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Judd's Duds
Puck's costume through
the ages
He's been credited
as wearing one of the worst-designed costumes in Marvel-dom. But has Puck
ever been a hero of sartorial style and splendour? Or has he always been
the victim of badly designed uniforms?
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Puck's first uniform - designed by John
Byrne - made its first appearance in Alpha Flight #1 (Volume 1). It was
a blue one-piece body suit with accompanying cowl, wristbands and boots.What
made the costume particularly eye-catching (or garish, depending on your
taste) was the bright orange "P" emblazoned over the front. An inspired
feat of design this was not!!
Still, the costume somehow seemed to fit
the character at that time. I guess it was an 80s thing (you had to be
there to appreciate it) :-)
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later added leggings to Puck's costume. Perhaps Puck complained of the
cold, or perhaps Byrne thought that the original costume was a bit on the
skimpy side. Or perhaps he got tired of always having to draw those hairy
legs. :-)
The artists that worked on Alpha Flight
after Byrne left the title could never seem to decide if Puck had leggings
or not. Sometimes, even basic continuity would be jeopardized by this:
Puck would appear sans leggings in one panel, and with them on in another. |
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Puck underwent another costume change
later in the run of the first volume. The entire team received team uniforms
based on a similar motif: a white and red full bodysuit. For Puck, this
included a head cowl. This was a visually appealing costume: the colour
scheme looked good and gave the team some form of unity in identity. Puck
wore this costume until the end of the first volume of Alpha Flight. |
| Puck returns to
Alpha Flight in the second volume of the series with a new costume, designed
by Scott Clark. This time, Puck's arms are bare and he does not wear
wristbands. His head cowl has also been altered: it only covers the
sides of his face, leaving the scalp and jaw (clean-shaven in the new series)
exposed. The design is garish, even compared to the original uniform. Blue
and orange do not work, even if Clark was trying to pay homage to the original
costume. And the half-cowl is just plain horrible! |
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Finally, in answer to the ages old question:
what do super-heroes wear under their four-colour costumes? we present
this image from Alpha Flight (Vol 2) #6. 'Nuff said? :-) |
| The Verdict: When I look at the
spectrum of costumes worn by other Marvel heroes, Puck's costume (new and
old) isn't really that bad. His current uniform is hard on the eyes, but
there are worse togs worn in the Marvel Universe. I give you Cyclop's uniform.
Blue and yellow? Eeeugh. Or the weird outfit that passed for Storm's costume
in the Byrne/Claremont days of The Uncanny X-Men (talk about skimpy!).
Or Quasar's (remember him?) uniform (red, blue and yellow, with a cape!!).
Perhaps bad designs, garish colours, outlandish cuts are all par for the
course in super-hero fashion. Go figure! |
This feature first appeared in AlphaScope
#4.
Return to Puck's
Place
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