Erik Larsen Takes All The Easy Answers Off the Table in Savage Dragon #215

Yesterday's Savage Dragon #215 saw Erik Larsen shaking off some fairly significant plot devices and even some artistic tropes that he's been using in the book for a while now.

Tweaking colors and taking a number of elements that could, from his own perspective, be described as overly easy answers to the book's problems off the table, Larsen seems to have -- not for the first time -- broken a bunch of his own toys and challenged himself to reset the toy box after the fact.

Larsen joined ComicBook.com to talk about the issue.

This is a spoiler-filled review, so remember: if you haven't read Savage Dragon #215 yet, go buy it at your local comic shop or pick it up digitally on ComiXology, and read along with us.

So we start the issue, and Barry's less dead than we had expected. Was that just about getting information out of him, or did you really want the end he meets here?

All of the above. I wanted to redeem him somewhat in the last issue and then make it seems as though he was out of the woods and then have readers think that he might be sucked back into Dart's web. Ultimately, my feeling hadn't changed as stated in our last Q&A.

The problem with Barry as a character is that there aren't a lot of places I can go with him. If I simply ignore him — he's like any number of other characters that exist but get no airtime. If he grows up evil — he's just an evil twin and how interesting is that? If he's a good guy — he duplicates much of what Malcolm is. So, he's either pointless, redundant or a cliché. Ultimately, he proved to be more valuable to me dead than alive.

Is it going to hurt Dragon's credibility as a witness in the Glum case that he's in prison now?

There is no shortage of witnesses willing to testify against Mr. Glum. Literally billions of people were affected. I don't think Dragon's testimony is necessary. If anything, the defense might call him to the stand in an effort to establish that he "wasn't all bad." And, if that's the case, his testimony certainly won't help.

I like that you're having some fun with the names. The kids got kidnapped so quickly it didn't really dawn on me that we hadn't got to that part yet. Did it just slip your mind or did you have plans for that to play out a little?

It hadn't slipped my mind. I knew I had to name them eventually and this was a fun way to buy a little time while I gave it some more thought. It's a big decision even for the guy writing this stuff. I'll have to live with these names as well.

Is the Freak-Out policy a new one, or is it just that Malcolm didn't have to obey such a rule until now?

It's something unstated but definitely in the back of my mind. It would stand to reason that at some point somebody died and a lawsuit resulted. I don't want it to simply become the go-to solution for every problem which crops up. I try my best to avoid things becoming pat solutions to every problem.

That said...he's had experience as a vigilante who operated outside of normal channels but with police authorization and immunity. Will working within the rules of the police department present new challenges and new story possibilities?

Surely. There are a lot of rules in place which would hamper his ability to do his job effectively. There are advantages and drawbacks to being on the force. And it's nice to be able to have access to team dynamics when I want them.

How long have you had this plan for the force field bracelet?

It was another device which was in danger of becoming yet another solution to every danger. I knew I couldn't have it exist forever.

It also gave Maxine special powers in its own way and I didn't want her becoming another super-powered character in the book. I'd toyed with having Maxine clashing with Dart in the hospital in the previous issue and having it be destroyed then but decided not to go that route. Every issue presents a lot of possibilities. There are tons of paths I choose not to take. A lot of things are considered.

Without Rex Dexter and with the existing bracelet broken, does that leave Maxine much more vulnerable?

Considerably. That's the other side of it. I don't want to fall into the old "girlfriend in constant peril" trap either but it's somewhat inevitable. Still, Malcolm's dad lost several love interests over the course of his career and it's a huge cliché to play that card over and over again. It's also somewhat natural though — so, there's that to wrestle with.

I asked you this off the record already, but that last page was Barry exploding, right?

Yeah — Barry exploding. I was super tempted to use the "SPUT" sound effect that I generally use for such situations but I thought, under the circumstances that maybe that was a bit too comical to use here.

What does that mean for Dart? Did she get away or is she back in custody?

We'll get an answer to that next issue but not here. I have to save something for the comics.

This month we kind of got to see a little of Dart's fractured mind in a way we haven't in a while. Usually she's just been badass lately. Was that Barry's effect on her, or something else?

She's got her own twisted agenda and she'll use whatever she can to get what she wants. She doesn't hesitate to kill anybody in her way or use her feminine wiles to accomplish her goals. She's a very driven woman.

Why take the God Sword off the table now?

I felt it was time. It was yet another thing which was used too much and too often. I had no further use for it.

The art across the baord looks a little different than usual, but particularly the colors, why the change?

I was getting tired of seeing the same color solutions over and over and I wanted to try something else. There'll be a period of adjustment as we see what works and what doesn't. Some pages worked really well, I thought and some, not so well.

The first few pages were initially rendered as usual and those were less successful, I thought. Once Nikos got into the groove with it there were some pretty sweet pages. Sometimes I just want to mix things up a bit and see what comes of it.