Prog 115

This week sees the end of Ro-Busters, a story that has been a favourite of mine since its arrival on these pages. It's a sad farewell although if there's one thing that I have learnt so far reading this comic - something better is always just around the corner. It's hard to imagine what could be better than the consistent Ro-Busters, time will tell, and I'm sure in no time I will be raving about some story or the other, and this will just be a pleasant memory of the past.   

Prog 115

2nd June 1979 

Judge Dredd has his hands full fighting the DNA men created by the scientist Milton D. Frankenstein. It looks as though Dredd will be overwhelmed, but Walter Wobot comes to his rescue, pouring hot coffee over Dredd's assailants. 

With these monsters destroyed by some sharp shooting by Dredd, Dredd's attention turns back to finding the source of these DNA Men. It doesn't take long to discover that the fingerprints of the DNA Men all match each other and Dr Milton D Frankenstein, who Dredd tells us was dismissed from Mega-City University for his dangerous theories on DNA. 

With the pieces all falling into place, Dredd sets out to bring Frankenstein to justice. Meanwhile, Frankenstein is planning on making an escape, and with his first failed clone, Dennis, he is heading for the border. 

Dennis snatches up a pretty girl along the way, although all Frankenstein is worried about is crossing the borderline. Frankenstein crosses the border just as Dredd arrives, and is safe. However, Dennis is on the wrong side of the line, albeit with a hostage. Things take a twist when Dennis tells the girl that he has snatched that he loves her, and she responds that he is ugly.

With this, something snaps in Dennis and he storms across the border to Frankenstin and safety. He doesn't stop there, and we receive another shock as he grabs Frankenstein by the throat. He is angry that Frankenstein has made him ugly, and the saga ends as Dennis and Frankenstein plunge over the side together, Dennis getting his revenge by destroying himself and Frankenstein. 

We are still in a holding pattern with Dredd. These short stories are sharp and touch on all the usual Dredd tropes, yet aren't as rewarding as his epic stories. I liked and enjoyed reading many aspects of this story, yet it was soon forgotten once I put the comic down. I liked the way it twisted the source material and the look and feel of the overall story was strong. My only real complaint would be that the villain wasn't strong enough, although that is probably why this is a shorter story. The final twist was well done and overall the story moved quickly without wasting too much time. In comparison to Dan Dare, which has been moving at a crawl recently, this flew by and was a punchy start to this week's issue. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "W-well, I don't love you! Don't you understand - you're ugly! Ugly! ugly! UGLY!"

Plenty of red herrings and misdirection in this week's Rick Random, as the mystery of who has been killing members of the Guebin delegation deepens.

It looks like Random has locked up the killers, but on the first page, Garon Aldo is murdered with a projectile weapon. This raises a lot of questions and with only four remembers of the Guebin party left Random suspects that one of them is killing the others to gain power. 

The rest of the strip sees Random putting together more clues before the story climaxes with the arrival of Hyro Cardan, who announces that he has a surprise for  Random and that he knows who the murderer is. 

Just like last week, I was again frustrated by this story. It has great characters bogged down in a wordy plot that doesn't seem to advance much. We had a few more clues this week, yet nothing conclusive, and the plot seemed to be little more than Rick Random running from one clue to another. When this story began I expected to like it a lot more than I have, but it has failed to live up to its early promise. A spectacular issue may change my mind - based on what I have seen so far, I doubt one is coming.  

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Someone murdered Garon Aldo - probably with that air gun!"

In Strontium Dog, Johnny Alpha only needs four tickets for him and his friends to escape hell. The Weerd brothers hold these four tickets, and in the first half of the story, Johnny fights them and gains control of the tickets. 

From there it should be easy enough to escape, but nothing is easy here and as they run for the exit they find Mr Sun and Me Moon playing more tricks, creating earthquakes and opening the ground up to make it difficult. 

Things get worse with the arrival of the Gargoyles. Although Johnny manages to fight them off, he finds himself at the exit as the only one with a ticket, as the Gargoyles have all snatched the others. 

Johnny is no closer to escaping this hell, and I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like once he escapes this place given how much the hellscape is part of the story. The wonderful Mr Sun and Mr Moon were once again integral to the story and the standout characters. Anything is possible when they are on the page and we see this plenty of times throughout the strip. I was unnerved by this world earlier on, but I have become used to it now and it feels like a good fit for Johnny and his friends. The colour pages that open the story added an extra dimension to the artwork and were more colourful than we have previously seen, making the Weerd brothers even weirder than their name suggests. There was plenty of action this week, although some drama behind that action could have elevated it beyond the relatively low score I have bestowed upon it.    

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Look at them run, Mr Sun! So eager with their tickets in their little hands!" 

On the pages of Dan Dare, the Lystrian guerillas attack the Thraxian drill that tunnels toward the Crystal of Life. They look to have the upper hand, but Hagnar, the Thraxian leader, arrives with the Mekon, and between the two of them they repel the attackers. With the Lystrians beating a retreat, Hagnar and the Mekon restart the drill and make for the grotto that houses the Crystal. 

On the city side of the grotto, Dare is also preparing to make a move for the crystal. Cautiously advancing with Sandar at his side, he is wary of the crystal's guardian. He doesn't have long to wait before he sees what he is up against. A  gamma-sphere that acts as the eyes and ears of the guardian appears, and a panel later we see the fearsome creature that Dare must conquer next week.

The cover of this week's 2000 A.D. suggested that we were about to get a direct confrontation between Dan Dare and the Mekon, and although that didn't happen, there was still plenty to recommend this strip. After a stale few weeks things have finally begun to move, and this week we saw Hagnar at his very best, leading from the front with the Mekon by his side. This is still an uneasy alliance, but one that gives us great-looking visuals. The day will come when this axis of evil can no longer hold, and I look forward to seeing the fireworks when these two villains turn on each other. On the Dan Dare side of the story, things didn't move quite as fast, although we ended on a high note with Dare Dan coming across the guardian. The other three-quarters of the strip was given over the Hagnar and the Mekon, which is just as well as they are all the more interesting at the moment. Next week will be Dan Dare's time to shine, and I expect the story will return to his focus now that he encountered a proper enemy face-to-face. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Aye, now hold fast you spawn of a Thraxian she-goat! I'll blast the next man who runs!"

While a ship loaded with Robot refugees makes its escape, Hammer-Stein and Ro-jaws of Ro-Busters are fighting a rear guard action to give them time to escape to space. 

The ship makes a clean escape and the rest of the story focuses on Hammer-Stein, Ro-Jaws, Gottleib and Doc as they fight for survival. All make it back to their ship, The Dart, and with Gottleib again piloting they are soon safe from pursuit.

There is a final round of goodbyes as Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein say goodbye to Gottleib who is returning to his work in the movement. They also say goodbye to Doc, who is off to find Casey.  With false papers, Ro-jaws and Hammer-Stein walk off into the sunset, singing a song, side by side. 

This wasn't how I wanted this to end. After some of the other emotional moments in Ro-Busters, I had expectations of crying as I turned every page, but instead, I found myself reading with a cold indifference as the story went through the motions. For a story always so full of heart, it was strangely lacking this week. There were moments when it felt like the story was trying to be pushed in that direction, but it didn't feel natural and wasn't as effective as some of the previous issues. My final thought was that perhaps this was an issue too long, and we would have been better off finishing last week with our heroes going down a blaze of glory. I have many good memories of Ro-Busters and it was one of the best strips we have seen in 2000 A.D. so far. This final issue won't feature in these good memories, but it doesn't tarnish its legacy and everything was in the right place and we walked away from Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein.    

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Well, whatever we do now, Hammer-Stein... guess we're stuck with each other!"

Prog 115 final ratings:

Overall: 6/10

Best Story: Dan Dare

Best Line: "You have not escaped me, robots! You are machines- and there is only one penalty for machines that rebel...death!"

Best Panel: