She-Dragon

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caption= Savage She-Dragon 51, art by Erik Larsen
comic_color=background:#80ff80
character_name=She-Dragon
real_name=Amy Belcher
publisher=Image Comics
debut="The Savage Dragon Vs. The Savage Megaton Man Special" #1
creators=Erik Larsen
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=Nixed Men, Chicago Police Department
aliases=Sensation
powers=Superhuman strength, bulletproof skin, healing factor|

Amy Belcher, also known as Sensation and mostly as She-Dragon is a fictional 'superfreak' and later police officer created by Erik Larsen for his series Savage Dragon as a She-Hulk like female counterpart for the series' main character The Dragon.

A troubled 'bimbo', She-Dragon became the star of Erik Larsen's title for four issues (51-54) during a time when The Dragon was thought deceased, the title was even changed to 'Savage She-Dragon' for those issues, recently a new She-Dragon mini-series has been announced.

Creation

Amy Belcher first appeared in the Savage Dragon Vs Savage Megaton Man special as a villainess named Sensation. At the time, Amy was part of a low-key group called the Nixed Men, all of whom were parodies of characters that had been written/drawn and in most cases re-vamped by John Byrne, their name a parody of his own self-created title for Dark Horse Comics The Next Men. Byrne was a known opponent of the Image co-founders who deeply disagreed with a lot of their ideas, (many of which were actually not shared by Larsen). Amy was a parody of She-Hulk, whom Byrne worked on for some time in her own series "The Sensational She-Hulk". Sensation noted that she had been cast aside by her creator Johnny Redbeard, a villain later used in Freak Force, because after her transformation she performed prat-falls for people from another dimension. Along with this confession, Sensation/She-Dragon occasionally talks to observing entities only she can perceive, a common habit of She-Hulk.

History

Amy's father was hit by strange chemicals during the Vietnam War and she was born with a disease.

Later, she is taken to Johnny Redbeard, who later refers to himself as the Creator, where she is cured and transformed at the same time. He takes her as his girlfriend. He later abandons her as the voices she hears, entities from another dimension, make her an unstable liability.

Amy joins the criminal group called the 'Nixed Men'. They are defeated with one punch by the Savage Dragon. In prison, she reforms due to misguided and unreturned feelings for Dragon. She fights Justice, the son of the hero SuperPatriot. She helps Justice, his father and Dragon's cop friend Alex Wilde fight the recurring villains Operface and Octopus.

When Dragon is under control of the Horde, she fails to stop him. In battle with the Dragon-Slayer, a robot designed to attack the original Dragon, Amy's long blonde hair is burnt off. She regrows her hair in a mowhawk.

Amy's voices go away under treatment. When the Dragon undergoes one of his many dissapereances, Amy applies to the police department. When she is turned down, she attacks Dragon's girlfriend Rapture, using two 'Power Gloves'. (Savage Dragon #23). Amy loses the fight.

Still misguided, she joins with the villain Chelsea Nirvana, who happens to look like Johnny Redbeard. When this change is reversed, Amy leaves him/her.

Police Officer

Dragon is permanently kicked off the force and Amy is hired by Captain Mendosa. Secretly Mendosa is the super villain called 'Impostor', a member of the criminal organization, the Vicious Circle. Due to support by fellow officers Chris Robinson and Howard Niseman, Amy becomes far more effective than the Circle ever thought (and planned) she would be.

Horde takes Amy over, but Dragon frees her from his influence. Amy is featured in the pivotal "Savage Dragon #50" and in fact becomes the focus for several issues after. The series is literally renamed 'The Savage She-Dragon'.

Her Voices

She finds the source of her voices; sort of. They were The Eternal Youths, but the ones she spoke too were near-identical copies that came from Darkworld. This Darkworld is an earth-like planet about four-months away via spacecraft. The Youths were taken by the God Squad, a special operations team sent to capture the offspring of the Gods and bring them home.

Amy begins to date Chris Robinson; she also has multiple dealings with his super-powered brother Bludgeon. During a battle with one of Redbeard's security robots, Simon Kane is released, a telepathic madman who ends up possessing both Dragons.

Government Work

Amy leaves the Chicago P.D. to work for the Chicago branch of the government's Special Operations Strikeforce. She helps stop an invasion force of Gods from the now-destroyed Godworld; they were planning on killing and replacing the inhabitants of the underground city of Atlantis. She makes a brief foray into Darkworld, via several teleportation fields connection it and Earth. Darkworld's ruler, Darklord, detonates a device in issue #75. This causes Amy and everyone else who had gained powers in an unnatural way to lose them.

Amy has featured occasionally since the This Savage World re-vamp of the series, initially with her long blonde hair and not her mo-hawk, Jennifer Murphy, Dragon's wife, was even jealous of their working relationship during one issue. Recently Amy has returned to Earth (wearing a Red Sonja-like outfit) after being thrown into Dimension-X by Glum, along with the Savage Dragon's stepdaughter from the original Earth Angel after being stranded in Dimension-X for a year with her. She then assisted Dragon in a fight between him and his Darkworld counterpart whom followed Angel and her out of Dimension-X.

In Other Media

She-Dragon appeared as a regular cast member in the short-lived Savage Dragon cartoon series, first appearing in the episode 'She-Dragon'

She was also featured as one of the three-characters in the 1995 Savage Dragon toy line by Playmates (the others were Barbaric and Dragon, who had two figures) where her figure had two variants, one with her long hair and one with her mo-hawk and was sculpted by Claburn Moore.

Recently a resin statue has also been made of her, in a semi-erotic pose, and like her figure, comes in two variants, one with her mohawk and one with her long hair and this time with different color schemes.

References

* [http://www.savagedragon.com/ SavageDragon.com] - Official site
* [http://www.dragonfan.com Dragonfan.com] - A fansite that keeps Savage Dragon enthusiasts informed on Erik Larsen/Savage Dragon-related news