History
The Elf with a Gun was an entity of unknown origin who used a variety of bizarre disguises to murder seemingly random people for no apparent reason over a period of several months. His path almost crossed that of the Defenders a few times, but they never actually met him or learned of his activities. He was first seen in a trailer park in California where he knocked on the door of Tom and Linda Pritchett and presumably killed them both.[1] He next appeared in Las Vegas where he killed Charles and Frances Lester[2] and then disguised as a Native American shaman, killing a couple named Sally and Stu,[3] and finally killing an unnamed female protester in a bathroom.[4] The Elf (whose name was posthumously revealed to be Melf) was eventually run over by a truck before his motives could be established.[5] Later, his nephew Relf apparently carried on his mission.
A subsequent claim that the Elves with Guns were agents of the alien Tribunals and that Melf's murders were part of an elaborate scheme to restore the cosmic balance and stop a universal catastrophe[6] was eventually revealed to be a hoax. As yet, the truth about the Elf with a Gun remains a mystery.
Notes
- An individual who appeared to be Melf also encountered the rock band Kiss in another dimension. However, this was after Melf's apparent death and so may have been a different Elf.[7]
- A suspiciously similar elf with a gun appeared in DC Comics' Countdown to Mystery #8 as a tribute to the late Steve Gerber.
