Double Dragon comic # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

It seems whenever the Lee brothers jump from their classic video game into some other media, the powers at be always feel the need to add some sort of extra wild and wacky thing in their world, or turn them into super heroes. And I guess it is difficult to make a show, a comic, or a movie about what is basically a story about two brothers fighting off a gang to get their kidnapped shared girlfriend back. While in the games the story took place in a post apocalyptic future, the only thing that stood out as weird were the green Abobos. The live action movie gave us magical medallions and the cartoon gave them magic swords. And then we have this comic series...

The comic opens introducing Marian Steele and her current predicament. She's an undercover cop trying to get deep enough to stop the evil organization led by Nightfall that has corrupted the once fair city of Oligopolis (couldn't they have picked a weirder name?). Marian is seen tied up inside a giant hour glass, waiting until she either dies from lack of air or being buried by sand. She remembers how nice the city was before Nightfall shows up and how the only thing keeping him at bay were the Double Dragons. During her undercover mission, she met the Double Dragons and seems to have gotten close to both of them. She's been using street kids to relay messages of her findings to the Dragons.

It all got serious when she found a ledger with the names of all the city officials that Nightfall has bought out, but before she could warn the Dragons, she was cut off by one of his men, a super speedster named Superluminal. The speedster captures Marian and some kids in a flying car notice and fly off to get help. Superluminal knows they're bringing help and lets them get away on purpose.

The kids soon arrive at the Dragon House Headquarters and tell the Lee brothers and their sensei that Marian was captured by the speedster. Billy wonders how the kids could have escaped from a super speedster and Jimmy determines it must be a trap to lure them in.

Their sensei stops them and tells them to follow him into the next room, so they can keep sight of their beginnings. A dragon statue reminds them that they are the lucky owners of the Dragon Force, something so rare that the reason there are two owners is because they're twins. They have to remain in perfect harmony or the power will destroy them. They transform into these super bad-ass outfits and their sensei remains them that as long as they stick together, their power will double.

The Lees head off towards the direction where Marian was captured... and find a bunch of thugs waiting for them. The Lees take them down without even trying and find an open window near the fire escape worth investigating. They run into another supervillain, Legerdemain, that tosses a small hourglass at them. Billy doesn't want to play games and grabs him, but Legerdemain explains his hourglass is linked with the giant one Marian is trapped in, and once the time runs out on it, so will hers. Jimmy is enraged, but Billy decides they should let him take them to where she is.

 The brothers come across a bridge and have to ditch the bikes, but find a large gang waiting for them who were paid a hundred thousand to bring them in. As they fight it out, Billy teases Jimmy and and even one of the thugs chuckles. Just then one of the men tosses dynamite at them and blows the bridge and everyone else away. Jimmy manages to grab on the bridge and catches Billy before he falls, and they both get slammed against the wall. They're still alright and quickly climb the bridge since they don't have time to waste.

Just then, yet another sideshow freak named Exoskeleton grabs onto the rope bridge with his extra long metal arms... and tosses the Dragons into the cliff below. The brothers hang desperately onto the side of the cliff, while Billy gets the idea to use ki-powered punches to make handholds for them to climb back up. Exo is surprised and gets kicked in the face as they climb back up. The Lees argue since Jimmy lost the hourglass, and Exo tosses a boulder at them. 

Jimmy used his Vibe-Chucks to smash the boulder into pebbles and Billy tosses his Dazzlestar. Jimmy then kicks Exo across the face and knocks him out. The Lees start to argue and get into each others' faces. They arrive at a castle and find two passageways. Jimmy thinks Billy is too reckless to be trusted and they split up. Regardless the path they took, the brothers each dodge a bunch of pillars coming out through the walls, similar to the traps at the end of the original Double Dragon game. They also both are ambushed for Shadow Warriors. They both think about Marian as they are getting overpowered by the enemies. 

Paige thought this guy was Skullmageddon

Without the other covering their back, the Lees admit they need help and shouldn't have split up. Billy and Jimmy reach out towards the wall... and it just so happens they were on either side of the wall, so their Epic High-Five of Awesomeness broke through the wall between them. Such perfect timing. Now that they stopped arguing, they focus on the main mission at hand. 

The brothers arrive just in time to see Marian almost buried alive in sand. Billy tosses his Vibrator-Chucks at the hourglass, shattering it and setting her free. Marian gets her purse back, but the ledger with all the important evidence is gone and Nightfall should be long gone as well. Billy reminds her that at least she's alive. She then suddenly pulls out a gun. She shoots at a Shadow Warrior behind Jimmy, and the brother in red takes him down. Jimmy blames Billy for not checking the room for bad guys after he set Marian free (why didn't YOU check the room for bad guys Jimmy???). They're both fed up with each other and decide to fight it out for Marian's hand. Marian says she's not a prize to be fought over. 

 Suddenly an image of the sensei appear above their heads and they stop. Billy realizes they've been tricked and all of this was to keep them away long enough from the Dragon HQ for Nightfall to steal the Dragon Statue, the source of all their power. With that power in his hands, they would be powerless to stop Nightfall, and Marian is worried that the city finally belongs to him. Now what will they do? 

My Opinions

I remember seeing an ad for this comic way back in the day in some other comic, most likely a Batman comic, in the 90's. I never had a chance to grab this one until recently, so I was glad to finally be able to read it.

Like other versions, the story of Double Dragon seems to be too basic without the need of the writers to add in a bunch of extra fantasy elements to it. Here the Lees can conjure up superhero-ish outfits and whip out magical weapons, and their powers are tied to a Dragon Statue. Nightfall is the new villain and he has a group or weird villains with super powers as well. 

The Lees are cool, though coming from a videogame that didn't give a chance to show much of a personality besides their shared love for Marion, we can't really say the comic is right or wrong in their portrayal. The cartoon made Billy serious and Jimmy the sillier one, while the live action movie was backwards (though Jimmy was still a bit silly)... and they were both pretty much goofballs in Double Dragon Neon.

Double Dragon Neon was just classic 80's cheese. Like guys, the original game might have been released in the 80's but it didn't take place in the 80's. Just letting you know, Way Foward.

In the comic Billy is the 'every man' character while Jimmy is the 'serious martial artist' character. It kinda threw me off that Billy was the blonde and Jimmy was the black haired guy this time around, but their hair colors vary from different versions as well. They also seem to get into their faces a lot, mostly over Marion, but it feels like that could be how they would act in the games as well. I mean, they did end up fighting each other to the death over Marion at the end of the first game after all.

As for the outfits, they're pretty cool looking. I do have to ask, what is wrong with just the classic white shirt and matching blue and red vests and pants? It's what they actually wear in the games but no other adaptation seems to go with it. They do try to keep Billy wearing something blue and Jimmy something red, but never their actual in-game outfits. And why not just throw Abobo and Linda in there? Why the weird super villains? 

Seeing how the Lees breezed their way through the bad guys, I can only assume the suits make them stronger or something? We never got a chance to see how strong they are without them to get an idea.

The story was decent. The usual mad dash to rescue Marian as the bros face an army of thugs... only for it to turn out to be a distraction so that Nightfall can claim the Double Dragon Power for himself. But what exactly is the Double Dragon Power? Billy and Jimmy do an epic Hi-Five and get cool new outfits.... but is that it? Do the outfits make them fight better, or make them stronger or what? Are they... bullet proof or something? Or is the big deal that they come with weapons the Lees can pull out of nowhere? Is this the power that has been keeping Nightfall at bay? Is Nightfall doing all this just to get a snazzy new battle suit and some vibrating weapons?