Prog 95

A beautiful autumn day here, with the sun shining and barely a breath of wind. There is a small part of me that feels guilty sitting inside reading comics on a day such as this, but sometimes a guy gotta do what a guy gotta do. This week's comic looks intriguing, with Judge Dredd still pitted against Judge Cal, while on the pages of Flesh, Peters and Carver are still squaring off. We also have a new story appearing, Angel, and I look forward to reading something fresh and exciting. I am sad to see Strontium Dog leave us for now, but I look forward to a future return and hopefully a much stronger storyline. 

Prog 95

13th January 1979

Judge Cal still has a firm grip on the citizens, and with the entire population set to be executed, Judge Dredd must formulate a plan fast.

Judge Slocum is the man tasked with expediting the executions, and this makes him the target of Dredd's master plan. Snatching Slocum from the streets, Dredd tells him that he must stop Judge Cal and the executions or face the wrath of Dredd. Furthermore, Dredd already has a plan on how to stop Cal. 

This plays out on the following page as Slocum reports to Judge Cal that his precious Judge Fish has died. He tells him that it is surely a sign that if the people die, so do the Judges. 

Judge Cal agrees and the executions are stopped while he prepares a funeral for Judge Fish. Cal is expecting millions to turn out on the streets for the funeral of Judge Fish but is severely disappointed when he finds the streets deserted. Once again his anger comes to the fore, and we close the strip with Judge Cal promising to make the citizens suffer. 

A couple of twists and turns here made the story more interesting than I had expected when I picked the paper up. With Dredd avoiding direct confrontation and playing around the edges of Cal's world was an interesting concept, and the death of Judge Fish was just what I needed to see. It once again drew on the mental instability of Judge Cal, and Dredd's opportunity to exploit this weakness. Although sad to see Judge Fish go, I greatly enjoyed his cameo, and applaud him for the part he played in the story. I thought this story was coming to a close, but each week another layer is added, keeping me intrigued and gratefully picking up each new issue with an enthusiasm to see what happens next. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "I'm glad I spared you! Glad! Because now I can make you all suffer"

Part three of Ro-Jaws memoirs, and Ro-Busters begins with the striking image of Ro-Jaws and Ginger being released from the robot prison. 

On the streets, they find that robots aren't welcomed anywhere and are generally shunned by society. This is made quite clear when Ginger accidentally bumps into a human, causing a mob to form and the threat of being wired up to the street lights imminent.

Help is at hand, as one of the humans steps the mob back from the edge of violence. The aptly named George Washington defuses the situation with some hard facts about the limits of the law, and the two robots are freed. The two robots and their savoir quickly leave the scene before things get worse, and once they are safely away from the crowd, the human reveals that he is actually a robot himself. With plasti-skin and synthi-hair he passes for human, but is really an android robot - A7000/L series. Furthermore, he is a member of the robot resistance, preparing for a time when they will rise up and take their rightful place in society.  

Leaving George Washington behind, Ro-Jaws and Ginge head to the robo-exchange in search of work. There isn't much to be had, although we do see a robot being sent to Ro-Busters, while Ginger wrings his hands and tells us that it is a fate worse than prison. 

Eventually, our two chums are sent to work at a removal firm. Neither is well suited to the work, and the owner decides to keep only Ginger on, while Ro-Jaws ends up working as a grave digger. 

Ro-Jaws is a good digger, but not particularly sensitive to the relatives of the dead bodies he is burning. However, this is all just fluff and the real story ignites over the page. 

Ro-Jaws witnesses the android robot George Washington taking part in a bank robbery. Aided by other resistance members, the money is to be used to buy guns, although they are barely out of the bank before a platoon of robot police arrive at either end of the street, blocking all escape routes. 

Both sides are prepared to fight to the death, when suddenly Ro-Jaws appears at Washington's side, pointing out that there is an escape route through the sewers. Leading the robot resistance into the sewer, Ro-Jaws tells them they're safe down here as he knows the sewers like the back of his shovel.

A lot to digest here. Before I started reading 2000 A.D., I thought it was a well-loved, serious science fiction comic. What I didn't know, and what no one ever told me, was that it was so funny. For all its serious themes, most stories have a humourous aspect, with some displaying this humour more overtly than others. Ro-Busters is such a story. I was smiling again and again at the scraps of humour littering the page. The way Ro-Jaws speaks is obviously always funny, but just as amusing is the way they interact with the humans, and the way that the familiar is bent to fit into this world. The Robo-exchange was sadly all too familiar, but did make me smile at the recognition of it. In the same way, serious themes were pulled into the story directly from the real world and situations we would recognise. The saving of the robots being lynched, and the way the crowd heckled George Washington with the epitaph, "robot-lover" was frightfully close to modern history, although perhaps having the android named George Washington was a little on the nose and a step too far for me. Apart from that, I appreciated what Pat Mills was doing with his writing, and I found the strip to be trying something more than what we saw in boy comics at the time. This would have been quite forward-thinking in 1979, and as we saw in previous stories by Pat Mills, his views on society are to the fore of all that he is creating. Ro-Busters isn't perfect, but it is the first story I want to read next week.    

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Never mind my platis-skin! I've got to go. Just remember, brothers - though everywhere mek-men are in chains...one day we will be free!"

 

Flesh begins with an underwater battle between Big Hungry and the giant Scorpians. It is not something I would want to get involved in, but Carver and the crew of his submarine venture a little too close to the action, their gunner firing a torpedo that sends both the monster and machine reeling. 

Far above the sub sits the accompanying trawler. Carver orders the trawler to drop their nets. This they reluctantly do, and Carver's plan is revealed as the net drops to the bottom of the ocean, enveloping Big Hungry. 

With Big Hungry trapped, Carver orders the sub back to the island with gold, not waiting to see if Big Hungry survives. This proves a mistake as Big Hungry fights off the other creatures and escapes the net. 

On the island, Carver puts his claw to good use, killing a lizard dog while his crew search for the gold. It is Issac who finds the gold, but Carver ruthlessly strikes him with his claw and kills him. This action is seen by Peters, who confronts Carver. This develops into a fight, and while the pair are struggling with each other they fail to notice that emerging from the sea behind them is Big Hungry. 

The opening fight with Big Hungry and the giant scorpians was impressive,  although the meat of the story was this final fight between Peters and Carver. The first image of Big Hungry and the giant scorpions set the scene and lured me into the story, but this proved to be a red herring. As much as I enjoyed it, it wrapped up all too quickly, while the real story rapidly unfolded as Carver and his men took centre stage. It made for odd balance, and by the end of the story I was satisfied that we had seen enough of both Carver and Big Hungry to make the story well-rounded. Both are reaching their peak rage and although Peters is in the mix, it's the struggle between Carver and Big Hungry that I am desperate to see play out. That must be close now, and we have finished on a great cliffhanger to take us into next week.  

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "That does it, Carver, you rotten creep! I'm taking you back to Atlantis station, on a charge of murder!" 

This week's Future Shock's tells the story of Arnold Quigley-Jones, a leading astro-physist working for the government.

Quigley-Jones is offered a job in America but turns it down, citing too many roots here in Britain. 

Later he is shot with a weird green light, and several days later he has a compulsion to suddenly leave the family home. He wanders into the woods where a spaceship waits and again a green beam is shot at him. 

He is taken onboard and passes a barrage of tests. The aliens find that he is suitable, and offer him a chance to explore the stars, an offer he gratefully accepts as a scientist eager to learn more of the universe. 

However, they remove his brain and place it in a robotic suit. He is unable to talk, and we find that he has been taken onboard to become their janitor. The strip ends with one of the aliens remarking that there was very little intelligence on Earth, and this was the best Earth was capable of providing. 

I have mixed feelings about this story. I liked the art and the concept, but by the end of the story, I felt, well, nothing. I didn't care for the main character, nor what happened to him. There was an underlying sense of unease in the story that I did appreciate, but it never built into actual fear or dread. Maybe it would have been better if it was shorter, or indeed longer, but as it was it was neither here nor there and it left me cold. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "I can't talk - can't let them know! Why have they done this to me?"

A new story ends this week's 2000 A.D. - Angel. We meet Harry Angel of the RAF  in the very first panel of the story as he flies his F-20 plane at 27,000 feet. 

The aircraft is highly advanced, with an array of electronics in the cockpit, and it can practically fly itself such as the technology available. However, it's not infallible, and a partial electronics shutdown sends the plane tumbling from the sky. 

Harry Angel refuses to eject, and with a school building dead ahead he struggles with the controls in an attempt to avoid disaster. Disaster is averted, and the plane misses the buildings, although Harry and his aircraft crash in a shattering explosion nearby. 

Harry wakes up in the hospital a few days later, where the staff are amazed that he managed to survive. Although he has survived, he has not come away from the accident unharmed, and he now has some of the electronics from the plane embedded in his arm and shoulder. Not only have the electronics smashed into his body, but they have also linked up to his nervous system. 

An incident with a life support machine and the patient in the next bed reveals that Harry Angel has taken in the knowledge of his plane, and the plane's computer is now part of his body. This means the computer now thinks that Harry's body is the plane, and as a result Harry's coordination, reflexes, muscular control, everything, has increased by several hundred per cent.  

The doctor asks Harry to go to the Advanced Medical Test Center for further testing. Just as Harry leaves the building he sees the President's Air Force One plane taking off. Harry can't explain it, but he knows the plane is going to crash. He quickly climbs into the passenger seat of a nearby Harrier jet, and ordering the pilot to take off begins to issue specific instructions to the pilot. 

The pilot expresses concern that the plane can't handle the stress Harry is putting it under, but Harry tells him that the computer in his arm says they'll be OK, and they must take this action to save the President's plane. 

Although a new story, there wasn't anything here that we hadn't seen before. Already I am getting strong MACH 1 vibes from the plot, although MACH 1 was far more believable to me than a man ending up with electronics embedded in him after a crash. This disbelief greatly detracted from the rest of the story, and although I wanted to like it, I found it hard to move beyond this opening premise. It is only the first issue, so there is still time for me to get on board, but my overriding thought is why have we given up on Strontium Dog for something like this that retreads familiar territory. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "What...what have you done to me? Those...things on my skin..?"

Prog 95 final ratings:

Overall: 6.5/10

Best Story: Ro-Busters

Best Line: "We'll sell our lives dearly - fighting for freedom from cruel humans! "   

Best Panel: