Prog 48

The perfect tonic for a cold and rainy day is the fantasy world of 2000AD, and that is where I fully intend to lose myself for the next half hour as rain lashes down outside. Sometimes the worlds inside our own heads are better than the world outside our window, and that is where I'm going to retreat to now. 

Prog 48

21st January 1978

Dan Dare may have the Dark Lord as his prisoner, but it is far from smooth running in this week's issue. 

Surrounded by enemy ships, Dare sends a video signal, letting them know that he has their Dark Lord prisoner, and demands to be streamed through to all the slave planets. Across the galaxy, Dare calls on the slave planets to rise up now that he has Dark Lord in his grasp. 

That grasp doesn't last very long as Dark Lord pulls a secret weapon from his helmet, the star crest, and uses it to dispatch with his four guards. Making for the reactor room, he seals himself away safely before sending out his own signal to Star Slayer ships, commanding them to board Dare's ship at once. 

Dare's shocked expression says it all in the final panel, as he exclaims that next week's fight will be the big one. 

I felt that last week's episode of Dan Dare fell flat. This week is much better, and I found myself quickly turning the pages as I raced through the story. It was great to see the Dark Lord take control of the situation rather than be a passive victim, and the weapon in his helmet made for some stimulating art from Dave Gibbons. The cliffhanger we finished with feels proper dangerous, and with Dan Dare in a tight situation you can guarantee the front cover of next week's issue will be something special. This more than makes up for last week, and as I turn to the next story I am very happy indeed. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "Very secret, fool...and very deadly!"

Visible Man was my favourite story in last week's issue and I am pleased that this week lives up to my high expectations.

Frank Hart realises just what a monster he has become, but personally I rejoice in the fantastic art that renders his body. He is unhappy with his situation, and unhappy that others want to use him for science. Trapped in a laboratory turned into a home, his options are limited apart from outrage on the first couple of pages. 

Further on in the story, he lies still for three days, unresponsive and unmoving. As he is approached by a scientist, ostensibly to revive him, he suddenly springs into action, punching out the doctor before making an escape. It looks like he might not get away with his, but he points a gun at himself, threatening to ruin their medical experiment, before he speeds off in a jeep. 

The final panels sees him approaching a checkpoint. The soldiers open fire, but he smashes through, to freedom and next week's issue. 

I love the concept of this, although I can't help but for sorry for the artist, Trigo, who has lavished such detail on Frank Hart's body. I can only assume it was a time-consuming task, but it delights my eye, no matter how monstrous it is, and is a huge plus to the story. We are still in the setup stage, and I think we will need one more issue before the story begins to freely flow, but I am already one-hundred percent sold on this story, and once again it is my favourite of the week. 

Rating: 9/10

Best line: "Now, Frank, don't take it like that! Just think of yourself as unique!" 

Future Shocks is longer than usual, but it is worth it. 

We are on the moon, with the 1987 Apollo moon landing team surveying the landscape on their moon skates. Seeing a mysterious figure, Commander Jack Keller sets off to follow him. This chase takes a couple of pages before the story blooms into its full glory.

The mysterious figure stops and takes Jack Keller prisoner. He is a shape-shifting alien, and taking Jack Kellers form it intends to travel in his place back to Earth for a full survey. Jack is left without oxygen and can only survive in the room he is left in. 

However, he is not alone, and we find he is not the first astronaut to be caught in such a way, this has been going on since the very first moon landings. 

The final panel is the piece de resistance as another astronaut prisoner introduces himself - Neil Armstrong. 

A great twist, and although I had my doubts about the length of the story it certainly paid off in the end. I am a big fan of anything that has to do with the moon landings, and this delivered a strong story grounded in the Apollo project. The story had several remarkable panels, and I could easily see this story stretched out further than what we have here. Original, yet grounded in something familiar, this story hit all the right buttons for me and was a stand out among the recent Future Shocks. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "No! He's taking my place! He'll never get away with it!"

We are kickstarted into Judge Dredd this week as we see Dredd struggling for air and death rapidly approaching as he staggers through the oxygen desert on the moon. 

Rewinding from this opening scene, Dredd takes us back to the beginning of the story as he recounts how he got here. 

Stuck listening to inane court cases, Dredd longs to be out on the street fighting real crime. Leaving Judge Tex in charge of the hearings, Dredd spends the rest of the day where the real action is. 

After dealing with an armed robber, Dredd gets the call - all units to report to the dome perimeter where Badlands Gang are attacking work crews and travellers.

Using a dragnet they capture most of them, but Wild Bill Carmody, the worst of the lot, makes a getaway. It is now up to Dredd to venture out into the Oxyen Desert to find him. 

As night falls, Dredd strikes it lucky and sees Wild Bill beside a fire in his porta-dome. He swoops down but is caught in a trap, it is merely a dummy in the porta-dome and Wild Bill comes at him from the side, shooting him off his bike and leaving him face down in the dirt. 

This is where we leave the action, Dredd struggling for air as Wild Bill flies off. I can't think of a better way to finish, and this is one cliffhanger I'm dying to see play out. We are still working with Wild West tropes, and again they are folded well into the story. The lone lawman out in the desert hunting down a desperate bandit, we have seen it all before, but here on the moon it seems fresh, and as we have seen many times before, Dredd is no normal lawman. I appreciated seeing Dredd on his own, with no Walter by his side, and the character was all the stronger for it. Dredd on the Moon is continuing to deliver tight story after tight story, and next week this may well be the first story I turn to. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "...that's right, Marshal Sir. The dwarf bit me in the knee, he did"  

The jaws of Colonel Rosa's trap continue to close on the unsuspecting Bill Savage in Invasion. With her planted man, Georgi, still with them, Bill and his men head for the neutral ship which will be smuggling Prince John back to Canada.

Leaving the docks, they run into a Volgan patrol craft, but after some banter back and forth, Bill seizes the ship with aid of both Big Nessie and the traitorous Georgi who throws the remaining Volgans overboard. 

Nessie returns to shore, where upon returning to the Cavarn she discovers the rest of the resistance dead, and Colonel Rosa waiting for her. Clubbed to the ground, she becomes the first part of Colonel Rosa's haul. 

Meanwhile, in the final panels of the story, Bill and his men are stowed away. Georgi offers to take Bill's shotgun from him, asserting that they are safe now, but Bill tells him that he prefers to keep it with him. In the final panel, we see a maniacal Georgi laughing to himself and once again promising to rip Savage apart with his bare hands. 

Although there was very little action, besides the brief skirmish on the Volgan patrol boat, I enjoyed this a lot. The cogs of the story are still moving and we are edging closer to the confrontation that I thought we might have got this week. I'm pleased that they are still holding that confrontation from us, and the tension is continuing to be ratcheted up in the story. Some of the thrill and extravagances from the previous weeks are gone and replaced with a far more robust and compelling story. Built around solid characters and a wider story of betrayal, Invasion is again a worthwhile addition to 2000AD. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Lookin' for mermaids ain't we!" 

With the Pleasure Palace still burning the following day after the Hellcat's escape, we return to sporting action for this week's Inferno. The team put last week's drama behind them and they resume training in preparation for their next match against the Firbank Fiends. 

Not everyone is focused on the game, while the rest of the team put in the practice Zack is in the office selecting cheerleaders for the new cheerleading squad. It's a tough job, but some got to do it. 

Cheerleaders selected, the game begins with the cheerleaders immediately going through their routine. The on-field action is tough and made even tougher as we discover that one of the cheerleaders, Pearly, isn't quite what she seems. With a secret beam shooting from her neon letter, she shoots Giant out of the sky and we finish the story with Giant plunging towards the cinders. 

I am often apathetic when it comes to the actual Inferno games themselves. This case is different. Maybe because pretty girls are involved, but I quite enjoyed seeing the hellcats in action and the mysterious Pearly taking vengeance against Giant and the team. We still know nothing of her back story or motivations, so this is only the first step in the latest plot twist. As I know from my own experience, the pretty girls are the ones you have to be most careful of, so I can fully relate to where the story is going at this stage. Taking life lessons from sci-fi comics, I will be back next week for another dose of Inferno and all that comes with that, 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Ridin' hard and flyin' high. That's the Hellcats, score or die!"

Prog 48 final ratings:

Overall: 8.5/10

Best Story: Visible Man 

Best Line: "Spent...too long on... Judge Marshal's chair...now the oxygen desert...going to make me pay for it... "

Best Panel: