Alistaire Stuart

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Publication information
Alistaire Stuart

Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Excalibur vol. 1 #6 (1989)
Created by	Chris Claremont Alan Davis
In story information
Alter ego	Alistaire Stuart
Team affiliations	MI-13 Excalibur Weird Happenings Organisation (W.H.O.)
Abilities	none, human.

Alistaire Stuart is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He is a scientist, an ally of the superhero team Excalibur and head of MI-13, an intelligence agency. He first appeared in Excalibur #6 and was created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis.

His name is based on that of Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart from Doctor Who,^[1] although his role of scientific advisor to W.H.O. was closer to that the Doctor himself had in U.N.I.T.

1 Fictional character biography
2 Notes
3 References

[edit] Fictional character biography

Doctor Alistaire Stuart and his sister, Brigadier Alysande Stuart are the founders of the Weird Happenings Organisation (W.H.O.). The W.H.O. is a British intelligence agency to investigate paranormal and superhuman activity and combat any superhuman threats by combining Alistaire's scientific knowledge with Alysande's military skills.

While investigating the disappearance of doctor Moira MacTaggert and the appearance of a Moira MacTaggert from a parallel universe, Alistaire meets Kitty Pryde, a member of Excalibur, who is attracted to Alistaire. Kitty introduces Alistaire to Excalibur and to her disappointment, Alistaire is more interested in Kitty's friend Rachel Summers. Alistaire, Alysande and the W.H.O. become loyal allies to Excalibur. Alistaire's many visits with the team involve him in a few odd occurrences at first, mainly concerning alternate realities somehow being connected to the lighthouse headquarters.

[edit] Cross-Time Caper

Alistaire accompanies the team during their unwilling journey across parallel universes known as the Cross-Time Caper. He shares the team's many adventures across dozens of realities, often finding time to take pictures. They travel from realm to realm inside a train, powered by the interaction between Widget and Rachel. Alistaire finds time for a romance, helps out where he can and even killed, for a time, along with most of the team. The latter half of the 'Caper' is mentally draining on all of them, as despair sets in, made even more so by the seeming loss of Kitty. Eventually the intervention of the vastly powerful Saturnyne allows the team to return home. Kitty is later discovered whole and healthy.

[edit] Versus Galactus

As detailed in Excalibur #25, right as the team is returning home after the Cross-Time Caper, Galactus attacks, with the intention of neutralize the cosmic power of Rachel Summers. Alistaire has Rachel take him back down to the lighthouse basement, where his long-term temporary home, the train, now is. On their way they discover the lighthouse is more than it seems, as they encounter a half-animal rock band version of the main Excalibur group. Rachel also gets another telepathic flash as to how he feels for her. Alistaire eventually finds (in his own pocket) a small device, gained after a discussion of 'trans-temporal relativity dynamics with some chap from Gallifrey'. Alistaire attempts to use the device to send Galactus to the farthest reaches of space and time. His attempt completely fails. The very embodiment of Death itself saves Rachel.

[edit] Other heroes

Alistaire is entrusted with 'house' sitting when Excalibur must visit Limbo itself to save all of England. He gets to meet the West Coast Avengers who had arrived to assist Excalibur in their quest.^[2]

Alistaire assists the team when they must battle the evil sorcerer Necrom. He becomes involved in the dimensional displacements taking place throughout the entirety of the team's headquarters, many of which manifest alternate versions of Alistaire himself.

[edit] Loss of a sister

Alysande is later accused of selling classified information to S.H.I.E.L.D., but she dies before the investigation is complete. She had been killed by Jaime Braddock, the evil brother of Captain Britain, who takes some time to defeat. S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury meets Alistaire at the funeral and tells him that his sister was framed. Alistaire investigates the matter and finds out that the R.C.X., another government agency, framed Alysande so that W.H.O. is weakened and the R.C.X. can take control of its resources. R.C.X. personally kidnaps Alistaire, trying to bring him around to their point of view. It turns out R.C.X is basing its power on dozens of super-powered children, who, together, are capable of many things, such as crafting a headquarters in days. A telepathic child, 'Beetroot', briefly shares a link with Alistaire, showing him how R.C.X. mistreats and abuses its charges. The child dies moments later and Alistaire, infuriated, lands a powerful punch right in Smythe's face. Even though the man was surrounded by super-human guards. Later, with the help of Excalibur the R.C.X. is defeated.

[edit] Black Air

Shortly afterwards, another intelligence agency, Black Air begins its rise to power. Black Air competes with the R.C.X. and W.H.O., often with violence. As leader of the W.H.O., Alistaire knows too much about Black Air and is targeted by them for assassination. He flees the country and travels to the United States. There, he makes his way to the X-Mansion and asks the X-Men to contact Excalibur. Meanwhile, Excalibur has had its own problems with Black Air and promises to bring Alistaire home. Excalibur uses the information they have gathered on Black Air to expose Black Air's crimes and Black Air is forced underground. Alistaire Stuart is appointed head of a new department to replace W.H.O., Black Air, and the R.C.X. This new department is known as MI-13 or simply "the Department".

[edit] Back in England

London became affected when the crime-lord Viper purchases several 'Murderworld' items from the killer Arcade. Stuart is called in to control the scene when it is confirmed that the London Eye has been rigged with two bombs and a nuclear explosive. The X-Men, having legal standing at the time, ignore Stuart's orders to stand down. The nuclear bomb is removed and neutralized. Afterwards, Stuart removes his jacket and sits on a curb with the X-Men, discussing the situation.

Following the arrival of an other dimensional Martian craft, Stuart decided MI-13 would not be able to handle such situations and switched affiliations to MI6, assisting in their attempts to stop a Martian invasion and keep MI-13 in the dark.^[3] He has come around to their view that the specifically created "weird happenings organisations" (a blanket term MI6 used for all similar groups) never last and will never last.^[4] He was shown to be at odds with his former ally Pete Wisdom, who viewed Stuart as having betrayed him by switching organizations. Within the Wisdom mini-series that saw Stuart come around to MI6's view, Stuart was drawn and written as a very old man.

Stuart would continue to assist the government in matter of a superhero nature including Britain's Superhuman Registration Act^[5] and the Skrull invasion^[6].