creation of hordes of Wendigo (a
murderer had ditched the corpse of his victim in a
meat processing plant, leading thousands of
unwitting consumers to commit cannibalism,
triggering the Wendigo curse). Tanaraq used
this power to conquer the Spirit Realm, openly
warring against Ranaq and the other Great Beasts.
(Amazing X-Men II#12) - Members of the X-Men and
Alpha Flight traveled to the Spirit Realm in an
attempt to reverse the effects of the curse. They
learned of Tanaraq's conquest of the realm and
witnessed how Ranaq and the other Great Beasts tried
to fight off the ever increasing Wendigo army. The
mortal heroes joined the fray, but were unable to
hold their own against Tanaraq and his forces. They
wound up chained next to the Great Beasts, but were
soon freed by the arriving Iceman who led the
revived Shiloh to aid them. The Great Beasts begged
the mutants to free them as well so they could deal
with Tanaraq. Storm refused their offer, instead
striking a deal that led to the Great Beasts
empowering Storm, Iceman, Firestar and Rockslide.
They fought off Tanaraq's Wendigo while a furious
Guardian wound up killing Tanaraq. Without his power
holding them back, Ranaq and the remaining Great
Beasts were freed and returned to their native realm
without a fight.
Comments: Created by John Byrne (writer, pencils, inks)