PUCK II

BIOGRAPHY

Zuzha Yu is the daughter of Eugene Milton Judd, known best as Puck of Alpha Flight, Canada's premiere super hero team. The details of Zuzha’s conception is unknown but, as a well-known adventurer before becoming a superhero, Judd probably encountered Zuzha’s mother during his travels. Given her ethnicity, this was probably during Judd’s time in Tibet. In unrevealed circumstances, Judd was forced to abandon his daughter, who grew up without the knowledge of her father's identity. Zuzha’s early life is unknown, though she claims she was able to speak from the womb. Wherever she was born, Zuzha was raised in Canada and attended the McGill University in downtown Montreal, Quebec. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #4]

At some point, Zuzha dropped out of college and began tending bar at a tavern she herself opened in Montreal. Fights would often break out between the local college students and the “townies” and it was during one such brawl where Zuzha displayed her superior acrobatic skills, easily taking out the men causing trouble. This incident was witnessed by Dr. Walter Langkowski a.k.a. Sasquatch, who was in the process of assembling an “All-New, All-Different” Alpha Flight team to help him rescue his teammates, who had been captured in a mission gone bad. Langkowski explained to Zuzha that her government had need of her talents, but that she would be asked to defend a world that hated and feared her. Unimpressed, Zuzha declined.

Zuzha was surprised when Langkowski returned to her bar and offered her a deal. If she won an arm wrestle against him, he would agree to be her love slave for one year, whereupon if he won she would have to join Alpha Flight for one year. Zuzha agreed, quipping that Langkowski wouldn't last the year. However, it was Zuzha who had been played, as Langkowski quipped back that he had already come up with a codename for her, just before transforming into Sasquatch and winning the challenge. A few hours later, Sasquatch's Alpha Flight team was assembled (through dubious means) at which point they learned of their mission to rescue the original Alpha Flight from the alien Plodex. During this time, Zuzha displayed a tendency to say the interjection “eh” frequently, just like her father. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #1-2]

The new Alpha Flight team set about on their mission to rescue the original team, during which Zuzha was reminded of Sasquatch's promise to her that he would reveal his theories on how she got her special abilities. She was partnered with Sasquatch on the mission and together they found their way into the Plodex base, oddly via a dance game in a gaming arcade in Calgary. Afterward, they were soon confronted by some strange creatures, which they defeated. Following the battle, Sasquatch tried to encourage Zuzha, complementing her on how well she handled herself. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #4]

The newly-assembled Alpha Flight soon regrouped within the Plodex ship and located the captive, original Alpha Flight members. Before they could free the heroes, they were attacked by Plodex copies of the original Alpha Flight. Zuzha found herself going up against the Plodex copy of Puck, which imitated the real Puck's abilities with incredible accuracy. Zuzha asked the Plodex copy why Puck named himself so and debated with the copy as to the origins of Puck's name. During this encounter, Zuzha decided to call herself Puck as well, unaware that Sasquatch had already intended to give her this codename. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #5]

Zuzha and her new teammates took down the Plodex copies of the original Alpha Flight, but were immediately faced with another problem – thousands of Plodex eggs. Sasquatch had determined that the original Alphans' genetic codes were being downloaded into the Plodex eggs, meaning the savage aliens would hatch in bodies as powerful as the Alpha Flight memebers whose DNA they had copied. At first, Sasquatch wanted to destroy the eggs before the Plodex could take over the Earth. However, Major Mapleleaf stepped in, wishing to avoid harming any of the eggs. Zuzha sided with Major Mapleleaf, who believed that the Plodex should be able to hatch. With the right nurturing, she believed, they could be of great use to the world. The disagreement led to a battle between the new Alpha Flight members, but the argument proved moot when the original Alphans were freed and announced that they were going to return the Plodex eggs to their homeworld. When the original Alpha Flight departed in the Plodex ship, Zuzha and the rest of Sasquatch's team decided to remain together as Alpha Flight. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #5-6]

However, before the new Alpha Flight could continue as a team, they each realized they had unresolved personal matters to deal with and agreed to take some time to sort their lives out before coming back together. The Plodex base had a transporter, which Zuzha and Major Mapleleaf used to teleport to Montreal. They were about to go their separate ways until Zuzha surprised the courteous, respectful and handsome Major Mapleleaf by making it crystal clear she would say yes to any relationship he might be interested in having.

To get to know each other better, the two went to a bar for a drink, where it soon became clear to Zuzha that Major Mapleleaf was not used to drinking alcohol. As the two bonded as they drank, Zuzha revealed that she didn't know who her father was and that she thought he was a loser for missing out on raising her. By the time they left the bar, Zuzha realized that she found Major Mapleleaf rather charming and held his hand as she pulled them into a wax museum to continue their date. Afterwards, Zuzha was surprised that Major Mapleleaf's horse, Thunder, was waiting for them outside the museum. Thunder then flew them into the air, where Zuzha and Major Mapleleaf were about to share their first kiss.

Bizarrely, they two were suddenly attacked by wax copies of super heroes from the museum they had just visited. Almost as strangely, Major Mapleleaf did not use his powers to defend himself during the ensuing battle and seemed at a loss without his horse, which had flown away to retrieve the other members of the team to assist. In the end, it was Zuzha who  discovered the man behind their troubles, a villain called the Manimator, who used space wax that fell into his backyard to fashion wax copies of American super heroes in order to beat a sense of national pride into his fellow Canadians. Incredulous, Zuzha responded by knocking him out.

Afterwards, Alpha Flight gathered at Centennial's family home, where Zuzha told Major Mapleleaf that she worked out he didn’t have any powers – that it was his horse who had the powers, not him. Though she promised to keep his secret, Major Mapleleaf acted like he didn't know what Zuzha was talking about. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #7-8]

Zuzha continued to flirt with Major Mapleleaf, especially after his costume was destroyed in battle with Big Hero Six and even helped him with a new one. Soon after, the team embarked on their next mission, a convoluted time-travel adventure, which resulted in past versions of several Alpha Flight members being temporarily brought to the present. The team was restructured when the original Alpha Flight returned from space. Throughout these changes, Zuzha and Major Mapleleaf continued their relationship and had a child together. Apparently, Major Mapleleaf also reconciled with his estranged father. [Alpha Flight (3rd series) #9-12]

Both Zuzha and Major Mapleleaf were part of the new Alpha Flight line-up which made its stand against Michael Pointer, a mutant who had been possessed by the collective mutant energies of all depowered mutants and was causing a wave of destruction in Alaska. Tragically, the entire team, except for Sasquatch, was slain by Pointer. Apparently, Zuzha's infant son was left in the care of Major Maplelefa's father.  [New Avengers (1st series) #16]

Months later, several members of Alpha Flight managed to return from the dead when the Chaos King tore apart the very fabric of the Underworld. Unfortunately, Zuzha was not among those lucky ones. It remains unknown whether Sasquatch ever told Zuzha that she was the daughter of the original Puck, who, ironically, was also slain in the tragic event. Although the original Puck has since returned from the dead, he has made no reference to Zuzha being his daughter.