(Re)Animations: Savage Dragon

It's like Robocop and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all rolled into one!

As mentioned previously, the Savage Dragon animated series was actually a part of USA channel's Action Extreme Team, a desperate ploy to boost ratings before the ultimate demise of the network's animated programming. Unlike most comic books turned cartoons, Savage Dragon was actually a pretty faithful to its source material (including Dragon's origin) and even featured numerous characters from its four-color counterpart.

It goes without saying that as a children's cartoon the series toned down a good bit of the violence and sexual innuendos, but overall it was still a satisfying adaptation. Much more successful than some of the other shows in the Extreme lineup such as WildC.A.T.S. (we're heroes, not zeros... really?). At least Dragon had a plethora of cool, mutated super-freaks. Actually it reminds me a lot of watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles growing up, only Dragon doesn't need to hide in the sewers and fights crime legitimately.



From what I can remember the show lasted about 2 full seasons, though I was hard pressed to find much information about it online. My favorite episode featured a character named The Fiend, a malevolent spirit-like villain whose schtick was to possess those who had a knack for anger and hatred (we're talking Taxi Driver toxicity here). The only thing about the cartoon version of The Fiend is that he/it beared a rather humorous resemblance to Botticelli's Birth of Venus... you know, only more demonic-like and with less boobs (see above). Aside from that its definitely one of the better episode of the series that doesn't come across as too moral-driven.

The Fiend did make a return in Season 2, which heavily featured She-Dragon, but despite better animation they completely changed The Fiend's appearance to resemble some sort of flame creature that inexplicably gave its vessel a red cape when he/it possessed them. A little overkill on the superheroics for my taste, but I guess that's what one can expect from a comic-based cartoon. Still a worthwhile series and one that is well overdue for a DVD release. I mean, they gave WildC.A.T.S. one and that show was half as good (if that). What gives?

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