Lockheed (character)
| Lockheed | |
|---|---|
 Lockheed. Art by Paul Smith. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb 1983) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont Paul Smith |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Lockheed, the Dragon |
| Team affiliations | SWORD, X-Men, Excalibur, Flock |
| Abilities | Fire projection, Flight, Empathy |
Lockheed is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. He is an alien dragon that is the longtime companion of Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), a member of the X-Men and Excalibur. He was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Paul Smith and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #166 (February 1983).
Fictional character biography
Lockheed is the member of a highly advanced dragon-like extra-terrestrial race, who are capable of travelling through space via special astral ships which transport their essences. Their society is similar to insect hives, with the individual being only part of the "Flock". Lockheed had been celebrated by his people as a brave fighter and hero against the Brood. He has demonstrated individual attitudes and wishes, however, which were realized only when he encountered the X-Men.
When Kitty Pryde, the teenaged member of the X-Men, told a bedtime story to Illyana Rasputin, who was living with the X-Men at the time. The story recast the X-Men, including the recently deceased Jean Grey, in the roles of fairy tale characters. One such character was a giant black dragon named "Lockheed"[1], who was based on the modified SR-71 Blackbird jet aircraft used by the team (The name originates from the Lockheed Corporation, makers of the Blackbird).
Not long thereafter, the X-Men were kidnapped into outer space by the alien Brood and taken to a Brood-colonised planet. Here, Kitty met a cat-sized purple dragon who resembled the creature from her fairy tale. He saved her from the Brood and then departed with her. She tried to hide his presence from Professor X and her teammates, but he was revealed back on Earth when he again saved her life, this time from a nest of alien Sidrian hunter hatchlings. The X-Men accepted his presence in the X-Mansion, and Lockheed has since been Kitty's longtime companion.
During the Secret Wars the X-Men, including Lockheed, were transported to an alien planet, where Lockheed met a green, female alien dragon. This second dragon accompanied Lockheed and his allies to Earth, but she grew to gigantic size upon arrival, rampaged across Tokyo and was apparently killed, though the dragon eventually resurfaced (and was again assisted by Kitty and Lockheed). In addition to serving alongside Kitty with the X-Men, he joined her when she founded the British superhero team Excalibur. There he would form a friendship with Widget, who was also a version of Kitty.
During his time with the team, Lockheed participated in the so-called 'Cross-Time Caper', which involved he and his team leaping through dimensions on an a train. The train itself came from an alternate universe and it was discovered the power source was an alternate version of Lockheed himself. The two Lockheeds became good friends even though the other desired to stay in the train. Even though, the alternate left with Numbers, a member of the interdimensional Technet.
Lockheed's past incidents came back to haunt him. By leaving so unexpectedly with Kitty, he left behind his fiancée whom he was due to wed the following day. Later, while healing from injuries gained from fighting Doctor Doom, his astral form was apprehended by the Flock and had to stand trial for treason. In astral form, Lockheed was capable of speech. After managing to explain his motives and saving his fellows from an accident, he was officially exiled from his race, but on amiable terms[2].
Lockheed's affections for Kitty earned him the ire of the interdimensional entities called Bamfs. These small versions of Nightcrawler also loved Kitty, in their own way. They kidnapped and restrained him for some time. Unfortunately Lockheed's penchant for vanishing days at a time did not help.
Having gone into hiding Lockheed had stayed away because he disapproved of Kitty's then-boyfriend, Pete Wisdom. Lockheed demonstrated that he has the ability to speak, but only talked to Wisdom, telling him that he "'ated him" but Kitty believed Wisdom to be joking with her. Peter suffered the theft of his clothing and ciggarettes. Even so, Lockheed did eventually save Peter's life.
Later, after Kitty left Excalibur and the X-Men entire, Lockheed was found wounded and confused by a pair of super-powered young girls. He bonded with them until he realized how mean and nasty they were. The girls were defeated by a more powerful girl their age, who used her own powers to direct Lockheed to Kitty.
Kitty eventually re-joined with the X-Men and Lockheed happily followed. When the X-Men were battling the alien Ord, it was Lockheed who saved the day with his fire breath.
Lockheed became part of a training incident for the younger students at Xaiver's institute. He was 'it' in a game of tag, hiding in the middle of the hedge maze. This created problems because many of the students found it hard to actually believe in a living, miniature dragon.
Template:Spoilers It is revealed that Lockheed is the mole within the Institute for S.W.O.R.D.[3].
Powers and abilities
Lockheed looks like a small European dragon about the size of a cat. He has purple skin, sharp claws and teeth, two small, curved horns protruding from the back of his head and wings that enable him to fly. He can breathe fire with extreme intensity and is a surprisingly formidable combatant for his size, having once destroyed a nest of Sidri hatchlings and at another time bested a fully armored medieval knight-in-training. Quite tellingly, the Brood that he confronted upon his first appearance were terrified and immediately fled upon seeing him. His brain is immune to telepathic probing by telepaths such as Professor X. He is also an empath which allows him to understand human speech. He is able to speak English as well, but rarely does it.
Character evolution
Lockheed’s appearance and character, as depicted by the various artists who illustrated him as well as writer Chris Claremont, evolved from the time of his first appearance to his later appearances in Excalibur. When he first appeared as drawn by Paul Smith, he was largely quadripedal, with red eyes lacking any pupils or irises, a small triangular head about half a foot long, teeth protruding outward from his upper and lower jaws and his intelligence appeared comparable with that of a dog. By the time of his appearances in Excalibur as drawn by Alan Davis, he had been anthropomorphized considerably.
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His eyes were now human-like, with white corneas and black irises, though at times they were colored yellow and red or orange and he was capable of more human-like facial expressions and gestures, including standing on his hind legs, which may have been partially due to the humorous, satirical tone of the original Excalibur comic book. His teeth no longer stuck out the sides of his mouth, his head was more oblong and his jaw now much longer. Recently he has reverted more to his previous appearance. He no longer stands on his hind legs, he has lost the comical appearance for the most part and his eyes are once again without pupils. He still retains the same personality and skills. Initially, his only vocalizations included mostly animal-like sounds like cooing or roars, but hints were dropped as early as Uncanny X-Men #168 that he was capable of more articulate words like “oops” and was shown as capable of speaking some words of English years later in Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men #4 (June 1987) and Excalibur volume 1, #64 (April 1993). During his tenure on Excalibur, Warren Ellis left no uncertainty about Lockheed's intelligence: he is capable of conversant speech (although for some reason he speaks in a Cockney accent, despite spending most of his life in America and Scotland), however, the only member of Excalibur who ever hears him is Kitty's boyfriend Peter Wisdom, whom Lockheed dislikes. Pete tries to convince the other members that Lockheed can talk, but, in one of the repeated gags of Ellis' run, they refuse to believe him. Even in his times of muteness, he appears to understand what is said and done around him. While Lockheed sometimes tries to give the impression of being unintelligent, at other times he demonstrates outstanding powers of deduction, awareness and intelligence. He is very loyal to Kitty and shares a close rapport with her that is possibly psychic in nature. In Astonishing X-Men an alien telepath confirmed this by saying that Lockheed and Kitty were deeply connected and that the dragon could locate her through that bond.
Other versions
An alternate reality's counterpart of Lockheed served as Excalibur's means of interdimensional transport during the "Cross-Time Caper" storyline; this larger, female Lockheed eventually departed with Excalibur's sometime foes, the Technet, after having mated with their member Numbers and giving birth to his children.
Lockheed has not appeared in the Ultimate Universe, but in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1, a fantasy fiction-based Danger Room scenario involves Kitty as a damsel captured by a large purple dragon, which closely resembles Lockheed apart from its size.
In other media
Television
- Lockheed appeared in Pryde of the X-Men.
- In X-Men: Evolution Lockheed is not present, but instead of a teddy bear Kitty's apparent favorite stuffed toy is a dragon.
Novels
- Lockheed is Shadowcat's pet dragon in the novel to X-Men: The Last Stand
Merchandise
- An early New Mutants figure of Illyana Rasputin came with a Lockheed accessory, as did the Captain Britain figure - but it was much larger in size.
- The Kitty Pryde Marvel Legends action figure comes with Lockheed as an accessory.
- The Kitty Pryde HeroClix Unique figurine from the Xplosion expansion set has Shadowcat with Lockheed on her arm. Lockheed was also released in Pog form for the Sinister expansion set.