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A review by dantastic
Savage Dragon Archives, Vol. 1 by Erik Larsen
4.0
An armored crime boss named Overlord has Chicago in an iron grip and super powered freaks are bleeding the town dry. A finheaded man is found in a burning field and joins the Chicago Police Department as... The Savage Dragon! Can the Dragon end Overlord's reign of terror?
Savage Dragon Archives volume 1 contains issues 1-3 of the Savage Dragon miniseries and issues 1-21 of the regular series.
Like a lot of guys my age, I was all over the Image books when they launched and Savage Dragon #1 was one of the first ones I picked up. It was a fun book but I was soon out of comics in favor of Dungeons and Dragons. Now, years later, I've decided to read the series in its entirety in these inexpensive archive editions.
Erik Larsen came to prominence on Amazing Spider-Man, tasked with filling Todd McFarlane's shoes. When the Big Seven left Marvel to form Image, Larsen was one of them. The Dragon is a big brute of a super hero, green, strong, and with a big fin on his head. I've seen some people dismiss him as a Hulk ripoff but he's much more like Ben Grimm, personality wise.
Anyway, Dragon's a cop that beats the shit out of a lot of super powered criminals. That doesn't sound particularly innovative but the series happens in real time, more or less. The Dragon experiences his share of ass kickings and deaths, starting with his girlfriend getting shot in the head while answering the door.
The book is basically a two year arc of Dragon trying to take down Overloard, suffering lots of setbacks along the way. Dragon is like Ben Grimm as a beat cop in the worst city on earth. Larsen introduces character after character, killing off a fair percentage of them. Larsen has a great sense of pace and really knows how to put a page together. The art is prime 1990s, complete with cross hatching all over the place. Some people might be put off by the b&w artwork but I think taking away the color lets Larsen's skill and sense of design shine through.
Make no mistake about it, this isn't Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. There aren't any big concepts or flowery prose. Savage Dragon is a pure distillation of "beat the shit out of the bad guys" super hero comics. Four out of five stars.
Savage Dragon Archives volume 1 contains issues 1-3 of the Savage Dragon miniseries and issues 1-21 of the regular series.
Like a lot of guys my age, I was all over the Image books when they launched and Savage Dragon #1 was one of the first ones I picked up. It was a fun book but I was soon out of comics in favor of Dungeons and Dragons. Now, years later, I've decided to read the series in its entirety in these inexpensive archive editions.
Erik Larsen came to prominence on Amazing Spider-Man, tasked with filling Todd McFarlane's shoes. When the Big Seven left Marvel to form Image, Larsen was one of them. The Dragon is a big brute of a super hero, green, strong, and with a big fin on his head. I've seen some people dismiss him as a Hulk ripoff but he's much more like Ben Grimm, personality wise.
Anyway, Dragon's a cop that beats the shit out of a lot of super powered criminals. That doesn't sound particularly innovative but the series happens in real time, more or less. The Dragon experiences his share of ass kickings and deaths, starting with his girlfriend getting shot in the head while answering the door.
The book is basically a two year arc of Dragon trying to take down Overloard, suffering lots of setbacks along the way. Dragon is like Ben Grimm as a beat cop in the worst city on earth. Larsen introduces character after character, killing off a fair percentage of them. Larsen has a great sense of pace and really knows how to put a page together. The art is prime 1990s, complete with cross hatching all over the place. Some people might be put off by the b&w artwork but I think taking away the color lets Larsen's skill and sense of design shine through.
Make no mistake about it, this isn't Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. There aren't any big concepts or flowery prose. Savage Dragon is a pure distillation of "beat the shit out of the bad guys" super hero comics. Four out of five stars.