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: