Bronze Age Babies: Discuss: Dragon Man

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Discuss: Dragon Man

13 comments:

david_b said...: Oh, he's my guy, ol' Dragon Man.

Just a cool creature to look at and have guest star in Silver and Bronze issues.. Not really sure how he can take flight with than huge beautiful noggin of his, but it works.

Not sure if I prefer Big John's or Jack's renditions of him the best, but he always works. I love seein' depictions of him gnawing on something, like Cap's shield on CA ish 248.. Nice Byrne cover.; April 17, 2013 at 6:55 AM
Doc Savage said...: The mere fact that he wears swimmin' trunks is hilarious. Thank goodness for the Code.; April 17, 2013 at 8:04 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Matt, yeah, the trunks are pretty puzzling since he's an android - I would imagine he looks like a Ken doll down there anyway. So for me he doesn't even come close to the grand-daddy and godfather of all trunks-wearing reptilian: Fin Fang Foom. The fact that he needed those ginormous Speedos was perhaps the most frightening thing about him.
Back to Dragon Man: don't recall many appearances by him during the Bronze Age. As david_b noted above, he appeared in Cap during the Stern/Byrne run, and also in FF Annual #16. Otherwise, I can't think of him making a splash anywhere else...; April 17, 2013 at 8:24 AM
Doc Savage said...: He rated a Marvel Value Stamp, for what it's worth!; April 17, 2013 at 9:08 AM
dbutler16 said...: I almost think of him as a Marvel version of Validus - a superstrong giant who's not truly evil, but mindless and easily manipulated by evildoers. I like how Sue Richards was able to tame this wild beast, ala King Kong. Dragon Man may be mindless, but he's got an eye for the ladies!; April 17, 2013 at 9:17 AM
Doc Savage said...: Dragon Man predates Validus by almost two years, so maybe Validus is D.C.'s version of Dragon Man.; April 17, 2013 at 9:43 AM
dbutler16 said...: Good point, Matt Celis. I had just assumed, without looking it up, that Validus cae first, but I stand ccorrected.; April 17, 2013 at 11:55 AM
William said...: I dig me some Dragon Man. Mostly due to his aforementioned appearance in the Stern/Byrne Captain America run. I remember really loving that comic when I first read it. So, I have fond memories of 'ol Dragon Man.

A couple of years ago I received the Dragon Man Marvel Legends action figure for Christmas. It was quite a nice gift because it is super rare and usually goes for north of $80.00 on Ebay. It's an awesome figure and extremely comic accurate. If it was possible to post pics on here I would.; April 17, 2013 at 3:01 PM
humanbelly said...: I don't dislike the big lug at all--- but I've always felt that he's even more implausible than most characters or elements in an already-implausible environment. And until recently he's been pretty much a one-trick dragon-pony, in that he's almost ALWAYS come under the sway (or possession, or whatever) of some criminal ne'er-do-well, and is used basically as a weapon. His wikipedia entry is almost comic as it traces his timeline-- just one nut-job to the next. WHY IS HE ALWAYS OUT THERE LOOSE? For most of his history, Dragon Man has pretty much been like a trained bear or ape-- and not even a particularly ill-natured one. One has to wonder why SHIELD or the government aren't able to keep him in custody or at least plant a tracking device on him-!

Now that he's sentient (and wears glasses? Why would an android need glasses??), he does fall into the same interesting company of other humanity-aspiring characters, like the Vision, Jocasta, Machine Man, etc.

HB; April 17, 2013 at 3:50 PM
Gray said...: I don't care who came first...I love me some Dragon Man and Validus!!! And this rendering by Paul Smith is so sweet, I'd buy a Dragon Man mini-series if he drew it!; April 17, 2013 at 8:50 PM
Fred W. Hill said...: I haven't kept up with Dragon Man since an appearance in Captain America in the early '80s. Still, one of the oldest and now most ragged comics I bought off the rack and still have is the Marvel's Greatest Comics reprint of issues 44 & 45, wherein Gorgon & other Inhumans were introduced and Dragon Man got involved in the fracas. At once bizarre and amusing -- an incredibly powerful, monstrous android with the mind of a mute toddler and with a soft touch for beautiful women like Sue & Medusa. I missed the next issue and it was about 15 years before I got the Marvel Masterworks edition which included all the mags from issue 40 - 50, as well as the big wedding issue. Meanwhile, I did get that Conway-era story circa 1973, wherein Gideon uses Dragon Man in a plot against the FF, but Dragon Man rebels and is killed -- or, rather, deactivated for a few years. Based on some other comments here, seems Dragon Man has changed a bit since I last saw him.; April 17, 2013 at 9:53 PM
Rip Jagger said...: Why is Dragon Man cool?

I don't know, but I do know that he most certainly is.

Rip Off; April 18, 2013 at 12:22 AM
Bruce said...: My only memories of Dragon Man are the aforementioned Captain America issue.

I will say the Roger Stern/John Byrne run on Captain American was criminally short. I think it lasted, like, nine issues. Wish they could've kept going.; April 18, 2013 at 8:16 AM

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