Savage Dragon Punches Nazis in Upcoming Christmas Issue

08/31/2017 08:38 pm EDT

Since Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon unfolds in real time, fans can usually expect the Image Comics series to acknowledge the holiday season -- but this year, a month after a long-lost foe returns and two months after Malcolm Dragon moves to Toronto, the hero will square off against neo-Nazis.

Larsen revealed the cover to Savage Dragon #230 on social media earlier this week, drawing mostly praise but enough complaints that he took to Twitter today to express bewilderment at audience members complaining about his vilifying Nazism.

There is no solicitation text yet for Savage Dragon #230, although the cover reveal came alongside this week's issue, in which U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order banning extra-terrestrials from the United States. Malcolm Dragon, whose father was an alien and who was born on Earth -- albeit in another universe -- found himself accosted by federal agents, and then eventually arrested by the Chicago Police after resisting arrest by the feds.

Trump's depiction on the cover of Savage Dragon #226 has raised some right-wing hackles, although Larsen told ComicBook.com that he tried to be evenhanded, and emphasized in advance that the President himself is not a particularly major part of the story.

"I tried to play as fair as possible. I actually combed through a lot of photos and went through a lot of posts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to grab comments from supporters," Larsen explained. "Much of the dialogue from Trump supporters is authentic and many of the drawings of supporters were based on actual people. The more inflammatory something is, the more likely it was said by an actual Trump supporter somewhere. And much of the general praise from supporters was real as well. I wasn't just cherrypicking the juicy stuff."

In case it was not clear from the cover, which depicts Malcolm's attackers wearing both swastikas and, in one case, a Confederate flag t-shirt, the Nazi sympathizers are Americans who, according to Larsen on Facebook, followed Malcolm to Canada to attack.

That is in keeping with this week's issue, in which a number of everyday Americans were whipped into an anti-alien furor and some tried to attack Malcolm's wife and children.

Savage Dragon #230 will be on sale this December from Image Comics. You can read our interview with Larsen about yesterday's Savage Dragon #226 here.

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.