the adventures of Lockjaw

Lockjaw saves the world.... and his friends... and other worlds... again and again. He probably saves the world more often than any other character who has never had their own comic. And he does it in such a unique way!

Fantastic Four 45: the first appearance of Lockjaw
In this issue, Crystal introduces the main facts about Lockjaw: He serves Black Bolt He's nearly as wonderful and powerful as Black Bolt. And as if to prove it, our hero Lockjaw finds a way through a demolished building, so Crystal can be reunited with her family

FF 46: even the Thing can't defeat Lockjaw

The Inhumans need to fight the FF, so Karnak does the smart thing: he calls Lockjaw! Lockjaw looks around, instantly assesses the situation, and pins down Ben. Note that this is even before he's commanded to do so. He uses his own initiative. Then when the royal family are injured, exhausted and outnumbered, he takes them to safety. Note that he takes his rightful place at the center of the picture, and the other, smaller characters surround him.

FF annual 4: Lockjaw saves Johnny's life

The young Johnny Storm is unable to defeat the bigger, more experienced original torch, so Lockjaw brings Reed and co. to save them. They are suitably impressed! Notice that Lockjaw's powers are vast and largely unexplored: not just great strength and dimensional travel, but the ability (in theory) to read minds. Yet nobody thinks to explore those powers, because they say "oh, he's just a dog..."

FF annual 5: Lockjaw saves the day again

In this story, nobody can defeat Psycho-man. But Lockjaw calculates that perhaps the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans together can do the job. And that is just what happens, - they defeat Psycho-man, thanks to Lockjaw. Notice that this was apparently his own initiative, nobody told him to.

FF 131: Lockjaw saves Quicksilver's life

Time and again, Lockjaw seems to be lost, but is in fact taking people where they are most needed. The second story in FF 118 is a good example
of this (see the page on intelligence: Lockjaw takes The Thing to an alternate reality where Reed became the rocky one). FF 131 has another example - somehow he knew that Quicksilver lay dying, so he brought Crystal to save the speedster's life.

As a result of nursing him back to life, Crystal fell in love. Thus it was Lockjaw who began the most dramatic and eventful marriage in all comics - as two flawed people, from three very different cultures (human, mutant and inhuman) take the rough with the smooth. The Quicksilver/Crystal relationship is deeper and far more interesting than most comic marriages, but that's exactly what you'd expect when Lockjaw plays matchmaker.... ..and no prizes for guessing how they traveled to their honeymoon at the end of FF 150.

FF 160: Lockjaw saves the worlds (yes, worlds, plural)

FF 159-164 had one of the biggest, most complicated plots ever: parallel earths were declaring war on each other, and nobody knew why. The Fantastic Four were helpless to discover what was happening. And if you need to save worlds but don't know what to do, who ya gonna call? That's right, Lockjaw! (in issue 160, left) With just a single scrap of material, Lockjaw was able to trace the villain across the dimensions. This allowed the Thing to find the parallel world's Reed Richards, who was then able (in issue 162, right) to contact THIS world's Reed Richards, and save the worlds. It's easy, thanks to Lockjaw.

FF annual 12, Lockjaw rescues the Inhumans so they can save the world

Crystal was frozen in a tube, by a villain who was ready to kill anyone who tried to escape. Lockjaw distracts the villain, then rescues her in a split second, then takes her straight to the Baxter Building (home of the Fantastic Four).

Later in the same story, Lockjaw rescues Black Bolt and the other Inhumans from the Sphinx in a similar way - he waits until the Sphinx is distracted, and then quickly teleports to rescue his master. The Sphinx had the power and determination to kill every human on earth. So Lockjaw has saved the world - again.

Avengers annual 12, Lockjaw does it again

In Avengers annual 12, Black Bolt declares war on earth. Only Lockjaw is able to work out the truth, that Maximus the Mad has switched bodies with Black Bolt. So Lockjaw tells everyone (he does not need to use words), and he saves the world. Again!

And so it goes on.

I haven't included all the times when Lockjaw transports people when instructed by others. Time and again he transports people instantly, when time is crucial. If Lockjaw was not there, they would be delayed by minutes, hours, or even years, and the bad guys would have won many times. For this reason, Lockjaw has probably saved the world more often than any other comic book character who doesn't have his own book.

Respect is due!

Hulk annual 1: Lockjaw defeats the Hulk

How many people have ever defeated the Hulk? OK, nobody ever defeats him permanently, but how many people have imprisoned the Hulk? Lockjaw did it in just a few minutes - possibly just a few seconds. He probably holds the record for defeating and imprisoning the Hulk in the shortest time ever. And this was no lucky accident (unlike most other times that someone zaps old greenskin) - he could do it again, any time he wanted.

FF "The End" - Lockjaw defeats Dr Doom, Saves the Fantastic Four, and more!

This is a very good example of why Lockjaw is the greatest superhero of all. In this story, all the superheroes are battling madly, risking their lives, and getting nowhere. But Lockjaw just sleeps in front of the dimensional gateway. Lockjaw can teleport to any spot at all, yet chooses the dimensional portal, even though it's in the middle of a raging battle. Why?

Dr Doom craves power above anything else. The dimensional portal offers the illusion of absolute power. It also offers a convenient way to remove Doom. Draw his attention to the portal, wait til he goes through it, then destroy it. Simple. Lockjaw does not need to fight. He knows that, as a physically large superhero with useful teleporting power, he will be noticed if he just lies there. Doom wil notice him, think "the dimensional dog... dimensional eh... hmmm, that's a dimensional portal he's in front of!"

Lockjaw is clearly the smartest and most laid-back superhero anywhere! The other heroes are all mad. Or maybe they just enjoy fighting. Lockjaw enjoys sleeping, so he does that instead. All the other superheroes fail. Lockjaw's plan works. Sure enough, Doom notices the portal, and the problem is solved. Everyone is happy again, and Lockjaw goes to play with his friends. Lockjaw saved the universe in his sleep! How cool is that!!