Prog 85

The fateful words "Important news for all readers" appear on the cover of this week's 2000 A.D. and I immediately turn the page to find out what is coming. A merger with Starlord, and a slew of new stories slated for next week have me reinvigorated, and although we will be saying goodbye to several stories this week, I know that what comes next will be some of the most famous stories to appear in 2000 A.D. The future is bright, but before all that I remind myself to stay in the moment and appreciate what I have in front of myself now. It is time to carefully comb through the final panels and words of some of the current stories and put out of my mind what the future holds. The future will come soon enough, let's not rush towards it too fast. As a fifty-year-old man, I can't afford to waste the day ahead of me, let alone jump weeks in advance!  

Prog 85

7th October 1978

Dave Gibbons is back on art for Dan Dare and the strip immediately gains a radiance we have not seen for some time. The murky gloom that has swirled and swallowed the characters recently is lifted to reveal the story underneath, making for a fast-paced, and dare I say it, exciting read. 

Dare is facing the skeleton of Moebius, the last of the Golden Ones, who is communicating to him through the medium of the kid travelling with Dare. As Dare grabs the skeleton it falls to pieces in his hands, leaving Moebius to use the kid as a mouthpiece to fill Dare, and the reader, in on the back story of this mysterious alien vessel. 

The ship was originally sent to explore, seek, find, and learn, the mysteries of the universe. The mission started well enough, but plague arrived onboard the ship, and soon all of the Golden Ones had fallen. Only Moebius remained and in attempting to keep the mission alive he planted his mind into the ship's computer. Now through his thoughts, he continues to control the ship. 

At first, things went well - until the ship began to deteriorate. With no crew, the defects could not be rectified. The ship became an instrument of thoughtless destruction, sweeping up and capturing ships across the universe.  

It was only when Moebius formed a telepathic link with the kid that a solution offered itself. Finally, Moebius could destroy his own ship. 

By turning off the master switch, the ship would be without power. It would have a few seconds of life, and then anything could happen, most probably ending in an explosion that would destroy the ship. 

Being a man of action, Dan Dare doesn't dillydally and pulls the master switch right away. With that, it becomes a race against time, and Dare and his small band make a dash back to the Eagle craft. 

There is little chance of them making it, especially when they encounter the primitive wild men that they first met when they came aboard. They fight their way through, and we have our first casualty as Hitman is struck from behind. He appears OK, but he quietly tells Dare that he is not going to make it. Fighting a rearguard action, he urges Dare to make for the Eagle craft.

Arriving at the craft Dare is in for a shock as he finds all the crew dead - killed by the very same wild men that they are now fighting outside. 

With the airlocks threatening to close at any moment, Dare speeds towards an escape. He makes it outside the alien ship, but seconds later it evaporates in a tremendous explosion, shattering Dare's own Eagle craft. 

The final panels of the story show Dare still alive, unconscious and floating on some space wreckage in his spacesuit. Alone in the infinity of space, the captions ponder if this is the end of Dare, a thought that I, as a reader, share.

We have had our ups and downs over the last few weeks, but this final issue pulls everything together in a pleasing manner that has me holding Dan Dare in high regard. There were still questions left unanswered, which left the door open for a return, and these questions kept me quickly turning pages wanting more. I always hold the artwork of Dave Gibbons in high esteem, and his work here brought a lightness to the strip that had previously been gloomy and heavy. The name Moebius was a curious choice for the alien, and I did wonder as I read it if the name was inspired by the French comic artist with the same name. We'll never know, but I'd like to think so. Dan Dare has delivered a variety of stories since the beginning of 2000 A.D. but never settled into the groove of a particular type. As such, each story felt completely different from the last, as Dan Dare appeared in a series of guises. He always looked the same, but with his character shifting with each story, the stories themselves remained frustratingly inconsistent. We finish on a high here, and my only hope is that if he does return we get a solid run of stories that do justice to this legacy character.  

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Not going to make it! This is the end of the line, Dare..."   

We have two Future Shocks this week, filling the page count until the arrival of new stories next week. 

The first is a tale titled "Fourth Wall" and is exactly as you may guess. The future holds many advancements, and one of these is the arrival of full-screen wall-sized TVs. We start our story with a small boy who watches TV all day, enthralled by the TV show "Adam Gordon" along with a host of other entertainments. 

The boy tells his dad that he has heard of a Fourth Wall TV, and these are much better and all the more realistic. The Dad then decides to get one for the child's birthday in a week. 

The day arrives and the TV is installed. The boy is overjoyed with the realism of the TV and is soon lost in the world he is watching. However, as he watches he realizes it is too realistic, and as a laser shoots from the screen, destroying his stool, he becomes scared.

He cannot escape this realism as more blasts come from the screen, and the strip ends shortly after with his father checking on him and finding him dead, killed by what is happening on screen.

Nice to see John Cooper's artwork on this strip, and his work was recognisable from the first moment I saw one of the faces. The story itself was a clever play on breaking the fourth wall, but for me, the cleverest part of the story was seeing the flat screens taking up an entire wall. The future is here now, and it is always pleasing to see a writer correctly predict what the future holds. Not my favourite Future Shocks story, yet it still did enough to keep me entertained, and although I probably will never think of it again, I did enjoy my time with it. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Somethings gone wrong. I've got to get out of here, 'phone those engineers! This is no fun anymore... it's getting frightening!" 

Staggering through the Mojave desert, Judge Dredd makes his way through the haze towards Mega-city Two. He's struggling, and in his delirious state, he suffers visions of all the foes he has faced across the Cursed Earth.  He realises that they are merely illusions, and continues onward, only for a very real Mek-trooper to emerge from the desert sand and grab him by the leg.   

With the droid chewing at his leg, all Dredd can do is shoot it at close range. With his leg now useless, Dredd drags himself through the sands while behind him the equally incapacitated droids follow, with their battery power rapidly dwindling. 

Dredd's willpower gets him through, and he delivers the vaccine to the desperate city. Inquiring after Tweak, Dredd learns that he has already arrived with his vaccine, although the citizens of Mega-city Two consider him nothing but a dumb animal. 

Some weeks later, after Dredd has sufficiently recovered, Tweak is reunited with him. Dredd urges Tweak to reveal his true intellect to the people, but he refuses, still hiding behind a cloak of dumbness. 

Dredd understands why he is doing this, and once Tweak reveals that he wants to go home, Dredd immediately arranges for him to be shipped back to his home planet. 

With Tweak shipped home, all that remains is for Dredd to walk directly towards the reader while thinking that a return to Mega-City, and a little peace and quiet, is just what he needs. 

Although this wasn't the exclamation point on the Cursed Earth run I expected, it still did a fine job of wrapping up all the loose ends and delivered a moderately satisfying ending. Seeing the cast of characters from across the Cursed Earth as Dredd hallucinated in the first few panels was a good reminder of all the struggles that Dredd has faced throughout this story. He has certainly faced some tough foes and interested characters. His final arrival at Mega-City Two was heroic, and befitting his character. There was no blazing entry into the city, just a grim steel as Dredd dragged himself to the goal. This said far more about the man than any battle or shootout could, and I felt we all knew the real Dredd as he arrived. The final pages did feel flat, although this was no fault of the writers or artist. It was necessary to see the Tweak storyline through, and this was a logical conclusion to that portion of the story. It was never going to be an exciting few pages, and what we got here was what I expected. The Cursed Earth has been a fantastic string of stories, and I shall perhaps re-read it in future. For now, I have fond memories of the last few months. I leave with the thought in the back of my mind that what comes next will have to have a large scope to match everything we have seen in this story. 

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "Tweak, I want the whole world to know how you risked your life to save Mega-city Two! I want them to realise how brave and intelligent you really are!"  

Ant Wars begins with Captain Villa discovering that he isn't the only one in the lair of the Queen ants, Anteater is there too and in a perilous state as the ants pull at his limbs. 

It seems that this may be the end of Anteater, but he earns a reprieve at the last second as the giant ant decides that it has eaten enough and he can wait until later. 

Now both Captain Villa and Anteater are carried deeper into the ant's nest by their captors.  

They are left with two ants guarding them and will devoured later. However, as they sit and await their fate they observe something extraordinary taking place. A column of small ants enters the tunnel and begins to attack the giant ants. Swarming over the two giant ants, they defeat them by sheer weight of numbers, much to the delight of Captain Villa and Anteater. 

The two men run deeper into the tunnels to fight the queens with their newfound army, only to find themselves soon fighting for their lives as more giant ants attack them. They are soon overwhelmed, and Anteater prophetically notes that this will be their last fight. 

This proves correct over the page as Anteater is snatched by one of the ants and killed. Captain Villa struggles alone fighting the remaining giants, and soon he too meets an end. However, as he collapses to the ground, losing blood fast, he is able to deliver one last line exclaiming that the ant wars have been lost.

He does not live to see it, but he is wrong. The tiny ants continue to swarm over the giants, destroying them one by one. The ant wars have been won, not by mankind, but by the tiny ants beneath our feet.

The story is neatly wrapped up on the final few panels as two U.S. Army officers observe the quiet Andes foothills, and congratulate themselves on the efficiency of the nuclear strike, little aware that it wasn't the nuclear weapons that won the war, but rather the ants that even now are busy at their feet. Throwing a can in the jungle they drive off, and as the ants scramble onto the can the two men are talking about retesting the CGS gas that caused all this in the first place. 

A strong ending to a story that has been uneven at best of late, and at worse downright poor. I was almost relieved to see Captain Villa and Anteater beaten by the ants this week. Week after week we see other men succumb, while Villa and Anteater always come out on top. Finally, we saw that they were not supermen and the ants rightfully beat them both. The cleverness of having the tiny ants win was a highlight, of not just this week's issue, but the entire Ant Wars saga. Ant Wars arrived on the pages of 2000 A.D. with great fanfare, yet after a strong start, it quickly faded. The stories became shaded by the same beige form week after week, and we essentially had the same story repeatedly told with different names and locations. This final issue shook us out of this groove and left me with more positive feelings than I otherwise might have. An interesting concept, Ant Wars never quite reached the highs I'd hoped, and I can't help but think that it could have been better. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Those monsters won the Ant Wars!"    

We have another shot of Future Shocks to round out this issue. Aliens have secretly landed on Earth and taken on human form for twenty-four hours. However, one man has seen them, a poacher by the name of  John Pritchard.

Pritchard discreetly follows them, waiting to see what their plans are. First, they go to a nearby inn where they watch the Earthmen, while from a corner Pritchard watches them.

Then it is onto a fishing harbour and the zoo. Pritchard is surprised, he thought they would be spying on military bases and the like. Eventually, he decides that he should report it to the police - even though it will expose him as a trespasser and poacher at the time he saw the alien craft.  

Escorted by the police, they enter the grounds where Pritchard first saw the craft. It isn't there and Pritchard is arrested for poaching by his own evidence that he was there last night. 

Meanwhile, the aliens are onboard the craft, where they are looking through their holiday photos, one observing that Earth is nice, but you wouldn't want to live there. 

A nice enough story, although it never really grabbed me in the way it should. Everything was just "good", with no sense of challenge or danger for either the characters or the reader. After an issue of change and ends, this story brought the comic to a soft close rather than a raw punch in the face. This issue deserved a better ending, and I don't think it was the fault of the story, but rather the order the stories were presented in. If this had arrived mid-comic, I would be far more positive and receptive to it than I am with it bringing the curtain down on a farewell issue to several blockbuster stories. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "Looks like I'll have to shop myself to the cops. But then these aliens mean business...reckon the future of the Earth could be at stake!" 

 Prog 85 final ratings:

Overall: 6/10

Best Story: Ant Wars

Best Line: "Behold, the one who still controls the ship though he is long dead! This is the body of Moebius - the last of the golden ones!"   

Best Panel: 

Prog 84

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a phrase I have come to live over the last two years. When I started this blog my intention was to briefly summarise each story in three or four lines, before offering my thoughts on what I had read. Now look at me, hundreds of words trying to capture each story, before meekly offering my tired take after wading through the description. This is something I intend to rectify in the coming weeks. I have aspirations of cutting the fat, and getting to what is important. It is a work in progress but bear with me, next week I will hopefully be far more succinct, and serve up a far more palatable reading experience. Until then, here's this week's excessively descriptive essay on Prog 84.    

Prog 84

30th September 1978

With a pair of friendly Roboboots, Sam Slade has managed to sneak into a factory to look for the first robot, SJI. He has found SJI, the trouble is he looks just as crazy as the rest of the robots on Verdus. Thus we have intrigue from the first panel of Robo-Hunter as Sam Slade prepares to introduce himself to SJI. 

SJI is now a doddering old robot, with a chimney and boiler, but as soon as he sees Sam he recognises him for what he is - a real human being. 

Joy abounds, and he hugs Sam while giving a blast on his boiler pressure release. This brings other robots running. These robots think Sam is a sim, and Sam resorts to some good old blasting action to keep them at bay until SJI can explain the situation. However, his Roboboots doesn't like the look of this trouble and takes to his heels. 

The robots tell SJI that he's too old and cannot tell the difference between a sim and a human. Sam is taken away under guard, awaiting destruction orders from Big Brain.

Cooling their heels in the cell, Sam and SJI lament their current position. However, help is at hand, and the reappearance of roboboots gives the story a second kick in the pants. Slipping a blaster to Sam, they are soon free with - two smoking guard robots in their wake. Some quick rewiring to one of them, and they have a new ally with them, one that will do whatever he is told, without question. 

What happens next we will have to wait and see as Tharg appears in the last panel with a curious message telling us that the second half of the story will return in the future. 

Curious indeed, and for now I am resisting the urge to look too far ahead in the comics next to me. Perhaps a break will be good for both readers and creators as this week's issue felt uneven and left me unsatisfied. The cliff-hanging end no doubt contributed greatly to the feeling, and it undid some of the drama that the panels otherwise held. The escape by Sam Slade was well made, but with nothing to follow it, it ran out of steam on the final page. The discovery of SJI didn't lead to any great leap forward in the story and was merely another breadcrumb in this long trail that has brought us here. Overall, I found it good, although there was no backbone to it and nothing that makes me want to flick forward and find out what happens next; a crime in the world of comics. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "My circuits! Magnificent, Master Sam! Yes, yes indeedly! Done like a true human!" 

Still trapped on a gigantic alien vessel, Dan Dare and his men continue to wander it's hold searching for clues. The kid with Dare holds the answers, as he continues to receive telepathic messages.  

Coming to a locked door that Hitman is unable to force open, the kid tells him he should just say the password, information he has gleaned from the alien writing above. 

Entering through the door, they find themselves in a passageway that stretches up further than the eye can perceive. Dare, Jebby and Hitman are awe-struck by what's ahead of them, although Hitman rightly points out that the kid seems to have gone into some sort of trance.

Travlling on they come to a giant door, and Hitman immediately blasts it with his gun. Dare is furious, and saves Hitman from the ricochet with a diving tackle. The danger is far from over and gas begins to rise around them. This is the moment where the kid comes into his own, speaking to the door with words put into his mouth by someone else, and the door begins to open. 

Within they find an abandoned banquet table, with ancient goblets decaying where they sit. As Jebby reaches for an old cloak, the kid once again behind to speak, telling a tale of times long ago and who the cloaks once belonged to. Telling them all to keep back the kid suddenly points to a large skeleton behind him, telling them that he is the one who runs the ship, the last of the crew, the last of the Golden Ones. 

The bulk of this story was interesting enough, but it was the final page that really piqued my interest and made me consider the in a new light. It was a great turn, and finally, all the talk about the kid came to fruition and made it all worthwhile. The mystical talk of the Golden Ones was backed up by their surroundings, and the skeleton the kid pointed to was the key moment that sold me on the story. We have been weaving through the darkness for some weeks now, and finally, it seems we have crossed the threshold to a new, all the more interesting, part of the story. Once again I am recharged and revitalised by what I have read, and Dand Dare didn't disappoint as we stretch further forward with the story. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "That cloak is a remnant from the days of the mists of time, when the fair born, powerful and strong, wore the golden robes!"

For four days and nights, Judge Dredd's group has been holding out against the Legion Of The Damned at a ruined fort outside of Mega-city Two. 

With the droids launching a massive attack it looks as if it's almost over. However, an anti-personal grabber attempts to grab Tweak, and as Dredds shoots its eyes out it goes on a smashing rampage, wiping out a large section of the droid army. 

This brings forth General Blood 'n' Nuts who offers a truce. He wants Dredd only, and in return, the others can go free including the precious vaccine. 

Spikes tells Dredd, no, they aren't leaving him. The five minutes they have to make their decision elapses without Dredd being surrendered, and the Mek-panzers advance, intent on blasting the fort to bits. 

Spikes is the first causality, a blast throwing him back at Dredd's side. It is serious, and Dredd doesn't hide it from Spikes, telling him so. Racked with pain, Spikes asks Tweak again to tell him of the riches of his planet, of which Spikes has signed on for half. Tweak obliges him, and Spikes staggers to his feet. In one final triumphant monologue, Spikes clambers over the battlements towards the advancing army, telling of his riches and what he's worth. He dies with the words on his lips that he's more than just a punk.

This is not Spikes final act of the comic, for Dredd has one final mission for him. Drsssing the dead Spikes in Dredd's uniform, they prop him up and Dredd's bike and send him towards the advancing robots. The robots triumphantly turn their weapons towards the bike, but seconds later the bike explodes in a blazing holocaust, taking out a large number of droids, but also leaving the rest celebrating the death of Dredd. Little do they know that at that moment, Dredd and Tweaks are silently slipping away through the smoke and confusion, their backpacks full of the vital vaccine. 

With sixty miles of Mojave desert between them and Mega-city Two, Dredd and Tweak still have an arduous journey ahead of them. How arduous quickly becomes apparent as a sandstorm swirls around them and Dredd and Tweak are quickly separated. The hagged face of Dredd stares out at us in the final panel, determined not to let the Cursed Earth beat him now.

Great stuff, from the first panel to the last. We have seen self-sacrifice before, and it doesn't always come off as well as it it did here. I often complain that it is telegraphed in advance and loses some of its power. In this case, we were told two issues ago that Spikes would die, yet it still felt shocking when it happened. Having travelled with Spikes for several months now, he has been built beyond the point of a disposable character, and his death felt like it meant something on the pages of Judge Dredd and the story that was being told. I was moved by his death and his final monologue, and I have to give both the writer and the artist full credit for bringing the curtain down on Spikes in a fitting fashion. Elsewhere, the Legion Of the Damned looked fantastic in every panel they appeared in and coupled with some striking images of Dredd in action, and the death of Spikes, this was a blockbuster issue in terms of quality art. An unforgettable issue, and one of my favourites so far.

Rating: 8.5/10

Best line: "Listen, Judgey - I'm no hero. If I really thought that loony general down there could be trusted, I'd desert you like a shot! But I don't trust him...so I'm stayin'...savvy?"

On the foothills of the Andes, a hastily convened gathering of military advisers plan their next step in the campaign of the ongoing Ant Wars. 

The leading General is urging caution - all he has heard so far is rumour, and he wants to see one of these ants before he acts. 

He doesn't have long to wait for at just that moment an ant bursts through the wall behind him and snatches him up in its jaws. The surrounding military men are shocked, but Captain Villa and his companion Anteater are on hand, and quickly fighting back with swords taken from the helpless General. The ant is killed, but not before he has taken out the General, and the remaining leaders argue their next move. 

The decision is quickly made, and the US go with the nuclear option. Soon aircraft are flying over the location of the ants and the whole area is devastated by nuclear explosions. 

Later, army helicopters fly into the area, and wearing fall-out suits, Villa and Anteater are given a chance to see the devasting wrought up close. It appears quiet, but suddenly the ground opens up beneath them with giant ants appearing. The helicopter is destroyed, and its crew is dragged underground by the ants.  Villa decides to follow the tunnel down to the ant nest but injures his ankle upon entering the tunnel. Prone on the ground, it looks like it's all over as he looks on in terror at what is coming his way. 

Better than last week, but still, I have questions. While I could (just) believe the dropping of nuclear weapons on the ants, I found it somewhat of a stretch to accept Captain Villa being flown to the area a couple of hours later to have a look at the carnage. I also found it hard to swallow that highly trained military men are constantly beaten by the ants while Captain Villa and Anteater beat them off single-handedly again and again. I can accept giant ants, yet little things like this always bring me back to reality. The story continues to move forward and it feels as if the end may be finally in sight. The nuclear option always felt too easy for this story, and I'm hoping for one final twist to elevate the story and finish on an unexpected high. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "I want to see one for myself!"

Prog 84 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Judge Dredd

Best Line: "I'm...a billionaire...own...half...pla...not...jus'...a punk!"   

Best Panel:

Prog 83

I have a good feeling about this issue. I wasn't 100% on board with everything I read in the last issue, but a quick perusal through the first few pages this week has already piqued my interest. It remains to be seen if the rest of the issue lives up to this first impression, but being a positive chap I have no doubt that it will surpass expectations. After all, Ant Wars can't get any worse than it was last week. I hope. 

Prog 83

23th September 1978

The first page of Robo-Hunter is a recap, and Sam Slade gets to the nuts and bolts of it with his three lines - "I'm Sam Slade. I'm on the robot planet. I'm in trouble." 

We see just what sort of trouble he is further done the page as Sam and his robo-boots observe thousands of robots gather. These are the rejects of the robot planet, all lining up to be recycled. 

Slipping into the facility in search of SJI, Sam (and by extension the reader) gets to see the weird and wonderful faults of these robots, and exactly how they are disassembled for recycling.

Sam and robo-boots don't get too long to dwell on this and soon robo-boots is off on his own to find SJI, leaving Sam to fend for himself for a couple of pages. 

He does get confronted by a couple of robots who suspect that he is a sim and it takes some smooth talking by Sam to dissuade them from his notion. He also lures them into an empty room where he dispenses with them with a single shot from his blaster. 

Reunited with Robo-boots, Sam soon finds himself looking down on SJI, who appears to be sweeping the floor. Sam has a bad feeling about what might happen once he reveals himself to SJI, but we'll have to wait until next week for that. 

A much better story than last week, and a story crammed full of humour. The faulty robots were amusing, with many of them delivering humourous lines. It brought some levity to the strip and I found myself smiling all the way through. Even the two robots that corner Sam are funny, they aren't too smart and this plays into Sam's hands while giving the reader something to laugh about. All the while the story moved steadily forward, and I found myself quickly reading through the pages in anticipation of more. This is a great start to this week's comic, and it looks like Robo-hunter is back on track. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "I wonder what will happen? This is exciting!"

It's a fast start to Dan Dare this week. Bear and the kid are still searching for the source of the mysterious voice in the kid's head when they find themselves looking through a window into the exhibition area where Dare, Jebby, and Hitman, find themselves trapped. Things are about to get a lot worse for the three as a large creature approaches them with evil intent on its mind. 

We don't have long to wait to find out what this intent is and Dare and his men are soon in the fight of their lives. On the other side of the window, Bear isn't one to stand back and watch, and smashing his way through the window he joins the fray, with the kid half a step behind. 

Bear is thrown off by the creature but quickly gets to his feet telling Dare they must protect the kid at all costs as he holds the key to this mystery they find themselves wrapped in. Lunging at the creature, Bear embraces it in a death grip, with his knife firmly plugged into its heart. 

This doesn't deter the animal, and he continues to try and fight off Bear. This struggle ends abruptly with the two of them rolling into a life shaft and disappearing into the darkness far below. 

The story slows for the final page, with Dare taking the kid under his wing and asking more about the voices in his head. We end with the four men heading off to search further, while it is only in the final panel that Dare pauses to consider the fate of Bear and what might await them. 

A sad ending to Bear, it was telegraphed earlier in the strip that his intervention would be a fatal one. The way he told Dare to protect the kid at all costs hinted at the fact that Bear was going to be fighting to the death, and so it proved. The fight scene was done well, and the art highlighted the power of their foe while giving us moments to linger on the intense faces of the participants. The panel of Bear about to enter the fight was particularly compelling and brought a sense of gravity to the strip while telling us all we needed to know about his upcoming fight. Last week's Dare hinted that there was plenty more to come in this story, and this has been borne out in this week's events. We have lost a crewmember and are still far from solving the mysteries of this ship, guaranteeing that I will be back next week to pick up the further adventures of Dan Dare.

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Kid cannot come to harm, or else, you will never solve secret of ship!"

Judge Dredd has almost reached Megacity-two with his delivery of the vaccine, but there remains one final obstacle - crossing Death Valley, 

Arriving at a war memorial, Dredd stops to pay his respects to the dead from the battle of  Armageddon, a battle that saw one hundred thousand Judges and Mega-troopers lose their lives. 

Little known to Dredd there are some still fighting this battle, and on the opposite page, we see a mechanical general, General Blood and Nuts (great name) urging on his unseen men. 

Judge Jack tells Dredd that this place gives him the creeps, and Dredd silently reminds himself that Judge Jack has been through a lot and looks as though he is close to cracking up. 

At that moment a droid rises from the soil, grabbing Judge Jack by the leg and threatening to kill him. It's a short-lived threat, and Judge Dredd dispatches him immediately with a shot to the head. 

Dredd dismisses it as only an old war droid left over from the war and with a little energy left in its batteries, although over the page we see that he is one of thousands of droids rising from the mud and preparing to battle again. These are the Legion of the Damned, programmed to fight for all of eternity.

There is no way Dredd and his men can fight back in the face of overwhelming odds, and the only course of action is to smash through the lines in the kill-dozer and flee the scene. 

With Dredd leading the charge, we have a dramatic start to the breakout, although things quickly go awry with Judge Jack's nerve failing and he deserts the team in the vaccine car. Judge Jack approaches the droids, giving up his badge and offering to surrender. There is no surrender, and for his troubles, Judge Jack is gunned down mercislllessly.

Meanwhile, Dredd and the kill-dozer are facing problems of their own. The droids are gaining the upper hand, and soon Dredd and Spikes are leading the kill-dozer to the only safe spot they can find - an old Spanish fort. They find that it is aptly named "Castillo de los hombres muertos" - the fort of the dead men. The story finishes at this point, with the sound of General Blood 'n' Nuts marshalling his troops outside in preparation to storm the fort while Spikes and Dredd crouch low and wait for the inevitable end. 

Another story based on great writing and an interesting concept. The dialogue on the page was cracking, and a lot of it derived from the characters we had in the story - Dredd was his dry best, while Spikes added a punky edge to everything he said. Best of all, General Blood 'n' Nuts was the epitome of a war-hungry leader, with dialogue that ambly matched his name. My eye was drawn to everything he said, and it gave the story an extra boost at just the right moment. I wasn't impressed by the look of him, although his face was interesting enough, I felt that perhaps he could have been a little more clearly defined in his look. However, his name alone atoned for any reservations I had about the art, and once he started speaking I became all the more invested in the story. Yet another worthy entry into the Cursed Earth canon, and it looks as though we will be ending on a high. 

Rating: 7.5/10

Best line: "L-look...I-I've taken off my helmet and badge...I'm no longer a Judge...n-now you'll let me go...okay?"  

Giant flying Queen ants are the first thing we see in Ant Wars, as they ostensibly head towards the Andes to begin hatching new armies. 

Villa and Anteater are aware of this and urge the two reporters they are with to publish the news as soon as they can alert as many people as possible. However, they are interrupted by the army's arrival in several jeeps and trucks. Villa is pleased to see them, but things turn when the army commands the newsmen, along with Villa and Anteater, into the trucks and tells them not to say a word. 

The army knows all about the ants, and Villa it seems, and they are soon on the road to an unknown destination. It's not as straightforward as it seems, and the appearance of the Queen ants flying towards them puts the soldiers on a fearful footing. The flying ants attack and panic breaks out. After several minutes of chaos, Villa and Anteater have a lucky break when one of the ants picks up their jeep, with them still in it. It flies towards other burning jeeps, and Villa and Anteater jump from the vehicle just before it explodes as the ant flies over the other fires. With this explosion, the ants retreat, and the troops resume their journey to their final destination. 

This destination is a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Within are all the various chiefs of staff of all the major Latin American countries. They all know about the ants, and how they came to be, we even have an American General showing the assembled group the insecticide that caused all this in the first place, while telling them that this is now the last can in existence. 

The conference is making progress, but outside the window we see an ant silently watching, setting up next week for another confrontation. 

The fight with the ants was fun, although the rest of the story didn't deliver a lot. Perhaps the most intriguing panel was the final one with the ant watching through the window. This was the most uncomfortable moment and the moment that propelled us into the next leg of the story. There were some striking images generated with the fight with the ants that was the meat of this story, and although we have seen many battles before, this time we had the flying element added and the sight of ants picking up trucks. This week's story was enjoyable to a point, yet remains disappointingly uneven.

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "It- it's trying to pick us up!" 

Future Shocks deals with a story trope that many of us are familiar with. A dying planet and the warriors of this world are dispatched across the universe to find a new home. 

Earth is their goal of conquest, and after entering space-warp they arrive at their destination many light-years away. 

There is disappointment when they arrive on Earth. It is barren and lifeless and both cold and damp. Minutes later things get worse as a flood of water destroys the invaders and their ship. 

Pulling back we see the full scale of what has occurred. The invaders have arrived on Earth all right, but they hadn't realised the scale of Earth. They have landed in the eye of a small boy and then been washed away with his tears. This sets us up for the great final line of "Unwittingly the invaders had been destroyed...in the twinkling of an eye!"

We saw a similar story a year ago, with alien invaders arriving on Earth only to find they are tiny compared to Earthlings. This story trod the same ground, although I didn't realize it until the final couple of panels. The advantage this story had over the older one is the quality of the writing, and although some people may groan at the final line, I really enjoyed it. An upbeat ending to this week's comic, and it delivered just the twist we needed.     

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Unwittingly the invaders had been destroyed...in the twinkling of an eye!"

Prog 83 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Dan Dare

Best Line: "Look out, Judge Dredd! General Blood 'n' Nuts is coming to get ya!"   

Best Panel:

Prog 82

I know I shouldn't have, but I was looking ahead in my pile of comics here and I see changes coming in the next month. Big changes, and hopefully good changes. I am enjoying where we are at with 2000 AD at the moment, but I can't help but think that things could be better. It remains to be seen how things will pan out in the coming months, and the only thing I can guarantee is that I'll be here every week devouring it all. 

Prog 82

16th September 1978

Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter, is on his way to meet SJI, the first robot on Verdus, in the hope of proving that he is a real human and not a simulation. He is being led by robo-boots, and the pair of them are worried about the police hunt that is currently searching for them. 

Their first confrontation with the robots looking for them comes shortly after, and  Slade blasts his way out of trouble. However, the numbers are overwhelming and it's the robo-boots that offer a means of escape.

Strapping on the boots, Slade is off on a wild ride. The boots are too fast for him, and he cannot keep his balance. This doesn't deter the boots, and they continue to run, dragging Slade along with them.

Even so, they eventually find themselves surrounded. The boots have one last ditch solution, this time leaping off the platform with Slade still attached and onto a ledge on the building opposite. 

After all this excitement, Slade tells the boots that he will stick to using his own feet from here on as his way costs him too much blood. This decided they take a taxi the rest of the way to the robot record office, where they hope to find the whereabouts of SJI. 

The robot clerk is suspicious and it takes some smooth talking to extract the information they need. The clerk however continues his unwanted observations, and it takes Slade's blaster to finally silence him. Thus we end the strip this week with Slade and Robo-boots taking a taxi to the location given and Slade pondering on his chances of ever seeing Earth again. 

An uneven start to this week's comic, and as much as I like Sam Slade, I never feel fully engaged with this opening story. Sure, there was humour aplenty - always a good thing, but the rest of the story left me locked out and looking for a way in. I just couldn't get invested in this interaction with the clerk, and it felt like a break in the momentum as we searched for SJI. The characters remain the strongest part of this strip and we just need a story worthy of them. It is still early days, and I expect it will get better in the coming weeks. We shall see. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "You would have to bleed, Slade!"

I never thought I would save this, but I found this week's Ant Wars to be silly and could find very little joy in reading it. It retreads similar storylines we have seen week after week and adds nothing to the overall story arc.

Having been captured by revolutionaries in the hills of Argentina, Captain Villa and Anteater are freed at the appearance of the giant ants. Talking the revolutionary leader around to his point of view, Captain Villa watches on as the revolutionary army lays an ambush for the approaching ants. 

The ambush exceeds all expectations, and as the men stand over the bodies of their defeated foes, Villa is dispatched to find civilization and a newspaper reporter to capture the moment. 

While he is gone, further giant ants appear, also carrying dozens of cocoons of Queen Ants. The ants overwhelm the forces approaching them, with the Queens busting out of the cocoons and flying away. 

Villa returns to find nothing but dead bodies and empty cocoons and it's only through the appearance of Anteater, who has survived by hiding, that he is made aware of what has unfolded.

We end right back where we started, with a swarm of Ants flying towards the foothills of the Andes. 

I had hoped that after the false finish a few weeks ago the story would find a new wind in its sails. It hasn't, we find ourselves becalmed on this hollow storyline. For the last three weeks, I feel as if I have read the same story over and over, and any joy I may have had in the first reading has now vanished in the face of this repetition. I don't think that things will change in the future. I will keep on reading, but only with the secret thought in my heart that I hope it all ends soon. 

Rating: 4/10

Best line:  "What..? Other giant cocoons like the one we've got! The column was carrying more than one queen ant!" 

Judge Dredd had better be good to make up for the story I have just read in Ant Wars. It starts well enough with Tweak continuing his story from last week, and some impactful imagery gets the story off to a strong start. 

Tweak is held by human scientists, who are astounded to find that although he has great intelligence, he looks and acts dumb. Little do they know that is all part of Tweak's plan to sacrifice himself to be with his mate and child and save his planet from further human interference.

Although the scientists have no further interest in them, the rest of the story takes a more depressing route, as Tweak and his family are sold into slavery. It's not long before the slave owner's daughter becomes distressed at the non-compliance of Tweak's children, and he pulls a pistol to deal with them. In the fields, Tweak's mate senses something bad is about to happen, and she runs to where the slave owner is about to shoot her children. It is all for nothing, for he shoots all of them dead together. 

The rest of the story Dredd knows, Tweak buried his family under a pile of stones and joined Dredd and his mission. At this juncture, real life intrudes and Spikes brings us back to the current moment, telling Tweak and Dredd that the land-lander is not repaired and ready to cross Death Valley. 

Before they head off Dredd asks Tweak why he told him about his sacrifice and planet - after all, Dredd could easily report the mineral farms on his planet and have it torn apart by mineral ships. Tweak's reply is simple - he trusts Dredd. 

Dredd presses him further, asking why he told Spikes too. Tweak's answer to this is far more interesting, he tells Dredd that Spikes will die in Death Valley. Dredd is silent on this, but wonders if Tweak's race can really see into the future. 

With their conversation over, Tweak returns to Spikes, who is now scheming to get a slice of the action on Tweak's planet. Waving a contract under Tweaks noise, Spikes offers a fifty per cent split on any profits that can be made on his planet. After some cajoling, Tweaks signs the contract, asking Spikes if that will make him happy. 

With Spikes cock-a-hoop about his future fortune, they head into Death Valley with Spikes on the lead bike, punching the air with an enthusiastic cry. 

My feeling is much the same as Spikes as we head into the next issue. Tweak's story was a shade too long, but it raised the stakes for what will come and added a weight to the story that is hard to shake. It is all ahead of us now, and everything has been beautifully lined up. The artwork was outstanding in this issue, and even when I tired of Tweak's story I still found myself digesting every line on the page. There were moments when I did wonder if the story would sag at this stage. However, the final page exceeded all expectations and we finished on a high that demanded I read the next issue as soon as possible. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Listen, Tweak old friend. What you need is a business manager to protect your interests."   

A grotesque start to Dan Dare, as we see him facing death at the jaws of a hideous-looking creature. This time there is no escape and a group of savages surround him and his two companions, forcing them towards the creature whereupon Dare is swallowed by the monster. 

Meanwhile on the Space Fort, Bear has finally come out of his coma. Quickly filled in on all the happenings, Bear decides to leave the ship, sensing that he must find the kid he was with earlier who may well hold the key to this mystery. 

Leaving the fort, the first thing Bear discovers are the dead crew members of the previous search party. Taking care to avoid the savages on the prowl, Bear manages to reunite with the kid. The kid then tells Bear that he has been receiving telepathic messages from someone alive on the ship, and they have been guiding him towards them.

On a lower deck, the monster that swallowed Dare and his friends is now opening its mouth, and three capsules containing Dare, Hitman, and Jebby, tumble out. They're still alive, but can only watch on helplessly from within their capsules. 

It seems the monster is a piece of machinery, although the primitives aren't aware of it and use it to sacrifice intruders. Before Dare can piece any of this mystery together he is interrupted by lights in his capsule and the sense that his brain is on fire. This pain quickly passes and soon the capsules begin to move through a large well-lit room. 

The strip ends with the three men being released from their capsules. It seems that they are in a large exhibition room with various species on display, although there is already a human in a cage and Dare and his men are rejects of this exhibition.

This story became a lot more interesting with this issue. Finally, the storyline has caught up with the artwork and delivered a thought-provoking and highly readable issue. There is plenty of mystery and the story doesn't feel rushed at all, giving the reader plenty of time to marinate in the riddles to be solved. We now have a two-pronged attack on the storyline, with Bear and the kid coming from one angle, while Dare and Hitman come from another. Both offer different perspectives on the mystery, and pleasingly neither has enough information for me to work out where we are going with this. I love a good mystery, and this story has plenty of that. With much of the story still in shadow it looks like it will be some time before we know more. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "What gives, Dare? You reckon we been chosen for exhibits in this stinkin' zoo?" 

We have a Future Shocks to fill the final page and a half of the comic. The tale it tells is true to the genre and is simply told. 

Lawrence Carmer falls from an ocean liner and is drowning at sea when an alien spacecraft appears and beams him from the water. It seems he saved, and the aliens themselves tell him that they mean no harm. However, Lawrence observes that it is like a zoo, and the aliens confirm that it is so, they have been collecting specimens from across the galaxy. They reassure Lawrence that he will be placed in an environment just as they found him, so he will be comfortable in his normal element.

This isn't quite as good as it sounds, and the story ends with Lawrence being placed in a goldfish bowl full of water. 

Par for the course for a Future Shocks. A brief set-up that tells us all we need to know, and over the page a payoff in a single panel. It was all well done, and although it's not a favourite story I did enjoy it and its brevity. It was a full stop on the issue rather than an exclamation mark, but felt right for what came earlier in the issue.

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "There is a chamber for you, too. You will be much more comfortable in your normal element, I'm sure."

Prog 82 final ratings:

Overall: 6.5/10

Best Story: Dan Dare

Best Line: "Oh, no. Pooor Spiiiiikes. But itttt didn't really matter if he heard. He will diiiie in Death Valllllley. It is very sadddddd."   

Best Panel: