Erik Larsen’s long-running Savage Dragon comic book is no stranger to team-ups and crossovers with characters from other comic publishers. Back in 2021, the titular character teamed up with The Red Hook and Luna, characters from LINE Webtoon’s New Brooklyn Universe, in the “Bride of Wax” backup feature which ran in issues #259-261 of Savage Dragon.
Worlds will once again collide this Wednesday within the backup pages of Savage Dragon #276 when Serena from Tales of the Night Watchman (So What? Press) and Aquaria from Webtoon’s New Brooklyn Universe team up with classic Dragon villain Mako in a two-part romp entitled “Extreme Mako-ver!”
Co-writer Dave Kelly returns to play in the Image Comics sandbox with this lowkey follow-up to the aforementioned “Bride of Wax,” which ran in issues #259-261 and also saw a triple-threat team-up with characters from these three realms. This time he’s joined by co-writer Adam McGovern, Paolo Leandri on art, Dominic Regan on colors and design, and Stefano Pavo on typography. This marks the latter team’s 8th lap around Savage Dragon’s back pages with an Aquaria tale, and her first cross-universe event. So, you could make the argument that Kelly joined them.
Dave Kelly is currently Executive Editor of Heavy Metal magazine, and Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri are most known for creating Nightworld, also from Image.
In a statement, Dave Kelly explained the genesis of the project and expressed immense excitement:
“After ‘Bride of Wax,’ Adam approached me about doing a story in a similar vein. Erik Larsen was incredibly generous to Dean Haspiel and me in letting us use the original Dragon, and I was ready to bow humbly again at the feet of the great one to see if he would let us use another of his characters. However, Adam went and asked him all by himself and forgot to copy me in, so I have no idea what he had to do to get permission for us to use Mako. But we got it. Getting to write Dragon was a dream, and it was no easy task, having to get Larsen’s approval each step along the way. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do to us over Mako, so I knew we had to go big or die trying: I wanted to pay homage to my all-time favorite Image Comics single issue, The Maxx #6. We ended up going in a very different direction with ‘Extreme Mako-ver,’ but I still feel we ended up making a spiritual successor to both stories.”
Adam McGovern added:
“Paolo and I were very flattered when Dave did a stealth crossover with Aquaria by showing her mom in a crowd scene of his and Dino’s story set in the past of the New Brooklyn Universe—so stealthy that he had to point her out to us in the crowd! So we decided we should do a full-on teamup of his characters and ours, again with some Savage Dragon content to show proper etiquette to the legendary pages our story was guest-starring in. Whose crazy idea it was to ask for Mako I don’t remember, but the subaquatic powerset made him and Aquaria a match for the ages, with Serena the right wildcard to send all these timelines crashing together. It’s the story of a petty heist across space and time that makes each character find more valuable new sides of themselves… Not exactly the Mako that longtime readers know and fear, but one we think they’ll recognize and relate to, and that’s what parallel universes are for!”
Savage Dragon #276 arrives in comic shops this Wednesday, March 26, 2025. Check out preview pages below.
English (US) · 