Jade Dragon
Encyclopedia
Jade Dragon is a fictional character
, a mutate in the Marvel Comics
Universe.
and Jim Lee
and his first appearance was in Alpha Flight
vol. 1 #59 (June 1988).
The character subsequently appears in Alpha Flight #60-62 (July–September 1988), #64-66 (November 1988-January 1989), and X-Force
Annual #3 (1988).
Jade Dragon received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89
#4.
in China
. Dei Guan was placed in a "re-education camp." There he endured incessant propaganda
harangues in between long stretches of hard labor in the iron mines.
It was during one of his shifts in the iron mine that the mysterious Geomancer appeared and told Dei Guan that their ancestors believed that "dragon
s of jade
" lived beneath the earth and lent their powers to great warriors. He then imparted to Dei Guan the power of the Jade Dragon. Using this new power, Dei Guan transformed himself into a dragon and escaped the mines. Despite the suffering he had endured, Dei Guan continued to consider himself a Chinese patriot
. Therefore he did not attempt to flee or defect
. Shortly after his escape from the mines, the notorious Gang of Four
who had ruled China after Mao Tse-tung's death was arrested. In the wake of the new political era; Dei Guan offered his services to the country by enlisting in the army.
The Jade Dragon's first battle occurred in the remote province of Danwei which borders the Soviet Union
. Dei Guan was part of an army contingent ordered to sub-due a mountain temple inhabited, according to the government, by rebellious monk
s. The troops were prevented from advancing by an impenetrable force shield
generated by the monks' minds. Unable to penetrate or destroy it with conventional weapons, the troops' commander ordered Dei Guan to transform into the Jade Dragon to destroy the shield and kill the monks. The Jade Dragon shattered the force shield with a blow from his tail, then incinerated the monks with his fiery breath. Despite his promptness in carrying out his commander's orders, the Jade Dragon regretted his actions since he believed the monks had posed no threat to the government. The commander then ordered the Jade Dragon to fly ahead to the temple and subdue any resistance. The Jade Dragon entered the temple where he defeated the adventurer, Puck
, and killed the High Lama. It was with the death of the High Lama that Dei Guan's conscience finally rebelled. Thus when his commander ordered him to kill the remaining monks, not only did the Jade Dragon refuse, he attempted to drive all the soldiers out of the temple.
The Jade Dragon was prevented from quickly accomplishing this by the interference of the spirit of the High Lama. In order to help Puck, who was suffering from spiritual trauma, the High Lama offered to assist Puck on his path of enlightenment by opening a portal to any dimension he chose. Subconsciously, Puck sought out his friends and former teammates, the members of the team of adventurers called Alpha Flight
. He was astonished to find them in a life and death battle against the demonic being called Dreamqueen in the otherdimensional realm of Liveworld. Alpha Flights battle against the Dreamqueen
, who sought to conquer Earth, spilled over into the temple courtyard through the portal the High Lama had created. The Jade Dragon helped Alpha Flight against the Dreamqueen and her minions and helped stop her from crossing the portal.
After the portal was closed; the spirit
of the High Lama transported Alpha Flight and the Jade Dragon to Canada where Dei Guan was a witness in the Canadian government's inquest
of Alpha Flight. As a result of the inquest, Alpha Flight severed itself from its government connection.
Immediately afterward, the Canadian intelligence service detained Dei Guan. Under interrogation he revealed that he still considered himself a Chinese patriot and that he had absolutely no intention of defecting. But the Chinese government, believing that he had become a defector, dispatched a teem of agents known as the China Force to find him, give him a final opportunity to return to China, and if he refused, to kill him.
But the China Force had unwittingly fallen under the control of the Dreamqueen, who had finally succeeded in reaching Earth. After drugging and defeating the Jade Dragon, China Force airlifted him to Edmonton, Alberta, where the Dreamqueen was. The Dreamqueen's purpose in using China Force was twofold. The first was to use it to capture the Jade Dragon and Alpha Flight and render them helpless prisoners for her to slay. The second was to assist her in wrestling from Talisman
her circle of power which the Dreamqueen would then use to seize absolute control of Earth.
Ultimately, the Dreamqueen's plan to use China Force failed. Alpha Flight defeated China Force, and Laura Dean used her superhuman power to open a portal to China. Alpha Flight flung the dazed members of China Force through the portal. The Dragon followed his team back to China, determined to prove to his government that he is not a traitor.
Jade Dragon later became a member of the Chinese superhuman dissident
group 3-Peace, which sought to liberate China's domestic superhumans through an alliance with the Mutant Liberation Front.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, a mutate in the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
Universe.
Publication history
The Jade Dragon was created by Bill MantloBill Mantlo
Bill Mantlo is an American comic-book writer, primarily at Marvel Comics, best known for his work on two licensed toy properties whose adventures occurred in the Marvel Universe: the Eagle Award-winning Micronauts and the long-running Rom. An attorney, he also worked as a public defender...
and Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
and his first appearance was in Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 ....
vol. 1 #59 (June 1988).
The character subsequently appears in Alpha Flight #60-62 (July–September 1988), #64-66 (November 1988-January 1989), and X-Force
X-Force
X-Force is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero team, one of several spin-offs of the popular X-Men franchise. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team was formed in New Mutants, vol. 1 #100 and soon afterwards was featured in its own series.The group was a new incarnation of the 1980s...
Annual #3 (1988).
Jade Dragon received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is an encyclopedic guide which details the fictional universe featured in Marvel Comics publications...
#4.
Fictional character biography
Dei Guan is an orphan, the only child of parents who were branded as intellectuals and executed during the tumultuous Cultural RevolutionCultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Dei Guan was placed in a "re-education camp." There he endured incessant propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
harangues in between long stretches of hard labor in the iron mines.
It was during one of his shifts in the iron mine that the mysterious Geomancer appeared and told Dei Guan that their ancestors believed that "dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s of jade
Jade
Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
" lived beneath the earth and lent their powers to great warriors. He then imparted to Dei Guan the power of the Jade Dragon. Using this new power, Dei Guan transformed himself into a dragon and escaped the mines. Despite the suffering he had endured, Dei Guan continued to consider himself a Chinese patriot
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
. Therefore he did not attempt to flee or defect
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
. Shortly after his escape from the mines, the notorious Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
who had ruled China after Mao Tse-tung's death was arrested. In the wake of the new political era; Dei Guan offered his services to the country by enlisting in the army.
The Jade Dragon's first battle occurred in the remote province of Danwei which borders the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Dei Guan was part of an army contingent ordered to sub-due a mountain temple inhabited, according to the government, by rebellious monk
Lama
Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...
s. The troops were prevented from advancing by an impenetrable force shield
Force field
A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tightly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the...
generated by the monks' minds. Unable to penetrate or destroy it with conventional weapons, the troops' commander ordered Dei Guan to transform into the Jade Dragon to destroy the shield and kill the monks. The Jade Dragon shattered the force shield with a blow from his tail, then incinerated the monks with his fiery breath. Despite his promptness in carrying out his commander's orders, the Jade Dragon regretted his actions since he believed the monks had posed no threat to the government. The commander then ordered the Jade Dragon to fly ahead to the temple and subdue any resistance. The Jade Dragon entered the temple where he defeated the adventurer, Puck
Puck (comics)
Puck is the codename of two fictional characters, a father and daughter pair who are both members of Alpha Flight, in the Marvel Comics universe.-Puck :...
, and killed the High Lama. It was with the death of the High Lama that Dei Guan's conscience finally rebelled. Thus when his commander ordered him to kill the remaining monks, not only did the Jade Dragon refuse, he attempted to drive all the soldiers out of the temple.
The Jade Dragon was prevented from quickly accomplishing this by the interference of the spirit of the High Lama. In order to help Puck, who was suffering from spiritual trauma, the High Lama offered to assist Puck on his path of enlightenment by opening a portal to any dimension he chose. Subconsciously, Puck sought out his friends and former teammates, the members of the team of adventurers called Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 ....
. He was astonished to find them in a life and death battle against the demonic being called Dreamqueen in the otherdimensional realm of Liveworld. Alpha Flights battle against the Dreamqueen
Dreamqueen
The Dreamqueen is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe.-Fictional character biography:The entity known as the Dreamqueen is the daughter of a succubus named Zhilla Char, and Nightmare, ruler of the Dream Dimension. Her birth killed her mother, and gave the Dreamqueen all her memories...
, who sought to conquer Earth, spilled over into the temple courtyard through the portal the High Lama had created. The Jade Dragon helped Alpha Flight against the Dreamqueen and her minions and helped stop her from crossing the portal.
After the portal was closed; the spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
of the High Lama transported Alpha Flight and the Jade Dragon to Canada where Dei Guan was a witness in the Canadian government's inquest
Inquest
Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove"...
of Alpha Flight. As a result of the inquest, Alpha Flight severed itself from its government connection.
Immediately afterward, the Canadian intelligence service detained Dei Guan. Under interrogation he revealed that he still considered himself a Chinese patriot and that he had absolutely no intention of defecting. But the Chinese government, believing that he had become a defector, dispatched a teem of agents known as the China Force to find him, give him a final opportunity to return to China, and if he refused, to kill him.
But the China Force had unwittingly fallen under the control of the Dreamqueen, who had finally succeeded in reaching Earth. After drugging and defeating the Jade Dragon, China Force airlifted him to Edmonton, Alberta, where the Dreamqueen was. The Dreamqueen's purpose in using China Force was twofold. The first was to use it to capture the Jade Dragon and Alpha Flight and render them helpless prisoners for her to slay. The second was to assist her in wrestling from Talisman
Talisman (comics)
Talisman is a superhero featured in the publications of Marvel Comics. She first appeared as Elizabeth Twoyoungmen in Alpha Flight vol. 1 #5...
her circle of power which the Dreamqueen would then use to seize absolute control of Earth.
Ultimately, the Dreamqueen's plan to use China Force failed. Alpha Flight defeated China Force, and Laura Dean used her superhuman power to open a portal to China. Alpha Flight flung the dazed members of China Force through the portal. The Dragon followed his team back to China, determined to prove to his government that he is not a traitor.
Jade Dragon later became a member of the Chinese superhuman dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
group 3-Peace, which sought to liberate China's domestic superhumans through an alliance with the Mutant Liberation Front.