Okay, I know I’m re-jigging an old topic here, but I thought I’d have a crack at this one.
No, the cartoon was not based on the comic series – but my theory is it was originally supposed to be. I’ve brought this up before, but look at the Yinyang-like , from the cartoon and DDV game. Now, look at the Yinyang-like symbol of the Double Dragon, from the comic (On Billy's shoulder, on the Issue #1 cover, and in the bottom-left corner, on the Issue #3 cover). They’re too similar to be a coincidence. They’re EXACTLY the same!
There’s also the fact that Marian is a cop, also taken from the comics (yeah, she’s a cop in the Super / Return of DD storyline, but the comics were released years before that game).
If I had to guess, I’d say that DiC got the rights to do a series based on the Double Dragon games, but ran into legal trouble with Marvel, so they decided to go in a different direction.
The first episode is loosely based on the NES game. Billy has to rescue Marian from the Shadow Boss, who of course turns out to be Jimmy. It actually does feature Abobo, and “Wild” Willy (re-cast as a cowboy, but still based on his purple-suited appearance in the Zap Pax cards).
If they'd kept things going in that direction, the cartoon series could've been a lot better. Jimmy could still be betrayed by the Shadow Master and switch sides in ep 2, except the Master would be based on the Mysterious Warrior, and the Shadow Warriors would be inspired video game counterparts: Burnov, Right Arm, etc.
Likewise, instead of Vortex and Kona, we'd get new Dragon Warriors based on in-game allies: Seimei, Ranzou and Roney.
|