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Adventures of Jack Burton
"Old Man Jack" Part 6
Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack #6
BOOM! Studios
Written by John Carpenter & Anthony Burch
Illustrated by Jorge Corona
Colored by Gabriel Cassata
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
Cover by Jorge Corona
February 2018 |
Jack, Lo Pan, and Wang face their demons in
Chinatown.
Story Summary
Now in Chinatown, location of Ching Dai's
Throne of Skulls,
Jack, Lo Pan, and Wang face their demons.
Jack is held prisoner by
Centaur-With-Knives until Thunder arrives to take over the
torture. Thunder sets Jack free into Chinatown for the thrill of
the chase and Jack finds himself slowed by his own aging body,
unable to read street signs clearly without glasses and having
terrible back pains. But when Centaur-With-Knives returns, Jack
successfully goads the centaur into fighting with Thunder,
allowing him to make an escape.
Lo Pan also escapes his demonic-pig
tormenter by using Burton-like fighting tactics like "redneck
sucker punch" and "punt to the privates". As Lo Pan then flees,
he literally bumps into Jack and they agree to find Wang and
free him. They find Pete pining for his master outside a
building and they figure Wang must be held inside. They are
correct, but Wang is not particularly happy to see them, as his
torment has reminded him that Jack's actions with Ching Dai are
what brought the Hellpocalypse to Earth and caused the deaths of
Miao Yin and Winona. Wang seems inclined to kill Jack and Lo
Pan, until Jack realizes that the same mystical book of Egg
Shen's that brought Ching Dai to Earth could probably also send
him back to the underworld, if only they could find the book.
Centaur-With-Knives tells them the book is now kept by Ching Dai
inside the Throne of Skulls, but Wang points out the throne is
the size of a skyscraper. Centaur-With-Knives says Ching Dai
wanted to dangle the book just out of Egg Shen's reach for all
eternity.
Which means Egg is still alive, imprisoned
in the Throne of Skulls.
Continued in
"Old Man Jack" Part 7.
Notes from the Jack Burton chronology
This story takes place in the year 2020.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Jack Burton
Centaur-With-Knives
Thunder
Wang Chi
Miao Yin (mentioned only, deceased)
Winona Chi
(mentioned only, deceased)
Rain
(mentioned only, deceased)
Lightning
(mentioned only, deceased)
David Lo Pan
Gracie Law
(mentioned only, deceased)
Ching Dai (mentioned only)
Pete (Yaoguai)
Egg Shen
Didja Know?
Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man
Jack is a 12-issue limited series published by IDW in
2017-2018.
Didja Notice?
On page 1, Jack's narration includes the phrase, "Hell is other
people." This quote originally comes from the 1943 play No
Exit by French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
(1905-1980).
On page 6, Jack tries to read the street signs in Chinatown but
has difficulty making out the words, his eyes not being what
they used to be. The sign he's looking at reads as the corner of
California and Grant, but he thinks they may be Pine or Quincy.
California Street and Grant Avenue is an actual intersection in
Chinatown, but it does not look particularly as presented here.
Pine Street and Quincy Street are also actual roads there, in
fact, their intersection is very close to
California and Grant, so Jack may be as knowledgeable about the
layout of Chinatown as he boasts (like the back of his first
girlfriend's hand).
On page 7, Jack remarks that his cousin George once got into a
fight over sunglasses that went on for a while. This is likely a
reference to
John Carpenter's 1988 cult classic film They Live (the
cover of
"Old Man Jack" Part 5
also included a reference to that film). In
the film, a drifter fights a brawl with his new buddy Frank to
put on a pair of special sunglasses that allow people to see the
subliminal alien manipulation going on all around them; the
brawl goes on for about 6 minutes! The drifter (played by
wrestler-turned-actor Roddy Piper) is not named in the film
except in the end credits is referred to as Nada (Spanish for
"nothing"), so it could be that the drifter, for our purposes, is
named George. Piper also looks a bit like Jack Burton in the
film, even down to the mullet, hence, they could be cousins!
On page 11, while talking to Thunder about Lo Pan, Jack asks,
"Who amongst us hasn't been killed once?" Jack himself did die
in
"The Legendary San Francisco Mystic
Kung Fu Showdown and Knife Fight" (he got better).
On page 15, Lo Pan calls Jack a
"jerky-sucking buffoon" and Jack retorts, "Watch your mouth,
unless you wanna swallow the FDA recommended serving of my
fist!" The
FDA is the Food
and Drug Administration of the United States Department of
Health and Human Services.
On page 17, Lo Pan says he is literally hundreds of years old.
But, he is seemingly at least a couple thousand -plus
years old since he claimed in
"Old Man Jack" Part 5
to have met the legendary Chinese general Sun Tzu, who lived
544-496 BC.
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