Prog 56

Prog 56 is a good one. There is one flat spot, but asides from that every story is delivering heavy blows. I am impressed again with Inferno, a story I never give enough love to, and several other stories this week have large splash pages and images that stick in my mind. An excellent read this week - see below for my hot-takes (as the kids say). 

Prog 56

18th March 1978

Dan Dare is big this week. Big art and big action are splashed across the pages as Dare and his crew discover another uncharted planet. 

This planet is covered entirely in water, but teeming with life as Dare discovers on the very first page. A large tentacle bursts through the water, grabbing Dare and his Eagle craft. Large is an understatement, this tentacle is huge and wraps itself around his craft, dragging down towards a grotesque-looking mouth. 

This event is captured on two pages, dominated by full-size panels capturing the scale of the event. The panels are smaller on the following page, as Dare is pulled down beneath the waves, but not by much and the story continues to move rapidly.

The Eagle craft can operate underwater, but we don't get a demonstration of its full capabilities as Dare prioritises escape.  Using a surge of anti-gravity from the craft he bounces to the surface, and with all four reactors running at full burn, he breaks free. 

A swift communication to his main fort, still orbiting high above, and Dare continues to skim the surface. It's not plain sailing, and a major underwater eruption sends a huge tidal wave his way. There is little time for evasive action, and after being struck by the wave, Dare and his vehicle are sent plunging far beneath the surface, with no power, and seemingly no hope. 

A fantastic story this week, and the oversize artwork added to my enjoyment immensely. I was swallowed by Dare's adventure, and every page had me lost in its action. The sea creature encountered on the first page set the scale for the rest of the story to follow and by the time we reached the tsunami, I was well aware of how large it must have been.  The story wasn't too taxing and it was the artwork that did all the heavy lifting. I was delighted with the outcome, and haven't enjoyed a Dan Dare story like this for a long time. More of the same in future, please.

Rating: 9/10

Best line: "I only wish our computer was dead, too! Because I don't want to know what it's telling me!"

We have another time-travelling story for Future Shocks, a theme touched on often in this format. 

Scientists are putting the final touches on a time travelling machine, and we meet the two men about to give it the first test run back ten million years - Hank and Joe. 

They are given the same instruction that all time travellers are given - do not interfere with anything lest they change the course of history.  

The time machine works well enough and soon they're back in ten million BC. They have been told to say put until their return is activated but Hanks decides to take a look from higher ground. This results in him tripping over a monkey, and the monkey tumbling to its death over the edge. 

Joe is worried about this, but Hank brushes him off telling him that the professor worries too much. 

With their jump back to the present they find that there have been consequences to this incident with the monkey, All the scientists and professor are Ape-like in their appearance. We have one final panel of Joe about to remove his helmet, and not looking forward to what might be under it.

An unsurprising story and a paradox that has been well-covered in a variety of mediums over the years. This was a pleasant read but didn't add anything to the canon. As such the final reveal was underwhelming and there was the feeling that I had seen it all before. A good filler, but nothing essential here. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "I don't get it! All I did was kill one lousy monkey! That's not interfering - or is it?"

With Commander James Hunter holding one of the aliens hostage in Colony Earth, it looked like they might be able to avoid death from an advancing robot. 

Hunter makes his intentions explicitly clear as he tells the alien to call off the robot or he will break every bone in his body. The alien is uncooperative and Hunter takes things to the next level with an uppercut to the jaw of the alien. 

He has some luck at this point, the alien drops what turns out to be a remote control for the robot. Randomly pushing buttons, Hunter works out how to manipulate the robot, and with this new ally they once again take to the hover vehicle to make good on their escape. 

Other robots come for them, but the professor uses the remote to fight them off, leaving them free to flee over the sea. Or rather what would be the sea were it not for the fact that all the water is receding. 

After travelling twenty miles over mud flats, they find their ship in deep water and safe. It is here that the professor tells them what he thinks is happening. The aliens are building up the ice caps, returning the climate to what it was tens of thousands of years ago when they first arrived. 

I love the art in this story but some of the plot points frustrate me. I couldn't help but groan when they picked up the remote control that controlled the robot. The advanced aliens are controlling the robots with remote controls with push buttons, nope, I'm not buying it. Where are these hordes of aliens to control the robots, we haven't seen any of them. After escaping the robots and aliens I found the story greatly improved, and the climate change storyline was much more to my taste, and more aligned with current thinking, although we rarely hear people speak of oncoming ice ages any more. It was a buzz in the seventies though, and I can well recall playground discussions about the forthcoming ice age in my youth.  A tale of two halves, I like the direction we are going, and we shall never mention the remote controls for the robots again. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Listen, gnome - call off your robot, or I break every alien bone in your alien body!" 

A dynamic start to Judge Dredd with an eye-catching double spread as the rogue car Elvis throws Dredd across his own apartment. Things get worse for Dredd as he awakens later to find himself hostage in Elvis, as Elvis drives into the Justice building.  

With Dredd his hostage, Elvis can do whatever he wants, and he demands lots of toys, a big parade, songs about him, and a TV show. 

All of this is given to him, while poor Judge Dredd remains trapped in the front seat. Dredd though has been doing some thinking, and using a special code he lets the other judges know of his plan. 

Later at the TV show, a crowd of autograph hunters descend upon Elvis. Distracted by this attention he focuses all his cameras on the autograph hunters, leaving Judge to enact the second part of his plan. 

Using one of the toy chemistry sets and a doll that has been given to Elvis, Judge Dredd starts a fire in the vehicle. With his internal sensors set off, Elvis automatically ejects Dredd. Elvis is aghast, but there is nothing he could do. 

Now free, Dredd orders him to surrender. Elvis is having none of it, and the Judges have little choice but to spray the corrosive spray on Elvis. The effect is instantaneous, and Elvis is reduced to a pile of nothing before our very eyes. 

A final panel sees the Dredd surmising upon the outcome and wondering if it had been better if Elvis had never been born. 

A strong start and a strong finish, it was the middle section of this story that let it down. The first two pages, in colour and with panels filling the page, had me hooked immediately. However, I turned the page to find the story slowing down as Elvis went to the Justice building and was bestowed with everything he desired. Dredd's final plan drew me back in and I was happy with the outcome. This was quite a long story compared to some of the ones we have had previously, and although I wasn't 100% sold on it, it is a direction I would like to see the comic move towards. We had more time to get to know Dredd's nemesis, and by the final issue the resolution felt earnt. With a better villain I would have rated this far higher than I have. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Just a pile of dust on a studio floor. All that's left of the car who never grew up" 

John Probe (MACH 1) is on his way to steal a top-secret research project, but so too are Luigi Scarlotti and Hacker. 

Led by the dolphin Zuma, Probe arrives at a deserted cabin. He smashes his way in and soon discovers a secret trap door. Descending a long ladder, he encounters a security system that shoots laser beams at him. 

These he evades and finds himself in a laboratory under the bed of the swamp. There is initially no clue as to what goes on here, or to the whereabouts of the previous agent sent to investigate, Robert Peel.  There are several weird-looking fish though, and even Probe's computer can't identify them.

The weirdest fish we encounter on the following page, a fish that looks distinctly human. The birthmark on the neck of this animal Probe recognises immediately, it's Robert Peel. 

At this point Scarlotti and Hacker reveal themselves. Thanking Probe for helping them break in, they tell him of the experiments to create a man-fish - a human capable of living underwater. It seems that they have made somewhat of a mess of Robert Peel, but Probe has little time to digest this as Hacker leaps forward to finish him. 

I love the weird and wonderful, and the latter half of this story certainly delivered that. I wasn't convinced about where we were heading as the dolphin guided Probe, and the action at the cabin and against the automatic security was empty, but these final two pages had plenty to compensate. The most dramatic panel is the reveal of Robert Peel as a man fish. It was both horrifying and intriguing and sold the story to me from here on in. Uneven, but the finish was superb and I can't wait to see next week. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "What a weird fish I've never seen anything like this before!" 

A mistake by Regel Eegle in the last issue of Inferno has left Teejay in the path of a Shark bike man, and the opening full-page image captures the horror of what is about to happen.

What does happen is unexpected as Marvin Bloo drops down through the flames and drags Teejay clear just in time.

In the confusion Eegle has snatched the ball, and as the focus returns to the game he scores, giving the Hellcats a two-nil lead. 

The Hellcats have mixed opinions about this. Some see Eegle as an asset and the accident wasn't his fault, while others question his courage and wonder if he really is a team player. 

Giant puts this to the test in the next portion of the story as he jumps on the back of Eegles bike and tells him to drive around the wall. Approaching the oncoming Sharks it is clear that he is scared, but Giant keeps him going while fighting off several of the Sharks. The end result is more points to the Hellcats as Giant scores for the team. 

The team come together to celebrate, but the celebration is short-lived as an overheated jest pack explodes, wiping out half the team.  

The final image is evocative, and the perfect hook to bring me back next week. What half of the team is wiped out remains to be seen, and from this final panel it could be anyone. The story built nicely throughout, with multiple characters given a turn. I had previously enjoyed seeing the style of Eegle, but now we are finding there is more to his character and he is becoming more interesting than the shallow impression we had of him at first. I sometimes find it hard to enjoy Inferno, but there have been several very good issues recently, and I am constantly surprised by how highly I rate it. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Yes you can, Eegle. Or so help me I'll unbalance this bike, and let you splatter yourself across the cinders!" 

Prog 56 final ratings:

Overall: 8/10

Best Story: Dan Dare

Best Line: "Blood and cinders! That exploding jet-pack's wiped out half the team!"   

Best Panel: