Erik Larsen on Savage Dragon #223 and Mister Glum's Multiverse-Altering Plans

04/26/2017 06:36 pm EDT

In today's issue of Savage Dragon, creator Erik Larsen took a potentially drastic step, giving a supervillain (Mister Glum) the power and position to remake the multiverse in his image.

What will come of it? Well, it's difficult to say, other than the fact that by the time the story is over, we do know that Dragon will have powers back (at least temporarily) and there will be a giant throwdown between Team Dragon and Team Glum. Mister Glum, who wants to rewrite reality so that Angel Murphy is in love with him, is playing with cosmic fire, here, and today's issue is where he lights the match.

Larsen joined ComicBook.com to discuss today's issue, and the beginning of "The Merging of Multiple Earths" storyline.

You can pick up Savage Dragon #223 at your local comic shop, or order a digital copy here.

Given that we've seen the cover to #226, is it safe to assume that the funding for Lorella's project has dried up due to executive branch interference?

Let's just say that priorities have changed with the incoming administration and leave it at that. Believe it or not — I'm not trying to make this too political. It's one thing to have a character say, "I don't like this politician" it's quite another to depict a politician doing or saying something inherently evil. I'm trying to find that line here and walk it. And while that cover is intentionally provocative, the story therein won't be leftist propaganda. That serves no purpose.

Is this the first time we've heard specifically that the DNA was being altered to make them all not-quite siblings?

I think it's been mentioned before. That was the idea from the beginning — if not, they'd all be inbreeding and that doesn't lead anywhere good.

If Dragon doesn't decide to marry Jennifer, is it going to change his relationship with Angel? She seems so baffled by his reluctance to jump right back in.

I don't know that there are any good choices here. It's the Archie/Betty/Veronica triangle all over again except there are two Bettys and no Veronicas. Either choice is going to change relationships, although, to some extent, Angel might me somewhat relieved to not be related to Malcolm by marriage, given their child together.

Is there a specific story you're pursuing with Maxine's return to being insatiable, or is it characterization that will be ongoing? It seems like masturbating while the kids and company are in the room is a little beyond what's normal for her.

It's ongoing until it's not. People can change over time and we'll all just have to sit tight and see where this goes. And she's not really going at it that crazily. She's still maintaining a conversation, after all. We don't really see what she's up to.

Did those drones actually come from Earth, or does it even matter? Was it just something to set Glum off?

The drones did come from Earth. From the government, actually. Glum escaped and they're looking for him.

Did you shorten this from a more "typical" arc length because there's an anniversary issue coming up?

Not at all. This was the plan from the get go. But since #225 will be a longer issue — even if it requires more pages to ur a bow on it — I have those pages available to me. At this point I'm not entirely sure how many pages I'll need ti stick the landing but there are pages available if they're needed.

Was the idea of bringing in Marsha mostly to set the stage where Malcolm has a lot of similar characters to what Dragon had in the early days? Bringing back Jennifer without her having aged means now we have "versions" of both her and Sharona. Throw in a new Mighty Man and Dart's little sister, and you've got a pattern forming…!

There's a whole lot of planning ahead that I do in the book. And one thing I've missed is Freak Force. Now, the dynamic is very different because these characters are very different. Even SuperPatriot, Barbaric and Ricochet are different because 20 years have passed. And the new kids are, well, new kids. And even a kid wanted to emulate their parent or sibling — they can never be that and they will always be different to some extent. Dragon and Malcolm are a prime example. They may both have green skin and a fin on their heads but they're hardly the same person. Only time will tell how this group clicks as a unit. But a lot of what I do is simply planting seeds to see what does or doesn't grow. If I end up thinking about something a whole lot it goes somewhere. If I forget about it completely — well, that's the end of that. As for any patterns — it's not to turn back the clock and recreate what was there before. I've done that already and moved on.

All those Jennifers being pregnant could mean that there's basically thousands of Angels to go along with all the Krylans Dragon and Lorella just created, right? Is that an intentional parallel or just two vaguely similar ideas happening around the same time?

It's not just Jennifer, there are Raptures and others in the mix as well. But to answer the question more succinctly —no, there is no plan to pair baby Angels up with baby Dragons.

Man, somebody as short-sighted and selfish as Glum having Darklord levels of power seems like a genuinely terrible idea. Compared to similar events at other publishers, how would you say a character as erratic as Glum changes the trajectory of the story?

This whole idea sprang from my own thinking about Marvel and DC events and crossovers and tampering with continuity. But I think it's better to go into that more as we get further along in the story. The genesis was to try and come up with a more satisfying solution to a problem than what has been done thus far. More on that later.

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