Dragon's claws retrospective: #7 'the quality of mercy.'

by Dave Scrimgeour & Kevin McCluskey

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​Cover date- January 1989
Price- 55p

Writer- Simon Furman
Artist- Geoff Senior
Letterer- Gordon Robson
Colourist- Steve White
Editor- Richard Starkings
Managing Editor- Jenny O’Connor
Published by- Marvel Comics LTD

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synopsis

Dragon’s Claws continue their hunt in Montreal for a mysterious vigilante killer and in turn Mercy is forced to confront her past and an imminent threat to her future.  Plus, a few welcome faces make an unexpected return!  (D)

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Dave
So we are at issue 7 now, the second part of the Montreal vigilante killer story, where the backstory of Mercy revealed.


Kev
We are indeed.  Do you have any recollections of when this issue came out?


Dave
I don't remember the timescale exactly, but looking at it, it was a memorable issue.  Again, it's an intersting mixture of visually interesting pieces, giving Geoff Senior licence to use his imagination.  I'm liking the nightclub scene, very futuristic showing Montreal as a financially thriving place in this dystopian world.


Kev
The only real memory I have of the time of it, is that it was out at winter time.  I remember the early ones being out in summer and this one being out during the cold months.  I agree about the club showing the bourgeoisie side to the big city.  It seems that the big cities are drawing the wealth to them and leaving less and less for the rest of the land.  A problem that is being faced the world over, today.


Dave
What do you make of this issue?

Well…., at least it's not Deller, for a change.

​Kev
I really like this one, man.  Once again, the writing and the artwork are really clicking here.


Dave
Yeah, it does click.  Again, Furman and Senior move the events along at a swift pace, with much of the backstory of Mercy told in the fight scenes and the internal battle of her conscience with the old, "Scourge is a mirror of the person I used to be."


Kev
It really is Mercy battling her conscience and her past, isn't it?  It's also Mercy's issue, this one, as she deals with her guilt.


Dave
Yeah, plus in this issue she has met her match, as she gets owned a few times by Scourge.


Kev
That's a really good point, actually.  Scourge really does have her number.  Is it because she's younger and more vicious?  Or because Mercy is holding back because she reminds her so much of her younger self?


Dave
Good point.  Is she holding back, or just stunned and not thinking clearly and therefore not performing to the best of her abilities?  She could also be emotionally shaken inside.  Also, Scourge's actions are now making her question her behaviour in the past even more with lines like "How many deaths are on my conscience" and in their final showdown "Looking at you is like looking at an ugly side of me I'd rather not be."


Kev
She definitely has a guilty conscience about her past actions.  It's also interesting to see just how much of an “upside down,” darker version of Mercy Scourge is.  Purple instead of pink outfit.  Brunette instead of silver hair.  Brown eyes instead of blue.  A mask instead of an open face.  Tights instead of bare legs.  Even her down to the colour of her skin.  She’s more Mediterranean in appearance, with more olive skin, as opposed to Mercy’s more caucasian, pasty, white skin tone.  It's a really nice way of visually showing the reader what's going on in this story at a glance.

Mercy secretly always wanted to be a backing singer for Bon Jovi.

​Dave
By the end of this story she has emotionally detached herself to do what's necessary and kill her.  To beat the maniac, become a bigger maniac sort of thing.  As you say, it's definitely Mercy’s turn this issue for the full coverage and back story.


Kev
Do you think there's some guilt involved with Mercy in her decision to kill Scourge.  As Steel says, "Mercy could have shot to wound."


Dave
She wanted to try and wipe away the guilt and not be reminded anymore.  It was probably too much for her to cope with.


Kev
I think you're right.  There was a certain resignation that she had to kill Scourge as it was the only way to stop her.  Plus, it killed that part of herself, as well as that part of her past.  "Part of me died here today and I'm glad it did."
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The "fat, loathsome slug" himself, Milos Judden.

​Dave
Mercy has been forced to face up to herself by meeting Scourge and this was a way of saying that, in her own way, Mercy could no longer tolerate the type of person she was in her past.  Yet she has just gone back to who she was by killing Scourge.  Haha!  Bit ironic really.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh, good point.  I think Furman & Senior are dealing with corporal and capital punishment here.  Torture to get confessions, death penalties, becoming the very thing you are fighting against.  It all has a certain ring of truth to it in our current, ongoing, never-ending war on terror.


Dave
It’s the old morality tale, human justice versus the justice of the law?


Kev
Yep.  And how laws can be so easily perverted.


Dave
I wonder what age the character of Scourge was meant to be?  As Mercy is about 27.  Was Scourge a few year younger?  I can’t really tell, but it seems so.


Kev
I reckon she's supposed to be in her early 20s.  22 or something, I think.  There's also the burden of responsibility weighing on Mercy too, as she feels responsible for Scourge because she's inspired her to follow her down a certain path.  Scourge's adopting of Mercy's old black dagger calling card is illustrative of this.


Dave
Plus, Scourge is very angry.  Seeing that anger, the same anger that Mercy no doubt had at that age has startled her a bit.  Seeing herself, when younger, through older eyes.


Kev
Definitely.  It's interesting that this theme of the Claws having "sold-out" in certain people's eyes rears its head again.  "They've totally brainwashed you, turned you into one of the system's puppets."  I suppose that's a curse of having been revered as a Game team and now just being perceived as corporate/government stooges.


Dave
Yeah, Dragon’s Claws are losing respect in the corporate business enforcement world they are now in, but Dragon has always retained his doubts though.  This issue does jump back to the behind the scenes plans of Stenson at N.U.R.S.E. (who is a real narrator of this series) keeping the flow of what's about to come.  He’s a real piece of work this guy, but necessary.  I sort of like Stenson, he’s a typical Shakespearian villain of the piece, orchestrating events to manipulate others into doing his dirty work.


Kev
I love Stenson as a character.  His evil grin is fantastic.
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The countless hours Stenson has spent practising his evil grin in the mirror have clearly paid off. Grin gains.

​Dave
And look at the difference between a rich bustling futuristic Montreal and the poor rural setting of Norwich.


Kev
Yeh.  There's a definite, stark contrast between the urban metropolises and the rural farming areas.  Although, every time I read "Norwich" in this, I do so in Alan Partridge's voice.


Dave
I love that panel with Dragon standing watch over Judden in the nightspot.  Such a visually striking image, with the mid-air pods.

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"In Da Club."

​Kev
The mid air pods are a fine example of the decadence of the rich in the big cities.  It would appear that the Claws have acquired an ally in high places with Golding and his ‘Flock of Seagulls' haircut.


Dave
Yeah Golding's flock is ginger in one panel then blonde.

Raymond (William) Golding; changing his hair colour as often as his Christian name.

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From Gingerlocks to Goldinglocks in a single panel.

Kev
Maybe Golding is dying it between panels.  Speaking of funnier moments, I love the bit when Scourge throws her bag into Mercy's face.  It reminds me of that gag in ‘Police Squad’ and ‘The Naked Gun.’

UFC 8162- Drebin V Savage 2.

​​Dave
It’s interesting that Deller’s return from last issue’s events is also kept as a cliffhanger as to how has this affected him.  You can see the panic in Stenson when he arrives back.


Kev
Good point, man.  Deller's allegiances are starting to turn away from N.U.R.S.E. and more towards the Claws.  And certainly more inwards, towards himself.


Dave
And the last two pages of this issue have a good comeback for a newly formed Evil Dead, with some equally disturbing looking characters Hack, Rend and Slash.

Hack, sporting the very latest in 8162 wearable tech. A pizza cutter.

Kev
It certainly does.  Rend's sash bears a design that is very similar to the Claws' logo.  What’s your overall take on The Evil Dead 2?


Dave
Good point.  I had never noticed that.  They just look absolutely cuckoo, this lot.  Hack looks like a mean mother...., Rend I like, as he reminds me of some kind of horror-esque,  ghostlike, western, cowboy and Slash looks seriously disturbed.  What do you make of them?


Kev
Rend is certainly my favourite of the new trio.  I'm not sure that Hack & Slash are as strong, visually as Kronos, Feral or Hex.  Which is slightly disappointing as we’ve often commented on just how strong Senior’s character designs have been throughout this series, for the main part.


Dave
I think Death Nell has obviously found the time for a bit of a new hair colour since we last saw her in issue 5.  I wonder what hairdresser she went to?


Kev
Ha, ha!  I thought that myself.  Also, either quite a lot of time has passed, or she's got extensions put in too.


Dave
You could actually just picture her in a hairdresser getting the dye put in, then going on a rampage afterwards and killing them all.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh!  Joking aside, I think it's an interesting point that the ambulance crew that they attack is a private one.  Furman making a little comment about the state of private/state healthcare there perhaps?


Dave
Could well be.  Making a point that business is still all about the money in 8162.  That doesn't change.


Kev
Yep, definitely.  Particularly considering Richard Branson has been buying portions of the NHS from the UK government in more recent times.

The NHS in a post-Brexit United Kingdom. £350 million a week better off.

​Dave
Also, this issue we get a bit more of Matron and we start to see that she is the real, powerful figure behind whats going on, but is still disguised behind the shadows.  Very much a female Kingpin, eh?  I think there was a big American influence in Furman and Senior’s work back then.


Kev
Man!  It had never occurred to me, the similarities between her and the Kingpin.  They seem so obvious now that you've pointed them out though.  Although that is becoming a recurring theme in this retrospective; me having completely obvious things about this series pointed out to me that I have managed to miss for nearly thirty years.  I must've been too blinded by the similarities to Hattie Jacques in ‘Carry On Matron' to notice.  Yeh.  There's a huge American influence and it's clearly being pitched at the American market, yet it feels so British in so many ways too.


Dave
Yeah, I think it’s been aimed as a cross/combination of British and American style comics.


Kev
I wonder if the Dave Gibbons' cover was another attempt to woo that American market, or perhaps even an attempt to use his name value to give sales a lift if the series was under-performing.   He must've been a huge get at this point, post 'Watchmen.'  Especially coming just a few years off the back of that game-changer.  First and only cover not by Mr. Senior as well.  Although the back cover image of Mercy by Mr. Senior looks like it was, at one point, intended to be the cover.

Mercy stands at 5ft 10 inches. 3ft 3 inches of that is mullet.

​Dave
Oh yeah, well spotted.  Right enough.  The cover is a bit different this time because of the new artist.  Good effort, I think, though.


Kev
Yeh.  It's a nice cover.  I like the covers where the whole team are together.  That reminds me, is it just me, or is Scratch supposed to have been mutated in some way?  Those mad, red, bloodshot looking eyes.  That crazy pink nose.  There’s a lot of drool too.


Dave
Yeah, even when Scavenger sends him to hunt down Mercy he’s like a demented rabbit in that panel with a comic face and a very cartoonish pose.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh, that's true.  He's like something out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon in that panel.  That scene you’re talking about is really quite telling, I think.  It displays an awful lot of the individual values and the effect they have on the team dynamics.  Digit almost sees his team mates as expendable.  Scavenger on the other hand, sees team loyalty as paramount.  Dragon, as the leader, the one who calls the shots, is caught in the somewhere in the middle.  Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I suppose.  Or the green helmet in this case.

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What's that Scratch? Mercy's in the fountain?

Dave
It’s, again, showing how this team still functions, yet each has their own set of values and beliefs which clearly do clash at times.  All was, and indeed is, not always good in the Claws camp.


Kev
Certainly not.  Digit was such a fascinating character in that he questioned everything with his Spock-like adherence to logic.  That included the rest of the team's actions and Dragon's leadership.  He could easily have turned on the rest of the team in the future if the right set of circumstances presented themselves.  Plus, Dragon seems surprised and even concerned when Digit reveals that he knows all about their pasts.  What is there to hide, I wonder?


Dave
True.  I wonder, did Digit have some sort of agenda?  Is he secretly working behind the scenes as well?  Dragon is becoming more and more uncertain of this new job and position he has now, he knows somethings up.  Or as Quentin Tarantino would say, “Something is rotten in Denmark.”


Kev
Ha, ha!  In re-reading the series for these reviews, I have began to wonder as to the potential of Digit being some kind of sleeper agent myself, yeh.  And I agree, Dragon definitely realises that his position is somewhat compromised.


Dave
Yeah, Dragon seems a bit off this whole issue.  Definitely not up to his usual self.  I wonder if he has an unconscious thing for Mercy?  Even at the nightclub guarding Judden, Scourge manages to slip past him and Steel quite effectively.


Kev
That's interesting.  I never considered the possibility of anything romantic between Dragon and Mercy.  Although, I do think that Dragon's relationship with Tanya is perhaps beyond repair at this point.


Dave
He does seem a bit distracted and there’s no mention or thoughts of Tanya.  Only that of Mercy.


Kev
That's a really good point, actually.  You may very well be on to something there.  You got any other points you want to discuss?

Dragon- Oooh! Which part? Was it a kidney? It was a kidney, right?

Dave
No, can’t think of any.  Just the casting of Scourge.  Any ideas?


Kev
I do, yes.  But, it's based purely on hair, if I'm being honest.  I’d go with Nathalie Emmanuel.


Dave
Good call there.


Kev
What about yourself?  Any ideas?


Dave
No, she’s a good choice there.  What about Judden?


Kev
I've got nothing there.  You?


Dave
Yeah, I’m struggling there too.  I wonder if Sam Rockwell would fit that part.  I know he’s not the size, but he might work.


Kev
I reckon he would.  He could fit anything.  Rockwell is ace.


Dave
He’s a good actor.


Kev
Have you seen 'Moon?'


Dave
I have indeed.  Very interesting film.


Kev
He's amazing in it.


Dave
‘Cause I was thinking, when it comes to Matron, if you find an actress who fits the part, rather than fits the size alone.  Look at D'Onofrio as The Kingpin.  That worked.  Viola Davis in ‘Suicide Squad’ as well.


Kev
I agree.  The size isn't necessarily the main thing at all.  "Ooooh Matron!"  I'll file that joke.  This is the last of the procedural, stand alone style stories, before the concluding two parter.  It’s onto the conclusion of the main arc/mythology next.  Then after that, all that's left is the epilogue.

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(D) & (K)

​Next: '...The Evil Dead Too.'