October 5, 2017

The Torment and the Tyrant

Posted by Stefan Kalscheid in Reviews – one comment

Cover of Savage Dragon #226

A little over a month ago Savage Dragon #226 hit the stands. Since we still have to wait a couple of days for the next issue, let’s take a look at the book and how people reacted to it.

As most of you probably know by now, the cover pays homage to Gil Kane’s classic cover of Daredevil #96 that came out way back in 1973.

When Savage Dragon #226 was solicited in April 2017 the book got a mixed reception – obviously based on the depiction of President Trump and the solicitation text which reads:

“TRUMPED” When a tyrannical madman assumes command of the United States, aliens are deemed a threat to national security and targeted for elimination — and that includes Malcolm Dragon and his family! With a country turned against him, Malcolm Dragon fights as he’s never fought before.

To those who follow Erik’s posts on the social networks, his opinion about Trump most likely doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Readers of Savage Dragon also know Erik doesn’t shy away from making politics a part of his book and while Savage Dragon isn’t about politics most of the time Erik has addressed political issues in the past and he has depicted other presidents over the years.

In this post at Comicbook.com about the latest issue, Erik is quoted saying he always enjoyed seeing the President show up in The Incredible Hulk.

“It seemed like there was a presidential portrait of sorts with every new administration. I’ve made it a point to do that as well and I kind of wanted to just get it out of the way.”

Take a look at these previous covers featuring presidents in the spotlight:

Presidents on the Covers of Savage Dragon George Bush Jr. got ’bushwhacked‘ in #119. He had been replaced by the villain “The Impostor” back then.

Erik had been the first to solicit a book with Obama on the cover for his variant edition of Savage Dragon #137 but Marvel beat Erik at the printers and released an issue of Spider-man featuring the presidential candidate a bit earlier which lead to some heated debate. Erik’s cover was a huge hit nonetheless and saw three (!) reprints.

A couple of months later #145 got two variants — one featuring President Obama giving a fistbump to Dragon and the other serving a knuckle sandwich to none other than Osama Bin Laden.

Now the current issue features Trump and it’s pretty obvious Malcolm and he won’t become friendly with each other. In the aftermath of the three-issue epic “The Merging of Multiple Earths” President Trump issues an executive order that outlaws all extraterrestrials in the United States. That includes Malcolm Dragon and his three children and the issue ends with Malcolm being put under arrest…

If you’ve read the solicitations for the upcoming issues, you know the Dragon family is moving north, but we’ll have to wait a wee bit longer to find out if Dragon actually flees from the law or if he is deported.

The self-contained issue got some good reviews all over the net but the cover also attracted a couple of people who don’t usually read the book to voice their criticism.

What other had to say about Savage Dragon #226

Here’s a collection of articles, interviews and reviews on #226.

Enjoy
Stef

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