History: (Fantastic Four Annual I#16 (fb))- Ral Dorn was the second human to train to become a Dragon Rider, after his father, who had been lost on a mission. He trained side-by-side with his friend Lalique under the Hudaks, and learnt how to care for the dragons kept in the Dragon Pens. At last, Dorn and Lalique were accepted as Dragon Riders, but were told by the Hudaks that they would have no dragons. Dorn could not understand this, and stormed off angrily to the Dragon Pens. At the pens, he found all of the dragons dead, poisoned. Arriving people assumed that Dorn was guilty of poisoning them, and he went on the run. The Dragon Lord Skagerackrakor opposed Dorn, but Dorn fought him, and gravely injured the left side of his face. Dorn escaped to earth with Lalique, and hoped to locate the android Dragon Man, so that he could make him his own dragon steed.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#16)- Pursued by the Dragon Riders, Dragon Lord set off to the college campus where Dragon Man was first built. Wounded by the Dragon Riders, he found the Thing, who sent him to a hospital.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#16 (fb))- In the hospital, Dorn was visited by Lalique, who healed his injuries. However, Lalique no longer believed in Dorn's innocence, and left him to rejoin the Dragon Riders.

(Fantastic Four Annual I#16)- Dorn set off to the Baxter Building to ask the Fantastic Four for help, but was mistaken for an enemy by the Human Torch. He absorbed the Torch's flame to defend himself, but as a result, the Torch fell from the sky, but was then saved by Lalique. Dorn managed to convince the Thing of his innocence, and the Fantastic Four assisted him against the Dragon Riders, who were driven off. He then related his past to them, and stated his desire to find the Dragon Man. The Fantastic Four agreed to assist him.

    Dorn and the Fantastic Four found the Dragon Man in a mineshaft in Pennsylvania, but were pursued by the Dragon Riders. To escape, Dorn teleported himself and the Dragon Man into "cul-de-sac" dimension, accidentally taking the Invisible Girl with him. There, he began to bond with the Dragon Man, and it accepted him as its rider. Dorn then returned to Rammatpolen with the Dragon Man and Invisible Girl to face his charges. Accused by Skagerackrakor of having incited violence, Dorn agreed to face him in combat. In the course of their battle, Skagerackrakor used an illegal grenade launcher on Dorn, but only broke his Dragonstaff. The Dragon Man defeated Skagerackrakor's dragon, and Skagerackrakor was made to confess that he had poisoned the dragons in their pens. However, Skagerackrakor had also released all of the dragons of Rammatpolen on earth to destroy it! Dorn, the other Dragon Riders, and the Fantastic Four managed to bring all of the dragons back to Rammatpolen safely, and Dorn was made the new Dragon Lord in place of Skagerackrakor. Dorn hoped that now he might learn what happened to his father...

(Deadpool Team-Up III#2 (fb) - BTS) - Once during a siege in Rammatpolen, Dorn hid in the Weirdworld dimension, where he befriended Crystar.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Dorn was reunited with Dragon Man, who had spent most of the intervening years on Earth. Skagerackrakor's son, Baron Skagerackrakor, sought revenge on Dorn for humiliating his father. The Baron stole Dorn's Dragonstaff. To lure the Baron into a trap in an attempt to reclaim his Dragonstaff, Dorn stole dragon eggs.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#2 (fb) - BTS) - Dorn gave the dragon eggs to Crystar to hide on Weirdworld.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#1 (fb)) - When the Baron went to find the dragon eggs on Earth he attacked Deadpool because Deadpool had been asking about dragon's eggs. Dragon Lord and Dragon Man came to Deadpool's aid and Dorn recaptured the Dragonstaff from the Baron. While Dragon Man fought the Baron's steed, Wolverine suddenly appeared and Dorn opened a portal to Weirdworld, bringing Deadpool and Wolverine with him, where they were met by Crystar.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#2) - Dorn stopped a fight between Deadpool, Wolverine and Crystar by identifying Crystar as a friend. As Crystar led them to the hidden dragon eggs they were attacked by a Swamp Serpent. Dorn used the Dragonstaff to summon a champion to defeat the creature, teleporting the Hulk into Weirdworld.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#3) - Unfortunately, the Hulk Dragon Lord had summoned had been teleported from the past and was savage and difficult to reason with. Dragon Lord used the Dragonstaff to hurl the Hulk away into Weirdworld's swamps. Finally arriving at the dragon eggs, they were blocked by the alternate reality heroes Major X and Lady Deadpool.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#4) - After a needless fight against Major X and Lady Deadpool, Cable appeared and explained if the dragon eggs were moved from Weirdworld it would result in an alternate future in which the eggs became Dragon Men who would threaten the Earth. Apologizing, Dorn decided they should leave the eggs in Weirdworld. Journeying with Cable, Major X and Lady Deadpool, Dorn, Deadpool and Wolverine journeyed into the future of Earth-19647, where Baron Skagerackrakor and his Dragon Men were at their peak of power. Joining with that reality's versions of Hercules, Ghost-Spider, Doc Samson and Shatterstar, the heroes prepared to combat the Baron.

(Deadpool Team-Up III#5) - Dorn attacked Baron Skagerackrakor and defeated him, then used the Dragonstaff to bring Deadpool and Wolverine back to Earth just a moment after they had left. He thanked them for their help.

Comments: Created by Ed Hannigan and Steve Ditko.

    The end of Fantastic Four Annual I#16 asked readers to write in if they liked Dragon Lord. Guess what? Never seen again 'til 2024. There wasn't much demand.

    The Dragon Man next appeared in Incredible Hulk II#292, no longer Dragon Lord's steed. He was back with him in Deadpool Team-Up III#1 but since one of them is a classic Fantastic Four character and the other is a trivia answer, they're unlikely to stick together.

    Deadpool Team-Up III#1 opened on a scene of Deadpool and Dragon Lord confronting a dragon named Persillex who was guarding the dragon eggs, then went into a flashback to explain how they came to be there - but the series never returned to that moment, nor was Persillex seen again.

    Thanks to Loki for cleaning up the main image and providing the logo!

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dragon Lord should not be confused with:

• DRAGON-LORD of Krakinowa, enemy of the Sub-Mariner--Sub-Mariner I#52
• DRAGON LORD, enemy of the Wani--Marvel Spotlight II#5
• The DRAGON LORD of K'un L'un, Yü-Ti--Marvel Premiere I#15
• DRAGON LORDS ( ) - gang of White Dragon--Amazing Spider-Man I#184
• DRAGON LORDS of Kakarantharnia (Chi Chan, Fin Fang Foom, Chen Hsu, Axonn Karr, Wu Pong + 6)--Strange Tales#89; Iron Man I#272
• DRAGON LORDS of Lemuria - enemies of Thongor--Wizard of Lemuria; Creatures on the Loose I#26