This month’s strip may have an extra page. It may end on a splash page of the whole team pledging they’ll never stop fighting injustice. The cover may be a special painted one by Geoff Senior (Steel does look a bit like an alien panther, although if he were it’d fit his personality). The story may be called End of the Road. However, there’s no editorial mention that this is the final issue of Dragon’s Claws.

While the story makes it pretty clear this is the end, how clear it would’ve been to a much, much younger me at the time, I do not know. The comic was devised as an ongoing title and there had even been a subscription offer in the early issues, so I’m just a little surprised there isn’t even a small note about its cancellation. It was mentioned in the pages of Transformers, I remember that.

I mustn’t quibble. It’s now 2024 and I knew this moment was coming, as much as I didn’t want it to. End of the Road begins with this thrilling opening of a hijacked chemical waste transporter with both Dragon and Deller attempting a rescue. It appears after everything that happened last time they’re at least trying to work together. The tension between them does make for some funny dialogue here and there, reminding me of some of the best buddy cop movies of the 80s.

Elsewhere, in Switzerland, we see Ambassador Golding fresh from his ordeal in the last couple of issues and standing up for the Claws at the headquarters of the World Development Council. Isolated amongst snowy peaks, their clear separation from the people they’re meant to serve is echoed by the way their chambers of power tower over anyone wishing to speak with them. On this occasion, Golding is here to plead the case for the innocence of the Game team.

Clearly just as corrupt as modern day governments, all they’re concerned about is saving their own backsides. Golding becomes enraged with them at one point in this issue and I’ve really grown to like the character, one that I assumed was just a one-off hostage to be rescued back in #4. On a side note, at one point the chairman addresses the entire board as “gentlemen”. Sigh. Not one single woman anywhere to be seen. No wonder the world is falling apart, we clearly haven’t learned any lessons from the past.

We jump about some more and head off to Havana in Cuba a few hours earlier to catch up with Tanya, her father and Michael, her son (and Dragon’s adoptive son) and they’re still hostages of ex-Game team Shrine. Kurran is leading his team on supposed holy missions to weed out evil, but in actual fact it’s all a front for death, destruction and getting rich. Still believing Tanya’s family to be related to Deller, who paid Kurran’s brother’s team to attack Dragon in #1 (resulting in his death), Tanya finally lets the truth slip to one of the more rational Shrine members.

I’m very happy to see I wasn’t wrong about this story arc being the focus of the final issue, as they deserve a proper ending unlike some of the smaller arcs which were concluded off-page last time. The hijacker of the chemical waste transport pops up here too, hired by Kurran to smuggle a defector out of the country to safety and at this point we return to the battle to regain control. We also check in on Golding’s speech to the council, including a specific example of the Claws’ good work.

Anyway, back on the road and Dragon and Deller’s working relationship (if we can call it that) is so enjoyable it breaks my heart to know we won’t get any more of this! It feels like such an 80s action flick again, just like those first two issues did, especially Deller’s very 80s-action-man one-liner in the midst of the action. This is a blast! Finally for this scene, our unnamed court jester looks like he’s about to dispose of the defector, but instead just plops a clown nose on him. Another character I’m left wanting to have seen more of.

Holden, the defector, seems to have gone to the wrong person to get him safely out of the country and he soon realises his error; upon finding out it was Dragon that saved him he gladly tells him all about Shrine, Tanya, Michael and where to find them. We now flash forward to the team arriving in full force upon Shrine’s base, the arrival of their craft The Pig sending Kurran into a panic and ordering Strength to eliminate all of ‘Deller’s’ family.

Now fully aware of who they really are, Strength sees to their escape instead but Tanya hands Michael to her father and tells Strength to get them to the ship. In keeping with her character she knows the full force of Dragon’s Claws are about to come down hard on the place and she won’t have anyone die because of her, not even those who kidnapped her family.

All hell breaks loose, Dragon crashing through doors all guns blazing and it looks like Tanya’s unhappy prediction is coming true. Was she right about Dragon’s wish to win at all costs? When push comes to shove would he let her down, even as he rescues her? Will his emotions get in the way of justice? Actually, no. While things start off as a typical action movie climax, the usual body count never happens.

Instead, the team incapacitate each member of Shrine, one by one, then picking them up and getting them to safety so they can face justice and jail. But upon crashing through one of those doors, Dragon accidentally knocks over a flaming torch, setting fire to drapes nearby and soon the entire complex is burning, ready to come down at a moment’s notice. Just as they’re about to go after Kurran himself (Dragon’s instructions being to shoot to wound only) Tanya screams at them all to stop!

She shouts at the whole team, their storming in has caused the fire and stopped Michael and her father getting to safety. These are the consequences of Dragon’s actions, something she’s been trying to get through to him since the very beginning of the comic. Writer Simon Furman is really cranking up the tension in this issue, clearly trying to leave readers exhausted after an incredible ten months. As Dragon rushes off to find Michael, we quickly check in on Deller. Is he really a reformed member of the team after his heroics over the last few months?

That would be a ‘no’. Rationally speaking, this was always going to be the outcome here, wasn’t it? Deller couldn’t have Dragon finding out he was responsible for everything that happened in #1, and for everything that Dragon, Tanya and Michael have gone through since. But I was so swept up in the story, and in what I thought was Deller’s redemption, that this was a genuinely shocking moment. To see Deller in the final page of the story (see below) as part of the team just heightens that feeling of loss, because this could’ve made for some brilliantly tense story arcs in future issues.

Then as if that wasn’t enough, tragedy strikes. For a second I thought it was Michael who got killed by the falling beam but a closer glance sees him safe in Dragon’s arms. There’s very little in the way of dialogue and no captions on this particular page but it doesn’t need them. Geoff Senior’s art is dramatic enough. Heightened by Steve White’s colours, it’s the final shocking twist of not just this chapter but the whole comic.

I’ll get back to the final few pages of the strip in a second. First, the only extra feature in this issue is Scavenger’s fact file. For the most mysterious of the team there’s little here needing answers in further stories. I do love the little mentions of how the world at large has changed (mention of ‘the Austro-Zealand crosslands’) and I would’ve loved to have seen a story based on The Tunnel Wars. The rest we’ve actually seen already. (I guess very little was known about him after all!)

However, I wanted to finish the review with the final splash page of the strip, so back to the last pages of the story we go and Tanya has run off, never to be seen again. Back at Dragon’s Nest, Golding confirms the W.D.C. has agreed to let the Claws continue the work they were doing above and beyond (and in spite of) Matron’s orders, with Golding now as their direct supervisor, and in exchange the W.D.C. will use their resources to track Tanya down. It’s kind of like the situation with Archangel overlooking the crew of the Airwolf working for The F.I.R.M.

In that 80s action show Stringfellow Hawke recovered the stolen Airwolf helicopter but kept it until The F.I.R.M. could locate his M.I.A. brother, working on covert missions for Archangel in the meantime. This all adds up to this final Dragon’s Claws chapter feeling like a new beginning, almost as if the ten issues were one long origin story. Of course, if the comic had continued indefinitely this ten-issue arc may have gone on much longer, but as it stands now it feels as if everything is finally in place, that it was all leading to this moment and the tales of Dragon’s Claws can really begin away from readers’ eyes.

“Dragon’s Claws were reactivated to bring order to chaos, to make this rotten world a better place for children”

Dragon

So a very open ending then. I’d never read a single issue of the comic before this read through. I’d no idea what to expect, I just knew I was a big fan of the creative team behind it. I wasn’t let down. This has been an incredible series and I can see why it’s still held in such high regard today. I can confirm after reading it now, even without any form of rose-tinted glasses fans may have, that I’d highly recommend it to anyone. Each issue usually goes for a few quid on eBay so it won’t cost you the Earth and they’ll be worth every single penny. So long Claws, it’s been an absolute hoot.

BACK TO iSSUE NiNE

DRAGON’S CLAWS MENU

Last month there was a feeling this fantastic comic was shifting gears towards a suddenly imposed ending, which with hindsight we know is coming in #10. At the very end of this penultimate issue of Dragon’s Claws it feels like there’s a rush to finish it all off before the unfortunate cancellation. For the majority of the strip however this isn’t obvious and it’s another belter of a chapter with these sadly short-lived characters.

The issue’s FastFax, normally a way of adding depth to the world in which the comic resides or hinting about future storylines or guest characters, is a more straightforward ‘Story So Far’ page like we’d get in other comics. While the fictional news service would obviously focus on the events in N.U.R.S.E.’s headquarters, it adds to the feeling of the title wrapping things up, when I was so used to this page being used as a way of looking forward. A sad reminder the end is nearly here.

The strip itself is called Treatment and the main focus is Matron’s capture of both Dragon and The Evil Dead’s leader Slaughterhouse. All three of them are linked up to a mind control machine Matron uses as a way of accessing their memories, then torturing them with those same memories. Yes, it’d be much easier to just kill them both and she mentions this at one point, but like all the best James Bond villains she wants to have her fun first.

She’s completely confident in her success and feels the destruction of both teams and the deaths of Deller and Golding are inevitable, so she wants to drag it out and savour it as much as possible. Despite an underwhelming cliffhanger involving Matron last month, the character is superbly written by Simon Furman here, her psychotic nature making me wish we’d seen more of her all along.

We get to see inside the minds of both team leaders, with Dragon being made to watch as his wife Tanya and son Michael confront him before being killed by Deller, which as we know didn’t happen despite Matron’s orders. In fact, I’m assuming their arc will be the final part of the story to get wrapped up next time. In a particularly dark and shocking scene Deller shoots and kills the young boy! We see the shot and then his dead body on the ground in the next panel!

It’s all rather harrowing for a Marvel UK title young Transformers fans may have been collecting after it was heavily promoted in that comic. Outside of his mind we see Dragon curled up and crying desperately, his own insecurities around the ones he loves leading to that scene playing out in his mind, Matron merely triggering them rather than forcing the scenario. At this point I was intrigued as to what resided in Slaughterhouse’s mind!

But first we head back down the building to catch up with the rest of the characters. Matron has seen on her screens that Stenson is dead, The Evil Dead and Dragon’s Claws are about to decimate each other’s ranks and World Development Council ambassador Golding and Deller are trapped in a burning room dozens of floors up from the ground. No wonder she’s confident.

For the unlikely pairing of Golding and Deller there’s only one option for escape, and that’s out the window and back in again to a different room. There’s a pole sticking out from the building which Deller can use to swing out and back in again through another window, then break down the locked door to get Golding out. But first he must overcome his fear of heights!

This is something that hasn’t cropped up before simply because the story has never put him in such a position. It adds drama to a sequence that plays out over a few pages scattered throughout the rest of the issue. In fact, we come back a few pages later to see he’s frozen to the spot and it’s Golding who encourages him to take the leap, to believe in himself after all the humiliation he’s faced in previous issues (albeit by screaming at him).

There’s a definite theme this issue of people from all sorts of backgrounds and from completely different sides coming together to fight a greater enemy. An enemy that’s using them all, that’s creating division and fomenting hatred to turn the populace against each other for their own selfish needs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Dragon’s Claws could easily be released today and be just as relevant, if not more so than it was in the 80s.

Death Nell and Steel’s romantic history gives the story an opening to bring the two teams together to launch a united frontal assault on the upper floors of the building where the majority of security has amassed to protect Matron. As a reader you know it’s coming, even as the opposing sides continue to fight, Mercy in particular sticking the boot in. (Boom, boom!)

On a side note, I was surprised to read Nell saying, “Wise Up!” because as far as my friends and I were concerned this was always a Northern Ireland phrase. Indeed, when I used it myself in Scotland with some friends there in my teenage years it completely confused them. Perhaps we were wrong, but most likely it’s just a coincidence and wasn’t known to be a popular phrase in this part of the UK.

It’s at this point we finally get a look into the mind of Slaughterhouse. I was really looking forward to this and Simon doesn’t disappoint. His memories start off hard with an abusive father hitting him with a baseball bat because Slaughterhouse’s own mum died during child birth. Damn, this goes dark. This was enough to lead him to a life of crime, then once captured the corrupt government experimented on him in return for reducing his sentence.

The side effects included his pointed teeth, his skin colour and blood red eyes and Slaughterhouse, who was very much the victim of his life’s circumstances, couldn’t handle it and he turned on the whole world, the world that had beaten him down so cruelly time and again. But his mind was lost by this stage and he began killing people, seeing everyone as an imaginary enemy, and within just a couple of pages Slaughterhouse’s entire origin story is told.

“We do this my way!”
“The weak way… the stupid way!”
“Let’s just kill ’em!”
“Try it, curly!”

Dragon’s Claws and The Evil Dead

We can only guess if it would’ve been told at this stage (or so quickly) had the comic not been cancelled but somehow it doesn’t feel rushed. In fact, it just makes me lament the fact we can’t see more character development for him now that we (and Dragon) know the truth. The whole chapter is a great piece for both leads. Dragon’s own insecurities while leading his team and in his position in the world could’ve made for a wonderfully deep character too.

As the Claws and The Evil Dead make an uneasy alliance to take down N.U.R.S.E. and rescue their respective leaders, the two men’s minds are thrown into a climactic final battle, one which Matron fully expects will mentally tear them apart, leaving them gibbering wrecks and essentially dead. But she hasn’t reckoned on the power of said minds. Dragon slowly realises he’s in his old Game uniform and tries to convince Slaughterhouse it’s all fake.

He does so through reasoning. Yes, they’re physically fighting of course, we have to have our action in an action comic, but they come to realise they’re flip sides of the same coin, that they both do what they do because they believe in it, they’ve both been manipulated into becoming what they are and they agree giving in now would be the easy way out. But they don’t do easy. For once the hardest thing to do isn’t to fight each other, it’s to work together and they turn their minds on Matron’s.

They start to take her mind down in another physical battle but we’re inside her thoughts now so she’s all-powerful and the two men have to fight side-by-side if they’re to survive. Dragon only wants her beaten, so she can face justice for her crimes in the real world, but Slaughterhouse can’t stop himself. His thirst for revenge is too much and inside the mind machine he slits her throat just as Nell does so to her physical body.

It’s a shock ending but then it all kind of deflates on the next page, the final one of the strip. In just five panels we get a lot of exposition and explanations about what takes place next instead of actually seeing anything. The Evil Dead are let go, Dragon knowing they could never work together, Deller is somewhat redeemed in his own eyes, the team decide what they’re going to do now their employer is no more… a lot happens ‘off-screen’, dealt with through a very quick conversation between the team.

I understand the next issue is the last and it’ll most likely wrap things up for the Dragon family’s arc, but so many other important story arcs just seem discarded far too easily, like one of those final scenes you’d see at the end of an old 80s cartoon. To be clear, it’s only disappointing because of the quality of what came before, not just in this exciting chapter but in the whole run up to now.

The team should be incredibly proud of this chapter though. Writer Simon Furman, artist Geoff Senior, colourist Steve White and editor Richard Starkings are to be congratulated. What the final page lacks is what the other 21 pages do superbly, quickly wrapping up as much of the main story as possible without feeling rushed. Which is why page 24 feels so unlike what we’ve come to expect.

To round off this penultimate review is Digit’s fact-file and more interesting tidbits of information on Dragon’s teammate that would’ve been elaborated on in future issues. These include the fact he’s Scottish, a missing amount of time in his life and just how stable/unstable he actually is. I bet his lost memories would’ve made for some great stories. Instead, we must say goodbye. That’ll happen a little over a month from now. The final issue didn’t go on sale the same day as Death’s Head for the first time, instead it appeared a week later. So watch out for the review of #10 of Dragon’s Claws on Monday 11th March 2024.

iSSUE EiGHT < > iSSUE TEN

DRAGON’S CLAWS MENU

Here we are at the beginning of 2024. Or should that be 1989? I took my Christmas decorations down yesterday (the 5th January is the 12th day as you know, and I like to enjoy that one final day with them), the snow on the blog’s logo has melted and it’s time to kick off the New Year with something not very new at all, the latest issues of Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head, both available to buy today 35 years ago.

This striking yet funny cover has Slaughterhouse of The Evil Dead taking centre stage and inside they’re very much back in the thick of it. The Fastfax on the editorial page makes another mention of the Miami Bloodbath, this time linking it to this Game team (a dead ambulance crew in London has been killed with the same precision used in Miami). Cue Slaughterhouse and his new cohorts entering N.U.R.S.E. Central dressed as that crew has been described and accessing the upper managerial floors.

After losing three of his men in #2 to Dragon and his team, Slaughterhouse has recruited Hack, Rend and Slash who remind me somewhat of Hook, Link and Sinker, other creations of writer Simon Furman’s in Transformers. This isn’t the first (or indeed the second) time aspects of this comic seemed to contain a knowing nod towards that other title. Not much is made of these three, they’re really just here to make the numbers up, but Slaughterhouse and his true love, Death Nell play major roles this month and not just in administering a bit of chaos.

First we check in on the Dragon’s Claws HQ where Steel, Scavenger, Mercy and Digit are relaxing between missions (Scavenger fixing the hole created by a certain mechanoid in Death’s Head #2) and we find out Dragon himself has taken off after fielding a telephone call from the World Development Council’s Ambassador Golding, who we saw meeting Stenson and Deller last time in N.U.R.S.E. HQ.

Mercy is on top form after her recent run in with Scourge, her copycat from the previous two issues. It seems to have exorcised some ghosts for Mercy and she’s reinvigorated and ready for whatever lies ahead. However, what lies ahead is The Evil Dead. The team are called into action to stop their enemies from slaughtering everyone inside N.U.R.S.E. Even the shadowy Matron (seen above) is uneasy and soon we’re catching up with the people she’s trying to track down.

At the farm in Norwich Dragon is in need of restraining. Who could blame him after what happened with his family? Over a few pages here we get some surprising revelations and by the end of this chapter things seem to be heading towards a climax between the Claws and N.U.R.S.E. I can’t help but wonder if Simon knew the comic was going to be cancelled at this stage already or if this storyline, which I’d assumed would last a lot longer, was just the beginning of what he had in mind.

Geoff Senior’s art is powerful in these scenes combined with Steve White’s bold colours. I think the images he produced of an enraged Galvatron in Transformers are seared into my retinas. I’ll certainly never forget the impact they had on me. I can feel that same rage here in Dragon’s eyes, the powerful anger behind Golding’s and the desperation in Stenson’s. There’s no way you could read these few pages without the characters screaming at the top of their lungs in your head.

But even amongst all this tension there’s always a chance for a quick moment of levity, such is the craftsmanship of this comic’s writer and artist. When Stenson tries to threaten Dragon and Golding by telling them they’re out of their depth it backfires spectacularly, the ambassador seemingly suggesting if he doesn’t cooperate there’s nothing he can do to stop Dragon from killing him, to which Dragon responds by showing he’s more than up to the task.

It works, but you can see as Dragon walks away there’s a cheeky grin on his face. Despite not communicating their intentions with each other it’s clear the former Game player and Council ambassador are in sync with each other and want the same thing. It’s a surprising working relationship and fun to see it seemingly come out of nowhere here, these two men clearly working from the same page.

Meanwhile the rest of the team are taking on The Evil Dead to protect their employer. The three new recruits are making quite the impact but even amongst all the chaos Scavenger still has the ability to make light of things. He’s such a fun sadistic character. But it’s the match up between Steel and Death Nell, who we know from a previous issue used to be lovers, that really heats things up and I don’t mean that in the clichéd way.

We find out in this issue that N.U.R.S.E. is basically running a protection racket on all of the Game teams who were still playing when it was shut down, employing Dragon’s Claws as their enforcers and feeding them disinformation on their targets so they would think they were doing the right thing. This was hinted at when Dragon went up against The High Father in #3 and when another team was desperately worried about a non-payment to someone in #5.

As such, it’s a bit of a disappointment that this was the answer to the mystery all along. I’d guessed it months ago and so assumed it couldn’t be something as obvious, that it was misdirection. As a result I discounted the idea and was looking forward to finding out the complexities behind all of the mysteries. That’s not to say if the comic had continued it wouldn’t have kept developing the plot into something far bigger of course, but for now this seems to be it. Maybe the next couple of issues will prove me wrong.

After kissing him, Nell pleads with Steel to work with her like in the old days. She easily could’ve ripped out his throat with her jagged teeth during that kiss and so this has Steel questioning everything, asking himself if he should believe her and if they’re fighting the wrong people. The reader already knows he should be fighting N.U.R.S.E. but will we see a turn of fortunes for Nell in the remaining issues?

Matron starts cleaning house, eliminating her top managerial team in a Bond villain-esque way before moving on to a much more dangerous target. After containing Golding and Deller in a flaming death trap room, Stenson is the first of our main characters to die as he escapes only to unknowingly step into the same room as Slaughterhouse. However, only seconds later Dragon finds Slaughterhouse unconscious and barely alive on the floor before a voice in the darkness tells him they’re delighted to have the two of them “to play with now”.

Then we turn to the final page.

Okay, look, I know this is meant to be a shocking ending with the reveal of who Matron is but Dragon’s exclamation seems a bit over-the-top. With a name like ‘Matron’ and the glimpses we’ve seen I was expecting a woman in some form of nurse’s outfit (especially with the name of the company she runs) and if Dragon stood up her size isn’t really an issue either. Maybe in the 80s, when times were different this would’ve made an impact but nowadays she looks a bit like a lovely former manager of mine, her facial expression even matching the one my previous boss would pull when telling a particularly rude joke.

As a result, for me personally it’s hard to judge how this would’ve been received by readers at the time. As it stands it’s the first story moment in eight issues when I’ve been left a little disappointed so I can’t complain really. On the opposite page sits Steel’s fact-file with information on his father belonging to the Yakuza so apparently they’re still around thousands of years into the future.

It’s not confirmed here if Steel’s (or rather Ikeda’s) dad was killed so I’m assuming this could be yet another little breadcrumb of possible future storylines if the comic had been a success. Sadly we just won’t know. The letters page is conspicuous by its absence this issue. Not enough coming in? Or perhaps the comic’s cancellation gave them pause in answering questions about future stories?

Instead, two adverts and one of those Classifieds pages we saw all the time in Marvel UK comics make up the remainder of the comic. Marvel’s own promotion for three graphic novels isn’t the most inspired design but gets the point across and on the back page is an advert for a movie I’ve never heard of before, which is surprising given the director and that cast!

Just two issues of Dragon’s Claws remain and that makes me sad. Cliffhanger aside this has been a blast, although there’s a definite feeling of the pace very suddenly quickening and a lot of exposition happening. Only with hindsight does it feel like Simon is quickly trying to move the story towards a satisfying climax. At the time I don’t think anyone would’ve guessed that.

If I’m right then at least that means we should get more answers and hopefully a nice conclusion for most of our characters over the next couple of months. Perhaps some threads planted in earlier issues won’t get elaborated on but if the main ones get tied up instead of the story just suddenly stopping (like we saw with Havoc) then I’ll be very happy, I’m sure. The penultimate review will be here on Sunday 4th February 2024.

iSSUE SEVEN < > iSSUE NiNE

DRAGON’S CLAWS MENU

After the crossover story to help launch a brand new Marvel UK comic last month how can writer Simon Furman and his team of artist Geoff Senior, colourist Steve White and editor Richard Starkings hope to top that this month? What event could possibly follow what was surely an ‘event’ comic? Judging by the cover it appears to be the death of Tanya Dragon, that’s what!

Seen through a silhouette of Dragon’s head it’s a shocking front page for regular readers, with spurned ex-Game player and Dragon’s rival Deller holding her lifeless body, having killed her himself as per Stenson’s instructions last issue. But surely this is a huge spoiler? All of the build up and tension will be ruined somewhat by having what appears to be the resolution right there before we read a single page. As it turns out, not so much. However, that leads to another issue with this, erm, issue altogether. I’ll explain as we go.

The story begins showing Kurran as head of Shrine, a group who worship an ancient god with 82nd century technology. Once an almighty Game team before his brother was killed by Dragon in #1, now they’re out for revenge. But Kurran knows it wasn’t Dragon’s fault, that Deller paid his brother’s team to kill Dragon, knowing they’d be outmatched. Elsewhere the Claws are on their way to track down the Canadian Vigilante mentioned in #4’s Fastfax and we get to see them in some rare lighter moments which is a nice change of pace.

Once in the land of Ryan Reynolds it appears we’re going to finally get some background into Mercy, who seemed to be the most intriguing member of the team from the very first issue. She picks up a lead with something she finds at the scene of a killing but keeps it to herself. Back in Greater Britain (Norwich to be precise) Tanya and her family are toiling at their farm and she’s as determined as ever to lure her love back into retirement to be with her and their adopted son, Michael. 

The story jumps about a lot over these first handful of pages and it appears there are a few different plots vying for position, then in a genuinely shocking moment we soon realise two of these are about to converge. Deller seethes about the job at hand outside Tanya’s home. He’s still going to go through with it though. His anger at how N.U.R.S.E. has sidelined him for Dragon lays the groundwork for the rest of this issue but unbeknownst to him the watcher is being watched.

Believing this to be Deller’s family home, Kurran assembles his team upon his position. With his brother dead, could this mean Shrine will also be aiming to take out who they mistakenly see as being Deller’s family? A little tension is back in the story. As a side note that woman in the previous issue’s promo is Clarity, a team member who fawns over Kurran and is by his side when they storm the house.

The next handful of pages are non-stop action and if it weren’t for that cover it’d be full of suspense. Deller simply asks Tanya if he can come in to discuss Dragon before pulling a gun on her, then just as he’s about to pull the trigger Saul the farmhand enters and saves her. Easily dispatched by Deller with several kicks to the head, another of his targets is more work than he bargained for.

While Michael may not be Dragon’s biological son (we find out here he’s Tanya’s and was adopted by Dragon when they married) he clearly has his fighting spirit. That is, until Deller flings him across the room and with a gun hovering over both him and his mum Tanya snaps! Michael asks why this man wants them dead and Tanya screams back that Deller is nothing but a “good little boy” doing what his superiors told him to do.

It’s a powerful moment. However, just as Deller realises the truth about himself and how far he has fallen, dropping his gun to the floor, the door explodes open. Shrine burst through, Kurran demanding vengeance upon his brother’s murderer. This confuses the hell out of Deller and catches him off guard but in an exciting moment he’s given a shot at fighting back from a surprising source.

It was at this moment I realised I was so caught up in this part of the story I hadn’t noticed that Dragon’s Claws themselves are the B-plot in their own comic. This isn’t a complaint. In fact, it cements what the comic has hinted at in previous issues, that if it had continued in the long term its story was going to encompass this whole world and its myriad of characters. It could’ve been both truly epic and deeply personal.

With a gun back in his hand Deller fights hard but a stray shot from Shrine hits Tanya and he suddenly finds himself worrying about the target he was sent to kill. He realises in order to save her he’s going to have to flee for now and jumps out of a window, injuring himself in the process. But unbeknownst to him Kurran believes Tanya, her father and Michael are Deller’s family, someone Kurran wants to hurt as much as possible.

As Tanya slips into unconsciousness she hears a member of the Game team announce Saul is dead and she realises she had loved him, that everything could’ve been fine if she’d reciprocated his feelings instead of trying to get Dragon back. This is the annoying bit though. Not the character beat, that’s a heartbreaking moment which adds to the drama, but the fact that the cover sells us a completely different outcome to this chapter.

With the way this has played out the exciting cover now feels like a cheap trick to lure potential readers into buying it, but none of it happens. Tanya is alive (I’m very happy with that by the way), Deller never killed her and Dragon was nowhere near the incident. This may not annoy anyone else but it’s a pet peeve of mine when modern comics do this. The overall story and in particular these several pages have made up for it though, this has been a great issue so far.

The story ends back with Mercy tracking down the Canadian Vigilante and the cliffhanger has the Claw plummeting to her apparent doom from a skyscraper. The vigilante is an apparent copycat, going after the same kind of elites Mercy killed before joining the team. Part of her wants to let her copycat get on with it, but she knows the ultimate outcome if someone doesn’t help her and stop her, like Dragon did for Mercy. I’m more thrilled by the development of Mercy’s story than the cliffhanger and I’m glad this looks like it’ll be the main plot next time.

The Reverend. P. Gunn humour strip has disappeared already and been replaced with a new fact-file series which naturally starts with the main character himself. It’s an interesting read that asks more questions and appears to set up lots of potential future plot lines. No knowledge of his parents, the mysterious tragedy that befell his sporting career and the Miami bloodbath that was the catalyst for withdrawing from The Game, all of these could be starting points for stories.

I did notice a familiar-sounding name there, one of their former teammates was named ‘Megaton’. A little nod at a certain other comic Simon was writing? Elsewhere in the issue the Fastfax on the editorial page also hints at things to come with a headline involving a famine in Moscow and news happening at a London Labour Camp! The future sounds oh-so 80s-dystopian. A quick flick to the back page would’ve been exciting for regular readers too.

Hopefully it’s just as exciting today for blog readers. I don’t just mean “today” in the general sense of the modern world, either. I actually mean today, the day this post is being published. That’s because #1 of Death’s Head’s own comic was also released on this date back in 1988, so later on today the first monthly review will also be up on the blog. Don’t forget to come back for that, yes?

With that #6 of Dragon’s Claws goes back upon the shelf and I catch a glimpse of the cover for #7 and a Dave Gibbons signature at the bottom, so that’s me already excited to take a closer look at the next issue, and that’s even before we catch up with Mercy inside. The next issue will be right here for you to check out on Sunday 3rd December 2023.

iSSUE FiVE < > iSSUE SEVEN

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The start of a new real time read through is always an event on the blog, this one particularly so because I’ve never read a single issue of Dragon’s Claws before. So why is it here when all previous read throughs have been based on comics I collected (or tried to) as a kid? I may not have started buying Marvel UK’s Transformers in time to see the Dragon’s Claws hype, but I was aware of its final few issues and was always intrigued by these smaller, US-style comics by the publisher.

However, with a maximum on the number of comics I could reserve, and only 50p pocket money for any more beyond that, I only ever bought the first issue of Death’s Head out of the whole range. Despite wanting to read them that pocket money got spent on more familiar comics every time. I feel like I missed out, so this is the start of me catching up on what appeared at the time to be excellent comics. It’s off to a good start with that Geoff Senior cover.

The Dragon’s Domain editorial page introduces us to the concept. (To be honest, I’m surprised the human race lasted another 6000 years!) So in the year 8162 Earth is dying. The governments of the world could work to do something to help people but instead they just distract the populace (surprise, surprise). This distraction is The Game. A violent event in which teams basically kill each other while it’s all broadcast live, The Game kept the civilians in line with something to enjoy as the world crumbled around them and off the government’s back.

When it descended into chaos it was cancelled and sure enough the public, with no outlet for their fears and anger, turned to rioting and civil unrest. The Fastfax (with a date that was meant to coincide with #1’s launch before it was delayed) gives us an update on the state of the country and it’s a shock to see how many civilians died during a sanctioned game. How many innocent casualties did The Game have? I’m guessing the government nor the viewing public actually cared, this is meant to be an 80s dystopian future after all.

Richard Starkings was the editor of Dragon’s Claws. He was also the launch editor of a comic I was collecting at the time, namely The Real Ghostbusters. Also going by the name ‘Zed’ when lettering there were very few Marvel UK comics I bought as a kid that he didn’t have a hand in. Also listed is designer John Tomlinson, writer for Rogue Trooper: Remembrance Day in #2000 of 2000AD, Armoured Gideon and one of those other oft-advertised-in-Transformers US-size comics, Knights of Pendragon. Dragon’s Claws itself was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior, legends with the Robots in Disguise and their new creation starts off hard.

“Earth 8162. Not a nice place to live… But a good place… to die!” Thus starts a three-page teaser as a military group are pinned down and under fire. Obviously highly trained, they’re no match for the five individuals hunting them. We see glimpses of large guns, huge claws and even bigger hair as the team are all picked off one-by-one, like a scene from Aliens. This is the Evil Dead mentioned in the Fastfax, the group who appear to be the main cause for The Game’s cancellation.

Their visual identity is kept secret for now but it’s confirmed it’s them when we pay a brief visit to the headquarters of the National Union of Retired Sports Experts (N.U.R.S.E). Officially created to help former game players into post-career employment, it reeks of a shady government department with an ulterior motive. They hire former player Deller to track down and reactivate the Dragon’s Claws team to stop the Evil Dead. He isn’t happy. He wanted that job for himself.

This is when we meet Dragon. The top team of The Game have all gone their separate ways and their leader has been living a happy life on his farm with his wife Tanya and their son Michael. A very happy life actually. What with real fruit and vegetables being so rare they’ve got quite the happy life together growing their produce and selling it at the ginormous Marketplace. Michael is seven-years-old, which gives you some indication of how long after The Game this is for them.

But as we’re introduced to Dragon it’s clear something is very wrong. He’s not sleeping, he’s tense, stressed, quick to lose his temper and he’s become obsessed with viewing old recordings of The Game in which the Claws were undefeatable. He doesn’t know why he’s doing this (as he subtly hints at above) and no answer is given yet, so already we’ve got an interesting character plot point to build upon. Not knowing Michael has sneaked out of bed and is watching from behind, Dragon replays the team’s final victorious game.

This is the only time we see any of his teammates Mercy, Steel, Digit and Scavenger in the issue despite their appearance on the cover. As such, I think the strip advert for the comic actually did a better job of introducing them (and included their dog). What this does very successfully is show how well they worked together as a team. With Dragon seemingly making an unwise solo run for the finish all the other teams ganged up to kill him. Not that any of them could’ve won the trophy with The Evil Dead in such a close second place, they just wanted to stop the Claws from winning yet again.

But it was all part of the plan and as each team member makes an appearance the tide of battle turns, just as they planned. But Tanya isn’t happy. Angry that Michael is being exposed to such violence and frustrated at Dragon’s recent behaviour a huge argument is interrupted by the arrival of Deller, who calls Dragon “old man”, emphasising again the passage of time since the action we’ve just seen. He’s already visited the others to recruit them and every one of them has said they’ll only join if Dragon does. But Dragon turns Deller away, explaining that when he retired he meant it, and returns to his family.

We started the story with an action teaser to show the dire situation and set up the hero’s replacement who doesn’t want the hero back, but has no choice but to work with him. We saw the hero now a shadow of his former self, surely unable to be that hero again and he turns down the opportunity. So far, so typical of many classic action movies. What would happen next in those films is the former hero would find himself in a situation where he has no choice but to fight, which he discovers he’s missed, leading him to change his mind and return to being the hero once more, albeit reluctantly. Well, it just so happens the next day at the Marketplace things don’t go too well, coincidentally enough.

The Wildcats are also a former Game team who’d let the power go to their heads. Terrorising the market one of them tries to steal from the wrong stall. Easily beating him up and scaring the rest of them off for now, Dragon is chastised by Tanya for resorting to violence so easily and they pack up and leave, along with Michael and their farm hand Saul. But on the way home the Wildcats catch up and try several times to kill them. Trying to save his family Dragon drives too fast, losing control and crashing into their home.

Tanya is convinced this is all part of some wider plot to lure Dragon back to The Game. She just wants them all to flee together and find somewhere peaceful to live. But Dragon can’t. He struggles with the decision but ultimately feels he can’t back down, he has to fight back, so he orders Saul to take his family and run. One by one he picks off the Wildcats until one of them panics and turns the huge turret on the whole home, including one of their own in a darkly funny moment here.

It’s clear there’s some psychological issue at play with Dragon. His teammates all seem like very unique individuals to say the least, and the other teams we’ve seen so far are way out there. Given what The Game is, it’s clear you’d need to be of a certain mindset to want to take part. Dragon had been genuinely happy for a long time, so maybe something triggered this mental issue he’s been suffering recently, or maybe it was just inevitable. I hope we get to see plenty of character development in future issues to explore this and the reasons he (and the rest of his team) think like this.

I’m not doubting Simon’s ability to develop character, after all he took small plastic robots and turned them into incredible three-dimensional individuals for years. But with hindsight we know Dragon’s Claws only lasted for ten issues, so it’s whether or not Simon had the time to delve into his characters. This initial chapter certainly sets things up in a way that shows there’s plenty of scope for such development, not just with the people he’s created but with the wider world including the suspicious N.U.R.S.E. It’ll be interesting to see how the next nine months play out.

That “Nuff Said” phrase was really overused by Marvel UK at the time! Anyway, the beats of the story may not be that original but the fact it feels like a bit of a clichéd 80s action flick just makes me love it more, and remember this is only chapter one. I can’t wait to see how Simon develops this initial idea. Geoff’s art is sublime throughout too. (Even if a story is rubbish I think Geoff would have the ability to make it enjoyable.) His clean lines, hard edges and ability to not only produce highly animated action scenes on the static page, but also emotive characters so effectively adds the kind of depth those 80s movies could only have dreamed of.

Alongside Steve White’s colours this was a winning team on Transformers and so far that’s translating perfectly to this original property. No wonder it was so hyped in the pages of Transformers (even if they didn’t mention the creative team to begin with), this was right up the readers’ alley. There are enough little details to establish a complete world too, such as a ‘Game Tax’ where every citizen must pay towards the games whether they want to or not (and you thought the Licence Fee was bad?). I’m left with the overriding feeling of a solid foundation that’s ready to explore some really interesting possibilities.

The strip takes up 22 pages of this 28-page comic, the remainder including a humour strip called Reverend P. Gunn and a few adverts for other Marvel UK publications. First up is Speakeasy, the ‘Comics Newspaper’. I actually have #76 of this because it contains an article about OiNK. I like how it’s sold at the same size as a regular comic or magazine only to fold out to actual newspaper size. Anyway, that’ll be added to the blog at some point so watch out for it.

The first issue of the new Action Force Monthly (another of the US-size comics launched) doesn’t exactly have the most inspiring cover for new readers. For fans like me who had been following along with the back up strip in Transformers, before it was unceremoniously yanked mid-story, it’s great to see certain characters together again. But for potential new readers it doesn’t exactly get across the action-packed storylines, does it? Action Force Monthly would last for 16 issues and get repackaged for the states as G.I. Joe The European Missions.

Much better is the advert for the publisher’s ongoing top-seller and a real favourite of mine, Transformers. I mentioned in the introductory post for Dragon’s Claws how Richard Starkings had requested one-page stories from a range of their comics, each in the style of the strips they’d normally create as a way of promoting what they contained. I’ve already shown you the ones produced for both Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head and this next one takes pride of place on the back page of this issue.

Written by Simon with art by Lee Sullivan, letters by Glib (Action Force, Doctor Who, Digitek) and colours by Steve I think this perfectly sums up where the comic was at this point, with the hype machine really making its mark in that final panel. Very exciting times! Speaking of summing up its time I did so for #1 of Dragon’s Claws which has had a very strong start.

Ten issues doesn’t feel like enough time to fully explore the amount of possibilities this one issue has shown us, but I have every faith that what lies ahead will at the very least just get better and better. From the feedback and site views already received I can tell this is one read through many others are looking forward to as well. You (and I) can look forward to the review of #2 on Sunday 9th July 2023.

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