Let’s for a moment think about the 1980’s. I read a lot of comics in the 80’s, more then I did in any other decade, but that’s understandable as I was the target age group for most publishers way back then. Amongst the usual suspects of 2000ad, the re-launched Eagle and a plethora of American superhero comics I also collected a wide range of Marvel UK titles, like Transformers, Actionforce, Thundercats and the re-packaged Punisher comics. So that’s the set up, I read a lot of comics and of the Marvel UK line one of them stands Head and shoulders above the rest ‘Dragons Claws’
Dragons Claws blew me away from the very first issue I was hooked and my collection of action figures were recast as Dragon and The Evil Dead. When the series hit the news agents in 1988 I was 12 and the perfect age before Playstation and endless TV channels sidelined comics it was also the perfect time. The comic came from the pens of transformers top creative team, writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior, already a Marvel UK favourite of mine. Unlike many of the other comics of the late 80’s this tale of fare future heroics really has stood the test of time, probably because it’s themes are timeless.
Dragons Claws only ran for 10 glorious issues but what a 10 issues, bad guys became heroes and heroes were flawed. There is enough complexity to keep things interesting but it’s not so high brow as to alienate a young boy. Across the 10 issues the relationship between the 3 key characters changes dramatically and you realise that they are all aspects of the same person. Dragon, Slaughter-house and Deller are all men driven by duty or a need that can never be quenched. Dragon and Slaughter-house are flip sides of the same coin, the light and dark of the greatest players ‘the game’ ever knew and the parallel is played out though the directions that there lives have taken. Deller and Dragon are both worriers but born years apart, dragon is a middle aged man with a family were as Deller is a young super solder who sees himself as dragons natural successor. Simple enough right? Maybe, but it’s Dragons and Dellers interaction with his family that draw the parallels closer as well as Dellers maturing from a point and destroy no questions asked order following good little solder into a flawed hero with a shady past that could catch up to him at any moment.
Reading about it you may be saying to yourself ‘hang on that all sounds fairly familiar’ and, yeah, it dose but it’s done well and what’s more it’s done for kids without duming it down or being heavy handed. It’s heroics but it’s just that bit more grown up then you would expect and do you know what? I still love it and it still works for me every time I dig out my dog eared, battered old comics and read them again. They don’t make them like they used too… they don’t make them at all any more.
