Issue(s): Alpha Flight #5
Cover Date: Dec 83
Title: "What fools these mortals be..."
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
John Byrne - Inker
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
Puck recovers in the hospital under the care of Shaman. While he's there, he charms all the nurses ("I just want a six-pack of Judds to take home with me")...

...and busts up a stolen drug ring run by a hospital doctor.

Fun little story.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - beginnings of the Shaman origin, including first Talisman.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Puck was nearly disemboweled in Alpha Flight #2. Here, Puck is still injured but doing much better. The back-up from this issue is covered in a separate entry.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Of the original Alpha Flight members, Puck was my personal favorite. To me his origin and backstory had elements similar to both Wolverine and DC's Metamorpho. I know John Byrne wasn't thrilled with Bill Mantlo's retcon with the sorcerer/demon Black Razer trapped in Judd's body, and meant for him to be simply a "normal" man who had maximized the physical potential of his small frame, I liked that he was a well-traveled raconteur who had become a bullfighter and been a friend of Ernest Hemingway. One could see him holding court at Sloppy Joe's in Key West, regaling the regulars with stories of "Papa", and asking the bartender for "another round of Molsons, eh?"

In my previous comment, I mentioned the difference between Byrne's and Mantlo's differing conceptions of Puck. In the second issue, when the feral Marrina slashed Puck's guts, leading to his hospital stay documented here, one could guess the severity of the attack would trigger Razer escaping and turning Mr. Judd into a seven-foot tall senior citizen. I originally picked up AF #5 after reading the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry on Puck, and being only vaguely familiar with the team, I saw this issue and wondered why he didn't change after the disembowelment. Byrne's intent was for any ongoing pain Puck felt to be a natural by-product of his dwarfism. Mantlo didn't do his homework before settling into the writer's chair, which from what I've seen on comments here and elsewhere is not surprising. By the way, back in my earlier comment I mentioned the words "elements" and "Metamorpho" in the same sentence. Any pun derived from that, for once, was NOT intended.