#184 hit the stands yesterday and, along with more talking than you’ll get in most issues of the action-driven series, the issue features forward motion on a number of key plot points; while Dragon finds himself almost immediately under arrest and preparing to be tried for the crimes Emperor Kurr committed while in control of his body, his kids face off against enemies both super and not.Erik Larsen joined us to discuss the issue. Our usual collaborator, newly-minted editor Gavin Higginbotham, will chip in some questions later.And as always, this is a spoiler-filled commentary. If you haven’t yet, buy the book and read along with us. Russ Burlingame: I’m glad to see Malcolm reeling a bit from the big reveal last issue; there was so much going on you didn’t get a lot of time to react to that.Erik Larsen: It’s not always an easy task to make everything fit neatly into the allotted number of pages. Some things simply take more space to unfold. #183 ended up being a bit more cramped for space than usual but there really was no way around it. Having some scenes spill over into the next issue was necessary but I thought it worked out relatively well so…no complaints.RB: The OverLord/Powerhouse relationship goes back a ways. Can you tell us what we might expect from this particular wrinkle in the story? It seems some folks still have loyalty to Overlord.EL: There’s a shared agenda there. And I’ll expand on that a bit in upcoming issues.RB: Was the Smith stuff really just to ratchet up the tension on Dragon’s case, or is he up to something?EL:He’s doing his job. If something did go on there it could trigger a mistrial. The point of that was to give readers a clue as to what may go on.RB: After all these years, everyone still just calls him Chicken Man. Do you think that’s why Powerhouse has never mellowed with age?EL: It’s not helped, I’m sure.RB: You know–I wrote an article earlier this week where I compared the Emperor Kurr storyline to the Superior Spider-Man thing (villain in hero’s skin/driven by his mind). Page 14 would have been really helpful in trying to put a neat, tidy bow on explaining that story.EL: I did have Angel ramble a bit on that one.RB: So…if Dragon is found guilty, isn’t the death penalty just begging to start the whole process over again?
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