The two ride off on their futuristic motorcycles towards the scene of the crime and meet a couple dozen thugs waiting for them. So they’re like twin Iron Fists, only they have to fight side-by-side or things fall apart. Remember to always travel as one and your victory is assured.” But individually, you are each less than half of the whole. “Together, your power and skill is more than doubled. If you should lose this balance, if either side becomes too strong, the whole suffers… and may even be destroyed.” But be warned, you must remain in harmony. In return, the power of the Dragon Force is yours to call upon. William and James Lee, you have been chosen to be the guardians of the Dragon Force. Perhaps one in a generation, perhaps less. Only a chosen few are ever blessed with knowledge of the Dragon Force. The force within me is the force of life itself. “The way of the dragon is the way of the spirit. Upon hearing that Marian’s been kidnapped, the brothers and Sensei go downstairs, where they have a giant dragon statue waiting. From here we see that Billy (blond hair) is the smart aleck while Jimmy (black hair) is more serious and dedicated. They barge in on Billy and Jimmy as they perform a kata together. Superluminal reminds us that this is obviously part of the plan, since he could catch these kids easily if he wanted to. Some kids that regularly play messenger between the Dragons and Marian see this kidnapping go down and rush off for help. Marian has some evidence against Nightfall and is on her way to give it to the commissioner when Kingdom Come Flash shows up. They constantly train together under an elderly sensei who only refers to himself as “Sensei” and refuses to tell the Double Dragons about their origins.Īnyway. As the Double Dragons, the two regularly foil Nightfall’s plans with only a select few knowing who they are. Marian is a police officer and mutual friend of both Billy and Jimmy. The source of the city’s darkness is Nightfall, a Blackheart look-alike with his own gang of colorful henchmen. The background is that in the near future, Oligopolis is rampant with crime. This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed an obscure-yet-familiar comic by McDuffie. consistently good writer and the latter wins out. It becomes a battle of wacky concepts vs. I could give you a laundry list of great things McDuffie’s been involved with, but all I need to say is that he’s currently writing Fantastic Four and Justice League and he had a huge role in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. For the first four issues, the writer is Dwayne McDuffie. It’s more similar to the cartoon in ways, with the mystical superpowers and off-the-wall villains. Yes, Billy and Jimmy beat up punks and Marian is there, but besides that, the comic goes out into left field to add color. Despite that, the series strays from loyalty to the games. Instead, this is right around the time when Double Dragon 3 was released on the NES. This is several years before the cartoon and the movie and the game where they fight a giant space rat named Big Blag. This comic, released by Marvel, came out in 1991. Hence, the characters became Billy Lewis, Jimmy Lewis, Mariah and Abubo (rather than Abobo). Double Dragon 5 was released, but in actuality, it was a lame one-on-one fighter tie-in to the cartoon.īack in 2002, SNK Playmore was set to release a follow-up fighting game called Rage of the Dragons, but the licensing fell through. In the videogames, the brothers teamed up with the Battletoads in a completely random crossover. This led to a movie with a similar plot that was atrocious. Instead of plainclothes martial arts vigilantes, the Lee brothers were full-blown superheroes. Around then, the series took a turn for the worse.Ī cartoon series was released and it was pretty bad. There was a fighting game made for the Neo-Geo, but I never played it. Some of these games added weird mystical stuff to the series, like demonic gymnast crime bosses and evil mummies. Marian gets kidnapped and the brothers beat up street gangs in retaliation. Several sequels were made, each playing up the same formula. In the NES version of the game, they couldn’t get the 2-player co-op to work, so they just made Jimmy Lee evil. The brothers have to fight through legions of punks before saving Marian. In a slightly decrepit future, their mutual girlfriend Marian is shot by a machine gun-toting cyberpunk and taken away. Billy and Jimmy Lee are two brothers with identical fighting skills. It just died, unless you count the re-release on the Gameboy Advance. No flashy resurrections like Ninja Turtles or Transformers. You’d think we’d see a remake or sequel for the Wii or PS3 around this time, but nothing. It still surprises me that Double Dragon died out completely.
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