Prog 100 is here, and I can't believe how fast these first couple of years have passed. I thought that after several weeks I would lose interest in this blog and that it would fall by the wayside. That hasn't happened, mostly due to the quality of 2000 A.D. rather than my motivation to stick with it. The first couple of years have been uneven, but there has always been enough to lure me back, and one feels that the next year could see it go from strength to strength. Prog 100 sees a couple of returning stories, stories that I have had warm feelings about in the past, and I am quietly hopeful that they will be even better the second time around. You would think that upon reaching a milestone such as Prog 100 I would be looking back, but this is a comic all about the future, and I for one can't wait to see what that future brings. Forget Prog 100, I want to reach Prog 200.
Prog 100
17th February 1979
It's all going down on the first page of Ro-Busters, as the giant robot Charlie battles against the demolition team of Terra-Meks.
It's a titanic struggle worthy of its place first in the comic, and after a fearsome battle, Charlie is victorious over Tyranno-Mek.
Nearby, Howard Quartz - the semi-leader of Ro-Busters, and Ron Murdoch - leader of the Northpool council, watch on. Howard Quartz is angry that his most expensive robot has been destroyed, while Ron Murdoch is equally distraught about the death of innocent people. Neither will take responsibility; all they can do is watch on as Charlie defends the city.
Charlie destroys another one of the Terra-Meks and the arguing Quartz and Murdoch find some common ground as they decide to blame Charlie for all the death and destruction.
Meanwhile, Charlie is now fighting King Konka, the leader of the Terra-Meks. It's another mighty battle, and this time Charlie is victorious through sheer brute strength.
This is the last straw for Quartz and Murdoch, and they formulate a plan to blame Charlie for all that has happened. Dead men tell no tales as they say, and the key part of the plan is to kill Charlie before he can tell the truth about what has happened. The plan is a simple one - call up the navy and tell them that Charlie is destroying Northpool, then send an SOS out to lure Charlie out to sea where he can be sent to a watery grave by the naval guns.
The Mills/Gibbons pairing has again delivered a thrilling story that leapt forward with this issue. It didn't carry the emotion and intensity of the previous issue and instead focused on moving the plot forward and setting up the jeopardy for the next week. We also had a large dose of physical action which appealed to a younger audience, as well as the likes of me who want nothing more than to see large robots fighting each other. Charlie looks beautiful on the page and is a fantastically designed robot, carrying an almost human quality about him although he is obviously a large robot rather than an android. The more human characters took a back seat in this issue, yet there was still humanity on every panel as Charlie channelled his rage into action. This episode was worthy of the 100th issue, and I can see why it was the lead story. Beautiful to look at and beautiful to read, this is a great induction to Prog 100.
Rating: 8.5/10
Best line: "You eat city that Charlie love! But it is wrong to eat people's houses! When Charlie finished with you..you eat nothing no more!
After Judge Cal dominated last week's issue of Judge Dredd, this week we pivot back to Dredd himself as we see what has become of him.
We last saw Dredd and his road liner plunging into the road. Little noticed by those watching was that it was a new design, fitted with a crash-proof command capsule.
Dredd and most of his men survive the crash, although they find that they have crashed through the city bottom and are now in the old Ohio River that flows under the city.
They are not alone down here, and soon a scavenger party of subterranean humans are hungrily eyeing up their vehicle and everything inside it. The capsule is pulled to shore, and looking out at the half-humans Dredd and his men prepare for a scrap.
That fight never eventuates, as the arrival of a larger, and stupider, subterranean named Fergee arrives and sends the other fleeing. Fergee is eager to open the capsule himself, and upon doing so is greeted with a boot to the face - courtesy of Judge Dredd.
Dredd tells Fergee to surrender, but all this does is provoke some angry threats. The strip ends with Dredd about to fight Fergee the old-fashioned way, with fists only.
Good to see Dredd back to starring in his own comic. Judge Cal was excellent last week, but there is nothing quite like seeing Dredd staring down bad guys and dispensing his own style of tough justice. Seeing him confronting Fergee was a treat, and the first kick was especially pleasing. The art by McMahon was a fine match for the unsettling world that Dredd now finds himself in, and although Dredd looked strong in his interaction with Fergee, the rest of the panels and world seemed to shift and warp around him, draping a veil of darkness across the strip. Judge Cal wasn't entirely absent from the strip, and on the first page, we did see him make happiness illegal, a move that will further push the citizens to take action if and when Dredd gets back. This week saw a couple of extra layers added to the story, as well as a wrinkle with the appearance of Fergee, all building the intrigue and raising the stakes for an inevitable confrontation between Dredd and Cal down the line. It should be a good one, but I'm in no hurry to get there with the story unfolding the way it is.
Rating: 8/10
Best line: "Kinda dark out there. Maybe we're in hell, J.D. It sure smells like-it!
Well, well, well, it looks like Robo Hunter is making a return. I enjoyed the first run, and seeing Sam Slade's dialogue on the first page reminded me of what I liked most about the strip.
The first page of a re-cap of all that had come before, before we are dropped back into the story with Slade being introduced to a variety of robots by SJI, the only robot who has seen a real human and can verify Sam Slade's identity.
The household robots are eager to please, and do their best to welcome Slade now that they know that Slade is really a human. There is a discussion of why the other robots on Verdus fail to recognise Slade as human, and it is Captain Kidd who hits upon the answer. The robots have been programmed to recognise that humans are superior, but as robots have been upgraded and continually improved, the humans are no longer superior. The robots on Verdus will never meet a human who is superior, and no human will ever be recognised as such.
With the robots now beginning a door-to-door search for Slade and Kidd, they formulate a plan to meet face-to-face with the head robot on the planet, Big Brain, and present their evidence that they are really human.
Sneaking through the sewers they are making good progress until a wave of robotic sewer rats come across them and attack Slade as an impurity.
This is an uneven start to Robo Hunter. We had the recap that, while necessary, also stole some of the early momentum from the first pages. The dialogue that I enjoyed from Slade was lacking, and the fact that my best line wasn't one of his speaks volumes of how far we have moved from the original film-noir feel. It took me a long time to get back into the story and I'm still not entirely convinced that I am back into the story, it just doesn't feel as good as the previous iteration. For all the faults of the earlier Robo Hunter story, and there were some, the characters carried the day concerning my reading pleasure. There was none of that in this issue, and I put the comic down feeling underwhelmed by what I had read. The potential is there on the page, and I am willing to give it plenty of time, so for now it's just a matter of waiting to see how the next few issues will unfold.
Rating: 5/10
Best line: "Oh, my poor old joint is so stiff now! If you weren't human I'd be so angry with you Master Sam!"
Floating through space on a piece of space junk, Dare is barely alive in his spacesuit. In the vastness of space, he is not unobserved, and on the very first page, we see the eyes of the Mekon watching on.
The Mekon could leave Dare to drift into death, but he instead decides to beam him aboard and make sure of his demise. Once aboard, the Mekon orders Dare to be placed in the memora-thon, where all the tragedy and despair of his life will be dredged up from his subconscious mind.
Strapped into the chair, Dare's ordeal begins with the machine forcing him to relive the death of his loyal friend Digby.
It's all too much for Dare, who breaks free of the chair and strikes two of his nearby captives. However, he is quickly surrounded, and it becomes clear that for all his anger Dare has forgotten who he is and where he is. Dare's mind has snapped under the psychic pressure of the memora-thon. Hovering near, the Mekon sees this as his final opportunity to humiliate Dare and have him save the life of the Mekon.
The return of Dare was welcomed, and the return of the Mekon even more so. This was a fantastic re-introduction of the story, and already a lot has happened on the page that has me worried for the future of Dare. It all builds to the fact that I want to read the next issue immediately, and I can't recommend a story more highly than that. The writing was equally compelling, and several of the panels had captions that were almost poetic in their description of what was happening. All of it made for an evocative read, and when paired with the clean art style of Gibbons, the entire strip was elevated to another level. Ro-Busters may have started off Prog 100 in grand style, but Dan Dare has provided the exclamation point. The future looks bright for 2000 A.D. and with a couple of refinements the next few months should be a thrilling journey.
Rating: 9/10
Best line: "Compared to Dare, the worms of the Slygian Slime Forests are of noble birth!"
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Overall: 7.5/10
Best Story: Dan Dare
Best Line: "The good times are over, you scum! Dredd is dead! I am your Chief Judge! I demand your respect - I demand your love...and I'll get it if it kills you!"
Best Panel:
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