Savage Dragon is back with a new issue from Image Comics, and — believe it or not! — series lead Malcolm Dragon is almost back, too. In the latest issue, Savage Dragon #279, Maddy Dragon hangs out with her aunt Marsha and learns the ins-and-outs of her lightning powers. Along the way, she ends up transported to a distant world where she can put those skills to the test.
Oh, and Marsha’s booty gets stuck in the portal connecting the two worlds. That’s okay, though, because it kind of saves the day.
We spoke with Savage Dragon maestro Erik Larsen about the issue. You can check out our spoiler-filled conversation below!
Comic Book Club: So, Maddy says Malcolm has been gone a long time. How are you approaching this story, in terms of the realtime element of the book? Has he been gone for months and months, or are all the kids’ stories happening simultaneously?
Erik Larsen: These stories are the significant events which transpired with each of the four kids but they didn’t necessarily all take place on the same day. We keep seeing flashes of Malcolm and company in Russia and time has clearly passed for them as their clothes have gotten torn and their hair has grown out. By the time the family is united I would imagine it would have been roughly a year but there’s some fudging there. Savage Dragon #275 came out in January 2025 and I have been running really, really late. In the beginning I was assuming they’d be gone for at least six months but it’s been a lot longer than that.
On that note, it seems like our new SuperPatriot will have plenty of experience under his belt by the time we see him again. Was that part of the idea here?
That would be an obvious benefit if I wanted to sidestep all that but the new guy isn’t exactly in the spotlight anyway so I’m not sure that makes much of a difference. He’s likely to be elsewhere for months at a time regardless.
Will there be foreign policy implications to this extended Russia story, or since it’s a soldier rescue, is it pretty much a one-and-done?
I’m not likely to get too deep in the weeds of American politics given how volatile and erratic things are at the time but it’s not inconceivable that I’ll have a few Russian agents of some sort show up to make things difficult down the line. We’ll have to see how it all shakes out but that’s where I’m leaning at the moment.
Are these partnerships that have been set up in the kid-centric issues meant to hold up over time, or are they just storytelling devices so you have an adult’s “voice” in the story?
Some are and some aren’t. Obviously Maddy and Marsha are related and have similar powers, so it makes some sense for Marsha to train Maddy a bit. But Tyrone’s not likely to spend a lot more time with Popeye and Jackson’s ties to the Bay Guardian are far more tenuous. Amy and Walter already have an established friendship, so they’re likely to spend more time together in the future. I didn’t necessarily feel that I needed an adult voice so much as I needed each of them to have somebody to talk to but in Maddy’s case—Marsha wasn’t really there for the adventure part of her adventure.
The idea that Malcolm hasn’t really “trained” the kids at all is interesting. On the one hand they’re very young, but on the other they’ve found themselves in plenty of scrapes. Is that on purpose, or just a byproduct of him having other stories happening?
I think it’s a case of them being very young and Malcolm not wanting them to be in any danger. It would be irresponsible for his to deliberately put his children in harm’s way. I expect that Malcolm will step up when they’re a bit older. Hell, by the time he’s back home they’ll all be a bit older.
Marsha got pretty lucky twice with the portal — first that it held the door open for them to return and also because she didn’t just get bisected. Why did you decide to stick her in a Winnie-the-Pooh situation this issue?
I wanted Maddy to have to deal with the problem herself and I liked the idea of Marsha holding the door open for her. Obviously, things don’t always go that way. Back in the day the villainous Darklord was snipped in half when he was caught in a closing portal.
Any particular reason for the naming of Queef and the citizens of Nogenitalia? Or just for a laugh?
At some point I was looking at the Savage Dragon Wiki and noting that I didn’t have any characters whose names began with the letter Q, and I decided to rectify that. The thing I like about both of those names is that if you don’t get the reference—they still sound like suitable alien names.
What are the odds we’ll see that race again? Given that they wanted to keep Maddy around, they’d probably love to find out there’s a handful more like her.
My intention with Maddy is to have her adventures be a bit more fantasy-oriented, much like Mary Marvel’s adventures were back in the ‘40s. I could see her returning to the dimension she visited in Savage Dragon #236 as well as this one at some point down the road. She’d also fit right in with the orange-skinned dimension-hoppers from Savage Dragon #267 and 273.
I love the oddball comic book physics of the portal. Did Marsha know it was something she could reach out and touch/pull at the whole time?
Marsha wasn’t physically strong enough to pull the portal open. I would imagine that she tried to. While Marsha and Maddy both have lightning powers, Maddy’s Malcolm’s daughter, so she has his physical strength as well. Marsha just has Rapture’s electrical powers.
Savage Dragon #279 is in stores now from Image Comics.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Share this:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.