Savage Dragon 200 - the return to greatness

Today was initially the day I had to go to the clinic in Markgröningen but since my operation has been delayed for one day I have a little respite. So I decide to write a post about one of my favorite series SAVAGE DRAGON.

The last few days I have been busy with getting everything ready for my stay at the clinic so I haven´t been on the internet much. I tried to do this post Yesterday but then I got distracted with pictures for this post.

I also thought about doing another post on The Owl, or better the various  heroes or superheroines who have the word owl as their name or part of their name but then decided against it. Well, to tell the truth I could not find the time to do it and in any case my readers might not really be interested to read - again - about owls and superheroes after two posts on the subject. So maybe this will be better received after three months and a half which will probably be the time when I can get back to regular posting. Or at least what passes for a regular posting schedule here.

Another reason why it took a while for this post is that in Germany we just had Fasching ( or Fasnacht like they call it in some parts of Germany ) which is like Halloween only with less spooky stuff and more beer. So I thought the post with Yaya Han, Jessica Nigri and other cosplayers was appropriate for that. And if I had to choose one post that would stay at the top of the blog for some time why not one with the lovely Yaya Han ?

You never can have enough Yaya on your blog ( I´m trying not to drool ).

So, like I said, I thought about doing another owl superheroes related post but instead I got caught up in the whole hype about SAVAGE DRAGON 200 or The Threesome Issue how it has been called by some internet people.

Now usually I try to avoid some spoilers but when I´m talking about a topic like this one that is about a certain issue I can´t. Also, I will mention a few of the older issues so - more spoilers there. If you are already reading SAVAGE DRAGON you know what I´m talking about and you have probably already read issues 201 and 202. If you are not reading SAVAGE DRAGON - what is wrong with you ? Seriously, SAVAGE DRAGON is one of the best written, best drawn comic book series without retcons, restarts or other crap like NEW 52 or Marvel NOW. It´s taking place in real time and it´s done by the same guy who started it with issue one.

I have pimped the book numerous times and even wrote a lengthy post about it in english that I translated into german so that alone should tell you how important this comic is to me. So after 199 issues full of sex and violence, guest stars galore like Madman, Hellboy, God, the Devil, Jesus, a monkey with the brain of Adolf Hitler in a fishbowl on his head, alien invasions, uncountable parallel dimensions and more doppelgangers of Savage Dragon than you can shake a stick at you might think that there is nothing left to shock comic readers. So why all this fuss about sex now ?

For all who don´t know the scene in particular happens between Malcolm Dragon, his girlfriend Maxine Jung Lai and his stepsister Angel Murphy.

Well, not really his stepsister since they don´t have the same mother or the same father. At least as much as the world knows. It´s superheroes, and SAVAGE DRAGON to boot so it´s really more complicated than that.

I think it´s easier to start with Malcolm. He is Savage Dragon´s son ( Savage Dragon or Officer Dragon was the lead character of the book until around issue 170 or so ) and he comes from an alternate universe. Which is where Savage Dragon originally comes from and which was blown up. When Malcolm was born an evil society stole him and made it appear as though he had died while secretly the villain Darklord raised him. And that´s when Savage Dragon was transported to an alternate timeline.

I mentioned it was complicated, right ? Anyway, Malcolm Dragon landed in Dimension X where he met Angel Dragon who is not to be confused with Angel Murphy. This is where this whole comlpicated parallel world kicks in.

You see, in the original timeline ( I think ) Savage Dragon met Angel´s mom Jennifer Murphy who had superpowers and became a member of S.O.S., the government sanctioned superhero team in the Savage Dragon universe. They were teammates, started dating, got married and Dragon became the stepdad of that universe´s Angel. Although that wasn´t as easy as you might think since all superheroes wedding must have some glitch and Jennifer was replaced by a shapeshifter before the wedding.

Don´t you just hate it when that happens ? Anyway, later on Jennifer was murdered, only it wasn´t her but the shapeshifter. That´s when Dragon filed for custody of that universe´s Angel and became her stepfather. To stress this, Savage Dragon and this Angel were not related. Her parents were Jennifer and some bloke who abused her and her mother until Jennifer´s superpowers kicked in and she literally punched his head off.

Back to Jennifer, later on Dragon found out that she was still alive, they were reunited - together with Angel - and were a happy family until Jennifer got killed again, this time for real and Angel stayed with Dragon. I´m not sure if this was the time Savage Dragon was shaking it up with Alex or if that happened the first time Jennifer was believed to be dead.

Ah, yes, officer Alex Wilde, longtime partner of Savage Dragon and one of the major hotties on the book who was modeled after Halle Berry.

I know, she looks rather white on the picture above but she´s of hispanic heritage and supposed to be colored with a much darker skin tone here.

Since the first issue Alex was the one I hoped Dragon would end up with but something always came between them getting together. And when I say " something " I mean of course writer Erik Larsen. First it was that they were both working together, than Dragon was together with the superheroine Rapture, than Alex was with the superhero Dart and they only ended up together when Savage Dragon returned to Chicago from a long absence. He was working with the S.O.S. and Alex was still on the police force so they were not co workers and could finally get down to it.

Which we could see quite in detail in the issues although not as explicit to qualify as porn. You might as why I posted the picture above instead and one of the reasons is that I couldn´t find any of the pages of issues 49 which is when this happened. Needless to say this didn´t make the news.

The other reason is the DEJA VUE section of this post : Erik Larsen went for the jugular in the next issue where he reused this splash page for the reunion of Super Tough and his former sidekick Young Tough, now known as Mace, one of the gay couples in comics that always gets neglected.

Anyway, Alex and Savage Dragon were just trying to get over their past relationships ( by having lots of conscientious sex ) so that didn´t last long. Later on it seemed as if Alex and Dragon were finally together.

But as always things were more complicated : the Dragon that was using Alex like a blow up sex doll was an impostor from a parallel universe.

( click here for the full six pages of this back up story from issue 132 and here for the artwork without obstruction by word balloons and captions )

You see, there were lots of sex scenes in SAVAGE DRAGON before issue 200 hit, so it´s kind of weird that now there´s this buzz on the internet ( the scene below doesn´t end like you expect : the guy isn´t really Savage Dragon and he shoots the girl in the head to steal her super powers ).

First there was Malcolm´s mother Rapture with whom Savage Dragon had lots of sex with - which obviously led to the existence of Malcolm - which happened on page. There even was issue 17 which was released in two versions due to explicit content like Dragon and Rapture in the shower.

And here´s the colored version of the splash page as always :

To further elaborate, here´s one of the censored pages from the issue.

And here is the uncensored version for you to compare the two.

There was all kind of skimpy outfits going on with Rapture which some may call gratuitous while other may see it as keeping it real with the characters. In any case, I didn´t complain when Rapture ended up in a wet dress - a result of learning that somebody with spikes all over his body like Horridus and a water bed is really a dangerous combination.

Talking about Horridus, she´s one of the best supporting characters on the book and pretty hilarious since she´s always talking about sex. If it wouldn´t be too long to add it now I would mention the issue where she was giving Dragon a blowjob but I´ll have to do another post on Savage Dragon to cover that. Back to the women on SAVAGE DRAGON there is of course Rita Medermade, named after the Beatles song who in another life would have been a hugely successful stripper, men´s magazine centerfold or porn star. She had the body for it and had a huge crush for Dragon. She even stayed with him for a while which led to this memorable scene :

Rita and Savage Dragon did have sex later in the series but it didn´t work out because of  Rita´s insecurities revolving about her body issues and she married fellow police officer William Johnson during one of the many alien invasions ( I think it was during the MARS ATTACKS storyline ).

There are also Amy Belcher who operated under the name of She Dragon

and Dart, whose daughter is now the head of the super villain society

but I´ll have to leave that for another post since it´s already 30 minutes past the deadline. Okay, I had already explained where Angel Dragon came from. She was from Savage Dragon´s original timeline but there was also a second Angel - Angel Murphy, which is the one from the actual issues - whose mom was also a Jennifer Murphy but she never married Dragon. When Dragon´s original universe was destroyed Angel from his timeline was in Dimension X and came over to the new universe so for a time there were two Angels. The one from the new universe was turned evil by a creature called Mr. Glum, she killed her own mother and ended up with the world conquering Mr. Glum where she is his willing sex slave ( natch ).

So, to come back to issue 200 after the original Savage Dragon has left the spotlight in favor for his son ( I already covered how this happened in this post ) the main characters are Malcolm Dragon and Angel Murphy .

Malcolm Dragon is Savage Dragon´s son from another universe. Angel Murphy was adopted by Savage Dragon but she´s not blood related to Savage Dragon nor Malcolm Dragon and she´s also a native of the new universe. She and Malcolm grew up like brother and sister but they are not. But there always was some kind of attraction between the two.

During the last alien invasion Angel even asked Malcolm to have sex with her because she thought it was the end of the world and they would die.

Well, Malcolm refused that time - mostly because he wanted Angel to keep hope - and as it later turned out this was not the end of the world. Somehow the yellow press got hold of some pictures of Malcom and Angel in compromising positions so now everybody thinks they did have hot sex.

Malcolm then was going out with another girl - Thiera - but that didn´t work out. After this he started to date Maxine, Angel´s best friend, but because her parents want her to marry a chinese guy they also break of.

Well, kind of. Malcolm really likes Maxine and Maxine really does not want to be with anybody else then Malcolm. But because her parents thinks that being with a superhero is too dangerous they constantly send her on dates with chinese guys and after the hundreths or so date Maxine finally snaps, tells her parents to stick it, leaves home and moves in with her Malcolm.

Of course Angel comes around unexpectedly and catches them.

Which leads to the threesome that you have heard so much about.

Now in issue 201 we learn that Maxine taped this without Malcolm´s or Angel´s knowledge and when I read this the first thing that went through my mind was that this is SO bound to turn up on the internet. Because celebrity sex tapes ALWAYS wind up on the net - intentionally or not.

I thought for sure I knew how this was going to happen when I saw these preview pages. The situation is that after the threesome Angel tried to get back with Daredevil ( a superhero who she had a crush on but who didn´t want to start a relationship with her back then because she was sixteen ) but somehow it doesn´t work so she wants to spend the holidays with Malcolm and Maxine. At the same time Maxine invited Malcolm´s ex girlfriend Tiera to stay who accidentially gets a hold of the sex tape.

I thought for sure I knew how this was going to end but leave it to Mister Erik Larsen to throw you a curve ball when you least expect it.

So will the sex tape with Malcolm´s threeway with his girlfriend and his " stepsister " ( not really ) find its way to the internet ? Maybe the s - word will hit the fan when Angel finds out there is a sex tape and Malcolm´s ex girlfriend knows about it when she visits for the holidays but judging from this preview picture I doubt it. With SAVAGE DRAGON you never know.

Okay, this is the end of this post. I know this was kind of rushed in the end but if this doesn´t get you to check out SAVAGE DRAGON nothing will.

I couldn´t really add a big picture with Yaya Han in her Chun Li outfit at the beginning of the post because then it would have gone into the links and other stuff on the right side of the blog but here´s a bigger one.

 
Normally I look for videos related to the post but since it´s already three hours past my appointed deadline ( I hope I can get to the clinic on time Tomorrow, err, make that Today ) I don´t have the time to look for it. So instead I´m posting a few videos which I would like to stay on the blog until I can do a new post which will be in three to four months or so.

The first one is for the original THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY. I haven´t seen the original version but in the german translation there was always some machine or contraption going " packety packety pack ".



Of course my favorite Danny Kaye movie is THE COURT JESTER and the most famous scene is the part about The Pellet with the Poison.



Although I have to say, I´m really much more familiar with the german translation. It´s just the version I know - like most of the germans from my generation. Just ask anybody about Der Becher mit dem Fächer dude.



Since we´re on the subject of medieval times here´s a video my brother found about the Messer - which was not a sword, honest gov´nor. This really gives you a new perspective on the phrase of Messerstechereien.



Last but not least I want to pimp a german vodcast, DAS PHANTASTISCHE PROJECT. There will be many of these in upcoming posts since he covers a lot of subjects I love like Captain Future, Mortadello & Filemon or YPS comics mit Gimmick. For Today´s post I chose this video that explains precisly what´s wrong with Today´s superhero comics by the big two.



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Yaya Han cosplay update ( hopefully SFW )

Well, my big Yaya Han post with my Top Ten favorite costumes of her is still in the works but Yesterday I was looking into a few cosplay related things so I wanted to do just a quick update. Some of my readers might remember that I posted a YouTube video of Yaya wearing this costume.

At the time I didn´t know to what the costume was related so I speculated it might be George Perez´ SIRENS series which I hadn´t read at that time.

Still haven´t as a matter of fact. Issue 2 just arrived in the mail and as George is always slow due to the amount of work and detail he puts into his books I´ll hold off reading them until all six issues have come out.

Anyway, the reason why I thought that the costume of Yaya could have something to do with George Perez´ SIRENS comic is that the characters in the comic are based on real persons - as that is a trademark of his work - some of which are cosplayers. And I thought this could be Yaya.

Well, it took me some time but after a lot of research I know it´s not. That character is called Skywire and she´s based on cosplayer Miracole Burns. There is the character Kage who is indeed asian but she´s based on model Akira Lane of whom I posted a few pictures. You can check out this article for the full rundown of whom all the SIRENS are based on.

I´m not going to write more about the series until I have had a chance to read the actual comic but if you want to know more about SIRENS from BOOM ! Studios there is an article by Sheldon Webe on ECLIPSE MAGAZINE and one by Brian Truitt on USA TODAY , Gregg Katzman on COMIC VINE has a nice interview with George Perez about the series and you can find another one that also covers Doctor Who, Deathstroke the Terminator and Arrow by Joseph McCabe on NERDIST . Jason Wilkins over at the BROKEN FRONTIER  website has an article about the artistic process behind the book and here are previews of  issue 1 and issue 2 . Last but not least I found the wraparound cover to SIRENS 4 on the PREVIEWS website .

Okay, so now we know that the costume that Yaya Han was wearing has nothing to do with George Perez´ SIRENS comic how I so erroneously thought. But about which comic was Yaya talking about in the video ?

It is called THE WONDEROUS 2 and it´s published by Lion Forge.

So far I couldn´t find it at any german online comicshop but US readers should be able to get it at conventions or online from the publishers.

Maybe if they can make a deal with a bigger comic distributor the comic will be available to a broader audience. It´s an eight issue mini series and it´s about a character based on Yaya Han. The story will be about Yaya´s beginnings as she was trying to break into cosplay and since she does her own costumes she did the designs for the super hero costume. She also had a lot of input on the series where her super powers and the story is concerned so this is not just a cheap sales gimmick. Fans of Yaya might want to check this out and I´m just going to ignore all the haters online.

For the complete downlow on THE WONDEROUS 2 - YAYA HAN SAGA check out Kid Marvel´s interview with Yaya on AIN`T IT COOL NEWS and there is another one on COMPLEX by Charles Buttersby about the comic, the manga she made in german grade school and the Golden Age of Cosplay.

Since we´re already talking about Yaya Han I wanted to post a few links I found while doing the research because I have already enough material for my big Yaya Han post and I can´t possibly put it all in just one post.

There´s an interview on YOU BENT MY WOOKIE ( I swear, you come across the strangest websites doing the research for posts ) that is not only full of interesting facts about Yaya but also a lot of pictures. Like I said, my post about my Top Ten favorite Yaya Han cosplay costumes is still in the pipeline but in the meantime there is a rundown on all the new costumes she made in 2014 ( of which none is in my Top Ten ) on her own website.

You can also find some pictures of Yaya Han and other cosplayers in nifty Steampunk outfits on this article from DSNG`S SCI FI MEGAVERSE about sci fi and Steampunk. Not really related to cosplaying but nevertheless it might be interesting to some readers. And I couldn´t possibly end this post - or at least the Yaya Han part - without posting another picture of her in the Chun Li outfit. The order of the Top Ten costumes is still in flux but right now Chun Li is alternating between number two and number one depending on another skimpy costume that is almost not safe to post.

Since we´re already on the subject of cosplayers I´m planning to do a solo post about I wanted to post a few pictures of Jessica Nigri´s Umbreon.

If you know the character you´re a bigger Pokemon fan than me ( which isn´t difficult - I don´t like the series at all ) because I had to look it up.

I know there are people who have problems with the fact that she does so many Pokemon cosplays and that her costumes are too revealing but guys, really ? First of all you can´t deny that Jessica Nigri must be a hardcore Pokemon fan because she knows all these characters and you couldn´t pay me enough to spend all those hours watching the show. So first kudos for that and then you have to respect how beautifully and imaginative these Pokemon costumes are designed. The Umbreon costume here for example has that whole " sexy harem girl / exotic bellydancer " thing going on.

If you know the character you know that it´s basically a big black bunny or ferret like thing. Those Pokemon creature look so generic. So to go from basically an all black design with some ornaments to this IS amazing.

Secondly you can´t fault her craftsmanship with all the small detail she puts into it. Just open the picture above and the next one in a new window to better appreciate all the work necessary to pull this one off.

Today I´m just doing one deadpan segueway after another. So apropos " pulling something off " I have always said that if you got it, flaunt it.

Yes, there are characters from comics, movies or anime which were not intended as sexy characters but when the muse strikes you just go with the flow. Would we have a Batgirl, Harley Quinn or even Firestar Today if creators always slavishly stuck to the comics ? Most certainly not.

While a big part of cosplay is about the costume and the craftsmanship you should play to your strengths. That´s not saying that you can´t be a certain characters if you don´t have the right body, race or gender for it.

I mean there are thousand of cool cosplays out there where guys go as gals, gals go as guys, there´s black Superman, female Thor ( although Disney totally stole this one ) and Yaya Han did the asian Power Girl cosplay that just totally rocked. So there is no limit to the imagination.

Cosplay is all about having fun, being creative and trying new things. Just Yesterday I re watched some episodes of HEROES OF COSPLAY ( mainly to remind myself how much work and hardship is endured in making these costumes only to have some guys go " Nice rack ! " so I can do a cosplay post that´s NOT oversexed ) and the Peter Pan´s Labyrinth skid in the final episode is one of the greatest things I have seen in my whole life. And it wouldn´t have happened if they had stuck to the original versions.

That said, sometimes new versions of established ideas or concepts can be pretty bad especially when it´s just change for change´s sake without any substantial idea behind it like DC´s NEW 52 has proven. But you have to be creative. And like with all creative things you have to work with the tools available to you. Only a fool leaves his best weapon behind going into battle and if you have an awesome body you should not hide it.

Which is by no way an open invitation for anything. I have said it before and I´m going to say it again that just because women dress a certain way it doesn´t mean they want to have sex with anybody who comes along. Sometimes they just want to feel sexy and we should be thankful for the few occassions when they do and not behave like dumb cavemen .

I know I might not be the most qualified to talk about this because I´m an old perv - and I never made a secret about that - and I have posted some pictures of Yaya Han or Jessica Nigri or other female cosplayers bordering the NOT SAFE FOR WORK category in the past but I´m trying to be good.

And I want to apologize to all of them if I went a bit overboard in the past or will do so in the future but I just get tooooo exited for my own good sometimes. Anyway, I also want to mention that I don´t care for this whole discussion if Jessica Nigri´s breasts are real or not. I have already elaborated on this in my last cosplay post and I always say that if you can touch them they are real enough for me . And I´m talking about their physical existence in real space time not the hypothetical possibility of me ever touching them which is probably right about zero - this is not an encouragement to go off and touch the breasts of female cosplayers, at least not if they don´t tell you to do it ! So here´s one final picture of Jessica´s Umbreon cosplay and you can either use it to find out if they are real or not or appreciate the minute detail on the embroidering.

There are many more pictures I would like to post but since I don´t want to drown this blog in pictures I will just put down three links. You can find a lot of them online and here are a few that I used for making this post.

You can also find some on this post from COMICBOOKMOVIE that also has some of Rosanna Rocher as Dora the Explorer ( insert your own pun here )

and Kitty Honey as Blair from SOUL EATER. I have to say I suffered through a few episodes of this but it seems I missed all the good stuff. And I´m not talking about Miss Honey´s spectacular rear view here but the funny Blair clip that´s in the post. I never saw that kind of stuff.

So it´s once again time to wrap things up before this becomes too sexual harassing ( although it might already be too late for that ) since the german premiere of THE FLASH is about to happen in fifteen minutes.

I can´t believe it but I found a video where George Perez is actually talking about SIRENS. Which sounds much better than SHE DEVILS.



I like to post videos of comic artists at work any chance I get so here is one of George Perez doing an awesome Thanos sketch at a convention.



I also found this video of NEW TEEN TITANS 1. While I wish I had found it when I did one of my numerous post about one of the best comic series of all times I´m grateful that someone is going to all the trouble of turning all the single issues up till The Judas Contract into videos with music. 



Because the first part of this post has been about Yaya here´s a video I´m sure I haven´t posted before where you get to know her a bit better.



And here´s one from the WonderCon 2014. There are 2 versions of the clip but I opted for the longer version because you see more costumes. And if you don´t want to see them all you can stop anytime you want.



Of course you can´t put all the brilliant cosplayers into one video and since I couldn´t decide which one I should post here is the other one.



Not that it has anything to do with the topic but I like to post surprising videos now and then and here is one about the universal appeal of music.



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