Stumbling upon the wreckage of a long-abandoned Deviant city, mutant terrorist Magneto found experimental evolutionary information and technology placed there by the half-Inhuman, half-Deviant Maelstrom. Magneto used these technologies to create his own "ultimate mutant." Charles Xavier and the Defenders intervened, but Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants defeated them, and Alpha the Ultimate Mutant hatched from its chamber. Initially a speechless brute, the continually-evolving Alpha defeated the Hulk and teleported the Brotherhood to the United Nations at Magneto's command. Magneto demanded the U.N. cede him rulership of the Earth, and Alpha levitated the entire building for Magneto. The Defenders arrived and engaged the Brotherhood, but after Magneto ordered Alpha to slay them, Charles Xavier and Dr. Strange convinced Alpha that Magneto's crusade was morally untenable. Turning the Brotherhood to infants, Alpha departed Earth to seek his destiny. He was eventually captured by the Stranger, and imprisoned beside the Futurist (Randolph James) on Labworld. The pair escaped when the Overmind assaulted the Stranger's Labworld.