Prog 9 - Invasion

Silk tells Savage that he has a surprise waiting for him when they return to their base. The surprise is a Royal Navy Underwater team. They have scuba gear and limpet mines and they're going to blow The Volga out of the water.

Silk was an ex-army officer and he was trained in underwater demolition. He tells Savage that he can't join the party because he doesn't have the necessary skills.

Later, at the docks, with The Volga approaching, Silk and his team dive into the water. Savage watches from a distance. He has a plan just in case Silk and his crew fail to sink the ship.

As Silk and his frogmen approach the Volga, the Admiral onboard has been informed that six frogmen are approaching their vessel. He gives the order to use the ships sonic weapons.
Silk is the only survivor. He is taken onboard the ship for interrogation. After witnessing Silks failure, Savage executes his own plan. Using the cranes on the docks...Savage and his men swing into action. As Savage sweeps the deck clear of Volgans. The Admiral makes himself scarce and hids below deck. Savage swings aboard his special cargo...oil! This should take care of everything. Savage orders his men off the ship and he ignites the oil. Mission accomplished!
Fairly run-of-the-mill Invasion story. Nothing much to say here. Although the Bil Savage saying 'Hello Sailor...' is all kinds of disturbing!

The art by Carlos Pino is serviceable but kind of forgettable.

Prog 8 - Invasion

Savage and a small convoy of buses are stopped at the entrance to the airport by Volgan soldiers. A soldier tells Savage that civilians aren't allowed into the airport. Savage tells him otherwise...
After shooting the Volgan in the face, Savage goes full throttle towards the Concorde MkIII. His second in command, Silk, and the rest of the Mad Dogs are onboard the bus...they smash the bus windows and fire on the Volgan troops.

Silk thinks Savage is crazy to try and hijack the Concorde because the concorde is Marshal Vaskhovs personal plane and it is heavily guarded. No problem for Bill...he swerves the bus right into the guards.
With the guards gotten rid of, Savage starts unloading the buses and ushering the refugees onboard the Concorde. Their destination is Canada. A refugee tells Savage that he'll give the 'King across the water' his regards.

One of the refugees is a trained pilot. He tells Savage that once they get airborne, nothing can stop them from getting to Canada.

The concorde is ready for take off. Savage and his men get back aboard a bus and make themselves scarce before more Volgans arrive. As they leave the airport they see overhead...
Savage tells Silk to forget about the refugees and enjoy the fireworks. Silk is outraged...He thinks that Bill is a cold hearted swine, that the refugees will be massacred!

The Volgan jets launch their heat seeking missiles. The concorde looks doomed but...
Another decent episode of 'Invasion'. I like Savages inventiveness here. It shows that he's not just all brawn and we are given another glimpse of the reason Savage fights and why he fights so hard.

It is interesting to me that people keep underestimating Savages intellect. The brigadier did when he first joined the resistance and now Silk has. Savage just seems full of surprises. It's like he was born to cause mayhem. I find a lot of similarities between Bill Savage and Marvel Comics Punisher 'Frank Castle'. They seem to be both cut from the same cloth.

Gerry Finley-Day has turned in a good script and Mike Doreys art suits it perfectly.

Prog 6 - Invasion

After seeing the live executions on TV, Silk asks Savage what should they do. Everytime they hit the Volgans, they take hostages and execute them in retaliation. Savage's answer is 'Simple - Hit 'em harder!'

Bill leaves his 'Mad Dog' crew and goes window shopping!

Later a Volgan patrol hear a looter breaking into store. A Volgan soldier quips that only Volgans can have the luxuries found in these stores. They arrive at the store front and see only shop window dummies...
After mowing down the patrol, Savage continues looting the store, grabbing clothes off the racks.

The next morning in the West End of London, the Volgans gather up civilians, they will make them pay for the 'outrage' of the previous night!
The Volgans don't even bother searching the civilians, in their arrogance they think that they're not dangerous.

The hostages are brought to Wembley (Victory) Stadium where they are to face a firing squad. The execution is being broadcast Live all over London on big viewing screens.

As the firing squad take aim...the old man, that they'd picked on earlier, falls over. They laugh at him and say he will die where he falls. But this isn't any 'old man'...it's Savage!
And the other 'hostages' are his men in disguise!

Now, that they have the element of surprise they take out the Volgans in the stadium!

What follows is kind of bizarre...they sing football (soccer) songs as they wipe out the Volgan firing squad.
Savage and his men clean out the stadium of other Volgan troops. The 'Volgan' television presenter decides to take out some of the resistance. But Savage is quick. He may be out of bullets but he's still got his knife! On live broadcast from the stadium Savage addresses the public in yet more soccer cliches. he talks about his killing of the Volgans inside Wembley as a qualifying match and that the BIG match is coming soon and then he leads them in a sing song!
Savage and his Mad Dogs leave before more troops arrive.

Gerry Finley Day wrote this one, so it kind of makes sense that it would be a bit bizarre. Finley Day was notorious for his all-over-the-place scripts. His scripts always had heavy rewrites.

Whats' truly strange is the resistance chanting football slogans/songs as they kill Volgans and then Savages address to the nation ending in a rendition of 'You'll never walk alone!'.

Really strange.

The artwork is by Ian Kennedy. It's pretty standard fare but probably too clean for a strip like Savage.

Prog 5 - Invasion

At the Gants hill checkpoint Savage and his Mad Dogs go on a killing spree!
An armored car arrives on the scene and Savage takes action.
The resistance overpower the Volgans and take control of the checkpoint. Savage grabs some explosives and orders his crew back into the van.

Onlookers are in disbelief, they can't believe someone is fighting back against the invaders. They're elated, but their cheering is short lived...Volgan security cops have arrived on motorbikes and are running the civilians down for cheering the resistance. They give chase. Savage orders Silk to take off his jacket. He has a plan to stop his pursuers. He throws the jacket out of the back of the van. The Volgans think one of the resistance have fallen out of the vehicle. But they're mistaken...
Savage has wrapped the jacket around some explosives.

Scratch one squad of Volgans!
But it's not enough for Savage. He decides that instead of laying low he's going to Trafalgar Square to try and rouse the populace. Meanwhile, in New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Volgan Secret Police, Marshal Vashkov has been informed of Savages escapade and where he's planning to go next. Vashkov orders his heavy armored units to converge on 'Volga' (Trafalgar) Square.

Savage has reached the square and addresses the crowd through a loudspeaker.
His rally is interrupted. Volgan tanks have arrived. Savage asks one of his men to rig the rest of the Volgan explosives around Lord Nelsons column. With the explosives set up, Savage retreats to a safe distance. The tanks enter the square and Savage unleashes hell!
Savage leaves knowing that he did a job well done. They drive to the abandoned docklands and set up their new base of operations.
A very quick paced episode. We see what kind of mayhem Savage is capable of when he leads a team. A couple of interesting things from these pages too...one, the Volgans are renaming landmarks, which means they see their occupation as long term, and two, from their point of view the resistance are 'terrorists'. Those two observations add more depth to the strip now that I reread it as an adult. There's only one part that brings it back to a 'kids' strip...it's when Savage asks one of his men to set the explosives up. He's conveniently called 'Blaster' because he used to work demolition.
It's like calling a team mate coffee lad because he used to work in a coffee shop. Then again, it makes sense because it's Gerry Finley Day that wrote the script. He's the writer that created Rogue Trooper, who's name happens to be Rogue and Bagman who happens to be a bagman etc.