Byrne later revealed that, unlike most of the Alpha Flight lineup, she was a "fan character" who he created years before he began professional work in comics.

[7] Several thousand years before Snowbird's birth, the immensely powerful and malevolent Arctic spirit Tundra sealed the Northern gods — including the Inuk goddess Nelvanna — within a mystical barrier in another dimension, rendering them incapable of defending the mortal realm of Earth.

Through clever persuasion and trickery, Nelvanna bargained with Tundra to strip her of her godly powers so that she could pass through the barrier to find and mate with a male human of Earth.

Nelvanna appeared before a man named Richard Easton, insisting upon mating with him to produce a child who would grow to battle the evil, mystical "Great Beasts" of Canada.

Easton reluctantly agreed, and the two conceived Snowbird some time in the early 20th century, near Resolute Bay, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Shaman named the child Narya, used a spell to bind her to the earthly realm, and agreed to raise her in his cabin in the Canadian wilderness.

However, she is unable to leave Canada's borders without instantly falling ill, due to the literal effects of the binding spell placed on her by Shaman.

[16] Narya adopted the codename "Snowbird" and also assumed the human identity of "Anne McKenzie"; she subsequently trained to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, eventually working as a records officer in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Snowbird was eventually confronted by her new superior, Chief Inspector Hamilton, for repeated "unexcused absences" (which occurred as a result of her superhero activities) and was subsequently forced to break out of confinement to battle Kolomaq.

[23] Pestilence's spirit still possessed Snowbird's body and battled Alpha Flight, but was banished by Heather into the void of Shaman's medicine pouch.

[volume & issue needed] Much later, a time-displaced alternate Snowbird from relatively early in her Alpha Flight career was brought to the present-day with her teammates.

While most of this group was continuing to act as Alpha Flight in the present day, the temporal copy of Snowbird had married Yukon Jack and become queen of his tribe.

During a battle with a group of gods who had been absorbed into the Skrull pantheon, Snowbird changes into Neooqtoq the Ravager, deadliest of the Great Beasts of the north.

[27] However, at the last moment she transformed herself into a swarm of mosquitoes, choosing to honor her fallen teammates by fighting on and rejoins the battle against the Skrull gods and rescues Cho, who has been knocked out of the palace.

When she discovers that Sasquatch has brought the Great Beasts to Earth so they can kill Amatsu-Mikaboshi, she is furious and ends up freezing them, after which Mikaboshi impales them.

However, both of these limitations have been reduced or removed following her resurrection: she has since been shown to talk in animal form, and she transformed from a mountain lion to Wendigo with no strain at all.

[volume & issue needed] This restriction was temporarily lifted by Hodiak when Snowbird joined the God Squad during Sacred Invasion.