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Richard Dragon
Richard Drakunovski as Richard Dragon. Promotional image to Richard Dragon (2004-2005) comic volume series. Art by Scott McDaniel.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Beginning appearance	Richard Drakunovski: Dragon'due south Fists novel (1974) Ricardo Diaz, Jr.: Light-green Arrow #23 (October 2013)
Created by	Drakunovski: Dennis O'Neil (writer) Jim Berry (artist) Diaz Jr. : Jeff Lemire Andrea Sorrentino
In-story information
Alter ego	Richard Drakunovski Ricardo Diaz Jr.
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Richard Drakunovski: Grand.O.O.D. Justice League Ricardo Diaz Jr.: League of Assassins Longbow Hunters Justice League
Partnerships	Bronze Tiger Lady Shiva The Question Huntress Connor Hawke Oracle Batman Blackness Canary Nightwing
Abilities	Master martial creative person

Richard Dragon is a fictional comic book character created by Dennis O'Neil and James R. Berry in the novel Kung Fu Master, Richard Dragon: Dragon'south Fists (1974) under the pseudonym "Jim Dennis".^[1] O'Neil afterward adapted the grapheme for DC Comics in the comic book Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter.^[ii]

Dragon is a thief who was trained in martial arts and decides to utilise his abilities for good. Along with Batman, Bronze Tiger, Black Canary, and Lady Shiva, he is considered one of the top martial artists in the DC Universe.^[3]

In DC's The New 52 continuity, Jeff Lemire introduced a new villainous graphic symbol going past the name Richard Dragon, who was later revealed to be Ricardo Diaz Jr., and to have been mentored by and killed the original heroic Richard Dragon.

Ricardo Diaz appeared in the Arrowverse series Pointer in the 6th and seventh seasons, where he was played by Kirk Acevedo.

Fictional grapheme biography [edit]

Richard Drakunovski [edit]

As a teenage sneak thief in Japan, young Richard Dragon broke into a dojo exterior of Kyoto to steal a priceless jade Buddha. Before he could get away, Dragon was caught and beaten by the dojo'due south teenage educatee, Ben Turner.^[2] O-Sensei, the dojo'south principal, saw something worth nurturing in Richard, and for the adjacent seven years taught Ben and Richard, side by side, mastery of the martial arts. Richard came to find an inner peace, only using his skill when absolutely necessary. One time he felt at that place was nothing more he could teach them, the O-Sensei left the two. Turner and Dragon were recruited by Barney Ling, head of the police-keeping espionage bureau known as G.O.O.D. (Global Organization of Organized Defense), to bring together the organisation. Together Ben and Richard would defeat the corrupt man of affairs Guano Cravat, foiling his plans to instigate a state of war for his ain do good. Ben and Richard founded a martial arts dojo in Manhattan, and Richard would go along to battle international threats such as Telegram Sam, the Preying Mantis, the League of Assassins, and his former superior, Barney Ling.

Thirsty for revenge, Cravat would adapt for the murder of Carolyn Wu-San, ane of O-Sensei's god-daughters. Aided by Barney Ling, Cravat tricked Carolyn's sister, Sandra Wu-San, into believing Dragon was the murderer. Consumed with a need for revenge, Sandra trained to the peak of human capability, mastering martial arts to defeat Dragon. When the two masters finally met in boxing, however, Dragon was able to show Sandra that Cravat had deceived her. Without Dragon'south death as a goal, Sandra no longer had a demand for her martial arts mastery. Sensing she needed guidance, Dragon helped her to explore the spiritual side of martial arts. Ultimately deciding that she was Sandra no more than she rechristened herself "Shiva". She fought crime with Dragon and Ben Turner until the 3 parted means. Turner, brainwashed past the villainous Sensei of the League of Assassins, became the renegade Bronze Tiger. Dragon decided to retire, devoting himself to educational activity others. Lady Shiva became one of the world'southward greatest assassins.

Richard as he appeared in The Question.

After the graphic symbol'south title was canceled, Dragon became a supporting character in the 1980s series, The Question. The title character of that book, Vic Sage, was a masked crime-fighter based in Hub City, who came into conflict with Lady Shiva. After all but killing The Question, Shiva sent him to see Richard Dragon for preparation.^[2] Sage's stubborn streak made him near impossible for most people to teach. However, when he met Dragon he found himself reluctant to challenge his new sensei considering Dragon was in a wheelchair. Richard trained The Question both in martial arts and eastern philosophy, forcing him to question his globe view and let get of much of his anger. Of note, he loosely quoted Zhuangzi's story "The Butterfly Dream". Later Richard would start referring to his educatee as "Butterfly" because of this. Richard said that Shiva had saved Sage because she saw a passion for combat in him while Richard, on the other mitt, idea that Sage's passion was for curiosity. Regardless, Richard realized that for Sage to accept a spiritual awakening he had to beginning let become of the self-destructive behaviors that Hub Metropolis brought out in him. Thus Richard sent Sage dorsum home. As he left, Sage met Shiva over again, and the two briefly sparred. She explained that this fight had been for her to test her own perceptions. She idea she had seen a "warrior'due south passion" in him that was lacking skills, and felt that she had been proved correct since he faced her a 2nd time knowing she had destroyed him the outset. Shiva concluded that she had been correct well-nigh him and Richard incorrect, simply Sage proposed that maybe he had just been curious what would happen if they fought again, which would make Richard correct. Sage adopted the identity of The Question again, futilely trying to salvage the city.

Just as Sage's doomed efforts to save Hub Urban center threatened to destroy him, Dragon arrived to propose his student. Dragon finally convinced Sage that his crusade to save Hub City was no longer doing anything but destroying him. When Sage collapsed from exhaustion and his injuries, Richard revealed that he was capable of using his legs perfectly, and put Sage in the wheelchair. Dragon had realized he would need the chair to brand Sage let down his defences - Sage was so "full of macho" that he would never take listened to him otherwise.^[4]

The chair had not been just a charade, nevertheless. Richard revealed that he had allowed himself to be handicapped as part of his own learning process, going on to state "I was a instructor then. I am nearly to become something else. So I discard that option". The urban center had truly degenerated by this bespeak with all pretense of law and club long lost. Richard, who had thought his studies had put him beyond such things, plant himself shocked and horrified by the actions of people in Hub City. For case, a man was using a dead babe to try and beg for 'milk money'. When Richard and the others uncovered this, he tossed the body into a nearby trash can.^[5]

Dragon wordlessly met Lady Shiva, who had arrived on the outskirts of Hub Metropolis in the helicopter that was to take Sage and Dragon away - she wished to go toward and relish the chaos that Sage and Richard were rejecting. Shiva uses strength and threats to ensure the pilot would do what she wishes.^[6]

Dragon as sensei to Barbara Gordon.

Richard would next appear as sensei to Oracle, helping her to run into by her own wheelchair-related limitations.^[2] Dragon spends months preparation her in escrima, the Philippine fine art of stick fighting, a martial fine art she could use despite her wheelchair.

Dragon as Sensei to Helena Bertinelli.

Not long after that, the masked heroine The Huntress became the principal suspect in a series of murders. Realizing that her headstrong nature would likely mean her death this fourth dimension, The Question saved her from her many pursuers (including the police and Batman), and took her to Richard Dragon. Seeing many similarities betwixt her and The Question, Dragon helped teach the adventuress to control her anger and "deadening down".

Subsequently Huntress joined the Birds of Prey, Richard Dragon aided her in fighting the Twelve Brothers in Silk, an Asian martial arts squad that provided protection to a major heroin distributor.

In 2004, the championship was revived and the character revamped by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel, only to be canceled after twelve bug. In this brusque series, Richard Dragon is a bullied schoolhouse kid who enrolls in a karate dojo to amend himself. Unfortunately, the dojo'south instructor was a "mail-society" blackness belt, who is afterward defeated by the Bronze Tiger. The Bronze Tiger and so agrees to train young Dragon. He eventually meets and falls in love with Lady Shiva. Although he wins the martial arts tournament she is watching, she chides him for not being able to live upwards to the powerful proper noun of "Dragon." Shiva becomes Dragon'southward lover and instructor, and the series touches on their at present strained relationship.

The series begins with the Tiger locating Dragon, who is seeking death by fighting in death matches. He agrees to help Dragon resolve his problems with Shiva if he agrees to terminate killing. In tracking Shiva they are confronted by Nightwing and the new Green Arrow, Connor Hawke. Nightwing alludes to Dragon grooming him, every bit Dragon trained Bruce Wayne, who passed that training on to Nightwing.

At the end of the series, Dragon and Shiva are pitted in combat. Dragon gains the upper mitt in the fight, and equally he begins to deliver his death blow, Shiva's devout followers rush to save her, knocking Dragon away. Unhappy at this disturbance, Shiva attacks and possibly kills her followers before returning to kill Dragon with her signature motion, the Leopard Claw. Dragon is, still, resurrected by the demonic Neron who wants Dragon to kill Shiva. Dragon refuses and walks away from Neron, saying that both had held up their parts of the agreement.

Richard Dragon appears starting in Week 26 of the comic book 52, in the mystic urban center of Nanda Parbat, where he starts to train one-time Gotham Detective Renee Montoya.^[two] His appearance matches that of the Richard Dragon seen earlier the Dixon reboot (albeit with a full head of long hair, as when training Question and Oracle, rather than balding when training Huntress). In this story Dragon makes references to a conversation he had with The Question in the Question series, contradicting at least some of Chuck Dixon'southward Richard Dragon serial. The 52 series is also where Richard's former student, Vic Sage, dies from cancer.^[7]

In 2011, "The New 52" rebooted the DC universe. Richard Dragon was visited by Ricardo Diaz Jr. and trained him in martial arts. When Richard Dragon tried to teach him most peace, patience, and pity, he was killed by Ricardo who saw weakness in him. To honour Richard, Ricardo adopted the "Richard Dragon" moniker for his own use.^[8]

Ricardo Diaz Jr. [edit]

Ricardo Diaz, Jr. equally a villainous version of Richard Dragon in Green Pointer (vol. five) #23 (October 2013 DC Comics). Art by Andrea Sorrentino.

A new version of Richard Dragon is introduced following DC'south The New 52 2011 continuity relaunch. A character identifying himself as Richard Dragon outset appears in Light-green Pointer (vol. 5) #23 (2013).^{[9] [10]} In Green Pointer (vol. 5) #31, he appears leading a squad of Green Arrow's enemies, referred to every bit the Longbow Hunters.^[eleven] In Green Arrow (vol. 5) #32 the grapheme identifies himself equally Ricardo Diaz Jr., the namesake son of a drug kingpin who had been killed by John Diggle (posing as Dark-green Arrow). In addition, he likewise killed the original Richard Dragon and took his moniker for his own employ.^[8] He revealed that after his father's decease and the autumn of his criminal empire, he sought out and found the League of Assassins where his sensei taught him to go a living weapon. He claims that when his sensei also taught him patience and pity, which he perceived to exist a weakness, he killed his sensei and took his name. Diaz/Dragon places a thirty-one thousand thousand-dollar bounty on Green Arrow, which three members of the Longbow Hunters (Brick, Killer Moth, and Red Dart) intend to separate. Green Arrow is able to defeat all of them with the assist of his young one-half-sister, Emiko. Dark-green Arrow is then reunited with his erstwhile partner, John Diggle, afterward Dragon attempts to kill Diggle past defenestration. In a fight confronting both Pointer and Diggle, Dragon is able to significantly injure both of them, merely is ultimately defeated.^[12]

Powers and abilities [edit]

Richard Dragon possesses no superhuman or metahuman powers, just is a superb athlete and a principal martial artist. He is besides a primary of philosophy and specifically every bit it concerns a heroic lifestyle and he has guided those such as the Huntress or Wonder Woman in the past every bit to the correct path they need to live. When he focuses his inner energies (usually past touching the jade claw pendant the O-Sensei gave him), his spirit and body become (metaphorically) like unrelenting granite. He is considered 1 of the top martial artists in the DC Universe, mastering styles such as Aikido, Judo, Jujutsu, Karate, Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Silat, Wing Chun, Taekwondo & Jeet Kune Do.

Students of Richard Dragon [edit]

The following have been trained by Richard Dragon:

• The Question
• Huntress
• Oracle
• Renee Montoya
• Lady Shiva

In the 2004 series, flashbacks indicated that Richard had trained several others, including Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, and Connor Hawke. Given that the version of Richard Dragon seen in 52 appeared to be the version seen prior to the 2004 retcon, the canonical nature of these students is unclear.

In The New 52, the Green Arrow villain who takes the name Richard Dragon (Ricardo Diaz, Jr.) is revealed to take killed the original man past that name, who had been his sensei, explaining the original Richard Dragon's absence from the New 52.^[8]

Other versions [edit]

Richard Dragon appears in comic continuation of Immature Justice. Appearing in effect #0, Richard Dragon is a fighter of some sort. Wally West had a signed poster of Richard Dragon in his room.

In other media [edit]

• A re-imagining of Richard Dragon named Ricardo Diaz appears as the chief antagonist of the second half of the sixth and starting time half of the seventh season of the live-activeness boob tube serial Arrow, portrayed by Kirk Acevedo with Max Archibald portraying a younger version of the character.^[13] He uses the allonym "Dragon", alluding to the proper noun adopted by his comic counterpart, as well as his internal hatred/passion for arson. Every bit with the Lemire character, Diaz is a grounded offense lord with no costume, but a skilled fighter with dragon tattoos (in this case on his cervix and left shoulder). Initially a drug dealer working nether Cayden James and his Quadrant, he is somewhen revealed as the mastermind behind the scheme, which sees him finer take over Star City with its judges, politicians and police force officers on his payroll. At the end of the season, Oliver Queen exposes and captures everyone on Diaz's payroll, forcing him to go into hiding. In season vii, Diaz looks for revenge on Queen past targeting not merely him, merely also his wife Felicity Smoak and son William. Having hired the Longbow Hunters to aid him, Diaz also obtains a drug, which grants him super-strength. Somewhen, he is captured past Emiko Queen and Team Pointer. Initially incarcerated at Slabside Maximum Security Prison house, Diaz is somewhen fabricated part of the Ghost Initiative, with which A.R.G.U.S. is trying to locate 9th Circle financier Dante, through whom Diaz had hired the Longbow Hunters. Diaz initially plays along, but betrays the operation and helps Dante escape. Taken back to Slabside for violating the deal made to him, he is so burned to death in his cell by Emiko Queen, who is later revealed as the leader of the Ninth Circle, in club to prevent Diaz from revealing more near the Ninth Circle.^[14]
  • In the second role of the "Elseworlds" crossover, John Deegan rewrites reality with the Volume of Destiny. In the new reality, Diaz appears as a police officer, alongside Kane Wolfman and Malcolm Merlyn, where they unsuccessfully attempted to detain "Trigger Twins" Oliver Queen and Barry Allen.
• Richard Dragon appears (along with Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva) in the animated film Batman: Soul of the Dragon, voiced by Mark Dacascos.^[xv] Dissimilar the comics, Richard Dragon is depicted as Asian, visually inspired by Bruce Lee from the film Enter the Dragon.^[16]

References [edit]

1. ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Twelvemonth By Year: A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 163. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter was based on the 1974 novel Dragon'southward Fists past 'Jim Dennis' (the shared pseudonym of comic volume writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Jim Berry).
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Beatty, Scott (2008), "Dragon, Richard", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, p. 110, ISBN978-0-7566-4119-1, OCLC 213309017
3. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 97. ISBN978-1-4654-5357-0.
4. ^ The Question #34 (1990). DC Comics.
5. ^ The Question #35 (1990). DC Comics.
6. ^ The Question #36 (1990). DC Comics.
7. ^ 52 Week Thirty-Viii (2006). DC Comics.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Green Arrow (vol. v) #32. DC Comics.
9. ^ Green Arrow (vol. five) #23. DC Comics.
10. ^ Harras, Bob (2013-07-18). "What's New In The New 52: Meet Richard Dragon". Dccomics.com. Retrieved 2016-10-01 .
11. ^ Light-green Arrow (vol. 5) #31. DC Comics.
12. ^ Green Pointer (vol. 5) #36. DC Comics.
13. ^ "'Arrow': Kirk Acevedo Cast as Ricardo Diaz (Richard Dragon) in Flavor 6". 15 August 2017.
14. ^ "Arrow Flavour 7, Episode fourteen: "Brothers & Sisters" Review - IGN".
15. ^ "1970s-Ready 'Batman' Animated Movie Reveals Cast (Exclusive)". 12 August 2020.
16. ^ "How Batman: Soul of the Dragon Pays Homage to 70s Kung Fu and Bruce Lee". 11 January 2021.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dragon

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