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A series for ImageComics by Erik Larsen. The title character first appeared in ''Graphic Fantasy'' #1 (June, 1982). The character continued appearing through TheEighties in either self-published works or works by minor publishers. When Image was launched, Larsen had the opportunity to launch a regular series based on the character. An initial 3-issue miniseries (July-December, 1992) sold decently, leading to an ongoing title. It was launched in June 1993 and (as of 2015) is still ongoing, albeit on a scattershot schedule. It is the longest-running American full-color comic by a single creator/creative team.
The Dragon is an extremely broad and muscular green guy with a fin on his head, who was found in a burning field by Lieutenant Frank Darling of the Chicago Police Department. With "Superfreaks", genetically and/or cybernetically-modified criminals running loose in the streets, the Dragon eventually takes up the fight against them. Not as a superhero, mind you, but as a member of the Chicago Police. This allows him to legally and openly fight crime of all sorts, and has also resulted in him being "loaned" to the Police Departments of other cities, which has led him on other adventures (such as an encounter with the Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}). At first, his primary ArchEnemy was Overlord, the leader of a superpowered gang called the Vicious Circle. The Dragon defeated Overlord, only to create an EvilPowerVacuum that resulted in a city-wide gang war as factions within the Circle fought each other for dominance. Since then, he has met other heroes, such as ''Wildstar'' and TheMaxx, gotten sent to Hell, where he encountered {{Spawn}} and witnessed {{God}} and {{Satan}} throw down over his soul, had a son, lost his son, met ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, fought off a [[MarsAttacks Martian]] invasion, and was finally suspended from the Police Department.
Since then, Dragon has become a bounty hunter, formed a government super-team composed of many of his friends, traveled to alternate universes, found his son again, adopted a daughter, Nearly been elected President of the United States, and many, many other things.
In issue #150, Dragon was seemingly killed off by the newly returned Overlord. [[LyingCreator Despite Larsen's insistence]] this did not stick, but shifted the focus of the series on Dragon's kids Malcolm and Angel as the protagonists. This was finally cemented in issue #193 where Malcolm officially took over the book.
In 1995, an animated series was aired for the USANetwork's ''Cartoon Express''. It was much LighterAndSofter than the comic, and aimed at a younger audience. It was actually rather good, due to maintaining the comic's odd humor. (Sentient leeches?)
Savage Dragon is one of the two original Image Comics Series that is still being published since the company was formed, the other being Spawn, mainly because it, like Spawn, managed to develop a loyal fanbase, and quickly broke away from the stereotypical Image fare of the time. It is perhaps notable as the only founding Image Comic to still be written and drawn by its creator Erik Larsen, a fact that PeterDavid, who once feuded with Larsen, has applauded.
This series has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so it naturally has [[Characters/TheSavageDragon its own]] CharacterSheet.
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!!This series provides examples of:
* AccidentalMisnaming: Type C-- on the Savage World, Dragon keeps getting the name of Ann Stevens' boyfriend wrong.
* AfterTheEnd: Darkworld is mostly uninhabitable, and has an unstable core that's weeks away from GoingCritical. The Savage World looks like this when Dragon first arrives, but eventually it gets better.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The humans are restricted to the normal range of skin tones, but freaks come in all colors.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Dragon is of the ''Mythical Monster Motiff'' variety, although there are many side characters who fit other types such as Widow.
* AndThisIsFor: Dragon, She-Dragon, Angel, and Alex Wilde do this while beating up Dragon's EvilTwin
* AnotherDimension: The Void
* AnyoneCanDie:
** Dragon recently bit it. Again.
** The best example would be [[spoiler: Rapture who was a major character in the series and Dragon's ex-girlfriend. She was killed in a single page in one of the most shocking scenes in the series. The effects of her death resonate even today.]]
** Another strong and literal contender would be the [[spoiler:[[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of]] Earth. And Darkworld. And Godworld. [[OverUsedRunningGag And Warworld]]. Each of these events killed off a number of significant character. Heck, the destruction of Earth wiped out almost the entire cast.]]
** As of the most recent issues, it is shown that ''anyone'' even includes [[spoiler: GOD!]]
* {{BFG}}: Used frequently when Dragon's on the police force. Justified in his case, since he's super-strong. But human characters also tend to heft around giant bazookas from time to time.
* BigBad: Dragon's universe is full of villains, but some are tougher than others.
** Overlord.
** Darklord.
** Cyber Face.
** New Overlord.
*** New Overlord is somewhat of a subversion, in fact though he has killed people, he has very good intentions, and has been shown to be failing in the area of evil planning.
** Emperor Kurr.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Savage World's Australia has plenty of giant bugs[[note]]as a result of Martian enlarging rays[[/note]], which they've domesticated.
* {{Blackmail}}: Ever since Lt. Darling engineered TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive, he's been under the Vicious Circle's thumb.
* BodyBackupDrive: Has featured a number of characters with Power Armor who had previously downloaded their brainwaves into the suit, allowing them to continue fighting long after death.
* {{Brainwashed}}: Everyone in Covenant of the Sword.
** The psychotic and cruel Emperor Kurr was brainwashed by two of his scientists to save the Earth. [[spoiler:He is, in fact, the titular character.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Horde's victims tend to go on killing sprees.
* CaptainErsatz/Expy: Many, but one of the most notable is Mighty Man, who at the beginning appears to be an obvious nod to Fawcett/DC's [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] (the one who, [[TheNew52 until recently]], [[IAmNotShazam was not Shazam]]). However, Larsen tweaked the idea to make the superhero form an actual, separate entity that resides within a host body, rather than the OlderAlterEgo that Captain Marvel usually appears as. Thus, when the dying host of Mighty Man transfers his powers to his attending nurse (believing her, in his dying stupor, to be his grandson), her SuperpoweredAlterEgo is the same blond-haired, alpha male Mighty Man, but with her mind in the driver's seat. Another twist is that, wherever the host body "goes" when the Mighty Man form is summoned, time still passes for that body; thus, if the host spends all of his or her time as Mighty Man, their own body will waste away from starvation, dehydtration and muscle atrophy, to the point where their effectiveness as Mighty Man will decline (as the effects on the body also affect the host's mental state) and, in a severe case, their own body will be so weakened that they will expire near-instantly when they change back.
** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
* CityOfAdventure: The comic's version of Chicago seems to be one big WeirdnessMagnet. God City also counts for obvious reasons.
* ClusterFBomb: Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster; [[ComicBook/{{Wanted}} Wesley]] during a cross-over.
* CondemnedContestant: The participants in the ForcedPrizeFight[=s=].
* ContinuityNod: In issue #24, the Chicago Bull[[note]]a washed up freak actor reviled by the freak community for being a sellout[[/note]] attacks a BadGuyBar, where he's killed easily. In issue #75, when that bar is shown in a montage depicting the effects of the [[PowerNullifier Nega-Bomb]] on Chicago's freaks, the Bull's head can be seen mounted on a wall.
* {{Crossover}}: There have been several that have happened in the pages of this series: ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, {{Spawn}}, Comicbook/{{Madman}}, {{Bone}}, MegatonMan, Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}, MarsAttacks, ComicBook/DestroyerDuck, TheMaxx, Wildstar, {{Youngblood}} and more.
* DeaderThanDead: Years after Debbie Harris' first death, she resurfaces as an angel. Then she dies in a hovercar crash.
* DeadlyDodging: Dragon tricks a giant robot into blowing off its own head this way.
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: people with powers are known as "superfreaks", or just "freaks".
* DinerBrawl: Between Zeek and Rock, the first time they meet in the Savage World.
* DeathIsCheap: Averted with almost everyone else, Larsen has strong feelings about reviving characters left and right (comedically brought up when Gwen Stacey appears serving NormanOsborn and ComicBook/LexLuthor lunch at a diner).
** Dragon himself "dies" a fair bit. Ar at least, he's believed dead by the characters even though the readers know what really happened. Happens so much that it's a running gag.
*** Played with recently in the current storyline inwhich Dragon's revival has lead to him returning to the evil persona of Emperor Kurr. Whats more, Larsen claims that he may be fully intending to have Dragon's son Malcolm take up the mantle.
** It should be noted that this trope mostly only applies to Dragon. That said, in most cases, the audience knows for a fact that he isn't dead. It's the world around him who believe that he's been killed. Otherwise, if someone dies, they [[KilledOffForReal stay dead.]]
** Since dimensional travel is a recurring theme within the book, dead characters are often replaced with their counterparts from another dimension. Arguably that could be counted as resurrecting, but most of the time the new version is in some way different than the original, often quite drastically.
* DraconicHumanoid: Dragon comes from an alien race of dragon-like humanoids.
* DragonRider: The Skyriders on the Savage World.
* DungFu: Dung, who fires hot faeces from his arm cannons.
* EarthAllAlong: Darkworld-- Dragon makes this realization when he finds a Coca-Cola vending machine.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: The fate of Darkworld and Godworld and Earth and Warworld
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: In Savage World, the Liberty League headquarters is underneath Dragon's house.
* EnemyMine: On a few occasions, Dragon has to team up with the Vicious Circle to defeat a greater threat: on the original Earth, it's Darklord; on Savage World, it's Cyberface.
* FakeStatic: On Savage World, Vanguard does this to cut short an awkward conversation with Dragon, except without the tunnel, since Vanguard's on a spaceship.
* FakingTheDead: Lt. Darling sends a shapeshifting drone to get vaporized by Overlord in his place. Later averted due to the drone's resilience; it regenerated and repeated its prior actions, tipping off Overlord to the switch.
* FantasticRacism
* FishPeople: Atlanteans.
* FloatingContinent: God Town
* FlyingBrick: Mighty Man, Solar Man, Powerhouse, The Fiend, Overlord, Dread Knight, Kid Crimson, Vanguard, and Superpatriot to a certain extent.
* FlyingCar: Dragon has one in Savage World.
* FlyingSaucer: Martian ships
* ForcedPrizeFight: Gladiatorial combat in Savage World Australia.
* ForWantOfANail: Various flashbacks show in detail how the events of the Savage World timeline can be traced back to Dragon having killed the time-traveling Darklord.
* FunWithAcronyms: '''S'''pecial '''O'''perations '''S'''trikeforce, the government-sponsored superhero team Dragon leads for awhile. When Erik Larsen came up with the idea back when he was a kid, it was called '''S'''ociety '''O'''f '''S'''uperheroes.
* FullFrontalAssault: Dragon being attacked by an army of naked, pregnant AlternateUniverse Jennifers that have been brainwashed by the Covenant of the Sword.
** Also Dragon himself whenever his clothes get destroyed.
* GiantSpider: One of the first of many monsters Dragon faces upon arrival in the Savage World continuity.
* GodsHandsAreTied: In the Savage World timeline, the gods of every pantheon live together in God Town at the top of a mountain in the USA. But because their leader long ago forbade gods from interfering in mortal affairs, they won't do a thing to help overthrow the EvilOverlord Cyberface.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: During the ''MarsAttacks Image'' crossover, Superpatriot's daughter Liberty is abducted and raped by Martians in a crossbreeding experiment, but she's so staunchly pro-life that she keeps the HalfHumanHybrid[[spoiler: though this turns out to be a bad idea, as the baby grows up to become Darklord]].
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Psychotic VigilanteMan Mace used to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky, but a bomb that killed his mentor left his face severely burnt from the nose up, ruining his chances of joining the image-obsessed superteam Youngblood.
** The main visual difference between Dragon and his EvilTwin from Darkworld is that the latter, having lost his healing factor in the [[PowerNullifier nega-bomb]], is covered in scars.
* GratuitousGerman: Brainiape [[spoiler: who is the Brain of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler transplanted into a glass bowl on an ape body]] takes ze trope and runs with ze trope all ze way to the fuhrer hauptquartier.
* GroinAttack: {{Satan}} kicks {{God}} in the crotch during their fight over Dragon's soul.
** and in the Savage World timeline, Rapture kills her former pimp by grabbing his crotch and electrocuting him through it.
* GuardingThePortal: Regarding the interdimensional portal built in Dragon's basement:
-->'''Angel''': How come we have one of ''those''?
-->'''Dragon''': ''I'm'' in charge of it. I have to make sure no monsters escape.
-->'''Angel''': If we didn't have it, no monsters ''could'' escape.
-->'''Dragon''': Uh... yeah, well, you see... why don't you go bother your mother?
* HeroesRUs: SOS
* HiddenElfVillage: On the Savage World, Atlantis and Australia are this way during Cyberface's rule, and Godtown remains isolationist even after he's overthrown.
* [[WhyWontYouDie How Many Times Must I Kill You?]]: Overlord's response after vaporizing a shapeshifting robot disguised as Lt. Darling for the second time.
* HurlItIntoTheSun: How Savage World Vanguard disposes of the remains of [[spoiler: Cyberface]].
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dragon has a field day with this when he fights Powerhouse, a FlyingBrick with the head of a chicken.
* HypocriticalHumor: When Dragon receives an offer from Marvey Comics to adapt his life story into a series of comic books, Jennifer responds "Have you seen some of those comic magazines? They're nothing but T&A! Every square is a [[MaleGaze cheesecake shot emphasizing a shapely body part of some overdeveloped bimbo]]". Note that Jennifer herself has the MostCommonSuperpower, and the panel in which she says this consists mostly of a shot of her ass.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Amnesiac-Kurr-Dragon says this to Malcolm after killing Darkworld-Dragon and eating his brain to ensure he doesn't come back.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: On a church steeple, back in 1997.
* ImprovisedWeapon:
-->'''Dragon''': There wasn't a gun. No bullet, either. I didn't have one on me, so I chewed on a dime while I was scaling the building and I spit it through his forehead.
* IncestIsRelative: It is very strongly hinted at several points that Angel and Malcolm Dragon being attracted to each other, as they are not blood related. This comes to a head in issue 200 where [[spoiler: both participate in a threesome with Malcolm's girlfriend Maxine.]]
* IndecisiveParody: The comic tends to lampoon quite a few superhero tropes, from the NinetiesAntiHero type that Image was partly responsible for popularizing to the generally ridiculous nature of C-list supervillains (Dung and his diarrhea-cannons, for example) -- not to mention the inclusion of fan creations like Jimbo de Mighty Lobster -- but sometimes it's ambiguous as to whether Larsen is making fun of a trope or playing it totally straight and trying to tell a more-or-less serious story.
* InvisiblePresident: Averted for every sitting president since the series started. When Dragon wakes up in the first issue, he mentions that George Bush (senior) is the president but has [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no information regarding his own name]]. Later in the series, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all make appearances while in office.
** Even Al Gore appears as president in one issue ([[spoiler: he was appointed after Clinton got killed]]).
** This trope is also played with since Dragon himself nearly became the president at one point.
* ItsAllMyFault: Dragon angsting over the destruction of his home Earth in his absence.
* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend I Am Not His Girlfriend]]: Alex keeps having to correct the Vicious Circle goons holding her hostage. At this point, she and Dragon are technically just friends with benefits.
* KilledOffForReal: With the exception of the title character himself, who has made revivals a habit, people who die, usually stay dead and when they don't, usually they are practically a different character. Larsen claims that Dragon's most recent demise at the end of the Emperor Dragon storyline will be the last we see of him.
** And yet again averted; Dragon (or at least the clone with his mind; long story) has been revived by his alien species, but has decided to help them instead of taking back the book.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: due to Universo's EnergyAbsorption powers, the only weapons it's safe to use against him are guns. Apparently, he can't absorb kinetic energy.
* LawOfInverseFertility: Dragon thought he was sterile.
* LiteralGenie: Angel wishes she was "big" i.e. an adult, so adults couldn't boss her around. But Mr. Glum misinterprets her wish and concocts a serum for her that makes her grow to giant size, destroying the house and hospitalizing her mother.
** Lampshaded later by Angel when Mr. Glum is trying to decide what to use the God Gun's third wish on. She figures out the precise way to word his wish to allow him to TakeOverTheWorld.
** Even after wording his wish correctly and acquiring a CompellingVoice, Glum's commands sometimes don't result in the desired effects. e.g. when he tells Mighty Man "You should be out for Savage Dragon's blood. Go take care of him!", Mighty Man goes to the hospital to get some of the blood Dragon donated back before he lost his healing factor, and injects Dragon with it, returning his original power level.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Despite the title focusing on a single character, there have been literally hundreds of supporting characters, side characters, and villains throughout the years.
* [[MagmaMan Magma Woman]]: Volcanic, a Vicious Circle freak.
** and on the Savage World, the Lava Lords and the Magmanites are two whole races of magma men.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe
* MadeOfPlasticine: Characters without some form superhuman resilence tend to die rather messily when punched by a superpowered freak. Even the really tough guys are not safe, when enough force is applied.
* MobileFishbowl: A group of Atlantis characters popped up in the series from time to time, with aquatic "breathing" gear to use to go on land for an invasion. This was a RunningGag in which the gear always malfunctioned in someway, killing all of them.
* MonsterModesty: Strongly averted. Dragon and several characters look monstrous but are usually fully clothed.
* MostCommonSuperpower: It's not restricted to superhuman women by far. Lampshaded at one point when Dragon's dating one of the few women with a normal sized chest to appear in the comic: "the girls he dates usually look like they'd bounce right back onto their feet if they fell forward"
* MustNotDieAVirgin: Angel tried to pull that one on [[spoiler:Malcom. He declines. Rex and Horridus go through with the PreClimaxClimax a few pages later.]]
** in Issue #184 it's revealed that [[spoiler: Frank jr. is just as unfaithful as Angel and got Tierra pregnant. Angel does not take this well.]]
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Oddly, despite his various near-death and actual-death experiences, this doesn't happen to Dragon until the relatively uneventful issue 63, when he's abducted by Overlord.
* NaziHunter: Super-Patriot's side job.
** A CrossOver with ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} also showed this side of the character.
* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Covenant of the Sword
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: During his crossover with ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', Dragon fights a giant gorilla mummy.
** in one backup feature, Superpatriot fights ninja cyborgs... who are also [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]!
** [[RefugeInAudacity GIANT RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE OSAMA BIN LADEN!!]]
* NoOntologicalInertia: When the God Gun is destroyed, the wishes it granted are undone.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Officer Howard Niseman hates blacks, gays, and freaks, but gets partnered with a gay black man, and later with the freak She-Dragon, and apparently does his job well to the satisfaction of his black commanding officer.
** In fact, in She-Dragon's case, he's often more annoyed with being saddled with a rookie officer for a partner than the fact that she's a super-freak.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Happens a lot to Dragon, but on the Savage World, it becomes a RunningGag for these two guys to show up, look at the footage of his supposed death and argue about whether he could've survived.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Dragon has to do this several times in the Savage World timeline, since he keeps having to explain the events that led to him being on this alternate Earth.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mendosa, [[spoiler: who, as TheMole, did this intentionally]]. Stephenson later plays this role in SOS.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Mjolnir. Merely touching it with his bare hand causes half of Dragon's body to melt away.
* OriginsIssue: Dragon's origin was finally revealed (to the readers; his past was unknown in-continuity until he regained his original memories in early 2010) in 2005, 13 years after ''The Savage Dragon'' began.
* PhlebotinumOverload: When Dr. [[strike:Sivana]]Nirvana's [[EnergyAbsorption power draining]] [[strike:Amazo]]Absorbanoids are shot by [[strike:Darkseid]]Darklord's [[strike:Parademons]]Devil Dogs while they're already busy draining [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Mighty Man]], they overload and explode.
* PinnedToTheWall: This was lamshaded and averted in an issue. An ally of the Dragon's, known as Star, uses bladed stars to stab some criminals along their arms to disarm them. When they complain, he admits he can't do this trick.
* PowersAsPrograms: Billy Berman uses a Dr. Nirvana-constructed-device to steal Ann's Mighty Man powers.
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: On Savage World, fanboy Augie De Blieck Jr. tries this with Freak Force. Except in this reality, there never was a Freak Force-- he's trying to rebuild a team that he only knows about from Dragon's stories about his original Earth.
* {{Redshirts}}:The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord. Human cops in general have a tendency to die by the bucketload.
* ResetButton: Supplied by Darklord after Kurr completely massacres the human race and most everyone else on Earth except himself and Virus!Dragon.
* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The title started off being dark and edgy since it was first published in UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. As the series came into its own, it became much lighter.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Justified-- Dragon doesn't remember the past of the Savage World timeline because his mind switched places with that of SW's original Dragon.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The home of Gertie, Jennifer's friend in the Savage World timeline.
* PublicDomainCharacter: [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, along with a few others.
* RunningGag: The Atlanteans keep trying to invade the surface world, only to keep exploding from ExplosiveDecompression.
* {{Ruritania}}: Lieberheim, a small country ruled by [[strike:Doctor Doom]]Dread Knight.
* SchmuckBait: Dragon, before going to attack the Covenant of the Sword, leaves [[strike:Batman]]Sgt. Marvel with a sealed envelope and tells him to open it if he doesn't hear from him in three days. He opens it as soon as Dragon leaves the room, only to find that the note says "Sgt Marvel, You prick-- I knew you couldn't wait three days. I went after the bad guys. I'm on a rescue mission. You're the hotshot detective-- you figure it out."
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: The explicitly stated rationale of some of the criminal freaks.
* SeinfeldianConversation: The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord has a couple of guys arguing about Forrest Gump.
* SexEqualsLove: Dragon and Alex's stint as FriendsWithBenefits eventually ends when Alex wants something more and Dragon doesn't.
* SharedUniverse: Larsen considers all of comicdom to exist in the same universe, along with his own series (and any spin offs). This has led to creator owned characters such as ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} to make appearances and every few issues, there is a LawyerFriendlyCameo or two from characters who are most certainly not a part of the MarvelUniverse or TheDCU.
* ShootTheHostageTaker: In the first issue, the hero is taking down a group of hostage takers, only for someone else to shoot the lead criminal: the vigilante known as Star.
* SideBet: In issue 64, Dragon asks out Marcy Howard, the assistant director of a commercial he's starring in. His friend Chester, who he leaves behind to babysit Angel, doesn't think she'll give him the time of day. When Dragon and Marcy get back and appear to have hit it off, Angel says "That's five bucks you owe me."
* SocietyIsToBlame: Powerhouse is really desperate to convince Dragon that FantasticRacism against freaks makes it okay for him to establish a criminal syndicate.
** The new Overlord makes the same claim, and actually backs it up pointing out that normal work isn't really an option for "Freaks" thanks to all the FantasticRacism
* SpacePolice: The Cosmic Cops
* SpoofAesop: After Dragon and Angel's run-in with Candyman:
-->'''Dragon''': Well, I hope you learned something today, Angel...
-->'''Angel''': Oh, I did. I learned was that you need good traction to run on chocolate.
-->'''Dragon''': That's not really what I meant...
-->'''Angel''': That, and it's possible to choke down broccoli if it's properly prepared.
* SpottingTheThread: Dragon is approached on two separate occasions by imposters impersonating dead lovers of his. Both times, he can tell by their mannerisms, inflection, and choice of words that they're fakes.
* SuperCop
* SuperGenderBender: Ann Stevens, a nurse who becomes a tall, blond, male superhero when she taps her wrists together.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: This series has been running in real time for nearly twenty years, and by now, there are plenty of second-generation superhumans running around.
* SuperSoldier: Baby Darklord kidnaps women carrying superpowered fetuses from all over TheMultiverse in order to create an army of SuperSoldiers.
* SuperStrength: There is a variety of powers on display here but nearly every superhuman has super strength to one degree or another. Since this is the Dragon's main power, it makes since that it's the most common... well [[MostCommonSuperpower second most common.]]
* TakeThat: There have been several against John Byrne and MarvelComics.
** As well as the LawyerFriendlyCameo of ComicBook/TheSandman... who Dragon promptly punched in the faced, calling him a "hair-teased Creator/TimBurton reject" and saying that there was "any boob can come up with a cheap knock-off like you."
*** This was after Larsen publicly called Gaiman a "jerk" for having the audacity to get the {{Miracleman}} license back from Todd [=McFarlane=]. All of this resulted in a FlatWhat from the comic book community, what with Neil considered the biggest NiceGuy in the business since Archie Goodwin...
*** Then again, Larsen has been known to defend his fellow Image founders fiercely. He continued backing RobLiefeld when almost everyone else were ditching him.
**** Also, Gaiman had sued Larsen and the other Image partners for using his photo and biography in the Angela's trade without his permission, when in reality only Todd McFarlane had any control over that decision.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Lt. Frank Darling had to give the call Dragon's address. After Dragon RefusedTheCall to join the police, Frank paid some Vicious Circle members to threaten his cousin (for whom Dragon was working) to bring home the threat of the supercriminal crime wave. Instead, they blew up the cousin's warehouse, killing him. Dragon was convinced to join the police, but Frank's scheme got him blackmailed by the Vicious Circle.
* TheOnlyOne: justifiably invoked in issue 65, since Dragon is the only one immune to Simon Kane's mind control.
* ThisCannotBe: spoken by some [[MyBrainIsBig big-headed]] mind controller after Dragon figures out that he's the one controlling his opponent in the ForcedPrizeFight.
* ThreeWishes: The wish-granting God Gun can only be fired three times [[spoiler: per user]].
* TimeSkip: 2 years pass in issue 96 while Dragon is trapped for what he perceives as a few minutes in a gelatinous bubble in the Void. This allows the Savage World's recovery from AfterTheEnd to a normal state to happen entirely off-panel. Later, the world recovers from Mr. Glum's reign of terror during a 1 year TimeSkip.
* TransformationRay: In the wake of ''MarsAttacks ImageComics'', there are Martian shrinking rays floating around. Dragon shrinks a bunch of villains with one, and later gets hit by one himself.
* UnfortunateNames: The Chicago PD's roster has at one time or another included Rita Medermade, Ben Dover, Richard Head, Semore Heiney, Mike Rotch, Bea O'Problem, Mike Litoris, Eileen Ulick, Urassis Itchy, Anita Mann, Dick Hertz, Hugh Jass. There was also one-time appearance by a reporter named Michael Hunt, and a recurring talk-show host named Harry Paratestees.
-->Dragon, bursting into a seedy bar: "I'm looking for Amanda Love!"
-->Bar patrons flee in a panic.
-->Dragon [[FacePalm facepalms]]: "Oh, for Christ's sake...!"
* WhamEpisode: Issue 76, the comic's setting suddenly changes to '''The Savage World''', the page layout changes, the sex and profanity is gone (for a little while, at least), there are a lot more thought bubbles, and the comic acquires a new third-person {{Narrator}}.
* TheWindyCity: The comic mostly takes place in Chicago.
* TooDumbToLive: Malcolm's school bully Witherspoon. He constantly harasses Malcolm for apparently riding off his father's success, being a virgin, and according to him, a lame superhero, constantly egging him on. This is despite the fact that after punching him in the face, he broke his hand.
--> '''Malcolm:''' You just punched a brick wall.
* WorldInTheSky: The Void
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After returning to the Savage World from an attempt to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong on his Earth, Dragon has to destroy the machine that would've allowed him to return home in order to prevent Darklord from coming through, and the only characters capable of powering the machine have been abducted. And later, [[spoiler: an EarthShatteringKaboom ensures that Dragon has no home world to return to]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Overlord and Darklord have each done this at one time or another.
* YourHeadAsplode: too many instances to list them all. Notable victims include [[http://dragonfan.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Paff.jpg Dart]], [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/69676/1468501-vs._solarman_super.jpg Solar Man]], Simon Kane, Chaos, the whole atlantean army and Dragon himself (more than once!)
A series for ImageComics by Erik Larsen. The title character first appeared in ''Graphic Fantasy'' #1 (June, 1982). The character continued appearing through TheEighties in either self-published works or works by minor publishers. When Image was launched, Larsen had the opportunity to launch a regular series based on the character. An initial 3-issue miniseries (July-December, 1992) sold decently, leading to an ongoing title. It was launched in June 1993 and (as of 2015) is still ongoing, albeit on a scattershot schedule. It is the longest-running American full-color comic by a single creator/creative team.
The Dragon is an extremely broad and muscular green guy with a fin on his head, who was found in a burning field by Lieutenant Frank Darling of the Chicago Police Department. With "Superfreaks", genetically and/or cybernetically-modified criminals running loose in the streets, the Dragon eventually takes up the fight against them. Not as a superhero, mind you, but as a member of the Chicago Police. This allows him to legally and openly fight crime of all sorts, and has also resulted in him being "loaned" to the Police Departments of other cities, which has led him on other adventures (such as an encounter with the Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}). At first, his primary ArchEnemy was Overlord, the leader of a superpowered gang called the Vicious Circle. The Dragon defeated Overlord, only to create an EvilPowerVacuum that resulted in a city-wide gang war as factions within the Circle fought each other for dominance. Since then, he has met other heroes, such as ''Wildstar'' and TheMaxx, gotten sent to Hell, where he encountered {{Spawn}} and witnessed {{God}} and {{Satan}} throw down over his soul, had a son, lost his son, met ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, fought off a [[MarsAttacks Martian]] invasion, and was finally suspended from the Police Department.
Since then, Dragon has become a bounty hunter, formed a government super-team composed of many of his friends, traveled to alternate universes, found his son again, adopted a daughter, Nearly been elected President of the United States, and many, many other things.
In issue #150, Dragon was seemingly killed off by the newly returned Overlord. [[LyingCreator Despite Larsen's insistence]] this did not stick, but shifted the focus of the series on Dragon's kids Malcolm and Angel as the protagonists. This was finally cemented in issue #193 where Malcolm officially took over the book.
In 1995, an animated series was aired for the USANetwork's ''Cartoon Express''. It was much LighterAndSofter than the comic, and aimed at a younger audience. It was actually rather good, due to maintaining the comic's odd humor. (Sentient leeches?)
Savage Dragon is one of the two original Image Comics Series that is still being published since the company was formed, the other being Spawn, mainly because it, like Spawn, managed to develop a loyal fanbase, and quickly broke away from the stereotypical Image fare of the time. It is perhaps notable as the only founding Image Comic to still be written and drawn by its creator Erik Larsen, a fact that PeterDavid, who once feuded with Larsen, has applauded.
This series has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so it naturally has [[Characters/TheSavageDragon its own]] CharacterSheet.
----
!!This series provides examples of:
* AccidentalMisnaming: Type C-- on the Savage World, Dragon keeps getting the name of Ann Stevens' boyfriend wrong.
* AfterTheEnd: Darkworld is mostly uninhabitable, and has an unstable core that's weeks away from GoingCritical. The Savage World looks like this when Dragon first arrives, but eventually it gets better.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The humans are restricted to the normal range of skin tones, but freaks come in all colors.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Dragon is of the ''Mythical Monster Motiff'' variety, although there are many side characters who fit other types such as Widow.
* AndThisIsFor: Dragon, She-Dragon, Angel, and Alex Wilde do this while beating up Dragon's EvilTwin
* AnotherDimension: The Void
* AnyoneCanDie:
** Dragon recently bit it. Again.
** The best example would be [[spoiler: Rapture who was a major character in the series and Dragon's ex-girlfriend. She was killed in a single page in one of the most shocking scenes in the series. The effects of her death resonate even today.]]
** Another strong and literal contender would be the [[spoiler:[[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of]] Earth. And Darkworld. And Godworld. [[OverUsedRunningGag And Warworld]]. Each of these events killed off a number of significant character. Heck, the destruction of Earth wiped out almost the entire cast.]]
** As of the most recent issues, it is shown that ''anyone'' even includes [[spoiler: GOD!]]
* {{BFG}}: Used frequently when Dragon's on the police force. Justified in his case, since he's super-strong. But human characters also tend to heft around giant bazookas from time to time.
* BigBad: Dragon's universe is full of villains, but some are tougher than others.
** Overlord.
** Darklord.
** Cyber Face.
** New Overlord.
*** New Overlord is somewhat of a subversion, in fact though he has killed people, he has very good intentions, and has been shown to be failing in the area of evil planning.
** Emperor Kurr.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Savage World's Australia has plenty of giant bugs[[note]]as a result of Martian enlarging rays[[/note]], which they've domesticated.
* {{Blackmail}}: Ever since Lt. Darling engineered TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive, he's been under the Vicious Circle's thumb.
* BodyBackupDrive: Has featured a number of characters with Power Armor who had previously downloaded their brainwaves into the suit, allowing them to continue fighting long after death.
* {{Brainwashed}}: Everyone in Covenant of the Sword.
** The psychotic and cruel Emperor Kurr was brainwashed by two of his scientists to save the Earth. [[spoiler:He is, in fact, the titular character.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Horde's victims tend to go on killing sprees.
* CaptainErsatz/Expy: Many, but one of the most notable is Mighty Man, who at the beginning appears to be an obvious nod to Fawcett/DC's [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] (the one who, [[TheNew52 until recently]], [[IAmNotShazam was not Shazam]]). However, Larsen tweaked the idea to make the superhero form an actual, separate entity that resides within a host body, rather than the OlderAlterEgo that Captain Marvel usually appears as. Thus, when the dying host of Mighty Man transfers his powers to his attending nurse (believing her, in his dying stupor, to be his grandson), her SuperpoweredAlterEgo is the same blond-haired, alpha male Mighty Man, but with her mind in the driver's seat. Another twist is that, wherever the host body "goes" when the Mighty Man form is summoned, time still passes for that body; thus, if the host spends all of his or her time as Mighty Man, their own body will waste away from starvation, dehydtration and muscle atrophy, to the point where their effectiveness as Mighty Man will decline (as the effects on the body also affect the host's mental state) and, in a severe case, their own body will be so weakened that they will expire near-instantly when they change back.
** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
* CityOfAdventure: The comic's version of Chicago seems to be one big WeirdnessMagnet. God City also counts for obvious reasons.
* ClusterFBomb: Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster; [[ComicBook/{{Wanted}} Wesley]] during a cross-over.
* CondemnedContestant: The participants in the ForcedPrizeFight[=s=].
* ContinuityNod: In issue #24, the Chicago Bull[[note]]a washed up freak actor reviled by the freak community for being a sellout[[/note]] attacks a BadGuyBar, where he's killed easily. In issue #75, when that bar is shown in a montage depicting the effects of the [[PowerNullifier Nega-Bomb]] on Chicago's freaks, the Bull's head can be seen mounted on a wall.
* {{Crossover}}: There have been several that have happened in the pages of this series: ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, {{Spawn}}, Comicbook/{{Madman}}, {{Bone}}, MegatonMan, Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}, MarsAttacks, ComicBook/DestroyerDuck, TheMaxx, Wildstar, {{Youngblood}} and more.
* DeaderThanDead: Years after Debbie Harris' first death, she resurfaces as an angel. Then she dies in a hovercar crash.
* DeadlyDodging: Dragon tricks a giant robot into blowing off its own head this way.
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: people with powers are known as "superfreaks", or just "freaks".
* DinerBrawl: Between Zeek and Rock, the first time they meet in the Savage World.
* DeathIsCheap: Averted with almost everyone else, Larsen has strong feelings about reviving characters left and right (comedically brought up when Gwen Stacey appears serving NormanOsborn and ComicBook/LexLuthor lunch at a diner).
** Dragon himself "dies" a fair bit. Ar at least, he's believed dead by the characters even though the readers know what really happened. Happens so much that it's a running gag.
*** Played with recently in the current storyline inwhich Dragon's revival has lead to him returning to the evil persona of Emperor Kurr. Whats more, Larsen claims that he may be fully intending to have Dragon's son Malcolm take up the mantle.
** It should be noted that this trope mostly only applies to Dragon. That said, in most cases, the audience knows for a fact that he isn't dead. It's the world around him who believe that he's been killed. Otherwise, if someone dies, they [[KilledOffForReal stay dead.]]
** Since dimensional travel is a recurring theme within the book, dead characters are often replaced with their counterparts from another dimension. Arguably that could be counted as resurrecting, but most of the time the new version is in some way different than the original, often quite drastically.
* DraconicHumanoid: Dragon comes from an alien race of dragon-like humanoids.
* DragonRider: The Skyriders on the Savage World.
* DungFu: Dung, who fires hot faeces from his arm cannons.
* EarthAllAlong: Darkworld-- Dragon makes this realization when he finds a Coca-Cola vending machine.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: The fate of Darkworld and Godworld and Earth and Warworld
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: In Savage World, the Liberty League headquarters is underneath Dragon's house.
* EnemyMine: On a few occasions, Dragon has to team up with the Vicious Circle to defeat a greater threat: on the original Earth, it's Darklord; on Savage World, it's Cyberface.
* FakeStatic: On Savage World, Vanguard does this to cut short an awkward conversation with Dragon, except without the tunnel, since Vanguard's on a spaceship.
* FakingTheDead: Lt. Darling sends a shapeshifting drone to get vaporized by Overlord in his place. Later averted due to the drone's resilience; it regenerated and repeated its prior actions, tipping off Overlord to the switch.
* FantasticRacism
* FishPeople: Atlanteans.
* FloatingContinent: God Town
* FlyingBrick: Mighty Man, Solar Man, Powerhouse, The Fiend, Overlord, Dread Knight, Kid Crimson, Vanguard, and Superpatriot to a certain extent.
* FlyingCar: Dragon has one in Savage World.
* FlyingSaucer: Martian ships
* ForcedPrizeFight: Gladiatorial combat in Savage World Australia.
* ForWantOfANail: Various flashbacks show in detail how the events of the Savage World timeline can be traced back to Dragon having killed the time-traveling Darklord.
* FunWithAcronyms: '''S'''pecial '''O'''perations '''S'''trikeforce, the government-sponsored superhero team Dragon leads for awhile. When Erik Larsen came up with the idea back when he was a kid, it was called '''S'''ociety '''O'''f '''S'''uperheroes.
* FullFrontalAssault: Dragon being attacked by an army of naked, pregnant AlternateUniverse Jennifers that have been brainwashed by the Covenant of the Sword.
** Also Dragon himself whenever his clothes get destroyed.
* GiantSpider: One of the first of many monsters Dragon faces upon arrival in the Savage World continuity.
* GodsHandsAreTied: In the Savage World timeline, the gods of every pantheon live together in God Town at the top of a mountain in the USA. But because their leader long ago forbade gods from interfering in mortal affairs, they won't do a thing to help overthrow the EvilOverlord Cyberface.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: During the ''MarsAttacks Image'' crossover, Superpatriot's daughter Liberty is abducted and raped by Martians in a crossbreeding experiment, but she's so staunchly pro-life that she keeps the HalfHumanHybrid[[spoiler: though this turns out to be a bad idea, as the baby grows up to become Darklord]].
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Psychotic VigilanteMan Mace used to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky, but a bomb that killed his mentor left his face severely burnt from the nose up, ruining his chances of joining the image-obsessed superteam Youngblood.
** The main visual difference between Dragon and his EvilTwin from Darkworld is that the latter, having lost his healing factor in the [[PowerNullifier nega-bomb]], is covered in scars.
* GratuitousGerman: Brainiape [[spoiler: who is the Brain of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler transplanted into a glass bowl on an ape body]] takes ze trope and runs with ze trope all ze way to the fuhrer hauptquartier.
* GroinAttack: {{Satan}} kicks {{God}} in the crotch during their fight over Dragon's soul.
** and in the Savage World timeline, Rapture kills her former pimp by grabbing his crotch and electrocuting him through it.
* GuardingThePortal: Regarding the interdimensional portal built in Dragon's basement:
-->'''Angel''': How come we have one of ''those''?
-->'''Dragon''': ''I'm'' in charge of it. I have to make sure no monsters escape.
-->'''Angel''': If we didn't have it, no monsters ''could'' escape.
-->'''Dragon''': Uh... yeah, well, you see... why don't you go bother your mother?
* HeroesRUs: SOS
* HiddenElfVillage: On the Savage World, Atlantis and Australia are this way during Cyberface's rule, and Godtown remains isolationist even after he's overthrown.
* [[WhyWontYouDie How Many Times Must I Kill You?]]: Overlord's response after vaporizing a shapeshifting robot disguised as Lt. Darling for the second time.
* HurlItIntoTheSun: How Savage World Vanguard disposes of the remains of [[spoiler: Cyberface]].
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dragon has a field day with this when he fights Powerhouse, a FlyingBrick with the head of a chicken.
* HypocriticalHumor: When Dragon receives an offer from Marvey Comics to adapt his life story into a series of comic books, Jennifer responds "Have you seen some of those comic magazines? They're nothing but T&A! Every square is a [[MaleGaze cheesecake shot emphasizing a shapely body part of some overdeveloped bimbo]]". Note that Jennifer herself has the MostCommonSuperpower, and the panel in which she says this consists mostly of a shot of her ass.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Amnesiac-Kurr-Dragon says this to Malcolm after killing Darkworld-Dragon and eating his brain to ensure he doesn't come back.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: On a church steeple, back in 1997.
* ImprovisedWeapon:
-->'''Dragon''': There wasn't a gun. No bullet, either. I didn't have one on me, so I chewed on a dime while I was scaling the building and I spit it through his forehead.
* IncestIsRelative: It is very strongly hinted at several points that Angel and Malcolm Dragon being attracted to each other, as they are not blood related. This comes to a head in issue 200 where [[spoiler: both participate in a threesome with Malcolm's girlfriend Maxine.]]
* IndecisiveParody: The comic tends to lampoon quite a few superhero tropes, from the NinetiesAntiHero type that Image was partly responsible for popularizing to the generally ridiculous nature of C-list supervillains (Dung and his diarrhea-cannons, for example) -- not to mention the inclusion of fan creations like Jimbo de Mighty Lobster -- but sometimes it's ambiguous as to whether Larsen is making fun of a trope or playing it totally straight and trying to tell a more-or-less serious story.
* InvisiblePresident: Averted for every sitting president since the series started. When Dragon wakes up in the first issue, he mentions that George Bush (senior) is the president but has [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no information regarding his own name]]. Later in the series, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all make appearances while in office.
** Even Al Gore appears as president in one issue ([[spoiler: he was appointed after Clinton got killed]]).
** This trope is also played with since Dragon himself nearly became the president at one point.
* ItsAllMyFault: Dragon angsting over the destruction of his home Earth in his absence.
* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend I Am Not His Girlfriend]]: Alex keeps having to correct the Vicious Circle goons holding her hostage. At this point, she and Dragon are technically just friends with benefits.
* KilledOffForReal: With the exception of the title character himself, who has made revivals a habit, people who die, usually stay dead and when they don't, usually they are practically a different character. Larsen claims that Dragon's most recent demise at the end of the Emperor Dragon storyline will be the last we see of him.
** And yet again averted; Dragon (or at least the clone with his mind; long story) has been revived by his alien species, but has decided to help them instead of taking back the book.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: due to Universo's EnergyAbsorption powers, the only weapons it's safe to use against him are guns. Apparently, he can't absorb kinetic energy.
* LawOfInverseFertility: Dragon thought he was sterile.
* LiteralGenie: Angel wishes she was "big" i.e. an adult, so adults couldn't boss her around. But Mr. Glum misinterprets her wish and concocts a serum for her that makes her grow to giant size, destroying the house and hospitalizing her mother.
** Lampshaded later by Angel when Mr. Glum is trying to decide what to use the God Gun's third wish on. She figures out the precise way to word his wish to allow him to TakeOverTheWorld.
** Even after wording his wish correctly and acquiring a CompellingVoice, Glum's commands sometimes don't result in the desired effects. e.g. when he tells Mighty Man "You should be out for Savage Dragon's blood. Go take care of him!", Mighty Man goes to the hospital to get some of the blood Dragon donated back before he lost his healing factor, and injects Dragon with it, returning his original power level.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Despite the title focusing on a single character, there have been literally hundreds of supporting characters, side characters, and villains throughout the years.
* [[MagmaMan Magma Woman]]: Volcanic, a Vicious Circle freak.
** and on the Savage World, the Lava Lords and the Magmanites are two whole races of magma men.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe
* MadeOfPlasticine: Characters without some form superhuman resilence tend to die rather messily when punched by a superpowered freak. Even the really tough guys are not safe, when enough force is applied.
* MobileFishbowl: A group of Atlantis characters popped up in the series from time to time, with aquatic "breathing" gear to use to go on land for an invasion. This was a RunningGag in which the gear always malfunctioned in someway, killing all of them.
* MonsterModesty: Strongly averted. Dragon and several characters look monstrous but are usually fully clothed.
* MostCommonSuperpower: It's not restricted to superhuman women by far. Lampshaded at one point when Dragon's dating one of the few women with a normal sized chest to appear in the comic: "the girls he dates usually look like they'd bounce right back onto their feet if they fell forward"
* MustNotDieAVirgin: Angel tried to pull that one on [[spoiler:Malcom. He declines. Rex and Horridus go through with the PreClimaxClimax a few pages later.]]
** in Issue #184 it's revealed that [[spoiler: Frank jr. is just as unfaithful as Angel and got Tierra pregnant. Angel does not take this well.]]
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Oddly, despite his various near-death and actual-death experiences, this doesn't happen to Dragon until the relatively uneventful issue 63, when he's abducted by Overlord.
* NaziHunter: Super-Patriot's side job.
** A CrossOver with ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} also showed this side of the character.
* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Covenant of the Sword
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: During his crossover with ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', Dragon fights a giant gorilla mummy.
** in one backup feature, Superpatriot fights ninja cyborgs... who are also [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]!
** [[RefugeInAudacity GIANT RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE OSAMA BIN LADEN!!]]
* NoOntologicalInertia: When the God Gun is destroyed, the wishes it granted are undone.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Officer Howard Niseman hates blacks, gays, and freaks, but gets partnered with a gay black man, and later with the freak She-Dragon, and apparently does his job well to the satisfaction of his black commanding officer.
** In fact, in She-Dragon's case, he's often more annoyed with being saddled with a rookie officer for a partner than the fact that she's a super-freak.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Happens a lot to Dragon, but on the Savage World, it becomes a RunningGag for these two guys to show up, look at the footage of his supposed death and argue about whether he could've survived.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Dragon has to do this several times in the Savage World timeline, since he keeps having to explain the events that led to him being on this alternate Earth.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mendosa, [[spoiler: who, as TheMole, did this intentionally]]. Stephenson later plays this role in SOS.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Mjolnir. Merely touching it with his bare hand causes half of Dragon's body to melt away.
* OriginsIssue: Dragon's origin was finally revealed (to the readers; his past was unknown in-continuity until he regained his original memories in early 2010) in 2005, 13 years after ''The Savage Dragon'' began.
* PhlebotinumOverload: When Dr. [[strike:Sivana]]Nirvana's [[EnergyAbsorption power draining]] [[strike:Amazo]]Absorbanoids are shot by [[strike:Darkseid]]Darklord's [[strike:Parademons]]Devil Dogs while they're already busy draining [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Mighty Man]], they overload and explode.
* PinnedToTheWall: This was lamshaded and averted in an issue. An ally of the Dragon's, known as Star, uses bladed stars to stab some criminals along their arms to disarm them. When they complain, he admits he can't do this trick.
* PowersAsPrograms: Billy Berman uses a Dr. Nirvana-constructed-device to steal Ann's Mighty Man powers.
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: On Savage World, fanboy Augie De Blieck Jr. tries this with Freak Force. Except in this reality, there never was a Freak Force-- he's trying to rebuild a team that he only knows about from Dragon's stories about his original Earth.
* {{Redshirts}}:The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord. Human cops in general have a tendency to die by the bucketload.
* ResetButton: Supplied by Darklord after Kurr completely massacres the human race and most everyone else on Earth except himself and Virus!Dragon.
* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The title started off being dark and edgy since it was first published in UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. As the series came into its own, it became much lighter.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Justified-- Dragon doesn't remember the past of the Savage World timeline because his mind switched places with that of SW's original Dragon.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The home of Gertie, Jennifer's friend in the Savage World timeline.
* PublicDomainCharacter: [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, along with a few others.
* RunningGag: The Atlanteans keep trying to invade the surface world, only to keep exploding from ExplosiveDecompression.
* {{Ruritania}}: Lieberheim, a small country ruled by [[strike:Doctor Doom]]Dread Knight.
* SchmuckBait: Dragon, before going to attack the Covenant of the Sword, leaves [[strike:Batman]]Sgt. Marvel with a sealed envelope and tells him to open it if he doesn't hear from him in three days. He opens it as soon as Dragon leaves the room, only to find that the note says "Sgt Marvel, You prick-- I knew you couldn't wait three days. I went after the bad guys. I'm on a rescue mission. You're the hotshot detective-- you figure it out."
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: The explicitly stated rationale of some of the criminal freaks.
* SeinfeldianConversation: The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord has a couple of guys arguing about Forrest Gump.
* SexEqualsLove: Dragon and Alex's stint as FriendsWithBenefits eventually ends when Alex wants something more and Dragon doesn't.
* SharedUniverse: Larsen considers all of comicdom to exist in the same universe, along with his own series (and any spin offs). This has led to creator owned characters such as ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} to make appearances and every few issues, there is a LawyerFriendlyCameo or two from characters who are most certainly not a part of the MarvelUniverse or TheDCU.
* ShootTheHostageTaker: In the first issue, the hero is taking down a group of hostage takers, only for someone else to shoot the lead criminal: the vigilante known as Star.
* SideBet: In issue 64, Dragon asks out Marcy Howard, the assistant director of a commercial he's starring in. His friend Chester, who he leaves behind to babysit Angel, doesn't think she'll give him the time of day. When Dragon and Marcy get back and appear to have hit it off, Angel says "That's five bucks you owe me."
* SocietyIsToBlame: Powerhouse is really desperate to convince Dragon that FantasticRacism against freaks makes it okay for him to establish a criminal syndicate.
** The new Overlord makes the same claim, and actually backs it up pointing out that normal work isn't really an option for "Freaks" thanks to all the FantasticRacism
* SpacePolice: The Cosmic Cops
* SpoofAesop: After Dragon and Angel's run-in with Candyman:
-->'''Dragon''': Well, I hope you learned something today, Angel...
-->'''Angel''': Oh, I did. I learned was that you need good traction to run on chocolate.
-->'''Dragon''': That's not really what I meant...
-->'''Angel''': That, and it's possible to choke down broccoli if it's properly prepared.
* SpottingTheThread: Dragon is approached on two separate occasions by imposters impersonating dead lovers of his. Both times, he can tell by their mannerisms, inflection, and choice of words that they're fakes.
* SuperCop
* SuperGenderBender: Ann Stevens, a nurse who becomes a tall, blond, male superhero when she taps her wrists together.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: This series has been running in real time for nearly twenty years, and by now, there are plenty of second-generation superhumans running around.
* SuperSoldier: Baby Darklord kidnaps women carrying superpowered fetuses from all over TheMultiverse in order to create an army of SuperSoldiers.
* SuperStrength: There is a variety of powers on display here but nearly every superhuman has super strength to one degree or another. Since this is the Dragon's main power, it makes since that it's the most common... well [[MostCommonSuperpower second most common.]]
* TakeThat: There have been several against John Byrne and MarvelComics.
** As well as the LawyerFriendlyCameo of ComicBook/TheSandman... who Dragon promptly punched in the faced, calling him a "hair-teased Creator/TimBurton reject" and saying that there was "any boob can come up with a cheap knock-off like you."
*** This was after Larsen publicly called Gaiman a "jerk" for having the audacity to get the {{Miracleman}} license back from Todd [=McFarlane=]. All of this resulted in a FlatWhat from the comic book community, what with Neil considered the biggest NiceGuy in the business since Archie Goodwin...
*** Then again, Larsen has been known to defend his fellow Image founders fiercely. He continued backing RobLiefeld when almost everyone else were ditching him.
**** Also, Gaiman had sued Larsen and the other Image partners for using his photo and biography in the Angela's trade without his permission, when in reality only Todd McFarlane had any control over that decision.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Lt. Frank Darling had to give the call Dragon's address. After Dragon RefusedTheCall to join the police, Frank paid some Vicious Circle members to threaten his cousin (for whom Dragon was working) to bring home the threat of the supercriminal crime wave. Instead, they blew up the cousin's warehouse, killing him. Dragon was convinced to join the police, but Frank's scheme got him blackmailed by the Vicious Circle.
* TheOnlyOne: justifiably invoked in issue 65, since Dragon is the only one immune to Simon Kane's mind control.
* ThisCannotBe: spoken by some [[MyBrainIsBig big-headed]] mind controller after Dragon figures out that he's the one controlling his opponent in the ForcedPrizeFight.
* ThreeWishes: The wish-granting God Gun can only be fired three times [[spoiler: per user]].
* TimeSkip: 2 years pass in issue 96 while Dragon is trapped for what he perceives as a few minutes in a gelatinous bubble in the Void. This allows the Savage World's recovery from AfterTheEnd to a normal state to happen entirely off-panel. Later, the world recovers from Mr. Glum's reign of terror during a 1 year TimeSkip.
* TransformationRay: In the wake of ''MarsAttacks ImageComics'', there are Martian shrinking rays floating around. Dragon shrinks a bunch of villains with one, and later gets hit by one himself.
* UnfortunateNames: The Chicago PD's roster has at one time or another included Rita Medermade, Ben Dover, Richard Head, Semore Heiney, Mike Rotch, Bea O'Problem, Mike Litoris, Eileen Ulick, Urassis Itchy, Anita Mann, Dick Hertz, Hugh Jass. There was also one-time appearance by a reporter named Michael Hunt, and a recurring talk-show host named Harry Paratestees.
-->Dragon, bursting into a seedy bar: "I'm looking for Amanda Love!"
-->Bar patrons flee in a panic.
-->Dragon [[FacePalm facepalms]]: "Oh, for Christ's sake...!"
* WhamEpisode: Issue 76, the comic's setting suddenly changes to '''The Savage World''', the page layout changes, the sex and profanity is gone (for a little while, at least), there are a lot more thought bubbles, and the comic acquires a new third-person {{Narrator}}.
* TheWindyCity: The comic mostly takes place in Chicago.
* TooDumbToLive: Malcolm's school bully Witherspoon. He constantly harasses Malcolm for apparently riding off his father's success, being a virgin, and according to him, a lame superhero, constantly egging him on. This is despite the fact that after punching him in the face, he broke his hand.
--> '''Malcolm:''' You just punched a brick wall.
* WorldInTheSky: The Void
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After returning to the Savage World from an attempt to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong on his Earth, Dragon has to destroy the machine that would've allowed him to return home in order to prevent Darklord from coming through, and the only characters capable of powering the machine have been abducted. And later, [[spoiler: an EarthShatteringKaboom ensures that Dragon has no home world to return to]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Overlord and Darklord have each done this at one time or another.
* YourHeadAsplode: too many instances to list them all. Notable victims include [[http://dragonfan.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Paff.jpg Dart]], [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/69676/1468501-vs._solarman_super.jpg Solar Man]], Simon Kane, Chaos, the whole atlantean army and Dragon himself (more than once!)
to:
A series for ImageComics by Erik Larsen. The title character first appeared in ''Graphic Fantasy'' #1 (June, 1982). The character continued appearing through TheEighties in either self-published works or works by minor publishers. When Image was launched, Larsen had the opportunity to launch a regular series based on the character. An initial 3-issue miniseries (July-December, 1992) sold decently, leading to an ongoing title. It was launched in June 1993 and (as of 2015) is still ongoing, albeit on a scattershot schedule. It is the longest-running American full-color comic by a single creator/creative team.
The Dragon is an extremely broad and muscular green guy with a fin on his head, who was found in a burning field by Lieutenant Frank Darling of the Chicago Police Department. With "Superfreaks", genetically and/or cybernetically-modified criminals running loose in the streets, the Dragon eventually takes up the fight against them. Not as a superhero, mind you, but as a member of the Chicago Police. This allows him to legally and openly fight crime of all sorts, and has also resulted in him being "loaned" to the Police Departments of other cities, which has led him on other adventures (such as an encounter with the Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}). At first, his primary ArchEnemy was Overlord, the leader of a superpowered gang called the Vicious Circle. The Dragon defeated Overlord, only to create an EvilPowerVacuum that resulted in a city-wide gang war as factions within the Circle fought each other for dominance. Since then, he has met other heroes, such as ''Wildstar'' and TheMaxx, gotten sent to Hell, where he encountered {{Spawn}} and witnessed {{God}} and {{Satan}} throw down over his soul, had a son, lost his son, met ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, fought off a [[MarsAttacks Martian]] invasion, and was finally suspended from the Police Department.
Since then, Dragon has become a bounty hunter, formed a government super-team composed of many of his friends, traveled to alternate universes, found his son again, adopted a daughter, Nearly been elected President of the United States, and many, many other things.
In issue #150, Dragon was seemingly killed off by the newly returned Overlord. [[LyingCreator Despite Larsen's insistence]] this did not stick, but shifted the focus of the series on Dragon's kids Malcolm and Angel as the protagonists. This was finally cemented in issue #193 where Malcolm officially took over the book.
In 1995, an animated series was aired for the USANetwork's ''Cartoon Express''. It was much LighterAndSofter than the comic, and aimed at a younger audience. It was actually rather good, due to maintaining the comic's odd humor. (Sentient leeches?)
Savage Dragon is one of the two original Image Comics Series that is still being published since the company was formed, the other being Spawn, mainly because it, like Spawn, managed to develop a loyal fanbase, and quickly broke away from the stereotypical Image fare of the time. It is perhaps notable as the only founding Image Comic to still be written and drawn by its creator Erik Larsen, a fact that PeterDavid, who once feuded with Larsen, has applauded.
This series has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so it naturally has [[Characters/TheSavageDragon its own]] CharacterSheet.
----
!!This series provides examples of:
* AccidentalMisnaming: Type C-- on the Savage World, Dragon keeps getting the name of Ann Stevens' boyfriend wrong.
* AfterTheEnd: Darkworld is mostly uninhabitable, and has an unstable core that's weeks away from GoingCritical. The Savage World looks like this when Dragon first arrives, but eventually it gets better.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The humans are restricted to the normal range of skin tones, but freaks come in all colors.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Dragon is of the ''Mythical Monster Motiff'' variety, although there are many side characters who fit other types such as Widow.
* AndThisIsFor: Dragon, She-Dragon, Angel, and Alex Wilde do this while beating up Dragon's EvilTwin
* AnotherDimension: The Void
* AnyoneCanDie:
** Dragon recently bit it. Again.
** The best example would be [[spoiler: Rapture who was a major character in the series and Dragon's ex-girlfriend. She was killed in a single page in one of the most shocking scenes in the series. The effects of her death resonate even today.]]
** Another strong and literal contender would be the [[spoiler:[[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of]] Earth. And Darkworld. And Godworld. [[OverUsedRunningGag And Warworld]]. Each of these events killed off a number of significant character. Heck, the destruction of Earth wiped out almost the entire cast.]]
** As of the most recent issues, it is shown that ''anyone'' even includes [[spoiler: GOD!]]
* {{BFG}}: Used frequently when Dragon's on the police force. Justified in his case, since he's super-strong. But human characters also tend to heft around giant bazookas from time to time.
* BigBad: Dragon's universe is full of villains, but some are tougher than others.
** Overlord.
** Darklord.
** Cyber Face.
** New Overlord.
*** New Overlord is somewhat of a subversion, in fact though he has killed people, he has very good intentions, and has been shown to be failing in the area of evil planning.
** Emperor Kurr.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Savage World's Australia has plenty of giant bugs[[note]]as a result of Martian enlarging rays[[/note]], which they've domesticated.
* {{Blackmail}}: Ever since Lt. Darling engineered TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive, he's been under the Vicious Circle's thumb.
* BodyBackupDrive: Has featured a number of characters with Power Armor who had previously downloaded their brainwaves into the suit, allowing them to continue fighting long after death.
* {{Brainwashed}}: Everyone in Covenant of the Sword.
** The psychotic and cruel Emperor Kurr was brainwashed by two of his scientists to save the Earth. [[spoiler:He is, in fact, the titular character.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Horde's victims tend to go on killing sprees.
* CaptainErsatz/Expy: Many, but one of the most notable is Mighty Man, who at the beginning appears to be an obvious nod to Fawcett/DC's [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] (the one who, [[TheNew52 until recently]], [[IAmNotShazam was not Shazam]]). However, Larsen tweaked the idea to make the superhero form an actual, separate entity that resides within a host body, rather than the OlderAlterEgo that Captain Marvel usually appears as. Thus, when the dying host of Mighty Man transfers his powers to his attending nurse (believing her, in his dying stupor, to be his grandson), her SuperpoweredAlterEgo is the same blond-haired, alpha male Mighty Man, but with her mind in the driver's seat. Another twist is that, wherever the host body "goes" when the Mighty Man form is summoned, time still passes for that body; thus, if the host spends all of his or her time as Mighty Man, their own body will waste away from starvation, dehydtration and muscle atrophy, to the point where their effectiveness as Mighty Man will decline (as the effects on the body also affect the host's mental state) and, in a severe case, their own body will be so weakened that they will expire near-instantly when they change back.
** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
* CityOfAdventure: The comic's version of Chicago seems to be one big WeirdnessMagnet. God City also counts for obvious reasons.
* ClusterFBomb: Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster; [[ComicBook/{{Wanted}} Wesley]] during a cross-over.
* CondemnedContestant: The participants in the ForcedPrizeFight[=s=].
* ContinuityNod: In issue #24, the Chicago Bull[[note]]a washed up freak actor reviled by the freak community for being a sellout[[/note]] attacks a BadGuyBar, where he's killed easily. In issue #75, when that bar is shown in a montage depicting the effects of the [[PowerNullifier Nega-Bomb]] on Chicago's freaks, the Bull's head can be seen mounted on a wall.
* {{Crossover}}: There have been several that have happened in the pages of this series: ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}, {{Spawn}}, Comicbook/{{Madman}}, {{Bone}}, MegatonMan, Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}, MarsAttacks, ComicBook/DestroyerDuck, TheMaxx, Wildstar, {{Youngblood}} and more.
* DeaderThanDead: Years after Debbie Harris' first death, she resurfaces as an angel. Then she dies in a hovercar crash.
* DeadlyDodging: Dragon tricks a giant robot into blowing off its own head this way.
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: people with powers are known as "superfreaks", or just "freaks".
* DinerBrawl: Between Zeek and Rock, the first time they meet in the Savage World.
* DeathIsCheap: Averted with almost everyone else, Larsen has strong feelings about reviving characters left and right (comedically brought up when Gwen Stacey appears serving NormanOsborn and ComicBook/LexLuthor lunch at a diner).
** Dragon himself "dies" a fair bit. Ar at least, he's believed dead by the characters even though the readers know what really happened. Happens so much that it's a running gag.
*** Played with recently in the current storyline inwhich Dragon's revival has lead to him returning to the evil persona of Emperor Kurr. Whats more, Larsen claims that he may be fully intending to have Dragon's son Malcolm take up the mantle.
** It should be noted that this trope mostly only applies to Dragon. That said, in most cases, the audience knows for a fact that he isn't dead. It's the world around him who believe that he's been killed. Otherwise, if someone dies, they [[KilledOffForReal stay dead.]]
** Since dimensional travel is a recurring theme within the book, dead characters are often replaced with their counterparts from another dimension. Arguably that could be counted as resurrecting, but most of the time the new version is in some way different than the original, often quite drastically.
* DraconicHumanoid: Dragon comes from an alien race of dragon-like humanoids.
* DragonRider: The Skyriders on the Savage World.
* DungFu: Dung, who fires hot faeces from his arm cannons.
* EarthAllAlong: Darkworld-- Dragon makes this realization when he finds a Coca-Cola vending machine.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: The fate of Darkworld and Godworld and Earth and Warworld
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: In Savage World, the Liberty League headquarters is underneath Dragon's house.
* EnemyMine: On a few occasions, Dragon has to team up with the Vicious Circle to defeat a greater threat: on the original Earth, it's Darklord; on Savage World, it's Cyberface.
* FakeStatic: On Savage World, Vanguard does this to cut short an awkward conversation with Dragon, except without the tunnel, since Vanguard's on a spaceship.
* FakingTheDead: Lt. Darling sends a shapeshifting drone to get vaporized by Overlord in his place. Later averted due to the drone's resilience; it regenerated and repeated its prior actions, tipping off Overlord to the switch.
* FantasticRacism
* FishPeople: Atlanteans.
* FloatingContinent: God Town
* FlyingBrick: Mighty Man, Solar Man, Powerhouse, The Fiend, Overlord, Dread Knight, Kid Crimson, Vanguard, and Superpatriot to a certain extent.
* FlyingCar: Dragon has one in Savage World.
* FlyingSaucer: Martian ships
* ForcedPrizeFight: Gladiatorial combat in Savage World Australia.
* ForWantOfANail: Various flashbacks show in detail how the events of the Savage World timeline can be traced back to Dragon having killed the time-traveling Darklord.
* FunWithAcronyms: '''S'''pecial '''O'''perations '''S'''trikeforce, the government-sponsored superhero team Dragon leads for awhile. When Erik Larsen came up with the idea back when he was a kid, it was called '''S'''ociety '''O'''f '''S'''uperheroes.
* FullFrontalAssault: Dragon being attacked by an army of naked, pregnant AlternateUniverse Jennifers that have been brainwashed by the Covenant of the Sword.
** Also Dragon himself whenever his clothes get destroyed.
* GiantSpider: One of the first of many monsters Dragon faces upon arrival in the Savage World continuity.
* GodsHandsAreTied: In the Savage World timeline, the gods of every pantheon live together in God Town at the top of a mountain in the USA. But because their leader long ago forbade gods from interfering in mortal affairs, they won't do a thing to help overthrow the EvilOverlord Cyberface.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: During the ''MarsAttacks Image'' crossover, Superpatriot's daughter Liberty is abducted and raped by Martians in a crossbreeding experiment, but she's so staunchly pro-life that she keeps the HalfHumanHybrid[[spoiler: though this turns out to be a bad idea, as the baby grows up to become Darklord]].
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Psychotic VigilanteMan Mace used to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky, but a bomb that killed his mentor left his face severely burnt from the nose up, ruining his chances of joining the image-obsessed superteam Youngblood.
** The main visual difference between Dragon and his EvilTwin from Darkworld is that the latter, having lost his healing factor in the [[PowerNullifier nega-bomb]], is covered in scars.
* GratuitousGerman: Brainiape [[spoiler: who is the Brain of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler transplanted into a glass bowl on an ape body]] takes ze trope and runs with ze trope all ze way to the fuhrer hauptquartier.
* GroinAttack: {{Satan}} kicks {{God}} in the crotch during their fight over Dragon's soul.
** and in the Savage World timeline, Rapture kills her former pimp by grabbing his crotch and electrocuting him through it.
* GuardingThePortal: Regarding the interdimensional portal built in Dragon's basement:
-->'''Angel''': How come we have one of ''those''?
-->'''Dragon''': ''I'm'' in charge of it. I have to make sure no monsters escape.
-->'''Angel''': If we didn't have it, no monsters ''could'' escape.
-->'''Dragon''': Uh... yeah, well, you see... why don't you go bother your mother?
* HeroesRUs: SOS
* HiddenElfVillage: On the Savage World, Atlantis and Australia are this way during Cyberface's rule, and Godtown remains isolationist even after he's overthrown.
* [[WhyWontYouDie How Many Times Must I Kill You?]]: Overlord's response after vaporizing a shapeshifting robot disguised as Lt. Darling for the second time.
* HurlItIntoTheSun: How Savage World Vanguard disposes of the remains of [[spoiler: Cyberface]].
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dragon has a field day with this when he fights Powerhouse, a FlyingBrick with the head of a chicken.
* HypocriticalHumor: When Dragon receives an offer from Marvey Comics to adapt his life story into a series of comic books, Jennifer responds "Have you seen some of those comic magazines? They're nothing but T&A! Every square is a [[MaleGaze cheesecake shot emphasizing a shapely body part of some overdeveloped bimbo]]". Note that Jennifer herself has the MostCommonSuperpower, and the panel in which she says this consists mostly of a shot of her ass.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Amnesiac-Kurr-Dragon says this to Malcolm after killing Darkworld-Dragon and eating his brain to ensure he doesn't come back.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: On a church steeple, back in 1997.
* ImprovisedWeapon:
-->'''Dragon''': There wasn't a gun. No bullet, either. I didn't have one on me, so I chewed on a dime while I was scaling the building and I spit it through his forehead.
* IncestIsRelative: It is very strongly hinted at several points that Angel and Malcolm Dragon being attracted to each other, as they are not blood related. This comes to a head in issue 200 where [[spoiler: both participate in a threesome with Malcolm's girlfriend Maxine.]]
* IndecisiveParody: The comic tends to lampoon quite a few superhero tropes, from the NinetiesAntiHero type that Image was partly responsible for popularizing to the generally ridiculous nature of C-list supervillains (Dung and his diarrhea-cannons, for example) -- not to mention the inclusion of fan creations like Jimbo de Mighty Lobster -- but sometimes it's ambiguous as to whether Larsen is making fun of a trope or playing it totally straight and trying to tell a more-or-less serious story.
* InvisiblePresident: Averted for every sitting president since the series started. When Dragon wakes up in the first issue, he mentions that George Bush (senior) is the president but has [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no information regarding his own name]]. Later in the series, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all make appearances while in office.
** Even Al Gore appears as president in one issue ([[spoiler: he was appointed after Clinton got killed]]).
** This trope is also played with since Dragon himself nearly became the president at one point.
* ItsAllMyFault: Dragon angsting over the destruction of his home Earth in his absence.
* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend I Am Not His Girlfriend]]: Alex keeps having to correct the Vicious Circle goons holding her hostage. At this point, she and Dragon are technically just friends with benefits.
* KilledOffForReal: With the exception of the title character himself, who has made revivals a habit, people who die, usually stay dead and when they don't, usually they are practically a different character. Larsen claims that Dragon's most recent demise at the end of the Emperor Dragon storyline will be the last we see of him.
** And yet again averted; Dragon (or at least the clone with his mind; long story) has been revived by his alien species, but has decided to help them instead of taking back the book.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: due to Universo's EnergyAbsorption powers, the only weapons it's safe to use against him are guns. Apparently, he can't absorb kinetic energy.
* LawOfInverseFertility: Dragon thought he was sterile.
* LiteralGenie: Angel wishes she was "big" i.e. an adult, so adults couldn't boss her around. But Mr. Glum misinterprets her wish and concocts a serum for her that makes her grow to giant size, destroying the house and hospitalizing her mother.
** Lampshaded later by Angel when Mr. Glum is trying to decide what to use the God Gun's third wish on. She figures out the precise way to word his wish to allow him to TakeOverTheWorld.
** Even after wording his wish correctly and acquiring a CompellingVoice, Glum's commands sometimes don't result in the desired effects. e.g. when he tells Mighty Man "You should be out for Savage Dragon's blood. Go take care of him!", Mighty Man goes to the hospital to get some of the blood Dragon donated back before he lost his healing factor, and injects Dragon with it, returning his original power level.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Despite the title focusing on a single character, there have been literally hundreds of supporting characters, side characters, and villains throughout the years.
* [[MagmaMan Magma Woman]]: Volcanic, a Vicious Circle freak.
** and on the Savage World, the Lava Lords and the Magmanites are two whole races of magma men.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe
* MadeOfPlasticine: Characters without some form superhuman resilence tend to die rather messily when punched by a superpowered freak. Even the really tough guys are not safe, when enough force is applied.
* MobileFishbowl: A group of Atlantis characters popped up in the series from time to time, with aquatic "breathing" gear to use to go on land for an invasion. This was a RunningGag in which the gear always malfunctioned in someway, killing all of them.
* MonsterModesty: Strongly averted. Dragon and several characters look monstrous but are usually fully clothed.
* MostCommonSuperpower: It's not restricted to superhuman women by far. Lampshaded at one point when Dragon's dating one of the few women with a normal sized chest to appear in the comic: "the girls he dates usually look like they'd bounce right back onto their feet if they fell forward"
* MustNotDieAVirgin: Angel tried to pull that one on [[spoiler:Malcom. He declines. Rex and Horridus go through with the PreClimaxClimax a few pages later.]]
** in Issue #184 it's revealed that [[spoiler: Frank jr. is just as unfaithful as Angel and got Tierra pregnant. Angel does not take this well.]]
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Oddly, despite his various near-death and actual-death experiences, this doesn't happen to Dragon until the relatively uneventful issue 63, when he's abducted by Overlord.
* NaziHunter: Super-Patriot's side job.
** A CrossOver with ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} also showed this side of the character.
* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Covenant of the Sword
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: During his crossover with ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', Dragon fights a giant gorilla mummy.
** in one backup feature, Superpatriot fights ninja cyborgs... who are also [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]!
** [[RefugeInAudacity GIANT RADIOACTIVE ZOMBIE OSAMA BIN LADEN!!]]
* NoOntologicalInertia: When the God Gun is destroyed, the wishes it granted are undone.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Officer Howard Niseman hates blacks, gays, and freaks, but gets partnered with a gay black man, and later with the freak She-Dragon, and apparently does his job well to the satisfaction of his black commanding officer.
** In fact, in She-Dragon's case, he's often more annoyed with being saddled with a rookie officer for a partner than the fact that she's a super-freak.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Happens a lot to Dragon, but on the Savage World, it becomes a RunningGag for these two guys to show up, look at the footage of his supposed death and argue about whether he could've survived.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Dragon has to do this several times in the Savage World timeline, since he keeps having to explain the events that led to him being on this alternate Earth.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mendosa, [[spoiler: who, as TheMole, did this intentionally]]. Stephenson later plays this role in SOS.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Mjolnir. Merely touching it with his bare hand causes half of Dragon's body to melt away.
* OriginsIssue: Dragon's origin was finally revealed (to the readers; his past was unknown in-continuity until he regained his original memories in early 2010) in 2005, 13 years after ''The Savage Dragon'' began.
* PhlebotinumOverload: When Dr. [[strike:Sivana]]Nirvana's [[EnergyAbsorption power draining]] [[strike:Amazo]]Absorbanoids are shot by [[strike:Darkseid]]Darklord's [[strike:Parademons]]Devil Dogs while they're already busy draining [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Mighty Man]], they overload and explode.
* PinnedToTheWall: This was lamshaded and averted in an issue. An ally of the Dragon's, known as Star, uses bladed stars to stab some criminals along their arms to disarm them. When they complain, he admits he can't do this trick.
* PowersAsPrograms: Billy Berman uses a Dr. Nirvana-constructed-device to steal Ann's Mighty Man powers.
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: On Savage World, fanboy Augie De Blieck Jr. tries this with Freak Force. Except in this reality, there never was a Freak Force-- he's trying to rebuild a team that he only knows about from Dragon's stories about his original Earth.
* {{Redshirts}}:The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord. Human cops in general have a tendency to die by the bucketload.
* ResetButton: Supplied by Darklord after Kurr completely massacres the human race and most everyone else on Earth except himself and Virus!Dragon.
* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The title started off being dark and edgy since it was first published in UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. As the series came into its own, it became much lighter.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Justified-- Dragon doesn't remember the past of the Savage World timeline because his mind switched places with that of SW's original Dragon.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The home of Gertie, Jennifer's friend in the Savage World timeline.
* PublicDomainCharacter: [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, along with a few others.
* RunningGag: The Atlanteans keep trying to invade the surface world, only to keep exploding from ExplosiveDecompression.
* {{Ruritania}}: Lieberheim, a small country ruled by [[strike:Doctor Doom]]Dread Knight.
* SchmuckBait: Dragon, before going to attack the Covenant of the Sword, leaves [[strike:Batman]]Sgt. Marvel with a sealed envelope and tells him to open it if he doesn't hear from him in three days. He opens it as soon as Dragon leaves the room, only to find that the note says "Sgt Marvel, You prick-- I knew you couldn't wait three days. I went after the bad guys. I'm on a rescue mission. You're the hotshot detective-- you figure it out."
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: The explicitly stated rationale of some of the criminal freaks.
* SeinfeldianConversation: The SWAT team that accompanies Dragon to arrest Overlord has a couple of guys arguing about Forrest Gump.
* SexEqualsLove: Dragon and Alex's stint as FriendsWithBenefits eventually ends when Alex wants something more and Dragon doesn't.
* SharedUniverse: Larsen considers all of comicdom to exist in the same universe, along with his own series (and any spin offs). This has led to creator owned characters such as ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} to make appearances and every few issues, there is a LawyerFriendlyCameo or two from characters who are most certainly not a part of the MarvelUniverse or TheDCU.
* ShootTheHostageTaker: In the first issue, the hero is taking down a group of hostage takers, only for someone else to shoot the lead criminal: the vigilante known as Star.
* SideBet: In issue 64, Dragon asks out Marcy Howard, the assistant director of a commercial he's starring in. His friend Chester, who he leaves behind to babysit Angel, doesn't think she'll give him the time of day. When Dragon and Marcy get back and appear to have hit it off, Angel says "That's five bucks you owe me."
* SocietyIsToBlame: Powerhouse is really desperate to convince Dragon that FantasticRacism against freaks makes it okay for him to establish a criminal syndicate.
** The new Overlord makes the same claim, and actually backs it up pointing out that normal work isn't really an option for "Freaks" thanks to all the FantasticRacism
* SpacePolice: The Cosmic Cops
* SpoofAesop: After Dragon and Angel's run-in with Candyman:
-->'''Dragon''': Well, I hope you learned something today, Angel...
-->'''Angel''': Oh, I did. I learned was that you need good traction to run on chocolate.
-->'''Dragon''': That's not really what I meant...
-->'''Angel''': That, and it's possible to choke down broccoli if it's properly prepared.
* SpottingTheThread: Dragon is approached on two separate occasions by imposters impersonating dead lovers of his. Both times, he can tell by their mannerisms, inflection, and choice of words that they're fakes.
* SuperCop
* SuperGenderBender: Ann Stevens, a nurse who becomes a tall, blond, male superhero when she taps her wrists together.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: This series has been running in real time for nearly twenty years, and by now, there are plenty of second-generation superhumans running around.
* SuperSoldier: Baby Darklord kidnaps women carrying superpowered fetuses from all over TheMultiverse in order to create an army of SuperSoldiers.
* SuperStrength: There is a variety of powers on display here but nearly every superhuman has super strength to one degree or another. Since this is the Dragon's main power, it makes since that it's the most common... well [[MostCommonSuperpower second most common.]]
* TakeThat: There have been several against John Byrne and MarvelComics.
** As well as the LawyerFriendlyCameo of ComicBook/TheSandman... who Dragon promptly punched in the faced, calling him a "hair-teased Creator/TimBurton reject" and saying that there was "any boob can come up with a cheap knock-off like you."
*** This was after Larsen publicly called Gaiman a "jerk" for having the audacity to get the {{Miracleman}} license back from Todd [=McFarlane=]. All of this resulted in a FlatWhat from the comic book community, what with Neil considered the biggest NiceGuy in the business since Archie Goodwin...
*** Then again, Larsen has been known to defend his fellow Image founders fiercely. He continued backing RobLiefeld when almost everyone else were ditching him.
**** Also, Gaiman had sued Larsen and the other Image partners for using his photo and biography in the Angela's trade without his permission, when in reality only Todd McFarlane had any control over that decision.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Lt. Frank Darling had to give the call Dragon's address. After Dragon RefusedTheCall to join the police, Frank paid some Vicious Circle members to threaten his cousin (for whom Dragon was working) to bring home the threat of the supercriminal crime wave. Instead, they blew up the cousin's warehouse, killing him. Dragon was convinced to join the police, but Frank's scheme got him blackmailed by the Vicious Circle.
* TheOnlyOne: justifiably invoked in issue 65, since Dragon is the only one immune to Simon Kane's mind control.
* ThisCannotBe: spoken by some [[MyBrainIsBig big-headed]] mind controller after Dragon figures out that he's the one controlling his opponent in the ForcedPrizeFight.
* ThreeWishes: The wish-granting God Gun can only be fired three times [[spoiler: per user]].
* TimeSkip: 2 years pass in issue 96 while Dragon is trapped for what he perceives as a few minutes in a gelatinous bubble in the Void. This allows the Savage World's recovery from AfterTheEnd to a normal state to happen entirely off-panel. Later, the world recovers from Mr. Glum's reign of terror during a 1 year TimeSkip.
* TransformationRay: In the wake of ''MarsAttacks ImageComics'', there are Martian shrinking rays floating around. Dragon shrinks a bunch of villains with one, and later gets hit by one himself.
* UnfortunateNames: The Chicago PD's roster has at one time or another included Rita Medermade, Ben Dover, Richard Head, Semore Heiney, Mike Rotch, Bea O'Problem, Mike Litoris, Eileen Ulick, Urassis Itchy, Anita Mann, Dick Hertz, Hugh Jass. There was also one-time appearance by a reporter named Michael Hunt, and a recurring talk-show host named Harry Paratestees.
-->Dragon, bursting into a seedy bar: "I'm looking for Amanda Love!"
-->Bar patrons flee in a panic.
-->Dragon [[FacePalm facepalms]]: "Oh, for Christ's sake...!"
* WhamEpisode: Issue 76, the comic's setting suddenly changes to '''The Savage World''', the page layout changes, the sex and profanity is gone (for a little while, at least), there are a lot more thought bubbles, and the comic acquires a new third-person {{Narrator}}.
* TheWindyCity: The comic mostly takes place in Chicago.
* TooDumbToLive: Malcolm's school bully Witherspoon. He constantly harasses Malcolm for apparently riding off his father's success, being a virgin, and according to him, a lame superhero, constantly egging him on. This is despite the fact that after punching him in the face, he broke his hand.
--> '''Malcolm:''' You just punched a brick wall.
* WorldInTheSky: The Void
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After returning to the Savage World from an attempt to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong on his Earth, Dragon has to destroy the machine that would've allowed him to return home in order to prevent Darklord from coming through, and the only characters capable of powering the machine have been abducted. And later, [[spoiler: an EarthShatteringKaboom ensures that Dragon has no home world to return to]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Overlord and Darklord have each done this at one time or another.
* YourHeadAsplode: too many instances to list them all. Notable victims include [[http://dragonfan.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Paff.jpg Dart]], [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/69676/1468501-vs._solarman_super.jpg Solar Man]], Simon Kane, Chaos, the whole atlantean army and Dragon himself (more than once!)
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Savage Dragon is one of the two original Image Comics Series that is still being published since the company was formed, the other being Spawn. This is likely because, unlike most other early Image Comics, Dragon quickly improved into becoming decent. It is perhaps notable as the only founding Image Comic to still be written and drawn by its creator Erik Larsen, a fact that PeterDavid, who once feuded with Larsen, has applauded.
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Savage Dragon is one of the two original Image Comics Series that is still being published since the company was formed, the other being Spawn. This is likely because, unlike most other early Image Comics, Dragon Spawn, mainly because it, like Spawn, managed to develop a loyal fanbase, and quickly improved into becoming decent.broke away from the stereotypical Image fare of the time. It is perhaps notable as the only founding Image Comic to still be written and drawn by its creator Erik Larsen, a fact that PeterDavid, who once feuded with Larsen, has applauded.
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* DeathIsCheap: Averted with almost everyone else, Larsen has strong feelings about reviving characters left and right (comedically brought up when Gwen Stacey appears serving NormanOsborn and LexLuthor lunch at a diner).
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* DeathIsCheap: Averted with almost everyone else, Larsen has strong feelings about reviving characters left and right (comedically brought up when Gwen Stacey appears serving NormanOsborn and LexLuthor ComicBook/LexLuthor lunch at a diner).
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** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[GoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
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** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[GoldenAgeOfComicBooks [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
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* PublicDomainCharacter: [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, along with a few others.
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* PublicDomainCharacter: [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, along with a few others.
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* IncestIsRelative: It is very strongly hinted at several points that Angel and Malcolm Dragon being attracted to each other, as they are not blood related. This comes to a head in issue 200 where [[spoiler: both participate in a threesome with Malcolm's girlfriend Maxine.]]
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* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The title started off being dark and edgy since it was first published in TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. As the series came into its own, it became much lighter.
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* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The title started off being dark and edgy since it was first published in TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks.UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. As the series came into its own, it became much lighter.
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A series for ImageComics by Erik Larsen. The title character first appeared in ''Graphic Fantasy'' #1 (June, 1982). The character continued appearing through TheEighties in either self-published works or works by minor publishers. When Image was launched, Larsen had the opportunity to launch a regular series based on the character. An initial 4-issue miniseries (July-December, 1992) sold decently, leading to an ongoing title. It was launched in June 1993 and (as of 2014) is still ongoing, albeit on a scattershot schedule. It is the longest-running American full-color comic by a single creator/creative team.
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A series for ImageComics by Erik Larsen. The title character first appeared in ''Graphic Fantasy'' #1 (June, 1982). The character continued appearing through TheEighties in either self-published works or works by minor publishers. When Image was launched, Larsen had the opportunity to launch a regular series based on the character. An initial 4-issue 3-issue miniseries (July-December, 1992) sold decently, leading to an ongoing title. It was launched in June 1993 and (as of 2014) 2015) is still ongoing, albeit on a scattershot schedule. It is the longest-running American full-color comic by a single creator/creative team.
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** In fact, in She-Dragon's case, he's often more annoyed with being saddled with a rookie officer for a partner than the fact that she's a super-freak.
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* GratuitousGerman: Brainiape [[spoiler: who is the Brain of AdolfHitler transplanted into a glass bowl on an ape body]] takes ze trope and runs with ze trope all ze way to the fuhrer hauptquartier.
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* GratuitousGerman: Brainiape [[spoiler: who is the Brain of AdolfHitler UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler transplanted into a glass bowl on an ape body]] takes ze trope and runs with ze trope all ze way to the fuhrer hauptquartier.
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** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[GoldenAgeOfComics original version]] of the character.
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** Ironically, in trying to make Mighty Man ''less'' like the modern DCU Captain Marvel, he ended up becoming ''more'' like the [[GoldenAgeOfComics [[GoldenAgeOfComicBooks original version]] of the character.
