Prog 140

I made a mistake last week. While reading Dredd, I assumed it was going to be a multi-part story. Rereading it before this week’s issue, I can see quite clearly that it’s not. That doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of it. In fact, it’s good news, because we get a new Dredd story starting this week, and it’s already shaping up to be a classic.

We also have two other new stories beginning this week: The V.C.s and The Stainless Steel Rat. I am particularly intrigued by The Stainless Steel Rat. It has a great title, and I can only hope it lives up to the expectations I’ve pinned on it.

There’s a lot to digest, and already the stories that ended last week are fading from memory. Still, 2000 AD is all about the future, so let’s jump into it.

Prog 140

24th November 1979 

Judge Dredd is facing another plague this week, a black plague of spiders.

The story begins in the atomic wasteland outside Mega-City One, where homesteaders are doing their best to scratch a living out of the contaminated soil.

We meet mutant Moze Bigleftear, who is soon fleeing for his life as a plague of black spiders sweeps across the land. Escaping on his mutant horse, Henry Ford, he rides to the city to enlist the help of Dredd. 

Dredd is intrigued by this boy and his talking horse and, despite the mocking Judges, agrees to help protect the village of Atom Gulch. 

Dredd arrives just minutes before the spiders and, surveying the scene, reckons they only have five minutes to find a cure for the black plague. 

Great introductory issue, and from the start we can see the spiders are truly the stuff of nightmare. In the first two and a half pages we see what they can do, and we are subjected to several intense panels that would give a younger me severe nightmares. The death of Moze Bigleftear's uncle brings home the horror that faces the village and primes us nicely for what follows. 

This terror is well balanced with the usual Dredd humour. In this case, the talking horse, Henry Ford, provides most of the humour. It's a great name for a horse, and the horse lives up to its first introduction. He is smart-mouthed, and the interaction between him and Moze Bigleftear is key to the middle section of the story. They keep the story fast-moving until we can get Dredd introduced. 

Dredd's part in the story is slight in this first episode. We see him interact with Moze, and then arrive at the village. Next week we will see Dredd take centre stage. This issue is about getting him to the right place at the right time, and the story did this efficiently while giving us a good feel for the other characters Dredd will share the stage with.

There was much to enjoy here, even if the story never got out of second gear. As we accelerate into next week's issue, I expect the story to deliver terror and humour in equal measure. I can't wait.   

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Why do you put up with that horse, Moze? The way he talks to you - never mind the cost of meat to feed him!"

New story alert. This week we are introduced to The V.C.s, a squad of space warriors fighting against an enemy known as the Geeks.

The story begins with a fresh-faced trainee named Steve Smith, heading off into the galaxy to his first assignment. 

After a four-month journey, he rendezvouses with his new ship and the V.C.s.

As the crossover is made, they are attacked by a Geek ship. The supply ship is damaged, leaving the V.C.s to repel the attack. 

This is what they do, although they show clear disregard for the rules and regulations. This is highlighted when they sacrifice the damaged supply ship to defeat the Geeks.

With his first battle behind him, Steve Smith meets the rest of the crew. He is surprised to see that they are all half-castes, making him the only earthman on board. 

The V.C.s are a motley crew, and with their tough talk, they make it clear that Smith is an outsider. We end with one last nugget of information dropped: V.C. stands for vacuum cleaners, because that is what they are doing - cleaning up all the Geeks. 

I don't know much about this story, but I like it already. The idea of a rookie being thrown in with a hard-nosed bunch of warriors generates a natural conflict, and the contrast between them heightens the sense of tension in the story. 

We don't know much about the Geeks yet, and my only gripe in this first issue is that they are treated as mere cannon fodder in the first battle. They do hit the supply ship, but they are easily dealt with after this. We have been told they are conquering the galaxy, but we haven't seen anything first-hand that would suggest they are to be feared. 

Smith comes across as relatable. Everyone has been out of their depth at some stage, and in this story Smith is that everyman. Even the name "Smith" suggests this. Seeing him fighting aliens while struggling to fit in with his unsavoury team is just the sort of thing I want to see play out on the page. Having replaced two big stories, it has large boots to fill. This issue promises much, and I can only hope it lives up to expectations in the coming weeks.  

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Good luck, Trooper. This is where you forget your training and start learning from experience!" 

You wait for ages for a new story, and then two arrive at once. This week's second new story is The Stainless Steel Rat. We meet the aforementioned Stainless Steel Rat on the very first panel of the strip: James Bolivar diGriz, a master criminal about to be arrested by a police robot. 

An explosive device in the ceiling gives him a chance to escape the robot, although it doesn't deliver a fatal blow to the droid. As he makes good his escape, he tells the reader that he is one of the 1% of criminals who are in it for fun. Furthermore, he reveals that he goes by the moniker the Stainless Steel Rat, as that is how he sees himself, a modern rat living not in a world of wood and brick, but rather plastic and steel. 

As he exits the building, we see his current criminal activity: a pile of gold bricks that he has been removing one by one from the bank next door. 

That night he returns to the scene of the crime, where the police are collecting evidence and loading the gold into a truck. Tossing in some sleeping capsules, the rat steals the police truck and makes a run for it with his gold reclaimed. 

He does well to lose the police by hiding in a garbage truck, but as he hides in a warehouse waiting for his chance to ship the gold off the planet, his plans fall apart with the arrival of a black van, carrying a sinister police force known as the Special Corps. The strip ends with James Bolivar diGriz finding himself caught in a trap, a Stainless Steel Rat trap. 

There is something delightfully old-fashioned about The Stainless Steel Rat. It reads like a pulp fiction-inspired crime heist, with strong gangster overtones. I could easily imagine this being written by Mickey Spillane. This all made sense when, over the page, I saw it had started as a book. The write-up by the author, Harry Harrison, was informative and backed up some of my thoughts. I haven't gone so far as to read the book, but knowing me, I probably will track it down at some stage. 

This was a fast-moving opening salvo that swiftly introduced us to the character and his story, and laid out the drama for the coming weeks. I am already won over, and after such a strong start, I look forward to seeing more of this on the page. 

I hope it continues in a similar vein, with the humour fully intact. It may evolve into something darker, but for now I am happy with the tone and eager for more. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Keep those lights flashing, boys. I need a police 'escort' to clear traffic for me!"

Wolfie Smith is still battling his way through the shoot as Julian Rowse wants to film the final, sacrificial scene at the Sacred Trianad, the stones the Guardians warned Wolfie to stay away from.

The crew backs Wolfie, and Julian Rowse storms off, saying that he will finish the film with a new crew and new actors.

Wolfie can see that Rowse has disposed of the body of the stuntman who was previously attacked by the Guardians, and while the rest of the crew leaves, Wolfie follows Rowse into the abbey to confront him. 

Rowse is waiting for him and has set a trap. Wolfie is knocked off his feet and into an old well shaft. Rowse laughs at him, and with a hose that pumps synthetic mud, tells Wolfie that he's about to drown him. 

Forget the story for a minute, and just admire the art. It's absolutely breathtaking here. We get the full range, with some dramatic panels, a sexy woman, and intense expressions written across the faces of some of the characters. It's exquisite, and as much as I hate to say it, it's almost too good for a story such as Wolfie Smith. 

The story sagged this week. The drama has been stretched thin for too long, and once again I felt I was being strung along as I read this issue. Week after week we circle around these sacred stones, and each week we remain within touching distance of a finale. The only consolation I can take is that this week all the crew has departed, so we are left with only the main two characters. 

I expect that Wolfie shall escape his current predicament, and that we get a more thrilling ending to this story, that is, if we get an ending. I can't see the future, but I have a bad feeling we still have a long way to go. 

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "I can see it now - the victim...and the executioner! The glint of black, evil light from the knife!" 

Black Hawk has had his soul sucked from him, and now, with Ursa, Zog and Battack, he has been sucked into a black hole. 

The soulless Blackhawk is a changed man, and now has a madness about him. The group wonder where they can possibly start to search for Blackhawk's soul in such a strange world as they now find themselves in. The appearance of the D'Jinn gives them some insight as they learn that they are in the world of Silversun, a weird, unnatural world. 

The D'Jinn tells them that his master wishes for them to visit him so he can bestow a gift upon each of them. For Ursa and Zog, a life of fighting, singing, and drinking. For Battack, a release from the hatred that fills his dark mind, and for Blackhawk, he promises the return of his soul. 

Blackhawk tells the D'Jinn that no man or demon gives freely, and asks what price they will be required to pay. 

The D'Jinn tells Blackhawk that he will find out in due course, but first they must make their way to his master's castle, only a billion miles away. With this declaration, he disappears, leaving the friends to decide what they will do next.

They have little time to make a decision, for at that very moment some fearsome-looking scavengers descend from the sky upon them.

This has become more like a Dan Dare strip rather than Blackhawk. Finding themselves in a black hole, with a D'Jinn and a quest, this was very much Dan Dare territory, and Blackhawk looked sadly out of place. Even with no soul, he feels miscast for this adventure. I liked the concept of a man out of place in the earlier issues, but now we're moving away from what made Blackhawk enjoyable, leaving me looking nostalgically at past issues.

I like a good quest as much as the next man, and there is hope that once our heroes defeat this attack from above, they can move deeper into this world. Personally, I hope they find Blackhawk's soul and the soul of this story in the next few weeks, and we can move to something more substantial and fun. 

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "Har! You not worry about lost soul - you got plenty more, heh?" 

Prog 140 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: The Stainless Steel Rat 

Best Line: "Whooaa, boy! Just hold on here, Moze! I don't recall anythin' in my contract about carryin' two people!"

Best Panel: