PEREGRINE
Real Name: Alain Racine
Identity/Class: Human (French) technology user
Occupation: Mercenary, writer, national protector of France
Group Membership: Champions of Europe (Ares, Captain Britain/Brian Braddock, Excalibur/Dr. Faiza Hussain, Guillotine/Jeannine Sauvage, Outlaw/Nigel Higgins);
occasional freelancer for Silver Sable International
Affiliations: Government of France, Alpha Flight (Aurora, Northstar, Sasquatch/Walter Langkowski, Vindicator/Heather Hudson, Weapon Omega), American Eagle, Arabian Knight, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Blitzkrieger, Courier (Hans Mittlesteadt), Euroforce (Baby Killer/Mikhail Zamorksa, Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Swordswoman, Tumult), Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Lynx, Micromax, Nick Fury, Omerta, Prodigy, Rom, Sandman (William Baker), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Shamrock, Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova), Thing (Ben Grimm), U.S.Avengers (Pod/Aikku Jokinen, Squirrel Girl/Doreen Green), Ursula, Wolverine (James Howlett), the Avengers
Enemies: Admiral
Ellis, Brain
Drain, Imus
Champion, Death, Dire Wraiths, Fleshtones,
Grandmaster, Graviton, Hydra, ICON,
Kang and his elite troops, Rapido,
Raptor,
Red
Skull (Malik), Stane International, They;
briefly the Angel, Black Panther
(T'Challa), Vanguard
Known Relatives: Adele Racine (wife, deceased)
Aliases: Faucon Pèlerin (name in France; see comments)
Place of Birth: Moulins, France
Base of Operations: Mobile
across France, especially Paris;
sometimes mobile internationally
including the USA;
briefly the Pan-European
Conference on Superhuman Affairs in Geneva, Switzerland
First Appearance: Contest of Champions I#1 (June, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: The Peregrine is a professional-level athlete with gifted intelligence skilled in the French martial art of foot fighting called savate. Using a combination of combat skills and his flight harness, he is a formidable aerial combatant. The Peregrine flies by means of a miniature anti-gravity generator housed in his body suit and built into his aerodynamic wings are two small hydrazine nitrous oxide jet turbines. He can fly at speeds of up to 130 mph with a range of 200 miles before refueling and the wing system provides great maneuverability. The wings are linked to Peregrine's mind and thoughts. On occasion, he has been known to use infrared lenses, radar tracking devices and other forms of non-lethal weapons supplied by Silver Sable such as gas and thermite grenades, napalm bolas, taser darts and an electromagnetic scrambler. The debonair Racine has blue eyes and brown hair.
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Scarlet Witch II#6 (fb)) - Alain was a writer by profession. During research for his job he found the wings that would make him a hero on a mummified corpse in Paris' catacombs.
(Contest of Champions I#1) - While patrolling the skies of France, the Peregrine was suddenly abducted along with all the world's heroes by the Grandmaster and the mysterious being known as Death to take part in a contest. The Grandmaster challenged Death in the hopes of resurrecting his fellow Elder, the Collector, who was presently deceased and each in turn chose 12 heroes to be their champions. The Peregrine was chosen to represent one of the heroes on the Grandmaster's side.
(Contest of Champions I#3) - Allied with Wolverine and the Thing, the Peregrine was transported to the City of the Dead in China to fight Vanguard, Angel and the Black Panther over the possession of a piece of the Golden Globe of Life. Taking to the air, he battled the Angel and although he displayed better aerial combat skills, he was beaten by the more experienced Angel. His team successfully retrieved the mystical piece of the Golden Globe of Life and was then instantly transported back to the orbiting arena in space along with the rest of the world’s heroes.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5) - A few months later, the Peregrine was approached by Silver Sable to become her French operative and completed many successful missions for her.
(Incredible Hulk II#279) - The Peregrine, along with many other of the world's heroes, attended the celebration of the Hulk’s Presidential Pardon in New York City.
(Rom#65) - In a last ditch effort to replace the Earth with their own dark planet, the evil shape-shifting Dire Wraiths sent their forces to destroy the Earth with the view to leaving theirs in its place. Fighting alongside Rom and the heroes of the Earth, including American Eagle, Arabian Knight, Blitzkrieger and Shamrock, the Peregrine battled the invading hordes of aliens and were victorious.
(Rom#66 - BTS) - The Peregrine returned to France to help with his country's cleanup and repairs after the Dire Wraith attack.
(Solo Avengers#6) - The Peregrine was hired by Silver Sable to assist Hawkeye in recovering a stolen nuclear timing device that the Red Skull was planning to use to extort billions of dollars from weaker countries around the world. The Peregrine and Hawkeye defeated the Red Skull and were also able to free the Sandman who was previously captured during his mission for Silver Sable.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#51/4) - Peregrine was once again hired by Silver Sable to destroy a surveillance outpost belonging to an enemy army (Iraq?) in the Persian Gulf that was threatening a corporation’s trade route in the area. While en route to the platform, the Peregrine was aggressively attacked by a gunboat. After dropping a few grenades on the boat, it exploded and he continued on to his target. While at the platform, the American battleship, the USS Cochrane, forced him to land on their deck and he was informed while surrendering to Admiral Ellis that the platform was an oil rig that was being fought over by the Americans, Iraqis and Stane International over ownership. He was also told that Stane was dealing guns, munitions and oil to both sides and that the Americans were going to take control of the platform to control their interests in the region. The Peregrine quickly escaped the battleship and using his greater mobility caused the platform to take direct fire from the American ship’s cannons. With the platform destroyed, the Peregrine, then feeling a little used by his employers, located the Stane Corp ship in the area and planted explosives on their hull and informed the ship's captain to evacuate quickly. Departing, the Peregrine smiled and was uncertain of Silver Sable's reaction over completing his mission by ending it with a little panache.
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update#3) - Peregrine occasionally dated Shamrock and teamed up with her against the criminal organization ICON.
(Marvel Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue) - Peregrine participated in the Maria Stark Foundation's Super Olympics during the stunt flying exhibition choreographed by former dance star Stevie Hunter.
(Alpha Flight I#108) - The Peregrine, being one of Europe’s greatest heroes, was invited to take part in the first Pan-European Conference on Super Human Affairs held in Geneva, Switzerland. Unable to be there in person, the Peregrine via satellite was introduced by the event’s host, Ursula, to the visiting Alpha Flight who were present as representatives and ambassadors from Canada. However, the evil villain Brain Drain disrupted the Conference and used his vast mental power to hypnotize the Peregrine, Shamrock, Micromax, Omerta and Prodigy and forced them to hunt down and kill their country’s political leaders. During his attempted assassination of the French President, Sasquatch showed up and after a brief battle, he was overpowered and rendered unconscious. After regaining his senses and no longer under mental control, he attended the Conference in person and began flirting with Vindicator who asked him to remove his hand from her hair unless he wanted it broken.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#124 - BTS) - The Peregrine was hired by Imus Champion for 1 million dollars to bring him the mutant girl called Lynx so that he could have his scientists draw the panacea drug from her blood which was able to kill any and all viruses known to man.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#124) - The Peregrine secretly abducted the Lynx from behind the back of Wolverine and the German hero called Courier while they were both fighting over who should lay claim on the mutant girl. Boarding a waiting plane, he flew off to take her to Imus Champion's laboratory in California.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#125) -
While showering and getting ready to go out on a date, he was
interrupted
by Wolverine and Courier who followed him there by tracking his
previous flight plan. Imus Champion, double-crossing the Peregrine,
sent his superhuman operatives, the Fleshtones, to break into his room
and kill him. Joining forces with Wolverine and Courier and the newly
arrived Black Widow, who was working for SHIELD, they defeated the
weird shape-shifting villains.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#126) - Teaming up with Wolverine and Courier, the three heroes wore the skins off the Fleshtones and infiltrated Imus Champion’s lab. After a brief battle with his security forces, they freed Lynx of her confinement.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#127) - The Peregrine, along with Wolverine, Courier and the Black Widow, brought Lynx to a SHIELD safe house in Maine and began to discuss with Nick Fury the best interests of the feral girl. After seeing it SHIELD’s way, the Peregrine soon left and decided to go back to Imus Champion’s California base to investigate.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#128) - Back at Imus Champion’s lab, the Peregrine once again met up with Courier and both agreed to work together and infiltrate Champion's organization.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#129) - Peregrine and Courier learnt that Imus Champion and the criminal organization known as They had developed a vaccine to the panacea drug called the Malignant Virus and were planning to use it to blackmail the world. The two heroes disguised themselves as guards and traveled to a secret Antarctic base, joining forces once again with Wolverine and the Black Widow. The group succeeded in destroying the Malignant Virus and defeating the forces of They.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#130) - The Peregrine was hired by Courier to help him find his missing wife. The result of this mission remains unknown.
(Thunderbolts I#57-58) - The Peregrine was shown to be one of the multitudes of heroes of Earth who were incapacitated by Graviton in his attempt to conquer the planet.
(Avengers III#46) - The Peregrine joined with the Avengers and the combined armed forces of Europe to fortify a French military base so that they could defend it from attack by Kang’s elite shock troops.
(Civil War: Battle Damage Report)
-
Peregrine was hired by the French Government and, alongside his
nation's superhumans (like Rapido), began patrolling the borders to
stop the influx
of American superbeings from entering the country to escape the USA's
Superhuman Registration legislation. While on patrol over the Bay of
Biscay, Peregrine intercepted the Raptor who was trying to enter the
country.
(Fear Itself: Black Widow) - Peregrine helped Black Widow (Romanoff) against Rapido and other mercenaries, and aided her in destroying a terrorist group and thwarting their nuclear bomb plot.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Scarlet Witch II#6 (fb)) - At some point Alain was writing a piece on what it was like backstage at a fashion show. He and the model Adele fell in love when they first met eyes during the show. They got married and often argued over the books she read, but they never went to bed angry.
(Scarlet Witch II#6 (fb) - BTS) - Peregrine was hunting down the rest of the perpetrators responsible for attacks on Paris. While he was doing that his wife died in a car crash.
Peregrine blamed himself for her death because he wasn't there when it happened. Due to his brain's connection to his wings he lost his ability to fly. Ever since he went to a rooftop every day to mourn and try to fly again. He sometimes considered just jumping off the roof to end his life to either be reunited with Adele or just end his torment.
(Scarlet Witch II#6) - Scarlet Witch learned of Peregrine's predicament during a visit to Paris and found Peregrine on a rooftop. After learning what was going on she summoned the ghost of Adele to talk to Peregrine. At first the encounter with his wife's ghost led to Peregrine trying to take his life immediately to be reunited with her, but Adele talked some sense into him and made him realize that he was still needed to one day save the world. After Adele's spirit was gone Peregrine thanked Scarlet Witch and finally was able to take flight again.
(U.S.Avengers#7) - Peregrine became one of the founding members of the Champions of Europe to oppose Hydra during their takeover of the world. They saved Pod and Squirrel Girl from Hydra in Paris, France.
(U.S.Avengers#8) - The Champions of Europe along with Pod and Squirrel Girl attacked Hydra's armory on Paris.
(U.S.Avengers#9) - Squirrel Girl, Pod and the Champions of Europe used Hydramechs stolen from the armory to take down Hydra's main vessel over Paris and free Euroforce. Peregrine and his fellow heroes kept fighting Hydra.
Comments: Created by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant, John Romita Jr. and Pablo Marcos.
Contest of Champions writer Steven Grant revealed that the series was supposed to have the characters broadly international, but Marvel didn't have many international heroes at the time who weren't X-Men. Bill Mantlo brought in Mark Gruenwald and Steven Grant to help out creating new characters. Le Peregrine was one of the characters created by Steven Grant.
Steven Grant: "In 1980, Marvel had a deal to do Olympic-themed treasury editions. Bill & I did the Hulk & Spider-Man at the Winter Olympics, which was published. We then worked with Mark on the Marvel SLuper-Heroes Summer Olympics Special. Then the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, & in protest Carter pulled the US from the Moscow Olympics. Nothing to tie into, book went into the drawer for awhile. At some point, after tons of resistance, Marvel was convinced to try the mini-series format. Jim Shooter pulled "Summer Olympics" from a drawer, & Bill (Mantlo) & JR2 (John Romita Jr.) reowked it into a 3 issue mini. But that was months after it had already been done. The main reason MSH&SO was chosen as the mini-test was that it was already done, for the most part, so the company would have to spend minimal more money to publish it. The # of characters were bet hedger. But it made Marvel gung-ho on minis...BTW pretty sure Mark did the rough designs for all the new characters, to prescribed specifications. JR2 did more polished takes. I'm constantly having people at conventions bring copies to sign & asking "Did you expect when you were working on CoC it would have the impact it did?" I tell them, truthfully, "We didn't even know we were working on Contest of Champions..." (I believe Jim (Shooter) named it).
The Peregrine received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#8, Update '89#5, the Master Edition#25 and All-New OHotMU Update#3.
The original entry in the Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe states the Peregrine is the French word
for
falcon.
Actually, the French translation for FALCON is FAUCON! The
Peregrine Falcon is part of the same bird family that you could
translate by Faucon pelerin.
--Lucian Zul
In 2016 it was revealed in Scarlet Witch II#6 that this was actually his name in France.
--Markus Raymond
Jean-Marc Lofficier wrote an unpublished adventure of the Peregrine and Shamrock which you can read here.
Lofficier's story was
mentioned in Peregrine's most recent handbook entry.
--Markus Raymond
Peregrine had the questionable honor to be one of the characters killed by the Hulk in War is Heck, an alternate Earth recount of events by Uatu, in World War Hulk: Front Line#4 (November, 2007) by Paul Jenkins (writer) & Chris Moreno (artist).
Thanks to Luc Kersten for supplying the Peregrine + Black Widow pic. Thanks to Ron Fredricks for the cleaned up main image.
Profile by AvatarWarlord72. Update by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
The Peregrine has no known connections to:
images:
(without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5, p39, pan1 (main image)
Scarlet Witch II#6, p9-10, pan4 (head shot)
Contest of Champions I#1, p11, pan1 (flying with Angel)
Marvel Comics Presents I#51/4, p28, pan4 (Peregrine surrenders)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5, p39, pan2 (swooping on criminals)
Fear Itself: Black Widow, p5, pan1 (carrying Black Widow)
Scarlet Witch II#6, p2, pan3 (new costume)
Appearances:
Contest of Champions I#1-3 (June-August, 1982) - Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant (writers), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Pablo Marcos (inks), Tom DeFalco (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#8 (August, 1983) - Kerry Gammill (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#279 (January, 1983) - Bill Mantlo & Mark Gruenwald (writers), George Baroque (pencils), Allen Milgrom (editor)
Rom#65 (April, 1985) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Steve Ditko (pencils), P. Craig Russell (inks), Mike Carlin (editor)
Solo Avengers#6 (May, 1988) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Mark Bright (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5 (1989) - Peter Sanderson (writer), Don Heck (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#51/4 (1990) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Don Heck (pencils), Randy Emberlin (inks), Terry Cavanaugh (editor)
Marvel Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue (1991)
Alpha Flight I#108 (May, 1992) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Tom Morgan (pencils & inks), Rob Tokar (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition#25 (1992) - Peter Sanderson & Murray Ward (research & Text), Keith Pollard (pencils), Joe Rubenstein (inks)
Marvel Comics Presents I#124-130 (1993) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Dennis Jensen (pencils), Jon Holdrege (inks), Terry Cavanaugh (editor)
Avengers III#46 (November, 2001) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Bob Layton (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Thunderbolts I#57 (December, 2001) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Al Vey (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Thunderbolts I#58 (January, 2002) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Al Vey (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Civil War: Battle Damage Report (2007) - Anthony Flamini (head writer), Ronald Byrd (writer), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
Fear Itself: Black Widow (August, 2011) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Peter Nguyen (art), Charlie Beckermann (editor)
Scarlet Witch II#6 (July, 2016) - James Robinson (writer), Marguerite Sauvage (artist), Emily Shaw (editor)
U.S.Avengers#7-8 (August-September, 2017) - Al Ewing (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
U.S.Avengers#9 (October, 2017) - Al Ewing (writer), Paco Medina & Juan Vlasco with Alex Arizmendi (artists), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 07/14/2007
Last updated: 05/25/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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