Big Trouble in Little China (Legacy Edition Book One)

Ever since its cult status began to grow there’s been talk of a sequel to John Carpenter’s 1986 action flick Big Trouble in Little China. It’s never happened, but there were other spin-offs like various games (card, board, and video) as well as this comic-book series, which Carpenter himself had a hand in writing. Would a second movie, should it ever happen, be based on these comics? I don’t think so, though I’m sure they could (and likely would) do worse.

Fans of the movie will be pleased with what they’ve done here. I know I was. Things pick up literally right where the movie ends, beginning with Jack delivering his envoi from the cab of the Pork-Chop Express about what Jack Burton always says on a night when “the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of heaven shake.” Then the ape creature attacks but it turns out he’s actually bonded with Jack now. Jack calls him Pete and gives him a t-shirt and baseball cap to wear.

Before long all the rest of the original cast are in play as well. Jack’s buddy and his lady love Miao Yin (now revealed to be a kick-ass martial artist too). Egg Shen, dispensing various bits of arcane knowledge and smoke bombs. And of course Lo Pan as the evil wizard. The only character missing is Gracie Law, though she’s briefly shown to be in Tibet “campaigning for the ethical treatment of livestock” amongst some uncomprehending yak herders.

You may have figured that Lo Pan was dead at the end of the movie, and he was. But when you die in this universe you only go to one of many hells – in Lo Pan’s case it’s the Hell of Those Killed by Idiots – from whence you can be summoned back by various rites. So basically there’s a lot more supernatural action in these comics as Lo Pan and Jack shuttle back and forth from various infernal realms, bickering with each other all the way.

I think they did a great job with these comics. The art is fun, though I didn’t think Jack looked much like Kurt Russell. There’s an interesting plot filled with familiar jokes like the “Who?” “Me, Jack Burton!” exchange and lots of novel monsters and mythological beasts inhabiting the demonic realm, including a sidekick Jack adopts and names Slinky who looks a bit like Dave Sim’s Cerebus. The new wrinkles are mostly pretty good too, including some flashbacks to Jack’s disastrous early marriages (wives three and four were a vampire and a witch respectively), and a jarringly sentimental first Mrs. Burton who I didn’t think was needed. Finally, as things wind up a nice final panel introduces Jack to the twenty-first century and what are sure to be more great adventures. This wasn’t a series I was expecting much out of, but it left me looking forward to more.

Graphicalex