Official Handbook Updates

[-K-M-]

For this issue I wrote Omega Flight, Revanche, Ladyfair and Slayback.

Oh nice, I'm digging these handbooks as it's bringing back characters we havn't heard from in awhile

Just chiming back in on this one - I've just found the volume 1 reference to Puck choosing his name from Shakespeare's elf again. I knew I had read it when I originally wrote his entry, but it's taken until now for me to find it again - naturally when I wasn't looking for it anymore.

Alpha Flight Annual #1, p.3, panel 2

Madison Jeffries "What're you readin, Puck?"
Judd "A play about my namesake, Mr. Jeffries..Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"."

While the argument could be made that the namesake comment isn't definitive (eg even if I shared the same name as someone but the sharing was coincidence rather than design, I could still describe that other person as my namesake), it still supports the "named after the elf" over the "named after the hockey equipment" - and it comes from Judd himself, not a doppleganger of same. And it is where I got the information I used in the Handbook entry.

Good find I had to look back and read it myself and no I agree it makes complete sense if Puck named himself after a Shakespearean character rather then a hockey puck. Puck was indeed a scholar and several times would actually quote Hamlet in battle. I was confused why he would name himself after a "puck"

Oh is the discussion of Sasquatch powergrid still open?

[Loki]

Oh is the discussion of Sasquatch powergrid still open?

Yes, it is. Looking back, I forwarded your queries and points on to the team, but we were in the middle of a deadline doom, and there wasn't a full response from the writer - it got lost in the shuffle so to speak. I'll bring it up again, and see what the final verdict is.

[-K-M-]

Yes, it is. Looking back, I forwarded your queries and points on to the team, but we were in the middle of a deadline doom, and there wasn't a full response from the writer - it got lost in the shuffle so to speak. I'll bring it up again, and see what the final verdict is.

Excellent, keep me informed please

[cmdrkoenig67]

For this issue I wrote Omega Flight, Revanche, Ladyfair and Slayback.

Oh nice, I'm digging these handbooks as it's bringing back characters we havn't heard from in awhile

Just chiming back in on this one - I've just found the volume 1 reference to Puck choosing his name from Shakespeare's elf again. I knew I had read it when I originally wrote his entry, but it's taken until now for me to find it again - naturally when I wasn't looking for it anymore.

Alpha Flight Annual #1, p.3, panel 2

Madison Jeffries "What're you readin, Puck?"
Judd "A play about my namesake, Mr. Jeffries..Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"."

While the argument could be made that the namesake comment isn't definitive (eg even if I shared the same name as someone but the sharing was coincidence rather than design, I could still describe that other person as my namesake), it still supports the "named after the elf" over the "named after the hockey equipment" - and it comes from Judd himself, not a doppleganger of same. And it is where I got the information I used in the Handbook entry.

Good find I had to look back and read it myself and no I agree it makes complete sense if Puck named himself after a Shakespearean character rather then a hockey puck. Puck was indeed a scholar and several times would actually quote Hamlet in battle. I was confused why he would name himself after a "puck"

Um...John Byrne mentioned where he got Puck's name over twenty years ago (Indeed, he named Puck after Shakespeare's ethereal spirit...Not a piece of rubber). He mentioned it yet again in the Alpha Flight, Vol. 1, #5 thread (it's also right there in the flippin' title of the issue!) at his website recently (started by Ryan Maxwell).

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/f....asp?TID=21741

Dana

EDITED to fix my issue number flub.

[Loki]

For this issue I wrote Omega Flight, Revanche, Ladyfair and Slayback.

Oh nice, I'm digging these handbooks as it's bringing back characters we havn't heard from in awhile

Just chiming back in on this one - I've just found the volume 1 reference to Puck choosing his name from Shakespeare's elf again. I knew I had read it when I originally wrote his entry, but it's taken until now for me to find it again - naturally when I wasn't looking for it anymore.

Alpha Flight Annual #1, p.3, panel 2

Madison Jeffries "What're you readin, Puck?"
Judd "A play about my namesake, Mr. Jeffries..Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"."

While the argument could be made that the namesake comment isn't definitive (eg even if I shared the same name as someone but the sharing was coincidence rather than design, I could still describe that other person as my namesake), it still supports the "named after the elf" over the "named after the hockey equipment" - and it comes from Judd himself, not a doppleganger of same. And it is where I got the information I used in the Handbook entry.

Good find I had to look back and read it myself and no I agree it makes complete sense if Puck named himself after a Shakespearean character rather then a hockey puck. Puck was indeed a scholar and several times would actually quote Hamlet in battle. I was confused why he would name himself after a "puck"

Um...John Byrne mentioned where he got Puck's name over twenty years ago (Indeed, he named Puck after Shakespeare's ethereal spirit...Not a piece of rubber). He mentioned it yet again in the Alpha Flight, Vol. 1, #5 thread (it's also right there in the flippin' title of the issue!) at his website recently (started by Ryan Maxwell).

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/f....asp?TID=21741

Dana

EDITED to fix my issue number flub.

As Byrne himself would point out, a writer's intended backstory means little if not openly used in story and then explicitly contradicted by another story. Look at the final issues of Power Man and Iron Fist - Tyrone King wasn't intended to be Master Khan, Captain Hero wasn't meant to be the Super Skrull, and the Iron Fist who died was intended to be the real Iron Fist (although the original writer, thesedays known as Priest, did have a way to bring him back) - Priest had other plans for all those characters, but when Byrne brought Iron Fist back from the dead, all those unused plans went by the wayside. The title of the issue is a good catch (I freely admit I wasn't paying attention to issue titles when annotating 100+ issues for the Puck entry, so I didn't spot that), and it is a good bit of circumstantial evidence, but it would have been overruled by the volume 3 explicit statement that Judd got the Puck name from the hockey equipment. Even though I prefer the name to be derived from Shakespeare, and I would have been confirming an error on my own part in the Handbook entry, if I hadn't found the reference in the annual from Judd's own mouth, then the hockey derivation would have had precedence.

And the "speed of his namesake" bit in the scanned panels at that link sadly don't lend weight either way to the argument, as both the elf and the hockey equipment could move pretty fast.

However, we now have 3 pieces of evidence for Shakespeare's elf providing the name - 2 circumstantial (Judd is a scholar who often quotes Shakespeare, the title of the Judd-centric story in Alpha Flight #5 which you caught), and one less so (the quote from Annual #1), vs. 1 piece of evidence favouring the hockey equipment (the statement from the faux Judd in Alpha Flight series 3). The elf wins out. And the no-prize explanation for the series 3 comment is my example from Star Trek; the real Judd planting a false memory in the doppelganger to expose it as a fake.

[Barnacle13]

If anything from Alpha Flight V3 is considered canon I think I will scream!!! The V3 quote should be considered nothing more than another feeble attempt to make the story funny! The entire series was a joke, there was little of Alpha Flight in it other than likenesses.

[Loki]

If anything from Alpha Flight V3 is considered canon I think I will scream!!! The V3 quote should be considered nothing more than another feeble attempt to make the story funny! The entire series was a joke, there was little of Alpha Flight in it other than likenesses.

I'm afraid it is canon. Sorry. We don't get to pick and choose only the good bits (otherwise Puck would have always been a dwarf, not a full-sized man who once housed a demon).

[mreeez]

If anything from Alpha Flight V3 is considered canon I think I will scream!!! The V3 quote should be considered nothing more than another feeble attempt to make the story funny! The entire series was a joke, there was little of Alpha Flight in it other than likenesses.

I'm afraid it is canon. Sorry. We don't get to pick and choose only the good bits (otherwise Puck would have always been a dwarf, not a full-sized man who once housed a demon).

Can't we dismiss all the bad stuff by saying that it was just a Skrull at the time?

[Loki]

If anything from Alpha Flight V3 is considered canon I think I will scream!!! The V3 quote should be considered nothing more than another feeble attempt to make the story funny! The entire series was a joke, there was little of Alpha Flight in it other than likenesses.

I'm afraid it is canon. Sorry. We don't get to pick and choose only the good bits (otherwise Puck would have always been a dwarf, not a full-sized man who once housed a demon).

Can't we dismiss all the bad stuff by saying that it was just a Skrull at the time?

It was a Skrull from Earth-A being punched by Superboy as the Scarlet Witch said "no more good plots" :P

[Barnacle13]

Don't get me wrong there were some redeeming qualities in V3, but there weren't many. Major Mapleleaf Jr actually grew on me after awhile with his Dudley Doright style. Centennial was also an intriguing character and I'd have loved to see the Puckette/Puck relationship explored, but the rest was pretty much a joke (intentionally at that).

[Loki]

Just fyi

http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=8227

The Handbooks begin a 12 month A-Z Hardcover reprise of consolidating what we have covered to date, with entries from earlier books brought together into one gigantic A-Z run.

"The most exciting and comprehensive Marvel handbook is finally here! Beginning a twelve-volume guide to the Marvel Universe with more than 100 huge entries in each tome! This issue – from 1602 to Blackwulf! Spotlighting people (Angel, Annihilus, Ant-Man, Apocalypse, Arachne, Ares, Aurora, Banshee, Baron Zemo, Beast, Beta Ray Bill, Bishop, Black Bolt, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow), places (Atlantis), teams (AIM, Acolytes, Agents of Atlas, Alpha Flight, Avengers), species (Badoon), alternate realities (2020, 2099, the Age of Apocalypse) and more!"

But this is way more than just a reprint. Every entry is updated so it covers up to the character's latest appearance. Many have been expanded by one or more pages. Data corrections will be made.

Or to put it another way, the combined page count of the hardcovers is several hundred pages longer than the combined page count of the handbooks it incorporates. And as the solicit text above mentions, there's a number of Alpha Flight entries in Volume 1.

[rplass]

Yay! I can see Aurora on the cover and I see her name in the solicit text .

I'm glad to see Alpha Flight included in this project and I will definitely get it!

Thanks for the good news!

Love,
rplass

[cmdrkoenig67]

Yay!

Dana

[-K-M-]

Just fyi

http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=8227

The Handbooks begin a 12 month A-Z Hardcover reprise of consolidating what we have covered to date, with entries from earlier books brought together into one gigantic A-Z run.

Awesome, I really loved how you guys used characters we havn't heard in awhile.

Are we going to see corrections, say for..Sasquatch here?

[Loki]

Just fyi

http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=8227

The Handbooks begin a 12 month A-Z Hardcover reprise of consolidating what we have covered to date, with entries from earlier books brought together into one gigantic A-Z run.

Awesome, I really loved how you guys used characters we havn't heard in awhile.

Are we going to see corrections, say for..Sasquatch here?

We'll make corrections where we've confirmed stuff in past entries as being wrong or needing updated - can't promise if Sasquatch is one of them, as that one is still under review. Obviously, now is the time to make the case for any and all suggested amendments or corrections to existing entries.