Dare and crew plunge further down into the chasm. First cliffhanger – in this case the Eagle scout craft is slamming into a literal cliff! Dare’s plan to stop them all sinking to a crushing depth is to fire the forward lasers to create an explosion, but seeminly the main reason for doing this was so that he could take a grouchy snipe at these young ‘uns who grew up with more advanced technology. This somehow works and the Eagle comes to rest on a ledge. They might be trapped and powerless deep below the waves but they’re still going to go out and collect soil samples. Second cliffhanger is a double, Dare is being carried up by underwater aliens while a huge alien face is approaching the Eagle.
The latest episode of MACH 1 is handled by Oniano and Montero, instead of Steve McManus and Jesus Redondo. Star Lord is going to be starting within the next few months, so I can only assume they got taken off of the Dolphin Tapes and drafted in to work on the new title (Redondo’s Mind Wars will be starting in the second issue of Star Lord). This episode is entirely fighting (with a brief interlude of chasing). Scarlotti pulls out a laser-pistol – not something we’ve seen in MACH 1 before so a bit incongruous to bring in a hand-held laser weapon at such a point. Probe doesn’t manage to save Bob Peel’s life (“a true friend” and “one of the good guys”, though we’d never met him before).
Colony Earth! As sea levels plummet and sheet ice starts to crash into North Canadian cities, Hunter uses the comandeered anti-grav buggy to reach a satellite tracking station 500 miles away. Without further ado he blows up one alien spaceship attacking the tracking station and downs the other. The episode ends with the Commander and the Professor approaching the downed ship, so presumably there’ll be some melee combat next prog.
Facing this page is an advert page – Battle Picture Library, Britfix (plastic cement for model kits), the obligatory stamp advert and a small square with the following text: “5 4 – Two Weeks to Go… – 2 1”. I have no idea what this is for – not soon enough for Star Lord (though maybe there’ll be an announcement?), possibly it’s Dredd returning to MC1? We’re also getting close to MACH1’s last story.
A criminal gang replaces the oxygen supply to Luna-City with tranq gas. Not only does this allow them to steal at their leisure (well, before the gas wears off) but also results in half a million injured and 53,000 dead. Judge Dredd is not best pleased, though has no leads. Fear not though, as the criminal gang spend all their time organising massive disruption they didn’t spend any time on household administration, and failed to pay their oxygen bill. They are discovered three days later, asphyxiated among the spoils of their crimes. One of these pages might concievably feature the first appearance of the judge’s helmet respirator as we know it, though the picture isn’t very clear – more next prog!
The Nerve Centre sees prizes going to Richard Chamberlain (not that one) and William Gibson (unlikely to be that one).
The fourth Encounter features an inter-galactic-dating agency, which results in an interspecies mis-match and a glalactic (sic) crush.
Certain of the team are seriously injuried, but not as wiped out as we had been led to believe in last prog’s Inferno. An attempt by Jaws Jessell to steal the game using a technicality of the rules is averted by the late arrival of Louis, who helps the Hellcats steal victory from the jaws *ahem*of defeat. The mechanical jaw of the Long Island Shark costumes gets a pay-off, though not the chest-mounted control (I was sure that one of Hellcats, probably Marvin, would have hit it, shutting the mouth at a critical moment).
Considering how much he idol-worships Dredd, you’d think Walter would break the law a little less often – whether moonlighting (alright, I guess it hadn’t been established in Dredd canon that having two jobs was illegal at that point), owning illegal species or appearing on pirate radio stations.
Grailpage: The penultimate page of Bolland’s Dredd features a profile view of the judge. It’s not as iconic as later images Brian will draw, but it’s definitely proto-iconic.
Grailquote: Dredd again – “Not executed, Tex – cut off! It sure pays to keep your gas bills up to date.”
Back Prog Hack 