WHITE
DRAGONWHITE
DRAGON
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human, technology user; Chinese(?) citizen
Occupation: scientist; terrorist; would-be world conqueror
Affiliations: agent of the Council of Nine; Shara-Lee; his troops (Commander Kreol, Davina, T'Zin)
Enemies: Avengers (Captain America), Falcon, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Shara-Lee's father, the United Nations
Known Relatives: none
Aliases: "He Who is a Coward" <translation of White Dragon>
Base of Operations: a submarine, apparently based in the East River while in the USA
First Appearance: Iron Man I#39 (July, 1971)
Powers/Abilities: None. The White Dragon is a talented weapons inventor and a trained scientist. He was served by a small squadron of armored agents. He operated out of a submarine armed with various weapons.
Among his advanced equipment was torpedoes or missiles that could be used to launch his armored warriors a great distance at rapid speed. He used a device called a Transcriber, which allowed him to transfer his thoughts and commands into the minds of others. He could also implant devices into other beings minds which allowed him to control or monitor them from a distance, or slay them on command. He designed sonically pressurized bullets, which would implode on impact.
History: His origins are largely unrevealed.
(Iron Man I#39 + 40
(fbs) - BTS) - At some point in the past, the man who would
become the White Dragon served as a scientist in a Chinese(?)
organization known only as the Council, or the Nine. While the
scientist was known to be quite brilliant, his abilities--or more
specifically his ability to handle his own talents--was called in
question by one of the Council. As a result, the scientist lost
face and went into self-imposed exile until he could prove
himself. He was joined by Shara-Lee, his lover and the daughter
of the man who had denounced him.
(Iron Man I#39) - The White Dragon had his agents implant a gas bomb within the car of one of America's top industrialists, Anthony Stark. Stark succumbed to the gas and drove off a bridge, and he was rescued from drowning by the Dragon's agents. Stark was brought to the Dragon's submarine, where he was placed within the Transcriber, which allowed the Dragon to reprogram his mind. Upon being released, Stark began to create new weapons and arranged a meeting with the United Nations to discuss his plans. The Dragon planned to cause Stark to create weapons which would fail, and would disgrace the United States. All of the weapons designed in the past by Stark would be junked, leaving the nation virtually defenseless. The plan would hopefully also enable the Dragon to infiltrate and destroy the USA's Department of Defense.
However, not much later, Stark donned his Iron Man armor out of habit, which weakened the transmission being sent into his mind by the White Dragon. Stark discovered that he was somehow being manipulated, and he traveled in his Iron Man armor to the source of the transmissions. The White Dragon detected both his loss of control of Stark, and Iron Man's approach. He sent some of his armored agents to attack Iron Man, who was still in a mental fog from the weak transmissions. Iron Man was defeated by the armored agents, but before they could bring him back to the Dragon, they were attacked by Iron Man's allies, the Avengers. The agents fled from the Avengers, and Iron Man left to try to figure out what was going on with him.
Figuring that his efforts with Stark were a failure, the White Dragon triggered the destruction of the device he had implanted in Stark's skull, which would also destroy Stark. Blunted by the Iron Man armor, the signal's destruction of the device did not kill him, but merely knocked him unconscious. However, he was in mid-flight at the time, and he dropped to the ground, where he was recovered by his ally, Kevin O'Brian. The White Dragon's monitors observed as Iron Man dropped from the sky when he triggered the device, and he correctly reasoned that Stark actually was Iron Man.
(Iron Man I#40) - The White Dragon's agents planted a nuclear weapon in the East River by the UN Building, with which he planned to destroy the council present at Stark's meeting. However, Stark knew something was awry with the weapons plans of which had no memories of creating, and so he cancelled his meeting with the UN. The White Dragon then tried to take control of Stark anew, but found him in his Iron Man armor. The Transcriber's power had been drained from its recent use, and was ineffective at penetrating the armor at so great a distance.
The White Dragon sent his armored agents after Iron Man again. While they knocked Iron Man into the River, he proved capable of disabling them and their undersea crafts. Iron Man then destroyed the White Dragon's submarine's ballast tanks, causing it to sink to the bottom of the river, where it would remain trapped. The White Dragon was stunned by Iron Man's blasting of the submarine, but Shara-Lee was fully conscious when Iron Man boarded the ship. She revealed that she had been in control the whole time, and that the White Dragon was just a pawn.
Shara-Lee then showed Iron Man a video image of Stark Industries, which showed the plant blowing up. She figured that Stark's technicians had somehow located and triggered the weapon that they had forced him to design. Laughing at this victory over Stark, Shara-Lee cared little that Iron Man had maneuvered himself close enough to disable the detonation device for the bomb by the UN Building. Iron Man then took off to see if he could save anyone at his plant.
The White Dragon, having heard Shara-Lee mocking him and calling him her dupe, decided there was only one way to regain his self-respect. He triggered the submarine's self-destruct mechanism, killing both he and Shara-Lee.
Iron Man returned to Stark Industries, to find that O'Brien had found the White Dragon's spy cameras, and had faked the explosion in order to draw out the saboteurs.
Comments: Created by Gerry Conway and Herb Trimpe.
Not the most memorial of stories. I read this for the first time a few weeks before writing the profile, and I was barely able to remember anything about it when it came time to write the profile. Had to re-read it before doing it.
I guess we'll never learn anything about the Council of Nine.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
The Council of Nine, aka the Council and the Nine, has no known connections to:
T'Zin has no known connection to:
Kreol served as commander of the group. Davina and T'Zin were also named. In combat they wore armored suits that gave them superhuman strength and durability and allowed them to fly and project energy blasts. The White Dragon blamed all failures on Kreol, and Davina found Kreol to be incompetent as well. When Kreol nearly killed Iron Man when they were supposed to capture him, she attacked him physically. The distraction allowed Iron Man to destroy their mini-submarine.
All were likely have been killed in the destruction of the submarine, but some could have survived.
--Iron Man I#39 (40
--Iron Man I#39 (40
Shara-Lee
She was the daughter of the scientist who had denounced the White Dragon. She posed as his lover, but thought him a fool and merely manipulated him to her own ends. She led him towards her goals, knowing that it would be he who took the blame in the event of failure, and he who would be killed if he succeeded. She died alongside the White Dragon when he blew up his submarine after learning the truth about her.
--Iron Man I#39 (40
Council of Nine
Next to nothing is known of this group, which is referred to as "The Council" and "The Nine." They would appear to be of Chinese origin, and they are enemies of the USA. I'd guess that they might have been bent on world domination as well.
At any rate, the White Dragon had lost face in their eyes as a result of Shara-Lee's father's comments. His goal was to redeem himself to them. Shara-Lee's father was presumably one of the Nine, but this remains unconfirmed.
--Iron Man I#39-BTS (39 + 40 (fbs-BTS)
Appearances:
Iron Man I#39 (July, 1971) - Gerry Conway (writer), Herb Trimpe (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#40 (August, 1971) - Gerry Conway (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Jim Mooney (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
First Posted: 02/12/2003
Last updated: 02/12/2003
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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