Avengers World and Validator

[Flightpath07]

So, the free preview from Marvel Now for January of 2014 that I got from my LCS, it has a couple pages from Avengers World # 1.

It mentions Validator and her crew. Looks like that will be an ongoing story-line.

Unfortunately, she is referred to as "whatever USED to be Validator", and it is implied that she (or she and her team) have been changed into something different than what they once were. She is still in Regina, Canada.

[marvelnowfansite]

If I was going to create an Avengers team oriented in Canada, I would probably use some of the following characters in some form: Vindicator, Guardian, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Groundhog, Talisman, Yukon Jack, Major Mapleleaf, Marrina Smallwood and/or Validator. Team Alpha. Discussion welcomed here...

I would also create a team of Canadian mutants using characters like: Puck, Northstar, Aurora, Madison Jeffries (BOX), Diamond Lil, Windshear, Witchfire, Persuasion (Purple Girl), Wild Child, and even Stitch, Flex, Murmur, Radius a trainees. Team Omega. Also discussion welcomed here...

Encouraged discussion welcomed!

[DIGGER]

Is Puck a mutant?

[marvelnowfansite]

Is Puck a mutant?

The "short" answer is yes. He is currently a member of the Marvel NOW ongoing series Uncanny X-Force.

[marvelnowfansite]

The Marvel Wiki explains this differently, but he has commonly been referred to as a Mutant.

Originally, Puck had no superhuman powers, relying on his exceptional training. He was a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, capable of a mixture of various martial arts, street-fighting techniques, acrobatics and gymnastics. After a run-in with The Master of the World his body was subject to genetic manipulation of his cellular structure. His body tissues were condensed at a molecular level, causing his body to become akin to compressed rubber.


His trademark attack is a cartwheeling motion. Spinning on his hands and feet at great speeds, he is able to slam into and knock down human-sized enemies with ease. He is also skilled in bullfighting.


He has some knowledge of mysticism, enough to once trap Black Raazer, and the ability to put himself in a temporary deathlike trance state.


Puck is about half the size of the average man. His condition causes him varying amounts of constant pain.


Also, his aging has been stopped or vastly slowed; Judd resembles a man in his thirties (possible mutant gene).


His right ear is misshapen, presumably due to an old injury. It resembles the cauliflower ear condition.

SOURCE - Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(comics)

[DIGGER]

Not to sound like a person in denial but I prefer the Byrne backstory to anything else. Here is a character who has taken a "disability" and turned himself into something better. Just because he appears in X-Factor doesn't necessarily mean he is a mutant (eg Moira MacTaggart). Alpha Flight was believed to be a mutant comic due to it's ties to the X-Men but not all of them were mutants either. Is Nick Fury a mutant because his aging process has been slowed down?

[Jason Eberly]

The Marvel Wiki explains this differently, but he has commonly been referred to as a Mutant.

Commonly where? I don't believe I have ever seen him even suggested he might possibly be a mutant.

Granted, I haven't read Uncanny X-Force so I don't know if he's been retconned there. If he has, then my respect for the creator did so just plummeted.

[Jason Eberly]

Also, his aging has been stopped or vastly slowed; Judd resembles a man in his thirties (possible mutant gene).

SOURCE - Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(comics)

I feel the need to address that you added the "(possible mutant gene)" part to the source material.

The ******ed aging thing was explained by the presence of Razer inside Puck for however many decades it was. Razer appears to be immortal and him being trapped in Puck's body caused him to stop aging. Once Razer was released, Puck assumed his regular age (though it seems more likely he would have just started aging normally, but hey...Mantlo.).

Then, wasn't there something about when he was trapped in The Dreamqueen's dimension that caused him to de-age again? It's been awhile since I read those issues. Or was it the genetic tinkering by The Master that gave him his "rubberized" powers that de-aged him. That would make more sense, as The Master was able to make himself immortal, he could probably do similar things with other people.

Anyway, Puck is not a mutant (until/if it is officially retconned, of course).

[Phil]

The "short" answer is yes. He is currently a member of the Marvel NOW ongoing series Uncanny X-Force.

Completely incorrect. Just because he's with X-Force doesn't make him a mutant.

[Jason Eberly]

The "short" answer is yes. He is currently a member of the Marvel NOW ongoing series Uncanny X-Force.

But the correct answer is no. As you pointed out in a later post, there have been many non-mutants on various X-teams. He is one of them.

[marvelnowfansite]

As it was unanimously pointed out to me in his thread, and admitting that I was wrong (at least in Earth-616); Puck is not a mutant. Please refer to http://marvel.com/universe/Puck_(Eugene_Judd) even as out-dated as it is.

HOWEVER, in 2004, Marvel began a new Alpha Flight series which featured a female character named Puck. The character, whose real name was Zuzha Yu, was a mutant who worked at a bar near McGill University in Montreal and was supposedly the daughter of the original Puck. Apparently she was one of the members of Alpha Flight apparently killed by The Collective. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collective_(comics)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

[Flightpath07]

If I was going to create an Avengers team oriented in Canada, I would probably use some of the following characters in some form: Vindicator, Guardian, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Groundhog, Talisman, Yukon Jack, Major Mapleleaf, Marrina Smallwood and/or Validator. Team Alpha. Discussion welcomed here...

I would also create a team of Canadian mutants using characters like: Puck, Northstar, Aurora, Madison Jeffries (BOX), Diamond Lil, Windshear, Witchfire, Persuasion (Purple Girl), Wild Child, and even Stitch, Flex, Murmur, Radius a trainees. Team Omega. Also discussion welcomed here...

Encouraged discussion welcomed!

I'll play this game, briefly.

I'd create an Avengers Canada team (and subsequent comic book), with team members Hercules, Black Knight, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Hank Pym (in whatever capacity he is serving/fighting in/as), Major Maple Leaf (give him some tech powers?), and the team led by Validator. (I think the scientists Pym and Langkowski would like each other. Hercules would hit on Snowbird. MML would look up to...everybody.)

Then, I'd create a X-Men North team (and subsequent comic book), with team members Puck, Northstar, Aurora, Longshot, X-23, Flatman, Madison Jeffries, and Warpath, and the team led by Joseph (ye olde long-haired Magneto clone). (I like having Jeffries on one team, and Pym on another, it balances things nicely. How would Northstar and Aurora get along in close company? I like x-23, the Wolvie clone, being in Canada. I always love "Magneto" as a hero. And Flatman? He's just seriously underused.)

I'd have them come into conflict with each other (I'd like to think that Northstar and Sasquatch still despise each other!). I'd also have them come into conflict with the underground sensation team, Alpha Flight, a team still not recognized by their government and Mac in particular on the CSIS' most wanted list. Mac would be obsessed, of course, with finding Heather and his daughter. The Alpha Flight team would consist of Guardian, Purple Girl, Wendigo, Wyre, Citadel, Ranark, Yukon Jack, and Nemesis; not necessarily the team Mac would choose, but the team he is stuck with.

[Jason Eberly]

If they did a Canadian version of The Avengers (a thought that makes me cringe...not because I don't want a Canadian title, I just hate the thought of further diluting a brand name that's already so diluted it's basically water), I would call it The Eh-Vengers.

I tease, I tease...but only because I love.

[Le Messor]

Hmm... MNF, I just posted to you on another thread, saying Puck isn't a mutant. Sorry, I hadn't read this thread yet, and didn't realise that you actively think he is, and feel strongly enough about it to argue the point.

That said:

Many members of all the X-Titles ever published have NOT been mutants. Recently Omega Sentinel, Deathlok, Hepzibah, Fantomex, or even Longshot, Juggernaut and the "bamfs" are NOT mutants. Or at least not on Earth-616.

Here you seem to be contradicting your point, and agreeing that he isn't a mutant? Because that post concedes that your only given reasons for thinking he is (long life and being on an X-team) don't make him a mutant.

Puck assumed his regular age

Ah, there's your problem right there. You should never assume. It makes an ascot out of you and me.
(I don't dare write 'donkey'...)

Wow...it censored my perfectly viable word that means: "Slowed-down"?

The ******ed aging thing was explained by the presence of Razer inside Puck for however many decades it was.

Is that what you wrote? I'd read your post and thought you were going for... a different word there, and censored yourself. Wow, that's just bad. Like the time somebody got auto-corrected so they wrote with an 'African-American pen'.

I just hate the thought of further diluting a brand name that's already so diluted it's basically water

You're not thinking homeopathically!

~ Le Messor
"I had a herbamare the other day. I was being chased by a naturopath; woke up in a suet."
~ Me

[marvelnowfansite]

I'll play this game, briefly.

I'd create an Avengers Canada team (and subsequent comic book), with team members Hercules, Black Knight, Sasquatch, Shaman, Snowbird, Hank Pym (in whatever capacity he is serving/fighting in/as), Major Maple Leaf (give him some tech powers?), and the team led by Validator. (I think the scientists Pym and Langkowski would like each other. Hercules would hit on Snowbird. MML would look up to...everybody.)

Then, I'd create a X-Men North team (and subsequent comic book), with team members Puck, Northstar, Aurora, Longshot, X-23, Flatman, Madison Jeffries, and Warpath, and the team led by Joseph (ye olde long-haired Magneto clone). (I like having Jeffries on one team, and Pym on another, it balances things nicely. How would Northstar and Aurora get along in close company? I like x-23, the Wolvie clone, being in Canada. I always love "Magneto" as a hero. And Flatman? He's just seriously underused.)

I'd have them come into conflict with each other (I'd like to think that Northstar and Sasquatch still despise each other!). I'd also have them come into conflict with the underground sensation team, Alpha Flight, a team still not recognized by their government and Mac in particular on the CSIS' most wanted list. Mac would be obsessed, of course, with finding Heather and his daughter. The Alpha Flight team would consist of Guardian, Purple Girl, Wendigo, Wyre, Citadel, Ranark, Yukon Jack, and Nemesis; not necessarily the team Mac would choose, but the team he is stuck with.

WOW!! Totally a different look from what I was thinking. I LOVE IT!
I especially like the Alpha Flight team you left off with: Guardian, Purple Girl, Wendigo, Wyre, Citadel, Ranark, Yukon Jack, and Nemesis!
NICE! Mini-Series? Maybe a tie-in somehow with an X-Title? Better yet.. Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Marvel NOW Universe is missing Alpha Flight and Excalibur in my opinion.