Adventures of Jack Burton "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" Big Trouble in Little China #24 (BOOM! Studios) Written by Fred Van Lente Illustrated by Victor Santos Colors by Gonzalo Duarte Letters by Ed Dukeshire Cover by Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz May 2016

Egg Shen's showdown with his former friend, Lo Pan, in 1906!

Story Summary

Jack's doppelganger sails the Jade Empire back to San Francisco, having killed everyone aboard.

Meanwhile, Egg survives the rubble of the collapsing underground tunnels thanks to a giant centipede from the Black Blood of the Earth, reuniting with Jack. Winona returns to them with Lo Pan and the Three Storms, in her alliance to protect the residents of Chinatown, but Egg is shocked to learn of Lo Pan's new embracing of the dark sorcery and that Lo Pan was subconsciously responsible for the death of Egg's lover, Chin, years ago. Lo Pan spares Egg's life in respect of their recent friendship, and heads into the burning city with the Storms and Winona to take down Whist. Lo Pan kills Whist and takes the man's riches for his own. Winona balks at the murderous turn of events and Lo Pan turns his powers against her, but is saved at the last second by Jack, who has just arrived at the site with Egg.

A sorcerous battle between Egg and Lo Pan ensues. Jack's doppelganger arrives as well, revealed to be the embodiment of the death spell cast against Jack by Koschei (in "All-In"), caught in the time-transport spell and cast back to 1906 as well. The doppelganger goes after Jack, but then Egg casts a spell that makes Lo Pan appear to be Jack. The doppelganger attacks Lo Pan and the dark sorcerer is forced to expend most of his energy to destroy it, leaving him in the withered, decrepit state we find him in in Big Trouble in Little China. The old man is whisked away by the Three Storms, promising to return.

In the aftermath, Egg sends Jack and Winona back to the future, to Jack's time of 1986, leaving Winona still stuck out of her own time of 2015. Soon, Jack realizes that Egg sent them back to the day that his and Wang's adventure in Big Trouble in Little China began!

CONTINTUED IN BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #25

Notes from the Jack Burton chronology

The events of this issue take place in 1906.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

Jack's doppelganger (destroyed in this issue)

Jack Burton

Egg Shen

Winona Chi

Lo Pan

The Three Storms (Thunder, Rain, and Lightning)

Chin (in flashback only, deceased)

Damien Whist (dies in this issue)

Ming Sek

Koschei (mentioned only)

Wang Chi

Didja Know?

Most of the issues of this series did not have individual titles. I borrowed the next issue blurb from the end of the previous issue as the title of this issue, "Shake, Rattle, and Roll".

Didja Notice?

On the cover, notice that the image on the cloth Winona is gripping onto shows it to be Jack's tank top shirt.

On page 4, Jack recognizes the creature Egg rides up from under the underground rubble as "that big nasty centipede thing down by the Black Blood of the Earth". This creature was seen briefly in Big Trouble in Little China as Jack, Egg, Wang, and the rest made their way down through the underground catacombs to Lo Pan's secret lair.

Jack tells Egg to send the giant centipede away before he breaks out the Raid. Raid is a brand of insecticide products.

On page 5, Winona accuses Jack of whitesplaining to her. "Whitesplain" is the act of a white person explaining how a racist action, policy, or behavior is not really racist, usually to a minority person and often in a condescending manner.

Lo Pan explains to Egg who he used to be and has now become again. It is essentially the story he told (i.e. will tell) in Big Trouble in Little China. He adds here that he wandered for so long without flesh, from one end of the Celestial Kingdom to the other, that he forgot his origins until he summoned the Three Storms and they recognized him. "Celestial Kingdom" is a name associated with China during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912).

On page 6, Lo Pan and Egg seem to agree that they first met aboard the Eagle on the trip from China to California at the start of the gold rush. But, in "Bad Weather Comin'", Egg implied to Jack that he and Lo Pan were already friends and Chin insisted on taking the journey along with them.

Winona identifies her smartphone as an iPhone 4. That's kind of an old phone (by modern sensibilities) since it was introduced in 2010 and Winona is from 2015. Apple had released the iPhone 6 by 2015.

On page 13, Jack says he's not ready to die yet because he's got six more payments on his truck. Of course, this would have been back in 1986. Since he was in a magic sleep for almost 30 years, he's presumably delinquent and would have to pay enormous penalties to get the title to the truck.

On page 14, Winona identifies the Jack doppelganger as the death spell that was cast against Jack by Koschei back in "All-In"; it must have been caught in the same teleportation spell cast by Egg that sent Jack and Winona back to 1906.

On page 18, Winona reveals that she has torched the San Francisco Hall of Records under the cover of the rest of the citywide fires, so that Chinese immigrants who were under threat of deportation under the Chinese Exclusion Act can stay, no proof of whether they had a U.S. birth certificate now being available. In fact, the fires set off by the great earthquake of 1906 did burn down the Hall of Records and allowed Chinese immigrants in the city to remain!

Page 19 is an amusing play on the attitude of some of the more uninformed citizens who hate the government.

As Egg prepares to cast the spell that will send Jack and Winona back to the future, he tells them he must stay behind and be ready to confront Lo Pan in case he ever finds flesh again. Jack warns him it will involve two girls with green eyes. Jack's warning is, of course, a reference to the events of Big Trouble in Little China.

Arriving in 1986, Jack spies the National Orient Bank. In Big Trouble in Little China, it was mentioned that David Lo Pan was the chairman of that bank (a fictitious institution).

Jack is thrilled to be back in his own time period of 1986, ecstatic at the sight of feathered hair, Walkmans, boom boxes, and a Joe Backy advertisement. Feathered hair, Walkmans, and boom boxes were all staples of the 1980s; "Walkman" is a brand name for portable audio and video devices manufactured by Sony. The "Joe Backy" tobacco advertising mascot was introduced in "The Samurai of Wall Street".

On the last page of this issue, Jack realizes that Egg sent them back to the day that his and Wang's adventure in Big Trouble in Little China began!