Max Bubba and his mutie gang have escaped from the future, to the year 793 AD, but they aren't just hiding out there. Bubba is going to wreck the timeline but good, by killing a village-full of Vikings. Although they can't understand him, he still explains to them (to note the "historic moment") that by the 22nd century, their DNA had spread to just about everybody. Killing them would prevent their descendants from ever being born, and history would crumple like a house of cards. Bubba mentions a couple times, he has nothing against the Vikings, but the "norms" in the future have it coming for their persecution of mutants. Of course, he also thinks the muties would then inherit the earth, but I kind of feel like the mutants probably also had a lot of that DNA, before it was mutated? Bubba's plan would change the future so much as to be unrecognizable and unpredictable, but, well, omelets and eggs, I guess.
Time distortions were already appearing, like the volcano Bubba planned to march the Vikings into, and a Vietnam war-era helicopter and soldiers that arrive in time to help Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha and his crew get to the fight in the nick of time. (Grant has a dark throwaway line there, when the commanding officer agrees to help Johnny but worries "what if the target turns out to be innocent civilians?" A soldier immediately pipes in, "when's that ever stopped us, cap?") The distortions were also felt in 2170, with buildings collapsing and people disappearing: had Johnny Alpha failed the future?
Bubba's "Black Viking" locals are no match for the U.S. army, who in turn are largely shot up by the muties. During the firefight, Bubba tries to persuade Johnny into joining up: it's not like he owed the norms anything, really. Johnny may almost be tempted, but had no desire to be "murdering trash" like Bubba. But Bubba has the drop on him as the chapter ends...!
It took a little searching, but these were originally from 2000 AD #460 and thereabouts. This was also a storyline within a longer storyline, with the origin of Johnny's partner, Wulf; who gets sent to the future there. And the shoulder on my old Strontium Dog action figure broke; I'd love to see new 2000 AD figures again someday. I'd prefer mass-market to super-fancy, but could be talked into it!
Also this issue: another segment of "Bad City Blue," a sci-fi action number with what appeared to be a space habitat with "class A" elites and just about everyone else is "slumscum," with operatives like Blue enforcing the peace. But the class A's may have disappeared...This was the first chapter of this one I remember reading, and it seems pretty meat-and-potatoes, but not bad.
4 comments:
Mutie Baron Zemo was definitely NOT on my 2021 Bingo Card, but here we are.
Yeah, more than likely all that wholesale slaughter of Vikings is just going to lead to him & his followers/fellow muties unintentionally wiping themselves out in the process. You can tell this guy didn't quite think this through past the initial brainstorming session.
Man, count me & fellow blogger Gary for wanting another modern Strontium Dog figure! Hell, give 'me some time and I'll be able to easily come up with 2,3, 4 or more potential waves of 2000AD figures like I used to do.
I wonder why they don't seek that market out. I'm sure toy collectors would go for it...maybe go the Kickstarter route 1st?
The villains in Strontium Dog are more often than not very poor planners/very dumb.
If you can believe it, the longer storyline is part of an even longer storyline that changed the series in big ways and you might even say led to the end of the series (for about 10 years, but it was meant to be permanent at the time). It was a pretty dark period for 2000 AD in general (in more ways than one) but at least they got some good stories out of it.
Yeah, I think the GCD mentioned this was like a 44-part storyline! I tiptoed around Wulf's story, not wanting to spoil a 30-some year old book; but Bubba's fate is nicely done.
I haven't invested in modern 2000 AD, save for the occasional special or trade. But I hope they're doing OK, and that that Brexit nonsense isn't giving them any grief. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and blame Brexit for no new figures; which may be completely not true, but...
Yeah, they're doing great- in fact, they're one of the few comics that didn't take a break when COVID started because so much of what they do is digital and subscriber-based.
If you do want to look more into modern 2000 AD, it's not too hard. Diamond has them in one-month bundles, as well as single issues of Judge Dredd Megazine (since that's a monthly anyway). You can also get single issues online directly from 2000 AD's website either digitally or in print (though with international shipping rates, might want digital if you're doing online). They do a few issues every year specifically designed as a starting point for new readers (typically first issue of the year, late spring/early summer, and early fall).
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