Lockheed (comics)
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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).
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[edit] Biography
In Uncanny X-Men #153, 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", 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. On this planet, 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.
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.
By leaving so unexpectedly with Kitty, he left behind his fiancée whom he was due to wed the following day. Later (in the Excalibur episode "The Trial of Lockheed", Excalibur #40, 1991) he was apprehended by the Flock and had to stand trial for treason. After managing to explain his motives and saving his fellows from an accident, he was officially exiled from his race, but on amiable terms.
During the Secret Wars miniseries, 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. In addition to serving alongside Kitty with the X-Men, he joined her when she founded the British superhero team Excalibur.
An alternate reality's counterpart of Lockheed served as Excalibur's means as 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 made few appearances following the departure of writer/artist Alan Davis from the Excalibur series; later issues suggested that he had simply gone into hiding and had stayed away because he disapproved of Kitty's then-boyfriend, Pete Wisdom, though he did once save Wisdom's life. Lockheed started appearing more frequently after Kitty left the X-Men to go back to college. After she returned the team, he joined her. When the X-Men were battling the alien Ord, it was Lockheed who saved the day by burning Ord. Whilst Kitty was simply happy that Lockheed had arrived, Wolverine said he thought they should make the dragon team leader.
Both Kitty and Lockheed are currently appearing in the pages of Astonishing X-Men.
In Astonishing X-men #17, it is revealed that Lockheed is the mole within the Institute for S.W.O.R.D..
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
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.
[edit] Merchandise
The Kitty Pryde Marvel Legends action figure comes with Lockheed as an accessory. An earlier (non Marvel Legends) figure of Illyana Rasputin also came with a Lockheed accessory, as did the Captain Britain figure - but it was much larger in size.
[edit] Appearances in other media
In X-Men: Evolution Lockheed is not present, but instead of a teddy bear Kitty's apparent favorite stuffed toy is a dragon.
