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: