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: