Lockheed (character)

Lockheed
File:Lockheed (comics).jpg Lockheed relaxing. Art by Alan Davis
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #166
Created by	Chris Claremont Paul Smith
In-story information
Alter ego	Unknown
Team affiliations	X-Men, Excalibur
Abilities	Fire-breath Flight Empathy

Lockheed is a fictional character, an alien dragon in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the longtime companion of Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), a member of the X-Men and Excalibur. He was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Paul Smith, and first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #166 (February 1983).

Character biography

In Uncanny X-Men #153 ("Kitty's Fairy Tale"; January 1982), Kitty Pryde, the teenaged member of the X-Men, told a bedtime story to Illyana Rasputin, who was living with the X-Men at the time. The story recast the X-Men (including the recently deceased Phoenix) in the roles of fairy tale characters. One such character was the dragon "Lockheed", who was based on the modified SR-71 Blackbird jet aircraft used by the team. The name originates from the Lockheed Corporation, makers of the Blackbird.

Not long after, the X-Men were kidnapped into outer space by the alien Brood. Inside the Brood starship, Kitty discovered an extra-terrestrial dragon who resembled the creature from her fairy tale, except that he was the size of a cat. He saved her from the Brood and then departed with her, leaving behind his fiancée, who he was due to wed the following day. She tried to hide his presence from Professor X and her teammates, but he was revealed back on Earth when he again saved her life, this time from a nest of alien Sidrian hunter hatchlings. The X-Men accepted his presence in the X-Mansion, and has since been Kitty's longtime companion.

During the Secret Wars miniseries, the X-Men, including Lockheed, were transported to an alien planet, where Lockheed met a female alien dragon. This second dragon accompanied Lockheed and his allies to Earth, but she grew to gigantic size upon arrival, rampaged across Tokyo, and was ultimately killed. In addition to serving alongside her with the X-Men, he joined her when she founded the British superhero team Excalibur. An alternate reality's counterpart of Lockheed served as Excalibur's means as interdimensional transport during the "Cross-Time Caper" storyline; this Lockheed eventually departed with Excalibur's sometime foes, the Technet. Lockheed made few appearances following the departure of writer/artist Alan Davis from the Excalibur series; later issues suggested that he had simply gone into hiding, and had stayed away because he disapproved of Kitty's then-boyfriend, Pete Wisdom. Both Kitty and Lockheed are currently appearing in the pages of Astonishing X-Men.

File:Shadowcat (comics) 2.jpg

Shadowcat and Lockheed from their Excalibur days, with Widget. Art by Alan Davis

Character Traits

Appearance and Powers

Lockheed looks like a small dragon of medieval European legend about the size of a cat. He has purple skin, sharp claws and teeth, two small, curved horns protruding from the back of his head, and wings that enable him to fly. He can breathe fire with extreme intensity, and is a surprisingly formidable combatant for his size, having once destroyed a nest of Sidri hatchlings, and at another time bested a fully armored medieval knight-in-training. Quite tellingly, the Brood that he confronted upon his first appearance were terrified and immediately fled upon seeing him. His brain is immune to telepathic probing by telepaths such as Professor X. He is also an empath, which allows him to understand human speech.

Character Evolution

Lockheed’s appearance and character, as depicted by the various artists who illustrated him, as well as writer Chris Claremont, evolved from the time of his first appearance to his later appearances in Excalibur. When he first appeared as drawn by Paul Smith, he was largely quadripedal, with red eyes lacking any pupils or irises, a small triangular head about half a foot long, teeth protruding outward from his upper and lower jaws, and his intelligence appeared comparable with that of a dog. By the time of his appearances in Excalibur, as drawn by Alan Davis, he had been anthropomorphized considerably. His eyes were now human-like, with white corneas and black irises (though at times they were colored yellow and red or orange, respectively), and he was capable of more human-like facial expressions and gestures, including standing on his hind legs (which may have been partially due to the humorous, satirical tone of the original Excalibur comic book). His teeth no longer stuck out the sides of his mouth, his head was more oblong, and his jaw now much longer. Recently he has reverted more to his previous appearance. He no longer stands on his hind legs, he has lost the comical appearance for the most part, and his eyes are once again without pupils. He still retains the same personality and skills, though. Initially, his only vocalizations included mostly animal-like sounds like cooing or roars, but hints were dropped as early as Uncanny X-Men #168 that he was capable of more articulate words like “oops”, and was shown as capable of speaking some words of English years later, as in Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men #4 (June 1987), and Excalibur volume 1, #64 (April 1993). Why these examples of his speech are intermittent, and not mentioned by those around him, has not been explained. Even in his times of muteness, he appears to understand what is said and done around him. While Lockheed sometimes tries to give the impression of being unintelligent, at other times he demonstrates outstanding powers of deduction, awareness and intelligence. He is very loyal to Kitty, and shares a close rapport with her, possibly psychic in nature.