Comics legend and Image Comics partner Erik Larsen will push the envelope in celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary this July with a sexy, sultry XXX cover by Rafael Krás not for the faint of heart (and certainly NSFW…*wink*) in SAVAGE DRAGON #225 this July.
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As much as I've heard about Erik Larsen (which is admittedly not a ton, but enough to be generally familiar with his work), I don't think I've ever actually sat down and actually read something from him. So, I figured a one-shot focusing on one (with several others being present) of his characters seemed as good a place as any to start. And to its credit, I nothing about the characters and world lost or confused me. It was all pretty straightforward or easy enough to infer.
Read MoreI decided to review this book purely based on the fact that Savage Dragon is currently crossing over with Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. I hate missing parts of a story and wondering what went on in the other title (I am not a regular Savage Dragon reader.) But anyways, here’s my review of Image Comics’ Savage Dragon #216. In the issue, there isn’t all that much of a crossover element (Spawn is only mentioned by name.) The Ant character who was in the last issue of Spawn does make an appearance here, trying to recruit Savage Dragon for this big battle that she’s found herself in, but that’s about as much as you get here. No Spawn. Not really a crossover, though, that part of the story does tie-in I guess. The rest of the issue focuses more on Dragon’s babies. There’s some fun elements there and I did enjoy what I read/saw from Erik Larsen in this issue… I had no idea what was going on mind you, but that’s my fault for not reading Savage Dragon on the regs.
Some cool fight scenes in here. Well drawn and the issue’s content it shows how Dragon is a hardworking family man and the balance he tries to keep between work and family. I can get behind that. You know for a fact when those babies get older they’re going to be trouble, though. When they get to the age where they’re thinking more about what they’re doing… Savage and his missus are going to have their hands full.
In closing, I don’t think you really need to read this as part of the crossover event with Spawn (I’m second guessing whether this was actually billed as part of the event or if that was the next issue where it crosses over.) If it was part of the crossover, it’s a bit poor story-wise but I can’t complain with what I read. This series is one that I’ve always wanted to follow but I just don’t have the time to catch up on previous issues.
I’m sure regular readers will be pleased with the issue, the story doesn’t seem like it impedes on what is going on in the series and it would be pretty lame of me to give it a bad score based on the fact that I came in expecting a crossover and continuation of the story from Spawn when the issue wasn’t that bad without it.
So I guess I’ll be giving this an average rating.
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Savage Dragon #216 Writer/Artist: Erik Larsen Colorists: Mike Toris & Niko Koutsis Publisher: Image Comics Price: $3.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital
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