Review by Ian Keogh

Wisely remaining in 1986, this twelve chapter continuation of the Big Trouble in Little China movie reaches its middle section with The Return of Lo Pan & How Jack Burton Became King of the Lords of Death. The Hell of the Midnight Road & the Ghosts of Storms ended with Jack having completed a mission resulting in the resurrection of sorcerer Lo Pan, which wasn’t his intention at all considering how troublesome Lo Pan had been before his death.

This begins with co-writers John Carpenter and Eric Powell showing the ridicule endured by Lo Pan for having been consigned to the Hell of Those Killed by Idiots, as seen on the sample art. They come up with some great daft deaths as experienced by others. Lo Pan’s absence last time was due to his death, but fans of the film may have wondered where Gracie Law was. That’s answered here.

While the opening volume was amusing, there’s a greater quantity of Powell’s delightfully evocative narrative captions here and he’s letting himself go with the dialogue, which is consistently laugh out loud funny. He’s got a real handle on Jack’s idiotically boastful character and the way he refers to himself in the first person, and new to this volume are a series of jokes about his mullet.

As before, though, Brian Churilla’s cartooning doesn’t make the most of the opportunities. This volume ends with a slam-bang battle between ninjas and a motorcycle gang, which should look plain fantastic, but it doesn’t. It’s ordinary.

A clever plot ensures matters run full circle from beginning to end, and the film sequel concludes in Jack Burton in the Hell of No Return. Or you could take a look at all three volumes combined as Big Trouble in Little China: The Legacy Edition Book One.