It’s the guest star you never expected, in the conversation that you absolutely never wanted to hear. You have been warned… Your Major Spoilers review of Savage Dragon #268 from Image Comics awaits!

SAVAGE DRAGON #268

Writer: Erik Larsen
Artist: Erik Larsen
Colorist: Nikos Koutsis
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Gavin Higginbotham
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 28, 2024

Previously in Savage Dragon: Malcolm Dragon is settling into his new home on the West Coast – and his new job – containing and controlling the all-out mayhem in the region! It’s the start of a bold new direction as Malcolm Dragon prepares to assemble his own super-team and faces a threat of unparalleled proportions!

A NEW TOWN, A NEW LIFE

Savage Dragon #268 begins with Malcolm and Maxine Dragon in the supermarket, experiencing California shopping for the first time. That leads them to experience California crime, as a pair of criminals bust in the window hopped up on “super-juice,” a new drug that gives them temporary superhuman strength. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near the level of Malcolm’s own inherent half-alien power, and he barely breaks a sweat slapping them down. Literally. As for the newly married Angel Darling, she and her new husband are breaking a sweat, as they’re on their honeymoon, giving us another of Larsen’s patented “You classify my comic book as Adult Material? I’ll give you Adult Material” sex scenes. That’s also clearly the mindset behind this issue’s guest star, an A-list celebrity whom the Dragons encounter in the street. After some pleasant hellos and Maxine remarking that she enjoyed his work, said guest star replies that he enjoyed her pornographic tape, and asks if they’re into swinging, as he and the Missus are looking to spice things up on the boudoir.

Let me take just a moment to pick my jaw up off the floor.

I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT

This issue also features a little bit more on the state of the real Frank Darling, trapped in Dimension X while his body and his wife are in the clutches of the wicked Mister Glum. That’s horrifying, as is Malcolm’s first official mission, facing off with a middle school girl who took a dose of super-juice to punish her bullies… permanently. Forced to wade into a ruined school filled with murdered kids, Malcolm then has to fight a little girl, whose body is overcharged and breaking down. It’s a tragedy, brought to us in Larsen’s usual graphic style. The fact that young Cindy Ho looks remarkably like Malcolm’s wife is not lost on me as a reader, which adds to the discomfort of it all. As the issue ends, though, all the violence and stolen identities can’t get me past the references by a childhood favorite to his… uh… willy. There’s a fun little backup tale as well, featuring Roughneck, one of Chicago’s home-grown idiots, and an attempt to revive the Vicious Circle crime syndicate, which doesn’t go well for him.

BOTTOM LINE: HAUNTING, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

I want to make it clear, Savage Dragon #268 is by turns funny, touching, gross, horrifying, and even a tiny bit romantic, but it is going to forever be the comic that gave us [REDACTED] leering at Maxine, then heading jauntily off into Public Domain, all shaking down to 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. I may not always agree with Erik Larsen’s creative urges, but it’s impossible not to admire his chutzpah, as well as the continuing achievement of one man’s thirty-year love affair with making comics.

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