Dart is an Image Comicssuperhero created by Erik Larsen. She first appeared in The Savage Dragon #2 (July 1993). There were three people who taken up the mantle The first was Jill August, the second was her niece Alison Summers, using the mantle to become a supervillain, and then the third and current Dart is Jane August, Jill's sister.
Dart has appeared in numerous issues of The Savage Dragon as a supporting character, as well as being a major character in the Freak Force series and subsequent mini-series. In February 1996, she received her own eponymous three-issue limited series, written by Julie Ditrich and Bruce Love with artwork by Jozef Szekeres.
Fictional character biography
Jill August was born on August 12, 1969, in Detroit, Michigan. She grew up timid and demoralized, witnessing her mother's constant spousal abuse at the hands of her father, and her friends' abuse at the hands of a cruel coach at school. She witnessed her father beat her mother to death, a crime for which he was sentenced to life in prison, effectively leaving Jill an orphan.
As a teenager, Jill saw a female friend being assaulted by several men in a bar in Detroit. Attempting to intervene, she fell against a dartboard hung on the barroom wall, and the men began to attack her as well. Instinctively, she used the darts to defend herself, throwing them at her attackers with astonishing accuracy, seriously injuring all of them. She subsequently decided to use this newly discovered skill to both help others and manage her feelings of helplessness (and the rage that comes with those feelings).
Jill trained herself in a number of martial arts disciplines and sharpened her already formidable dart-throwing accuracy. She designed a costume and took the name "Dart" to become a superhero in Detroit. Early in her career, she occasionally teamed up with another Detroit-based hero, the narcissistic Kill-Cat.
After spending three years as a Detroit-based costumed vigilante, Dart was contacted by the Chicago Police Department to solicit her participation in a new program wherein super-powered vigilantes would be recruited into the police department for legitimate service. She accepted and moved to Chicago where she met the Savage Dragon, Ricochet, Horridus, Barbaric and other super-powered recruits. The program was a failure, though, as most of the costumed heroes could not or would not cope with the realities of everyday police work (such as wearing a police uniform instead of a costume). These recruits quit en masse and, along with newfound friends Superpatriot and Mighty Man formed their own heroes-for-hire outfit known as Freak Force, under the nominal leadership of Dart.
Dart attempts to assist in a reality-disruption event; however its very nature causes many of the participants to forget that there even was a problem.[1]
After a few years of reasonable success as independent troubleshooters, Dart and most of the Freak Force were recruited by the United States government to replace Youngblood, who were presumed to have been killed by Martians. This new group was called the Special Operations Strikeforce (S.O.S.), although Dart was refused active status for a number of months due to administrators' reservations about her reliability.
Once she was allowed active status, Dart participated in a raid on the fictional nation of Lieberheim to assassinate the super-powered dictator Dread Knight. During the battle, Dart was hit by an energy blast that vaporized both of her legs to just above the knee.
Due to her disability, Dart was relegated to a role as Strikeforce's team trainer. Several years later, Dart and other former members of Freak Force were attacked by an evil Mighty Man while attending the funeral of Ann Stevens (the second Mighty Man). In the ensuing battle the Savage Dragon killed this evil version, and the super-powerful Mighty Man persona was passed on to Dart, enabling her to transform into a massively powerful blond male by making a magic gesture of tapping her wrists together.
Alternate Earth
After issue #75 of the Savage Dragon, a second, alternate Earth was introduced into that universe. Twenty-eight issues later, in #103, the original Earth was destroyed, killing virtually all of its inhabitants, including Dart, now the fourth Mighty Man.
The version of Dart from the alternate Earth continued to exist, however. In that reality, she never lost her legs, but also never became Mighty Man. Less than a year after the destruction of the original Earth, this alternate Dart was murdered by the villain, Mako, who punched her head off.
Jill August's niece, Alison Summers[2] has since taken up the mantle of Dart, though Alison has become a murderous psychopath, rather than a hero.
It has also been revealed that, unbeknownst to her, Dart was the daughter of veteran super-hero Sgt. Marvel (a pastiche of sorts of Batman). Her past origin, involving her abusive father, is now considered non-canon by creator Erik Larsen[3]
A third dart named Jane August who was Jill's sister and Alison's other aunt who had take up the mantle replacing her sister but unlike her niece Alison she was a hero just like the original.
Powers and abilities
Dart has an uncanny, almost preternatural accuracy with various forms of throwing darts, and is able to throw consistently on-target even while performing complicated gymnastic, acrobatic or martial arts maneuvers. She carries with her a number of "trick" darts in addition to the normal ones that are merely razor sharp. There are a number of different types of trick darts: some are explosive, some incendiary, and some release toxic or irritating gas, such as tear gas. Dart is in excellent physical condition and is a skilled martial artist.
Xiaolongnü is the fictional female protagonist of the wuxia novel The Return of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. In the novel, her physical appearances is described as follows: "skin as white as snow, beautiful and elegant beyond convention and cannot be underestimated, but appears cold and indifferent". She trains the protagonist Yang Guo in martial arts, and they eventually fall in love.
Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.
The Savage Dragon is a superhero created by Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics and taking place in the Image Universe. The comic features the adventures of a superheroic police officer named the Dragon. The character first appeared as the Dragon in Graphic Fantasy #1 and first appeared as the "Savage Dragon" in Megaton #3.
The rope dart or rope javelin, is one of the flexible weapons in Chinese martial arts. Other weapons in this family include the meteor hammer, flying claws, Fei Tou flying weight, and chain whip.
Infra-Man, also titled The Super Inframan, is a 1975 Hong Kong science fiction Superhero action film produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. Inspired by the huge success of the Japanese tokusatsu franchises such as Ultraman and Kamen Rider in Hong Kong, this film features the same type of "henshin"/transformation, monster/robot fights, and Chinese kung fu action.
Valkyrie is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema, the character first appeared in Defenders #4. She is based on the Norse mythological figure Brynhildr. Valkyrie became a mainstay of the superhero team known as the Defenders and a close ally and one-time love interest of the god Thor.
SuperPatriot is an Image Comics superhero created by Erik Larsen in 1992. He regularly appears in Erik Larsen's titles, whether in his own mini-series or as a supporting character and is currently a member of the Liberty League.
The Vicious Circle is a criminal organization of mutants, cyborgs, monsters, assassins, and magicians that serves as the primary opponents for the superheroes in Erik Larsen's comic-book titles, primarily the Dragon.
Mighty Man is a superhero created by comics creator Erik Larsen. He has been a major character in Larsen's series The Savage Dragon and its spin-off Freak Force, as well as in Gary Carlson's Big Bang Comics series. His first appearance was Megaton #2, which was also the first appearance of the Savage Dragon.
Freak Force is the name of a fictional team of superhuman bounty hunters operating out of Chicago, Illinois. They originated in the Image Comics comic book series Savage Dragon, but subsequently went on to star in their own series. All the characters were created by Erik Larsen, many during his adolescence.
Vanguard is an alien superhero created by Gary Carlson and Erik Larsen for Carlson's self-published comics anthology Megaton. Vanguard is a white alien with small antennae who has been given the unenviable job of guarding Earth, which is viewed by the aliens as boring with little chance of anything happening. His sole companion is a sarcastic, hovering cycloptic robot and their morphing androids, though he quickly developed a relationship with a reporter Roxanne Wells.
Horridus, born Sarah Hill, is a superheroine created by Erik Larsen for his Image Comics series, The Savage Dragon, as a member of the Freak Force.
Jennifer Dragon, originally Jennifer Wilson and sometimes using the codename Smasher, is a recurring comic book character in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon and Robert Kirkman's Invincible. The wife of the Savage Dragon and mother of Angel and Malcolm Dragon, she debuted in the first issue of The Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence mini-series, though she had a one-panel cameo prior to that in Savage Dragon issue 40.
Image United is an incomplete comic book limited series published by Image Comics. The intent of the series was to re-unite the founders of Image Comics on a joint project, serving as a crossover between various Image Universe titles. However, there were delays in production, and only three of the planned six issues were published in November 2009, with artist Rob Liefeld eventually confirming that no further issues would be forthcoming.
This is a list of all media appearances of the Marvel Comics character Storm.
Barack Obama has appeared as a character in comic books published by a number of publishing companies, sometimes appearing as a realistic fictionalized version of himself and sometimes as a spoof.
The Pantheon of Heroes is a 30th-century superhero team based on the Legion of Super-Heroes and was introduced in Big Bang Comics. Pantheon of Heroes first appeared in Big Bang #12, #14 and #18 – the "TimeBomber Saga" guest-starring Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon. Mark Lewis, the man responsible for many Big Bang logos, designed a few of the earliest characters, including the Butterfly Queen which appeared slightly later.
Covenant of the Sword is a fictional, covert organization bent on global domination appearing in comic books published by Image Universe. It was created by Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen and Dave Johnson, and first appeared in SuperPatriot #1. Although mainly appearing in Larsen's flagship title The Savage Dragon and the related title SuperPatriot, the Covenant also appeared in a number of Extreme Studios comics by Rob Liefeld, most notably Bloodstrike and Badrock. Damien Darklord is one of the members who is also a major villain in the Savage Dragon series.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
