Puck Part 30: Alpha Flight #34 (May, 1986)

Puck heads after Heather, who went to the one other person she can trust to help her…Wolverine.

I have this issue.

Judd ran off last issue to suit up and take the team’s only Omniship to chase after Heather. He follows the signature impulses of her battlesuit to upstate New York, not far from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. He arrives in time to see two combatants in an open field, and the Omniship registers one of them as using electromagnetic energy. Puck assumes it’s Heather, but it is actually Lady Deathstrike, whose blade also emits electromagnetic impulses. The person she’s facing is Logan, whom Judd recognizes too late to change course, and the Omniship clocks Logan on the back of the head. Lady Deathstrike uses her blade to shred the belly of Judd’s transport, forcing him to eject.

Judd arrives at the battlefield just as Lady Deathstrike faces off against Heather. Yuriko strikes, but the Guardian suit’s electromagnetic field proves stronger, and the blade shatters. Proving herself in battle, Heather asks both men if they still want to offer her their protection. Judd doesn’t answer.

Notes of Interest:

1) This is the first time Judd hears Heather call herself Vindicator.

2) Judd shows off his piloting skills again by flying the Omniship alone.

WTF? Moment: The ejection thing bothers me. Judd is shown essentially jumping out of the ship with no ejection seat, no protection of any kind…and no parachute. Did he just cartwheel himself safely to the ground? Maybe he bounced from tree to tree to break his fall?

WTF? Moment #2: Don’t tell me Logan isn’t just a little bit peeved for being taken out in such a stupid way. I’m sure he’ll get Judd back at some point, which leads me to…

WTF? Moment #3: …how could a computer that managed to track a specific electromagnetic signature across Canada into the United States suddenly get “confused” and misread a different electromagnetic signature? Maybe the point was that the two would be very similar since there’s a relationship between their creators. Maybe Judd simply read the readings wrong. In any case, if Judd couldn’t tell that Heather’s bright red-and-white costume was nowhere in sight on the battlefield as he approached, he deserves whatever he gets from Logan. ‘Nuff said.