2 out of 5

Yyyeah so I admittedly skipped out on the mini-series, and I’m sorta’ doing my “just rating it ’cause I read it” bit, AND I bought this mistakenly, thinking it had a Turtles appearance in it (which is actually in Savage Dragon vol.2 #1… which is actually a reprint of Vol. 1 #1 and 2, #2 being where the Turts appear, so go me and my research), so, yes, fine, I didn’t seek out Savage Dragon, so I’m probably not the core audience for this.

That being said, while my glancings at the dragon haven never suggested that it was up my alley, I have a lot of respect for Erik Larsen.  He emerged from that Image crowd as the long-term bet, and not just ’cause he’s been working on his title forever.  McFarlane always seemed like a bit of a douche, and Jim Lee like a businessman.  I’m sure Larsen has had his douchey moments, and he runs a business, but I’ve just never gotten that fake vibe from him that the other Image cats occasionally exuded.  He seems like a born and bred comic fan, and I totally believe him when he says he created Dragon ’cause it’s what he wanted to read.

Issue 1 seems like it picks up story bits from the lead-in mini, with the Dragon working for the Chicago police, but I think the stuttery plotting is just sorta the style of things, characters popping in and out who are represented like we should know them already, cool hero name and costume in tow.  Even at this early stage, when Image was glutted with muscles and stupid, it does seem that Erik handled this with a bit of tongue in cheek.  I mean, the pic of Savage dragon with Village People facial hair carrying dual chainsaws is worth a chuckle.

But, it’s still a pretty empty lil’ issue of huge muscle dudes and skinny chicks hitting each other.