A demigod from another dimension is smashing his way through San Francisco, seeking the woman he wants to marry. Just another day in the life of The Savage Dragon. Your Major Spoilers review of Savage Dragon #273 from Image Comics awaits!

SAVAGE DRAGON #273

Writer: Erik Larsen
Artist: Erik Larsen
Colorist: Jack Morelli
Letterer: Niko Koutsis
Editor: Gavin Higginbotham
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 27, 2024

Previously in Savage Dragon: Banished to Earth from the Golden Realm, the deadly Demigods attempt to take the city of San Francisco for their own, and they’ll slay anybody who stands in their way!

M-I-C (SEE YOU IN COURT!)

As our story begins, Malcolm Dragon has been called in for a consultation regarding an alien princess who has recently crashed on Earth. Aside from looking a bit like Starfire, she also has some pretty heavy baggage, as she’s on the run from a stone-skinned idiot who wants to claim her as his bride in order to unite their two tribes. Before you can say, “She’s not that into you,” the aforementioned idiot, Bloodbath, arrives, forcing Malcolm to fight him off. Elsewhere, Maxine Dragon is interviewed by a lawyer about the recent “Incident” with Mickey Mouse, where he groped her inappropriately during the Bay to Breakers event. As she tries to tell her side of the story, the lawyer is distracted by her very obvious sexuality, even undermining his own client by asking about her… um… physiological response to the attack. It’s a gross moment, one which is made even more uncomfortable when Bloodbath overwhelms Dragon and finally finds “his” princess, only to find that she has taken the (ahem) position of superiority.

K-E-Y (Y I HATE BLOODBATH

The matter-of-fact treatment of sexuality in this comic has been the most unique part of Savage Dragon for almost 100 issues, but this issue takes that overt sexuality into very uncomfortable realms with very interesting results. Seeing Bloodbath get hoisted by his own petard when the princess chooses (and has sex with) a mate of her choice is an interesting inversion of the misogyny of some adventure stories. (Looking at you, original take on Red Sonja.) It’s a stark contrast to Maxine’s dilemma, wherein she finds that her own very overt sexuality is working against her, even with video proof of an assault by a celebrity. It’s a balance that not every creator could pull off, and frankly, it would take someone with the chutzpah of Erik Larsen to even try it. I have a lot of reservations about this (everyone named in the credits is male, for one thing, and the book ends with an amusing “Look how insatiable this woman is!” joke), but the potential of the story is palpable. Larsen’s unique art gets a lot of metaphorical mileage in these pages, with “Frank” escaping from prison, Angel delving into Dimension X to save her, “Mister Glum” realizing that Soylent Green is aliens, and two different sex scenes, in addition to a wild-and-wide-ranging fist fight throughout all the other sub-plots. And it all looks really good, especially the brief glimpse of Thangarr, the homeland of Bloodbath and the unnamed Princess.

BOTTOM LINE: OLD-SCHOOL COMICS MAGIC

Despite the possibility that Maxine’s story could go waaaay off the rails, Savage Dragon #273 pulls together a number of background plot threads to delve into the subtextual parts of Malcolm and Maxine’s love story (the “lawyer’s eye view” of her on page seven drew an audible gasp from me), the cleverness of the Princess, and the possible death of Captain Tootsie, all balanced out with really good art and coloring for 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. It’s as if Bronze Age Marvel Comics were still being produced in the modern era, and I found it very enjoyable.

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