Prog 77

There are worse ways to spend a Sunday than reading  2000 A.D. At least that's what I tell my wife. She's not buying it for a second, and once I've finished this week's issue I've been told that we're off for Christmas shopping. Why can't she do online shopping like everyone else? Still, it'll get me out of the house, and I guess that's a good thing. Before that though,  I shall dwell on this issue as long as I can and soak up all that is good. Last week I was knocked out by the first episode of Robo-Hunter, and it's all I've been thinking about all week. I can't wait to dive back in, and that's exactly what I'm going to do right now.    

Prog 77

12th August 1978

I am pleased to see Robo-Hunter is the first story in the comic. It was my favourite last week, and from the very first panels, I can see this is going to be another excellent instalment.

A brief recap via Sam Slade and his continuous monologue, and we're off as his flectron-drive ship carriers him and his pilot, the foul-mouthed Commander Kidd to the far-flung colony.  

Kidd is well named as we are soon to find out as the ship goes through the light barrier without any safety shields. Sam Slade discovers that travelling faster-than-light has left him looking twenty-five younger, but that's nothing compared to the pilot Kidd who is now a mere baby.

A baby with an attitude that is, and although Kidd looks like a child he still swears like a troop as he guides Slade through the landing process for the ship.

Landing safely, they find that their trouble is only just starting, as the hatch opens to reveal an army of robots awaiting them.

Fantastic stuff, this lived up to all the promises it made last week. Sam Slade has continued to develop as a character, and the addition of Kidd was brilliant. Great concept and clever naming, this story had me chuckling as much as any Dredd story I have read. Some of the darkness of the last issue is watered down with the humour, and although Sam Slade still talks like he has stepped out of The Maltese Falcon, there is plenty of levity throughout the story. Cranky Kidd is certainly a highlight, and the dialogue between the two main characters was just as sharp as any artwork on the page. I don't know how much better this can get, but I'm going to give it a high mark. If it continues to improve, I might just have to reconsider the scale on which I score. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "Well, I can't help it - I'm just a shutting baby, Slade! So why don't you stop turning up your nose and get me changed?"

Gunnar Johanssen has blown his way out of the spacefort, with Dan Dare his hostage on the spacecraft. 

It looks like a bad situation, but not as bad as it is for the mutineers left on the fort. The safety walls burst in the wake of Johansson's escape, and a bunch of mutineers are sucked out into the vacuum of space. 

Inside the fort, Hitmasn is safe behind a secondary airlock. Rounding up those crew members still loyal to Dare they discuss what might have happened to him. Dare is very much alive as we see in the following panel, and just about to escape from Johanssen and the smaller craft. Donning a suit, he slips outside the ship, where he finds the meteor storm is still raging.

He makes his way back to the fort, where he has a shoot-out with some of the mutineers outside the ship. He's outnumbered, by Johassen sees him and in an attempt to shoot him from his craft he inadvertently shoots the mutineers. 

Taking his chance, Dare slips into the space fort, while Johanssen continues to blast at him through the walls. The walls are self-sealing with emergency gel, but this presents a final problem for Dare as he finds himself caught in the fast-setting gel while potshots continue to come at him from the outside. 

Normally I quite like Dan Dare, but he must have caught me on a bad day today because I couldn't get into this story at all. It feels like Groundhog Day with Dare fighting the mutineers for the fifth week now. I know he will win eventually, it's just a matter of how we will get there. We are edging closer to a finale, of that I'm sure, and I can only hope something interesting is thrown into the mix next week to excite me. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "Hang on for yer lives--or we get sucked out, too!"

Brian Bolland's art on this week's Judge Dredd is stupendous, and although the story isn't a favourite, the art stands heads and shoulders above anything else in the comic. 

Dredd comes across a giant sea of grass, and before he has time to react he finds himself being picked up by the Jolly Green Giant. Fighting his way free, Dredd rejoins Spikes on the landraider. 

Proceeding through lush grassland they find themselves at a complex where they encounter further advertising icons as the Alka seltzer mascot approaches them, along with a man who looks suspiciously like Colonel Sanders. 

The Alka seltzer mascot warns them to leave, but Colonel Sanders intervenes, and while Alki-4 is escorted away, he tells Dredd that sometimes his little friend gets too excited.

Dredd leaves Spikes to talk to the Colonel, while he secretly follows where they take Alki-4. Alki is thrown into a vat, and while Dredd watches on he dissolves like a soluble tablet. It is now that Dredd chooses to reveal himself but he finds himself captured by the men who did away with Alki, although they do have help from the Jolly Green Giant. 

The whole backstory is revealed as Dredd is dropped into a pen full of mascots such as Alki. In the style of a Bond villain, the Colonel explains all, telling Dredd that the mascots are merely lumps of mindless clay, reconstructed from vegetable tissue. These creatures are hungry, and they need a highly specialised life force - the gland fluids from the human central; nervous system.

Thus we end, with Dredd being drugged by the Colonel, and about to go under the scalpel as the Colonel indulges in a little brain surgery.

This story more than makes up for my disappointment with Dan Dare. The fantastic art is the obvious starting point, although there was much more to the strip than that. The humour was spot on for a Dredd comic, and the Amercian references were again played well. After seeing McDonalds and Burger King in previous weeks, I wasn't too surprised to see Colonel Sanders make an appearance, with the extra food mascots being a bonus. There are too many to list here, but when Dredd was dropped into the pen there were many familiar faces. I don't know what will happen next, and I don't much care as I just love exploring this world that has been created. Dredd isn't the star at the moment, the cursed Earth is. I might just have to cut out the board game that has been provided and give it a go myself. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "My apologies my dear sir - but then it has to be admitted that my giants aren't exactly gentlemen!" 

This week in Future Shocks we meet a young warrior named Karnok, who is fighting against Droids in a bid to become the Ultimate Warrior. The first droid almost beats him, and Karnok calls for the android to be deactivated. 

 The droid is deactivated in explosive fashion, and Karnok is told that he has done well in the last three months, but he must prove himself one last time. 

Travelling to the Valley of Death he comes across the Reaper of Death for a final battle. The test begins and Karnok quickly realises that he can't win. Once again he calls for the android to be deactivated. Again there is an explosion but this time it is Karnok. In the final panel we find that Karnok himself was an android, and the Reaper is a true warrior of Argon seeking a better contest. 

This is very similar to last week's Future Shocks where the human of the story was an illusion. This week is the same, we think we are following a human fighting androids, but the reveal is he is an android himself. I would have liked it a lot better if I hadn't read last week's issue. It was retreading the same ground, and as such I couldn't help but compare the two. It broke up this week's issue nicely, but I don't find it essential and am quickly onto Ant Wars.

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "Uhh...this is hopeless...I'll be killed...I must deactivate the android!" 

Things are looking dire in Ant Wars, although this issue is fairly sedate in the wider scheme of things. 

Rio is cordoned off by the military in preparation for the ant attack, but unbeknownst to the soldiers the Ants have already infiltrated the city, and indeed, the carnival parade. 

From under a dozen floats the ants charge, the carnival becoming a riot of fear, panic and death. The military quickly advance on the city, but find themselves caught between two ant armies, one within the city and one coming from the jungle. The battle is short, bloody, and decisive - the ants win. 

Only the Indian, Anteater, puts up any real resistance, and soon he, Captain Villa, and the Colonel are dashing for the radio station. Their plan to call for help is short-lived, the ants have got there before them, and they are left with only one option - escaping to the sewers. 

The soldier ants are too big to follow them, and it seems they may be safe. However, in the final panel, we see small worker ants approaching the sewers -  death on six legs is coming. 

Creepy rather than scary, for the first time I walked away from this story without fear in my heart. There was a lot of death throughout the story, but it never shook me in the way that previous stories have, and it didn't feel as gory. The death count was high, but most of it took place off-screen. The few times we did see ants eating people were similar to what we have seen in the past, and I think that perhaps I'm becoming desensitised to it. There wasn't a lot of Anteater and Captain Villa, most of the action occurred without them, and the story lacked a strong core. Already I can see that next week will be more tightly focused, and with the ants hunting Villa and Anteater through the sewers I can already feel my chest tightening with fear. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Ant! Sense ant in city..."

Prog 77 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Robo-hunter

Best Line: "We were warned of what we might encounter in this mission, but someone forgot to mention a homicidal 30-foot high green man!!"   

Best Panel:

Prog 76

 Exciting times are ahead in the pages of 2000 A.D. as we have another new story starting this week, and oh boy it's a doozy. I don't know anything about the history of 2000 A.D. or this story, but I can already say that Robo-hunter is going to be a favourite. The look of it, the characters, and the vibe I'm getting off the page are fantastic, and I can't wait till we wade out into the deeper water of this storyline. Of course, the rest of the comic is also very good, but right now Robo-hunter is the prettiest girl in the room and the only one I have eyes for.    

Prog 76

5th August 1978

Robo-Hunter looks amazing from the very first panel as we meet Sam Slade face to face, gun in hand, his opening two lines lay down some of his back story. 

In the next couple of pages, we see Sam fighting robots and giving an insight into what he does - collecting bounties by capturing rogue robots. In this case it is a robot chair which he subdues and then rides back to his office.

In the office, the story shows it is more than just a robot action story, and it draws heavily from film noir as a down-on-his-luck Sam, cigar stuck firmly in the corner of his mouth, tells us of his forty years in the business, only to be interrupted by a beautiful looking woman entering his office. She may be flirtatious, but Sam is having none of it, cracking her jaw with a fearful punch that sends her staggering back, smashing her head on the wall behind her.  This femme fatale is a robot, Sam recognising that she is too perfect to be a real woman.

The appearance of two men from the International Space Commission gives an explanation to the robot woman that Sam has just killed- she was merely a test and they have a much larger job for him. 

The planet Verdus has been colonised by robots in preparation for the arrival of human colonists thirty years later the robot's first landing. Since then the human colonists have arrived on Verdus, but they were never heard from again. Further parties were sent out, including crack space troops, but all have disappeared without a trace. 

They believe that the robots have gone rogue, and there's only one man for the job -  Sam Slade. Sam isn't offered the job, rather he is forced into it with the choice of taking on the mission or receiving a bullet in the head.

It's not much of a choice, and the story finishes with the image of Sam sitting by the window writing his will.

The story has barely started and already I am enthusiastic about it. I greatly enjoy the film noir aspect of it. The name Sam Slade sounded perfect for this type of story, although it was only later that I realised it was a take on Sam Spade of the film noir classic Maltese Falcon. The clever touch of a beautiful woman appearing at the office played the trope well, and having her exposed as a robot bent the familiar towards this space-age story we are reading. A lot of stories start strongly and this was no exception with the opening image being outstanding and instantly memorable. The artwork was good, and the writing matched it, especially the continuous monologue by Sam throughout the story which provided us with information about what sort of man he is, as well as fleshing out the world he is in. It's early days, but I have good feelings about this story and can't wait to see what happens next week as we get into the meat of the story.  Taking familiar genres and updating them for the future is one thing 2000 A.D. does very well, and this story is no exception. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "She was a good looker all right. Too good. And something told me that the sparkle in her eye wasn't love's flame" 

The mutiny is continuing to escalate on the spacefort on the pages of Dan Dare.

Hitman is facing Bear who has pulled a blaster on him and joined the mutineers. As Hitman turns away, Bear strikes him across the back of his head and drags him to Haskins, the leader of the mutineers. 

On the bridge, Haskins decides to put Dare and all his men into an Eagle craft and send them out into the meteor storm. There is just one problem, Dare isn't at the bottom of the anti-grav drop shaft as they expect and is missing somewhere on the ship. 

At that very moment, we see Dare with the homicidal maniac Gunnar Johanssen. Johanssen has plans of his own, and locking Dare in the hold of one of the Eagle craft he takes the controls and blasts his way out of the space fort. 

The resulting blast causes an explosion in the main airlock, and the crew members of the fort look aghast as the pressure drop makes the glass crack. If the glass breaks they will all be eating vacuum, and that is where we leave the action this week. 

Given that the next issue is titled Blow-out, I already had a strong sense of what will unfold. With Robo-hunter taking up most of the page count, Dare is restricted to only four pages this week, and it was all the better for it. The story and accompanying action were tight, and there was very little fat on this week's lean and mean issue. It may have been the art that drew me in, although once I started reading, the story came into its own, with unexpected twists and turns on the four pages. We finish on a high with plenty of unanswered questions, and with the art and writing both strong I expect next week to be just as good.

Rating: 7.5/10

Best line: "Uhh? Someone try to...stop old Gunnar. But...voices in my head sing to me...tell me to blast both doors down"

What an opening image for Judge Dredd, with the dinosaur Satanus climbing a church tower, blood dripping from its jaws while a chained Judge Jack swings helplessly nearby. 

It's hard to move beyond this image, but we must and over the page, we see help is near at hand as Dredd climbs inside the tower. Even Pterodactyls in the belfry aren't enough to deter him, and emerging on the roof he shoots Judge Jack's chains, freeing him from a gruesome end. 

Spikes isn't to be left out, and arriving in the kill-dozer he fires rockets into the tower. This only antagonises Satanus, who jumps on the kill-dozer in an attempt to rip it apart. 

The kill-dozer smashes into the church, Satanus still riding as a passenger, and Dredd commands all his flame throwers to incinerate the monster. 

He howls, he screams, he falls silent and Dredd walks away. It is then that Dredd encounters one of the men who was responsible for the dinosaur fighting and gambling ring we met a few issues ago. In a last-gasp effort, the man sets his fighting dinosaur against Dredd. Dredd is in mortal danger, but Tweak appears, destroying the dinosaur with his powerful claws. 

With the town of Repentance now a smouldering ruin, Dredd and his men pull out, but not before casting the people of Repentance out into the cursed earth, and reminding them that Dredd is the law. 

There is one final twist as we see that Satanus has survived, crashing through the floor of the ruined church and into the vault below. Licking his wounds, he staggers off to find a place to hole up for a while, but not before a final caption tells us that he will be back. 

Thank you, Pat Mills, this was excellent through and through. I thought I was over this story and dinosaurs in general, how wrong I was. It was a thrill to see the outcome of this story, from the dynamic and impactful opening panel to the final sight of Satanus rising from the ruins. The action was great, the characters true to themselves and there was a heavy dose of cleverness and humour in the dialogue and names. I enjoyed the artwork, but it was the writing that shone through on every panel, and this was a cerebral feast as much as a visual one. This final issue more than makes amends for my less than less-than-enthusiastic embrace of the earlier issues, and I might just have to go back and read them again from the beginning to remind myself how we got to this high point. 

Rating: 9/10

Best line: "Go! Into the cursed earth...and, if you ever return to your evil ways, be sure the law will track you down...punish you! And I am the law!"

Hello Future Shocks, what do you have for us this week?

A story of a lonely lighthouse keeper alone, far out in outer space with only his computer for company. 

The computer does its best to entertain Vance Shaw, generating a series of illusions to break the boredom, but none of them appeal any more. 

In the final scene, Vance finally snaps and tells the computer that he wants to get rid of all the illusions. The computer complies, only for Vance to realise that he is an illusion, generated by the computer to keep it company. 

Often Future Shocks draws from similar tropes and stories we have seen before. This one is unique and I was refreshed to see the idea played out on the page. The thought of computers getting lonely was an interesting idea to explore and I liked that it was the human that was the illusion. Always good for fresh ideas, and a mid-issue pick-me-up, this story served its purpose admirably, and can only hope we get more like it. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "I'm tired of all your illusions, nothing's real around here! That ship that hailed us ten days ago, was that an illusion too? 

The Ant Wars are about to strike the people of Rio, not that they know it as they celebrate their carnival. 

With Captain Villa and Anteater arriving in the city, they are desperate to warn the authorities. Arriving at the city hall, they try to gain access to the military commander to warn him. 

Of course, they are refused entry, but after Anteater blows up the commander's Mercedes with a stolen grenade, they find themselves face-to-face with the colonial, although he is far from happy. 

It's a long briefing in the barracks. The colonial believes them, and orders that a cordon be put around the city. There is to be no panic, and the float parade will still take place that night. 

Little do they know that the ants have already outsmarted them. Coming across a large billboard, they have commandeered it for their own use, and in the final panels of the story, we see a float moving down the street, propelled by the scampering of a series of hidden ant legs. 

Next week should be good. All the pieces were moved into place this week and we are set for a showdown at the parade. We have seen in several issues already Villa and Anteater trying to convince those in power of what is happening, only to be rebuffed, so it was refreshing this week to see them taken seriously by the colonial. There was still the small matter of gaining access to him, and Anteater's scheme of blowing up his car seemed extreme, although it was highly effective. This is still one of the scariest stories in 2000 A.D. and seeing the ant's intelligence made it even more so. On another day this would have been great, but in the face of an intense Judge Dredd, this merely felt good. It is better than that, and if read stand-alone I'm sure I would rate it much higher than I have here. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "The boy and I have been fighting them for weeks. Not only is their size a thousand times normal, but their intelligence, too, has grown. Soldier ants organise into attack groups of three, like commandos..." 

Prog 76 final ratings:

Overall: 7.5/10

Best Story: Judge Dredd

Best Line: "Pterodactyls in the belfry!...<choke> the stench!"   

Best Panel:

Prog 75

I had expected the end of Inferno was almost upon us but I was thrown this week by the sudden ending of Mach Zero as well. Mach Zero has been bubbling along nicely the last couple of weeks, coming off the back of an extremely strong story, and I had expected much more to come. Sadly, it isn't to be. On a positive note, I always welcome a new story and new ideas, and I am intrigued by what will follow. We haven't had the hype we got preceding Ant Wars, and whatever comes next will be painted on a fresh canvas for me. Plenty to look forward to, but for now pull out your tissues and we'll farewell the two long-running stories of Inferno and Mach Zero.   

Prog 75

29th July 1978

It's not very often that Inferno is the first story in 2000 A.D,  but one can understand why after reading it. 

Playing a match against killer androids, the Hellcats are stalling for time as Louis attempts to intercept the radio beam that controls the androids. It's a tough situation with several Hellcats already dead, and soon that body count mounts as Slim Shafto and Zack Harper meet their demise.

With Giant still shackled at the cave entrance, Moody Bloo is left facing overwhelming odds. He takes out a couple of the robots before Louis finally intercepts the signal and is able to command the androids to destroy each other.

It seems as though the tide has turned, but suddenly two shots ring out and both Louis and Moody Bloo cut down. The faceless android appears with a gun in hand and tells Giant that the syndicate has won and this is the end of the Hellcats. 

We get three final panels to wrap up the story as we see that Giant has survived and is with Cindy who was injured several issues ago. Standing over the graves of the Hellcats, Giant explains that the police were able to free him, while Cindy has a moment to tell him that she is now repaired and out of the hospital.

The story finishes with one final poignant image as Giant and Cindy survey the graves, and Giant intones that he just wants to forget everything that happened, but that he'll never forget the Hellcats.

Ignore my poor description, this was a great issue apart from a few weak spots. The final panels were a fine way to wrap up all that had come before. The solemnity of the final scene was touching and pitched just right with words and images dancing a beautiful dance. I wasn't so fond of the way the individual deaths of the Hellcats were skimmed over, and I felt that it did cheapen the loss of some characters who we had been journeying with over the previous year.  We even had Tharg appear mid-story with some exposition that glossed over the death of Zack Harper. It is perhaps understandable that we can't have a climatic issue if it is stretched across a month, but I do wish some of the characters had a better send-off. One decision I wholeheartedly agreed with was the decision to have the syndicate win and finish on a downbeat. The easy route would have been for Louis to control the androids, the Hellcats win with a last-gasp effort and somehow overcome the syndicate. The finish we have here is much more true to life, and fitting for all that has come before. Not a perfect finish, but it did wrap everything up with just a blush of emotion on the page to draw a tear to the corner of the eye. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "...he's dead...no...not after all this...it can't end this way"

Encased in a powerful suit, Harry Winthrop is seeking revenge on the professor and Sir Charles Hilliers. Rampaging with the mighty Mach Zero by his side, the pair ignore the gatekeeper they come across and instead make their way back towards the house.

They are just in time as Sir Charles is fleeing in his vehicle. Mach Zero makes short work of the car, tearing it to pieces with his bare hands. Harry is intent on harming Sir Charles, but Mach Zero refuses on the grounds that it wasn't Sir Charles who did bad to them. 

This leads to a quarrel between the pair, a quarrel that quickly becomes physical. It is while the two are exchanging blows that helicopters appear, dropping canisters of nerve gas that not only knocks out the guests sheltering within the house but also Mach Zero. 

Free to do what he pleases, Harry suddenly finds the suit melting around him. It seems the gas has sped up the process of the suit burning up, and the story quickly closes as Harry is reduced back to his former self. One final panel shows a close-up of Mach Zero and a small caption explaining that he is once again chained in his cell and awaiting his fate. 

A curious ending to a story that I thought was going to give us much more. For all the promise of the last few weeks, the threads of the story quickly melted away in the face of some gas canisters and Mach Zero himself was afforded a mere panel to explain his fate. Deeply unsatisfying, especially given the build-up to this issue. Feeling there must be more, I have just flicked through the next issue, but sadly this seems to be it for Mach Zero. We have seen this several times recently, stories finishing abruptly when they still seemed to have much to offer. I can understand it to a point, but sometimes I wish we could have just one or two more issues to round out these stories in a satisfying fashion. Mach Zero didn't feature strongly at the beginning of this issue, and he was almost non-existent on the final page, except for one lonely panel. The midsection was better, and we did get some fine displays of strength from Mach Zero, although it was mostly just smashing a car. When I think of Mach Zero, this shan't be the story I cast my mind back to you. I have fond memories of the Mach Zero story immediately before this, and, for me, that was peak Mach Zero. After a strong run, this was a weak finish and a disservice to all that had come before. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "This is it, the moment when the world will take note of Harry Winthrop...the moment! 

A surprising start to this week's Judge Dredd. When we last saw Dredd he was tied to a rock and facing off against a ravenous dinosaur, yet this week we start back in the town of Repentance as the local townsfolk bet on two smaller Dinosaurs fighting. It's a cruel sport, much like dog fighting, but the locals love it and gamble excitedly. All the time though they are watched from Dredd's land raider by Tweak, whose rapidly growing grasp of English is about to pay dividends.

Cutting back to Dredd and Spikes, and things are about to rapidly improve. Pulling an old tooth out of the rock he is tied to, Dredd fashions an escape, quickly cutting both his and Spikes' bonds. 

They aren't out of the woods quite yet, the dinosaur Satanus grabs Dredd. After wearing a grenade on his ear for the previous few months, Spikes finally puts it to good use, hurling it towards the monster about to eat Dredd. 

Another dinosaur intervenes, catching the grenade in its mouth, but it's good enough for Dredd and Spikes to escape as the rest of the pack turns on this now decapitated dinosaur and consumes what's left of it. 

Rushing back to the town, Dredd confronts the town folk. He is outnumbered, but the sudden appearance of Tweak in the land raider saves the day. From here it is a rush to save Judge Jack, currently held at the jailhouse. 

Dredd and Spike aren't the only ones making for the jailhouse, a pack of dinosaurs led by Satanus have arrived in the town and are currently grabbing as many humans as they can for food. 

The story ends on a high note with Dredd proclaiming that he is about to punish the people of Repentance for their crimes and that they have five minutes to evacuate the town before he razes it to the ground.

An uneven start but we certainly finished on a high with Dredd at his assertive best. There was plenty here that I liked, and the final page guarantees that I'll be back. The start felt shoehorned in as if the writer had previously forgotten to show us how bad the people of Repentance were and that they needed punishment. Perhaps it was just a reminder, but it didn't feel like a natural fit at the front of the story. It did however give us the early highlight of seeing Tweak again and seeing how he is developing as a character. He is one of the most likeable characters in the story at this point, in no small measure because he doesn't speak and thus can't tarnish his reputation. We did see him briefly in the last issue too, and he is steadily being fleshed out more with each Prog. Perhaps the best part of the story for me was seeing Spikes finally putting his grenade earring to good use. I always knew that this day would come, and the moment wasn't wasted. I couldn't think of a better way for this to be used than two dinosaurs fighting over Dredd, and it was another high point in the story that delivered multiple memorable moments. There is still more to come with this story, and next week promises a lot on the back of Dredd's final speech. The cursed Earth is still delivering brilliant story after brilliant story and this is another fine example. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Dredd! it's Satanus....he's got Judge Jack! Nothing we can do!" 

A mutiny on his own ship has left Dan Dare in a perilous position - plunging helplessly down a deactivated anti-grav drop-shaft. 

It's a short-lived plunge, Dare is saved by an unlikely source. Gunnar Johanssen appears at an open doorway and hauls Dare to safety. Well, not quite safety, as Johanssen is determined to smash and destroy Dredd himself. 

Meanwhile, the space fort is still struggling through a meteor storm. Hitman too has survived the plunge with Dare and is currently hanging on for life at the edge of the drop. A brief shoot-out with some of the crew members ensues, and soon after Hitman crawls to safety. He is held a gunpoint by some of the mutineers, but after a scuffle, he is once again free. It is shortlived, Bear appears and pulls a pistol on him, at once aligning himself with the mutineers, and we finish this week's strip with the two former comrades facing off against each other with weapons drawn.

I haven't warmed to this story, yet I found I liked it. I don't feel involved with any of the characters, but the action was irresistible and I enjoyed all the different conflicts throughout the strip. I was pleased to see Hitman get plenty of time on the page and return to his roots with his gun hand playing a big part in the story. He was served well by the art, and the artist did a good job of depicting the going-ons without getting in the way of the story. Once again, full credit to Dave Gibbons for his work here, he truly is a master at what he does. Not a perfect story, yet with some many fine elements I find myself returning to the old cliche, this is a story greater than its sum of parts.

Rating: 7.5/10

Best line: "Uhhh...this ain't doin' me any good..gotta try and pull myself up! Damn this gunhand!"

Finishing with Ant Wars guarantees that I won't be putting the comic down and going to sleep. Damn you 2000 A.D. and the nightmares you poison me with. 

It seems that Captain Villa and Anteater have escaped the ants by swimming down the river midstream. However, these aren't ordinary ants, and unknown to our heroes the ants are currently following them downstream on a flotilla of leaves and forest detritus. 

Villa and Anteater think they are safe when they come across a boat, but the captain of the boat is a vile gambler by the name of Big Bluffer. 

Drunk on whisky, he not only refuses to believe them but proceeds to tie the pair up for a game of Russian roulette. 

The game is short-lived with the appearance of the ants, and Big Bluffer quickly tosses Villa and Anteater overboard and prepares to escape. There is no escape, the ants are too fast and have already boarded the vessel. Facing overwhelming odds, Big Bluffer faces an unpleasant end, putting a pistol to his own head rather than facing a grisly end at the hands of the ants. 

Meanwhile, Villa and Anteater have managed to survive. Tipping an ant off a leaf, Anteater demonstrates that the ants can't swim. They then shelter under a leaf and quietly drift away from the ants and the drama on the boat. 

The strip ends with Anteater drinking some of Big Bluffer's whisky which he has snatched, while the pair float further downstream towards a city that is currently celebrating a carnival - the carnival of death. 

I think we can all see where it will go from here, and it's not going to be good. Another strong issue from Ant Wars, and again it touched on all the themes that it has in the previous issues. We again saw the Indian being treated by other characters as a lesser human, while the so-called civilized characters revealed themselves to be deeply flawed. Last week it was a wealthy plantation owner, and this week a grotesque gambler. Both got the ending they deserved, while Anteater outsmarted them, Villa, and the ants, remaining the smartest character in the strip. The most interesting part of the story for me was seeing Big Bluffer taking his own life in the face of the ant army. We have seen a suicide in the pages of 2000 A.D. before, and it always serves as a reminder that this wasn't a traditional kids comic. In 1978 it would have been quite shocking to see a suicide in a comic, and even forty years later I found it striking. It is one of the reasons 2000 A.D. is held in such regard, and even all these years later it is still essential reading. Some attitudes and values have changed, and we see that in this very issue, but it remains forward-thinking and offers a deeper read for those who seek it. Sometimes it does come varnished in 1970's values, yet it rises above the era in which it was born and still holds up today.

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "'Fraid you boys have called at a bad time -  this whisky tastes lousy, and I just lost a game of poker!" 

Prog 75 final ratings:

Overall: 7.5/10

Best Story: Ant Wars

Best Line: "Attention, People of Repentance! This is Judge Dredd! I am going to punish you for your crimes! You have five minutes to evacuate the town, before I raze Repentance to the ground!"   

Best Panel:

Prog 74

This week's issue reeks of familiarity, with the return of Future Shocks and an old friend from the Flesh strip. Both look great on the page, although the return of one was more pleasing than the other. To find which one disappointed and which one delighted, read on below.     

Prog 74

22nd July 1978

Dan Dare and his ship are amid a mega-storm, while his best pilot, Polanski, has been killed by a meteorite. Then, to top it all off, he is now facing a mutiny led by Haskins. 

In at the deep end, we accelerate quickly through the story. Facing down Haskins, Dare outsmarts him with the oldest trick in the book, turning off the lights, before escaping with Hitman deeper into the ship. 

They make for the main computer room where they hope to control the ship. Unfortunately, when they get there they find they have yet another problem on their hands - Gunnar Johansson has escaped his containment unit and is now loose on the ship somewhere, his tormented mind in a homicidal state.

This is pushed to one side as the mutineers appear and begin shooting at Dare and Hitman. Jumping into a nearby dropshaft, Dare and Hitman make for a lower level, only for Haskins to turn off the anti-gravity and Dare is suddenly facing a deadly drop of fourteen floors. 

Breathless action throughout, this was a fast way to kick off this week's issue. A throwback to a simpler time, Dan Dare faced a mutiny that could have been set in any century. What made this more interesting is how well we already know the characters involved and see how they react in this situation. Last week Dare was short-tempered and added fuel to the fire,  this week we see him acting calmly and dealing with the situation directly in front of him. Polanski is a loss, a fine character gone too soon, but it does give Hitman a chance to step forward, and having him a Dare's side made the strip more well-rounded. With fast action and clean artwork, this is classic Dan Dare, and although it's not Dare at its best, I still read it with a smile on my face.

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Dare! Look here! We got more problems!"

Future Shocks is back, and I'm pleased to see it as I read quickly through this week's story. 

Red Packer is the greatest hunter on earth, catching rare game for zoos around the world. Arriving home from a successful hunt, he finds an unarmed alien waiting for him. 

The alien explains that they have a problem with a herd of wild beasts at the edge of their cities. Offering Red a handful of diamonds, the alien asks if he will come to their planet to fight off these beasts. 

Red readily agrees, but arriving at the alien planet he finds himself abandoned by the aliens and their ship. The plot reveals its true nature as three apes emerge, ready to hunt this specimen that the alien has left them. The hunter has now become the hunted.

Maybe it's because I haven't read a Future Shocks for a while, but I found I liked this one a lot. I had forgotten how sharply these are written, and there was not a panel wasted here as we raced through the story. A nice idea, and well executed, I enjoyed the various aspects of the story, and even though it was barely two pages I still emerged satisfied and happy at the end. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "No, it can't be - I've been tricked! They're hunting me!"

With the ant army approaching, we begin Ant Wars with the men of the De Silva Tobacco plantation preparing for a siege. 

Watched on the ants, they attempt to construct a wall before Captain Villa devises a plan to burn the plantation's tobacco to create a smoke screen that will keep the ants at bay. It is immediately successful, but the weather intervenes and as the rains pour down, dosing the fires, the ants approach and overrun the plantation. 

Captain Villa urges everyone to fight all they can. It's all for nothing, the battle is lost, and Villa himself is knocked out as the ants forage for food. He awakens to find that it is Anteater who has knocked him out and dragged him to the safety of the sewage channel. 

Crawling along the pipe to safety, they eventually emerge on the banks of a river. They have been followed by a couple of ants, but swimming to midstream they are safe and happy to be floating towards the coast and cities that await them.

This episode looked great, my only disappointment was that the story didn't match the art for tense drama. The opening panels promised much, but soon the focus turned towards the men within the plantation, and some of the earlier menace washed away. The first confrontation with the ants was weak, and once the rain struck and the ants attacked the story began to gain some traction again, especially when De Silva came to a sticky end. The relationship between Anteater and Captain Villa wasn't as rough and tumble as previously and again some of the drama was lost here. On the positive side, the ants remain as frightening as ever, and based on the artwork alone I will continue to enjoy this wild ride. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Military strategy? Ha! You cannot organise smoke in a tobacco plantation...now what do we do?" 

Judge Dredd doesn't appear on the first page of his own story as we are instead treated to the sight of the Tyrannosaurus Rex Satanus in a life-or-death struggle with a dinosaur of equal size, a battle in which he is victorious.

Over the page, we do spend several panels with Dredd as he arrives in the town in Repentance. There the people are friendly, but soon enough we learn they have their own motives, and Dredd finds himself drugged out with the townsfolk intending to sacrifice him to the dinosaur the following morning.  

The rest of the story focuses on the backstory of the dinosaur Satanus, as we see his birth and life from the past. We find out that he died young at the hands of a familiar face, Old One-eye from the Flesh story of Prog 1-19. Luckily Satanus got a second chance at life, and thanks to genetic engineering is once again hungry and on the prowl. 

On the final page, we find Dredd and Spikes tied up, with the slobbering Satanus just metres away and ready to feast. 

As much as I love dinosaurs, I found the pages devoted to Satanus' back story to be a distraction from the main event featuring Dredd. It wasn't anything we hadn't seen before, and shoehorning in One-eye was unnecessary and didn't add any real value to the story. Perhaps that will change in future, and One-eye will play a larger part, but for now, I just don't see it. Despite my reservations about the story, I enjoyed the art immensely. The dinosaurs looked monstrous and were everything a young man could wish for. The opening panels were magnificent, and the final panel of the story of Dredd and Spikes awaiting their fate was among the very best in this week's comic. It more than compensated for my complaints about the story straying away from Dredd, and this final panel alone is enough to leave me feeling positive about next week's issue. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Best we better be....uuuuh! What? The food...drugged!"

Mach Zero has entered the grounds of Pemberton Lodge - owned by financier Sir Charles Hilliers - to find a place to rest. Inside the house, laboratory assistant Harry Winthrop is testing out a new project financed by Sir Charles - a suit which can absorb radiation - and now finds that the suit is welded to his body. 

With the experiment deemed a failure, Sir Charles has ordered that all evidence be destroyed, including the suit and Harry inside it. His security forces torch Harry and the suit with flame-throwers but to no avail. The suit simply absorbs the heat, allowing Harry to melt his way through the wall to freedom, but not before he deals with the security men, 

Realising the power he now has, Harry confronts the professor and further security forces on the grounds of the lodge. Harry learns that he's not invincible as a shot fired by one of the men pierces the suit, but the appearance of Zero swings the fight in his favour and soon Harry and Zero have teamed up. 

Seeking the Professor and Sir Charles, they smash through the lodge, but their quarry has already escaped and is hiding in the bushes. It here that the professor gives Sir Charles some bad news - not only does the suit absorb radiation, it also releases it - Harry is now a walking radiation bomb. 

This week's story was fast-moving in both action and plot. After a sedate episode last week, this week the story accelerated and was everything I'd hoped it would be. Once again, Zero is the monster of the piece seeking righteous justice, and paired with Harry makes for a better balance in the story. One senses that of the two, Zero is the sane one, and I look forward to seeing how this plays out in the coming weeks. The art still hasn't reached the expected heights, although the first page looked great, and if it can match the storyline for interest we should have a strong comic going forward. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Yipeee! The suit has protected me from the flames. So I'm no longer weak and helpless...I'm powerful!" 

Playing Inferno against a team of killer androids, the Hellcats are fighting for their very lives, and that of their leader, Giant. 

They manage to destroy two of the androids, but when Giant's life is threatened by a breakaway play, Teejay sacrifices his own life to save him.

It's all downhill from here, and two more of the Hellcats team are killed, leaving only four of them to face the killer androids. 

Another story that is moving quickly, this feels very much like the end of the Hellcats. With several members dead, and Moody Bloo injured, it's hard to see how the team will survive. I have had the same feeling in the past, but this time it feels serious, especially in light of all the deaths in this week's strip. Clocking in at three pages, this was condensed action that perhaps would have carried more weight in a longer issue. The deaths came and went with no deep feeling of consequence or time to mourn those lost. An extra panel here or there could have fleshed out those moments better and raised the stakes that little bit more. Likeable, with the potential to be great, but unfortunately all too fleeting.  

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "Us Hellcats never say die!"

Prog 74 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Future Shocks

Best Line: "What is there to say, Spikes - except...we're dead meat!"   

Best Panel: