Sunday, July 12, 2020

Savage Dragon Archives Volume 2

Savage Dragon Archives, Vol. 2Savage Dragon Archives, Vol. 2 by Erik Larsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Savage Dragon Archives Volume 2 collects issues 22-50 of Savage Dragon.

My trip back in time to the early days of Savage Dragon and Image Comics continues. In this volume, Dragon gets caught in the middle of a power struggle between the freaks of Chicago to take the Overlords' position, teams with TMNT and Hellboy, climbs out of a dead monster's asshole, fights an ape with Hitlet's brain, fights a Martian invasion, meets God and the Devil, and leads a government sponsored super team, the SOS, among other things.

Erik Larsen's art evolves over the course of this volume. It's not minimalist by any means but there isn't so much cross hatching. He seems more confident and lets the art speak for itself without over doing it.

No one is ever going to confuse Erik Larsen with Alan Moore but he knows how to write a gripping super hero story and he doesn't shy away from big events, like deaths, alien invasions, and births. The characters age in real time and the reboot button never gets pressed.

On some level, Savage Dragon is a celebration of all the crazy shit comics are capable of. Savage Dragon beats a villain with his own severed arm, for instance, and I already mentioned Brainiape, the ape with Hitler's brain, and Dragon climbing out of a dead monster's asshole. The last few pages made me want to hunt down the next volume immediately, even though I told my wife I'd chew through some of my unread pile first.

As I've gotten older, I realize Savage Dragon is a love letter to silver and bronze age comics. Four out of five stars.

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