Mike McMahon introduces us to The Legion of the Damned in a cover that could almost be a panel from the story inside. The Legion are long-dormant robots rising from the ground to attack Dredd. They’re not the only thing rising, as the price of the prog has gone up from 9p to 10p this week.
In the Nerve Centre, Tharg points out the price rise by printing a now out-of-date letter from a reader complaining about other things rising in cost. The rest of the letters and nerve centre are attacks on Tharg (and the droids) for stealing ideas from the book Damnation Alley for Cursed Earth and the film Them for Ant Wars. As with the comic itself being inspired by forthcoming film Star Wars and starting story MACH 1 having been strongly influenced by The Six Million Dollar Man, the stories were more likely to have been commissioned to tie in to films that would soon be on release – Damnation Alley was on release in the USA while the adaptation of Empire of the Ants (from the book by H.G. Wells) was reviewed in the Sci-Fi Special.
A wonderful opening splash page for Robo-Hunter (maybe I’m baised after those two annuals this week) with Sam, Cutie and Boots on a hill overlooking Process Plant 8883. The next page also has a splash, this time with loads of faulty robots waiting to go in for processing (recycling). As you’d expect from Ian Gibson, these robot designs are fantastic, showing character and proving we’re not in pre-2000AD blocky robot territory. Another page, another splash – this time a full-page panel showing the innards of the robot factory, with a conveyor belt of destruction. Classes of robots have been mentioned a few times – basically the higher the class number the more intelligent (and less easy to fool) a robot is. This was in a different series as well, but I didn’t make a note and can’t remember which one it was – presumably Judge Dredd, but may have been something else. We find out here that robots can be fooled by simple disguises – class 1s and 2s by something as basic as a name and serial number. Not sure if Boots is a 2 or 3, but they get fooled by what is essentially a fork-lift harness. What is sure is that Class 1s, in the form of dust bugs, are very easily formed and Slade shows a sadistic side in ordering them to report for recycling, despite their plaintive protestations. At the end of the episode, the trio get a sight of SJ1.
Landau and Preston on the writing team and Goring and Leach on the drawing bring us the latest installment of Dan Dare. Dare, Hitman and Jebby are attacked by what I can only describe as a sloth/bear hybrid while Bear and the Kid watch from an observation room. Bear joins the fray and dies with the sloth, and the whole episode is centred around the fight and its aftermath. Now that Pilot and Bear are dead, I wouldn’t want to be in Hitman’s shoes!
The Cursed Earth Chapter 23: Legion of the Damned sees Dredd, Spikes, Jack and Tweak see the lights of Mega-City Two. They would have all made it too, if Dredd hadn’t called a halt to pay respects to those who had fallen in the Battle of Armageddon. As it is General Blood ‘n’ Nuts (the name taken by a speech by George S Patton towards the end of the second world war: “When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt from your face and you realize that it’s not dirt, it’s the blood and gut of what was once your best friend, you’ll know what to do.”). Mills mixes the second world war imagery with the first world war with mention of going “over the top” and “whizz-bang”s. Keeping with Bear’s death earlier in the prog, this time we say goodbye to Judge Jack and the Kill-Dozer.
Other than a sighting of flying ants, Anteater doesn’t lead the action in this episode – then again, Villa doesn’t either – they’re just trying to keep alive while being captured by soldiers and taken to a clandestine meeting of all the chiefs of staff of Latin American countries. Do people in Latin American countries call them Latin American countries (tranlsated, of course)? It just seems like a phrase English speakers would use. Anyway, those at the conference mostly order Villa into silence, not that he takes any notice. While everyone’s shouting at Villa to be quiet, the ants sneak into the camp and peak through the window. So far nobody has noticed the huge ant head filling a large window in the middle of the day, though I think they’ll probably notice next episode!
Not content with killing Bear (and misnaming him Big Bear instead of Giant Bear, like he was in his first appearance), Roy Preson is back for a Future-Shock. We’ve had quite a few weeks of them now, many of them Untitled. Not actually having the collection that I’ve just linked to, I’m going to see if I can come up with my own name for this story – I’ll announce it at the end of this paragraph. Puchades and Martinez draw the tale of an army being sent to war. Preston seems to think a light year is a measure of time instead of distance, but I plough on regardless. I remember the twist in this one – have I mentioned that I’d previously read everything I’ve covered so far? It’s just that the last time I read many of these stories was decades ago. So I know that when the alien invasion fleet attacks Earth they get the scale wrong and land on a child’s eyeball. On a completely unrelated note – the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast early in 1978, about five months before this story was published and features an alien invasion which gets the scale wrong and is swallowed by a dog – this was included in Restaurant at the End of the Universe when novelised, but appeared in Fit the Fourth so would have been broadcast before this comic was published. I wonder if the Nerve Centre will get letters pointing this out? Also, didn’t one of the even earlier Shocks feature the alien invasion which got stepped on? Depends on how many children listen to Radio Four. I’ll title this one In Our Sights (I didn’t say it’d be a good name, just better than nothing – Blink of an Eye was tempting, but would give away too much too soon).
Almost forgot – there’s also a Tweak ‘star pin-up’ by Brian Bolland on the back page (I’m eagerly awaiting the day they get called ‘starscans’ like they were when I started reading).
Grailpage: honourable mention for the centrespread of the Death Valley War Memorial and General Blood ‘n’ Nuts, but it’ll be Ian Gibson’s full-page robot factory.
Grailquote: TB Grover, Sam Slade: “Ask some people who they are, and next moment they’re telling you the story of their life. Not me, I’m just gonna tell you three things: I’m Sam Slade. I’m on the robot planet. I’m in trouble.”
Back Prog Hack 