The series is set in 8162, in the ruins of Britain, where the titular team, Dragon's Claws, were once champions of the wildly popular Blood Sport known simply as “the Game”. But then the Game was cancelled and the players dispersed, with many other teams turning to crime.
Now, though, the World Development Council (WDC) has an urgent need for an elite troubleshooting squad, and Dragon's Claws would fit that role perfectly.
The fights are deadlier than they used to be, and the stakes are much higher. But betting against the Claws is still a bad move.
The first issue was released May 31 1988. The series was cancelled after 10 issues, with the last issue released on March 21 1989.
Tropes in Dragon's Claws:
- Action Girl: Mercy fills this role for the Claws.
- Aliens in Cardiff: An alien robot Freelance Peacekeeping Agent in the 'Pool, which is implied to be the remnants of Liverpool. It’s also the Evil Dead's home base.
- All in the Manual: The data pages fill in a lot of background for the Claws and the wider world.
- Steel wasn’t one of the original team. He joined to replace their original blocker, Megaton.
- Ambiguously Human:
- The in-universe view of Slaughterhouse, as mentioned by Steel. Seemingly averted by the flashbacks later in the series - he's human, but was subjected to some experiments in prison.
- An issue later one of the Vanishing Ladies makes a similar comment about Scavenger.
- Backstab Backfire: Inverted, with Deller trying an In the Back move when most of the Claws are defeated by the Evil Dead, after Slaughterhouse cuts his bonds and frees him. He gets a throwing knife in his shoulder as a reward,
- Badass Normal: Dragon, Mercy and Scavenger all seem to fall into this category. Arguably, so does Deller, although he's sometimes out of his depth. Powers are downplayed in the setting, but it's clear that some characters are rather more than human.
- Bad Boss: Matron and her lieutenant Stenson are both in this category.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Dragon and Slaughterhouse both end up in one of these, connected to Matron’s "Excavator", a mental probe that uses their own memories to torture them.
- Big Bad: Matron and N.U.R.S.E., who've been manipulating the Claws to run a protection racket and keep the other teams in line.
- Blood Sport: The Game is violent, although it wasn't intended to be lethal.
- Blow Gun: Hex's preferred weapon. With poison darts, of course.
- Boxed Crook: Downplayed, but Steel and Scavenger were both in jail when the WDC recruited the reformed Claws, and were only released to ensure that they could join. However, there are none of the usual security measures that often accompany that trope.
- Bread and Circuses: Downplayed, but the Game was deliberately introduced to help appease the population and distract them from the state of the world.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Appropriately enough, the Wildcats try this on Dragon himself. Initially, it looks like a Mugging the Monster case where they selected the wrong target, but then it's revealed that they knew who he was and were paid to target him. It gets all five of them killed.
- Played with when two of the Jones Boys run into the newly arrived Death's Head. They mistakenly think he's one of the Evil Dead's new recruits, which in itself ought to suggest that he's bad news. As it turns out, he's even worse.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Kurran visits the morgue to identify his brother's body, hears that the Wildcats were wiped out and declares that someone will pay. A TV screen showing Dragon's Claws’ latest mission is behind him.
- Dark Action Girl: Death Nell is definitely in this category, as is the vigilante Scourge.
- Dating Catwoman: Steel has romantic history with the Evil Dead's Death Nell, who's now in a relationship with Slaughterhouse. At one point he still gets a kiss - and then she notes that she could have bitten his throat out.
- Defensive Feint Trap: Deller takes Digit, Mercy and Steel into the ‘Pool to face the Evil Dead, but is immediately tricked into chasing Feral, who leads them into an ambush.
- Enemy Mine: Despite their bloody history, Dragon's Claws and the Evil Dead eventually join forces against Matron.
- Fictional Sport: The Game, in which five player teams duel for points in an arena. It’s violent, but not supposed to be deadly.
- Fun with Acronyms: N.U.R.S.E., the National Union of Retired Sports Experts.
- Glory Days: Dragon's retired at the start of the series, with a family and a peaceful life. But he's also sitting alone late at night watching tapes of the Claws’ triumphs in the Game, and it's clear that part of him desperately wants to be In Harm's Way again.
- In the Back: Attempted with varying degrees of success.
- Scavenger kills Hex this way, leaving four large spikes embedded in his back. The corpse is still standing, too.
- Matron's assistant Stenson gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice this way, after Slaughterhouse sneaks up behind him.
- There's a less successful example when Deller shoots Death's Head in the back while he's negotiating with Dragon. It hurts him and knocks him off his feet, but isn't enough to finish him. Although he does compliment Deller on his guile when shooting him afterwards.
- It also goes badly for Kronos, the Evil Dead's stealthy reaper. He creeps up on Dragon only to find he's fallen for a decoy hologram and, just behind it, a Land Mine Goes "Click!".
- Killed Offscreen:
- Feral, the Evil Dead's wolfman, was seemingly killed this way by Scavenger. All we see is a grinning Scavenger picking his teeth with one of Feral’s metal claw extensions after the fight.
- Technically also true of another Evil Dead member, Hex. As he's masked and Died Standing Up, it's only clear that Scavenger's already killed him when the corpse falls over.
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": The immediate explosion variant. The Evil Dead's stealthy reaper, Kronos, attempts to catch Dragon In the Back while he's distracted by Slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, he's sneaking into a trap - it's a decoy Hologram, but the land mine behind it is extremely real.
- Large Ham: Slaughterhouse loves playing the Card-Carrying Villain for an audience, often falling into this category.
- Lightning Bruiser: Matron. For a start, she knocks out Slaughterhouse. Dragon - after finding his unconscious body - comments on the speed and strength that would be needed to overcome him. And then Matron does exactly the same to Dragon. It's also worth noting that these weren't ambushes - she announced her presence on both occasions, with the fight following some initial conversation.
- Low Clearance: In the Claws’ first clash with the Evil Dead, Steel almost escapes an ambush, throwing his attacker Nell off his hover sled - but the distraction means he flies straight into a rope strung across at chest height.
- Mugging the Monster: Lion tries to steal from Dragon's stall, which escalates into a fight. He loses it badly, but brings the full Wildcats team back for revenge - which gets them all killed. Subverted as it's later revealed that they knew exactly who Dragon was, and had been paid to antagonise him.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
- The Evil Dead as a whole. Slaughterhouse and Death Nell in particular.
- Death's Head, who's probably the single most dangerous person in the series, probably qualifies.
- Arguably, Dragon himself is also in this category. He’s an extremely competent warrior who doesn't hesitate to kill enemies. And he was given that name as a child in in the orphanage, due to his temper.
- The Nose Knows: Feral's sense of smell is good enough to distinguish the real Dragon from a hologram at a reasonable distance.
- No-Sell:
- One of the Jones Boys hits Death's Head full-on with a flamethrower. He walks out of the flames unharmed. Another leaps at him and tries to plunge a knife into his chest - and the blade simply crumples.
- Digit tries to subdue Rend with a taser, only to find that his rewired nervous system doesn't care about pain or electricity.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- Scavenger kills two of the Evil Dead, Feral and Hex, and frees their prisoners at the same time. But we only see the consequences, not the action.
- Matron manages to defeat Slaughterhouse, then manages to defeat Dragon. We don't get to see either fight.
- Oop North: The Evil Dead are based in the 'Pool, which is (based on the name and the statue of what appears to be John Lennon in one panel) presumably the future of Liverpool.
- Playing with Syringes: Slaughterhouse's inhuman appearance is at least partly due to the experimental injections he was subjected to in prison. Matron's psychic torture calls up some nightmarish memories of his experiences.
- Poisoned Weapons: Hex uses a blowpipe and poisoned darts.
- Refusal of the Call: Despite his best efforts, Dragon hasn't quite managed to leave his past behind, but he's not interested when Deller tries to recruit him.
- Retired Badass: At the start of the series, Dragon's retired and is running a farm and a market stall with his family.
- Shout-Out: It may be the 82nd century, but there are still a couple of references to present-day culture.
- Slaughterhouse quotes Alice in Wonderland, although he’s a little unsure whether the line came from Alice or the Queen of Hearts.
- The ‘Pool is implied to be the remains of Liverpool, with what seems to be a statue of John Lennon still standing in the ruins.
- Slashed Throat:
- Matron gets a double version of this. Death Nell cuts her throat in the real world while she's oblivious and connected to her psychic Extractor. Simultaneously, Slaughterhouse cuts her throat in the Extractor's Battle in the Center of the Mind.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Scavenger is good at these, and sneaky enough to pull one on Dragon. And apparently even Slaughterhouse can’t sneak up on Dragon.
- Touché: This is Death's Head's response when Deller shoots him in the back while Dragon's negotiating:Death's Head: Nhh... tricked me, eh? Kept me talking while another sneaks up behind me. Like your style, yes?
- Trial by Friendly Fire: A villainous version. When Dragon easily overcomes the Wildcats, their only chance of survival seems to be for Puma to turn the tank's gun on the building. But Lion is still in the blast radius. Predictably, Lion dies, Dragon lives and Puma himself is gunned down a few seconds later.
- Vigilante Woman: Mercy was a vigilante before joining the Claws, and at the darker end of the scale. Her Villainous Legacy successor, Scourge, is at least as murderous.
- Villain Respect: At the start of their Enemy Mine alliance, Slaughterhouse agrees that, above all else, he and Dragon are professionals.
- Wolf Man: One member of the Claws' villainous rivals the Evil Dead is the wolf man Feral.
- Writing Around Trademarks: A downplayed version. There's a Note from Ed. referring to Doctor Who Magazine to explain how Death's Head arrived in the Pool. But Death's Head's rant about this carefully avoids directly mentioning any aspect of Doctor Who, which allows the Dragon's Claws story to be reprinted with no licensing concerns (unlike some of the other early Death's Head tales).
