Adventures of Jack Burton "Old Man Jack" Part 10 Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack #10 BOOM! Studios Written by John Carpenter & Anthony Burch Illustrated by Jorge Corona Colored by Gabriel Cassata Lettered by Ed Dukeshire Cover by Brett Parson June 2018

Jack has a plan to defeat the newly god-powered Lo Pan, but first he has to die and go to Heaven.

Story Summary

Lo Pan uses his new god-power given to him by Ching Dai to kill Wang and send Miao Yin and Winona to the underworld. He leaves Jack alive to witness the death of God at Lo Pan's own hands.

Egg's ghost appears to Jack, telling him he must come up with a plan to stop Lo Pan before he invades Heaven. Just then, Thunder arrives, telling Jack that Lo Pan made him his torturer. He tries to torture Jack with various implements, but Jack is too depressed to feel much, taking all the fun out of it for Thunder. Since Thunder has repeatedly tried and failed to kill Jack in the past, Jack tells Thunder he'll let him kill him in exchange for Thunder telling the Army of the Beast to storm the Throne of Skulls at high noon the next day. Thunder accepts the bargain and immediately snaps Jack's neck, killing him.

Jack finds himself at the pearly gates of Heaven and meets St. Peter for the weighing of his sins. The scales wind up going dead even for Jack, which St. Peter has never seen before and he doesn't know what to do. The internal conflict causes Peter's head to explode. Jack picks up the key to the gates from the corpse and lets himself in.

On the other side of the gates, he meets a giant puffer-fish-like creature swimming in the air as a guide. But the fish sees that the gatekeeper is dead and declares Jack to be an intruder who must be ejected. Jack tries to flee and finds Wang and Pete in Heaven's waiting room. Wang puts in a good word for Jack and the fish agrees that Jack can stay for one day and if he behaves maybe he can stay for good.

Jack tries to tell Wang about his plan to save Earth, but Wang interrupts and reintroduces him to the angelic Gracie Law.

Continued in "Old Man Jack" Part 11.

Notes from the Jack Burton chronology

This story takes place in the year 2020.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

Jack Burton

David Lo Pan

Wang Chi

Winona Chi

Miao Yin

Ching Dai (mentioned only)

Egg Shen (in ghost form only)

Thunder

Pete (Yaoguai) (in afterlife only)

St. Peter (gatekeeper)

Esmerelda (flying puffer fish, named in "Old Man Jack" Part 11)
Gracie Law (in afterlife only) 

Didja Know?

Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack is a 12-issue limited series published by IDW in 2017-2018.

Didja Notice?

As he takes his leave of Jack on page 3, Lo Pan says, "Seacrest out." This is the phrase often used by celebrity variety show host Ryan Seacrest to say goodbye.

On page 4, Egg's ghost appears to Jack to give him advice, "like in Star Wars." In the Star Wars series of films and related media, some Force-powerful characters are able to appear as discorporate figures to speak to the living after death.

On page 5, Thunder pricks Jack with the Needle of Unyielding Agony. The name may be an intentional play on the Needle of Eternal Agony seen in the video role-playing game Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3 game system.

Jack allows Thunder to kill him and arrives at the pearly gates of Heaven. The figure with the book who greets the newly-deceased at the gates is meant to be St. Peter, said by some Christian denominations to accept or reject the deceased's entrance to Heaven. In this story, he is referred to only as the Gatekeeper.

On page 13, Jack cries out, "Even stevens!" when the scale of his sins tips back to equal. "Even-stevens" or "Even-steven" is a term from at least as far back as mid-19th Century, standing for two things that equal out or comprise an equal deal between two people.

On page 21, Wang begins to lead Jack to meet someone in Heaven and Jack asks if it's General George S. Patton, because they're going to need the firepower. Patton was a U.S. Army general during WWII, one of the leading Allied commanders in the war.