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Alpha Flight (1983)
Alpha Flight (1983-1994) #5
There's a drug ring going on in the hospital where Puck is tending his wounds, and it's up to him to put an end to it!
23 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 1983
About the author
John Byrne
2,990 books372 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 20, 2025
Alpha Flight #5 est un objet curieux : un épisode centré sur Puck qui ressemble moins à un comic de super-héros qu’à un téléfilm policier fauché des années 80. Byrne y enferme volontairement l’un de ses personnages les plus atypiques dans une intrigue minimaliste – enquête de seconde zone, ruelles anonymes, méchant interchangeable – presque comme si le récit cherchait à éprouver la résistance du personnage face au ridicule.
Car Puck, ici, est tout sauf gâté : nain, sans pouvoir, isolé, presque éviscéré dès sa première apparition, affublé d’un costume frappé d’un gigantesque « P » qui semble fait pour le tourner en dérision. Et pourtant, c’est précisément là que réside la réussite étrange du numéro. À force de contraste, Puck devient paradoxalement l’un des héros les plus dignes et les plus attachants de la série.
Tout tient à Byrne dessinateur. Il filme littéralement Puck en mouvement : roulades impeccables, sauts fluides, corps compact en perpétuelle tension. Rien d’ironiquement spectaculaire : juste une maîtrise parfaite du **storytelling physique**, qui donne une noblesse inattendue à un personnage que le scénario, lui, ne semble pas vouloir prendre au sérieux.
On peut reprocher au numéro son intrigue téléphonée et son absence totale d’articulation avec les enjeux plus vastes de la série – mais c’est aussi ce qui fait le style d’Alpha Flight : une succession de parenthèses, de digressions, de récits solitaires qui refusent obstinément de “faire équipe”. Ce #5 concentre tout cela : une série qui se désorganise volontairement, mais qui devient fascinante dès que Byrne lâche la bride à son talent visuel.
Un épisode bancal, presque raté, mais rendu inoubliable par la grâce pure d’un artiste qui refuse de laisser tomber même le plus improbable de ses personnages.
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Alpha Flight #5 is an oddity: a Puck-centric issue that feels less like a superhero comic than a low-budget 1980s TV crime drama. Byrne deliberately drops one of his most unusual characters into a barebones plot — a throwaway investigation, anonymous alleys, an entirely disposable villain — almost as if testing how much indignity the character can withstand.
And indeed, Puck is not treated kindly here: dwarf, powerless, operating alone, almost disemboweled, wearing a costume emblazoned with a giant “P” that borders on self-parody. Yet this is exactly where the issue becomes strangely compelling. Through sheer contrast, Puck emerges as one of the most earnest and unexpectedly heroic figures in the entire series.
This is due entirely to Byrne the artist. He *films* Puck in motion: precise rolls, fluid acrobatics, a compact body held in perpetual tension. There’s no mockery in the depiction — only a remarkable command of **physical storytelling**, granting dignity and kinetic beauty to a character the script itself seems reluctant to elevate.
The plot is generic, disconnected from any broader narrative stakes, but that too is part of what makes Alpha Flight so unique: a series composed of digressions, solo detours, and anti-team structures. Issue #5 is a perfect distillation of this ethos: narratively thin, conceptually eccentric, yet visually unforgettable.
A flawed, lopsided, almost misguided issue — but redeemed, and even made memorable, by the sheer visual integrity of an artist who refuses to abandon even his most unlikely hero.
Car Puck, ici, est tout sauf gâté : nain, sans pouvoir, isolé, presque éviscéré dès sa première apparition, affublé d’un costume frappé d’un gigantesque « P » qui semble fait pour le tourner en dérision. Et pourtant, c’est précisément là que réside la réussite étrange du numéro. À force de contraste, Puck devient paradoxalement l’un des héros les plus dignes et les plus attachants de la série.
Tout tient à Byrne dessinateur. Il filme littéralement Puck en mouvement : roulades impeccables, sauts fluides, corps compact en perpétuelle tension. Rien d’ironiquement spectaculaire : juste une maîtrise parfaite du **storytelling physique**, qui donne une noblesse inattendue à un personnage que le scénario, lui, ne semble pas vouloir prendre au sérieux.
On peut reprocher au numéro son intrigue téléphonée et son absence totale d’articulation avec les enjeux plus vastes de la série – mais c’est aussi ce qui fait le style d’Alpha Flight : une succession de parenthèses, de digressions, de récits solitaires qui refusent obstinément de “faire équipe”. Ce #5 concentre tout cela : une série qui se désorganise volontairement, mais qui devient fascinante dès que Byrne lâche la bride à son talent visuel.
Un épisode bancal, presque raté, mais rendu inoubliable par la grâce pure d’un artiste qui refuse de laisser tomber même le plus improbable de ses personnages.
---
Alpha Flight #5 is an oddity: a Puck-centric issue that feels less like a superhero comic than a low-budget 1980s TV crime drama. Byrne deliberately drops one of his most unusual characters into a barebones plot — a throwaway investigation, anonymous alleys, an entirely disposable villain — almost as if testing how much indignity the character can withstand.
And indeed, Puck is not treated kindly here: dwarf, powerless, operating alone, almost disemboweled, wearing a costume emblazoned with a giant “P” that borders on self-parody. Yet this is exactly where the issue becomes strangely compelling. Through sheer contrast, Puck emerges as one of the most earnest and unexpectedly heroic figures in the entire series.
This is due entirely to Byrne the artist. He *films* Puck in motion: precise rolls, fluid acrobatics, a compact body held in perpetual tension. There’s no mockery in the depiction — only a remarkable command of **physical storytelling**, granting dignity and kinetic beauty to a character the script itself seems reluctant to elevate.
The plot is generic, disconnected from any broader narrative stakes, but that too is part of what makes Alpha Flight so unique: a series composed of digressions, solo detours, and anti-team structures. Issue #5 is a perfect distillation of this ethos: narratively thin, conceptually eccentric, yet visually unforgettable.
A flawed, lopsided, almost misguided issue — but redeemed, and even made memorable, by the sheer visual integrity of an artist who refuses to abandon even his most unlikely hero.
August 7, 2026
Little hairy man Puck of Alpha Flight is being cared for at a hospital where he wakes up to investigate a drug ring. We then get a sappy short unrelated origin story.
September 5, 2015
Standard superhero fare - except Canadian.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews