Prog 9 - Dan Dare

Dan has agreed to betray his comrades. Monday doesn't take to kindly to Dares sudden betrayal and proceeds to strangle the life out of him by using the ancient Martian art of Vi-Kin. Dare's Living Axe watches on waiting to be called by his master as Monday holds Dare in a Death-Lock!
Dare whispers to Monday that he was playing the Biog Mind and Monday agrees to surrender on behalf of all his crew. The Biog Mind is pleased. Meanwhile while the Odyssey is being attacked by Biogs...
Dan orders the Odyssey to stop firing and when he gives the word they are to warp themselves off planet asap! Commander Milton tells Dare that they tried warping out before but the ships hull won't take it. Finally with himself and the landing party onboard, Dan tells Milton to feed all the ships power to the warp drive including the power for lights and airsystem etc.

The Biog Mind, betrayed, screams in pain as the Odyssey warps (burns) its way out of the Biog Mothership!
Milton congratulates Dare and Monday...he thinks the worst is over and done with as a mass fleet of earth starships arrive. But it's only the beginning of a bigger battle and Dare and crew are caught in the middle.
So ends another craptacular episode of Dan Dare.

The Biog Mind is one dumb alien. Why didn't the Mind have some Biogs escort Dare to and on the ship to make sure he complied with the Minds wishes?

Again the crew refer to Dare as DD. Way too casual and they take orders from him even though Monday is their commanding officer. Monday has been relegated to being Dan Dares bitch!

And is that a shower head that Rodann is using on Milton? Weird!

One cool thing from this progs strip is The Living Axe waiting in the wings to be called to his masters side. That was cool...a shame the axe didn't follow Dare back onto the ship. It would have been great to see it pop up now and again in future Dare stories.

Prog 8 - Dan Dare

Ziggy has incapacitated the Shepherd and she takes control of the ship by plugging the ships controls into her head! She closes all the airlocks, crushing and stopping the Biogs from entering the ship.
She wonders how long they can hold out before the Biogs break through. Meanwhile, Dan and the rest of the Jupiter survey party have seen the Odyssey get swallowed whole by the Biog ship and Dan decides to follow them, even though a member of the crew wants to cut and run.

They enter the Biog ship and embark to find the Odyssey. As they make their way to find the ship, they are 'attacked' by the Biog ships anti-bodies.
They are taken to what looks like a vast junction of veins...it's the ships brain! The 'blobs' dissolve and a huge voice booms in the 'spacers' minds..."Hear me. intruders...I am the mind of the ship..you are at my mercy.." Dare is obstinate...the 'mind' lashes out.
Dare asks the 'mind' what does it want. It responds..."FUEL!". It tells Dare that if he can get the crew of the Odyssey out of the ship that he will reward him with 'everlasting life'. Monday is amazed that the 'mind' has displayed a human characteristic...Betrayal.

To the crews amazement, Dare thinks it's a good idea. Hmmm...Seems that after last issues coolness of the Living Axe we've gone back to mediocrity. Oh well. Only Belardinelli's funky cosmic art is saving this strip at the moment.

Prog 7 - Dan Dare

Dan kills the Shepherd guards and Monday sets free what was left of the landing crew.
Now defenseless, Dan attacks the Mother Biog with his Living Axe!
The Biogs and their city are totally dependent on the Mother Biog. As she is dying...everything begins to fall apart. Dan has to get his crew off-planet before the Mother Biog explodes. The Shepherds try and stop him and his landing party from reaching their ship.
They escape from the planet but something else awaits them in space...
The Living Axe is such a bizarre concept only Belardinelli's artwork can do it any justice. This episode was pretty fast paced and moves the story along beautifully.

Another nice cliffhanger. One thing that I loved 2000ad for, was it's cliffhangers. They always made me eager to rush down to the newsagents each week and find out what's going to happen to my favorite heroes.

Prog 7 - Flesh

Reagans' men, a good distance outside Carver City, want to rescue Reagan and Joe but the controller refuses. They have a herd to get back to the Fleshdozers.
Meanwhile Reagan is fighting for his life against Old One Eye. He grabs a big chunk of wood and wedges it between Old One Eyes jaws.
She breaks the wood in two. Reagan looks doomed but...
Unable to see, Old One Eye smashes out of the dome.
She then turns on the alamosaur. She's not killing for food now, She's killing because she has gone completely mad!

Back in Carver City a lucky Reagan faces off with Carver again. Just as they are about to renew hostilities, the doctor intervenes. He calls them both "dumbheads" and that they still need every man they can get to the Trans-Time base safely.

Reagan agrees. They leave Carver City and make their way to where Reagans' men should be encamped...but they're gone.
Another good Flesh episode.

Reagan got lucky in this one. He should be tryannosaur food.

The next few progs have the potential to be really interesting as Reagan, Carver and co trek their way back to the base. You just know that there will be plenty of backstabbing and bloodshed.

Gosnell did a good job on the script and Solas artwork is still top-notch.

Prog 6 - Dan Dare

The Thing has total control of the Odyssey and Dan, Monday and whats left of the landing party have been taken to the Biogs base. They are released from their captors stomach and now they face a welcoming committee of aliens that are identical to the 'Thing' that has taken control of the ship.
The creatures tell Dare and company their backstory. That they are a race of aliens called 'The Shepherds' and they live to serve their masters The Biogs. The Biogs lived on a planet called Zircon and The Shepherds on their moon. The Biogs grow their houses and machines from living tissue and they use live fuel to do this. When The Biogs conquered their race they made some of them slaves and the rest the Mother Biog turned into fuel. But sadly The Shepherds home planet can't produce enough fuel for them so they set up a new home on Jupiter and plan to use it as a base to take over the Earth and use humans as their fuel source.

Dare doesn't fancy being turned into fuel and insults The Biogs by calling them 'slimy bugs'. The Shepherds are deeply offended by this and they attack Dan. They're going to kill him. Dan fights back.
A Shepherd then attacks Dan with a Living Axe...
A Biog turns red and the Shepherd holds off his attack on Dare. The Biog is angry that the Shepherd is wasting fuel and the human must be taken to the Mother Biog and be 'converted'.

Monday sees his chance and runs the alien through with one of its own spears. Dan grabs the Living Axe and they decide to fight their way to freedom.
This wasn't too bad. Not any of the usual craziness of the past few episodes. Although a Living Axe is pretty wacky. Now we know why the 'Thing' was aboard the ship. It's trying to steer to ship to the Mother Biog so the human crew can be 'converted' to fuel.

The problem though is, in the first episode, the ship was broken apart and the humans seemed to be sucked down to the planet. Why didn't the Biogs do this with the Odyssey instead of beaming a Shepherd on board? Makes no sense to me.

Also, we have the usual cliched 'I'm going to tell you our whole backstory before we kill you' speech. Which is fine because 2000ad was a publication catering totally to young kids back then. Probably wouldn't fly to spill the whole can of beans in a couple of pages today though. Storytelling has gotten a little bit more complicated since then.

A fun episode and a definite improvement on what went before.

Prog 6 - Flesh

Carver faces off with a 'terrible claws' that has broken into the general store.
The poor critter doesn't stand a chance against Claw Carver!
After Reagan and Carver finish off the 'terrible claws' they grab the fuel cans and head back to the surgery room. The doc appears with Joe. Joe is on the mend...which is great news especially for the doc...Joe is the first patient he hasn't killed yet. Reagan tells the doc to leave with Joe. He and Carver are going to burn the town down to the ground to get rid of the dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, Old One Eye and the rest of the dinosaurs are rampaging through the town.

One unlucky guy thinks he's safe away from Old One Eye. He's on top of a building and she can't get at him. A pteranodon swoops down to grab the cowboy, misses him, but knocks him off balance. The poor fool falls straight into the jaws of Old One Eye!
As she is devouring the human she is attacked by...her own son! She dispatches him, after all 'In her long life...Old One Eye had given birth to many...the death of one meant nothing to her!'

Carver and Reagan are successful. The town is beginning to burn. The dinosaurs are being driven back. All except for one...Old One Eye has picked up Reagans scent and in her hatred of this human she is braving the flames to get to him. Carver has made this observation and decides to give the Old hag what she wants. His truce with Reagan is over.

Now, they can both burn!
Another good episode of Flesh. This one was written by Kelvin Gosnell, which is a nice surprise because his writing on Dan Dare is well below par. Ramon Sola's artwork is still top notch.

Prog 5 - Dan Dare

Dare and crew are face to face with Jupiters resident aliens. You'd think if you wanted to open up some decent communication with alien life forms you'd stop referring to their appearance as 'vile'. Oh well, not that it matters as the aliens attack anyway.

One crew member gets sucked up alive! And another creature turns to attack Dare. With Mondays help Dare cracks off a huge hunk of titanium crystal and as the alien attacks he shoves it up the aliens vacuum hole! (I know,it sounds really weird right?) With it's air passage blocked, the alien...explodes!

Dan and Monday are knocked unconscious. When they come too, they realise that they've been sucked up inside one of the aliens. (So much for their plan of shoving crystal up their blowholes!) Officer French is there too...but alas, he's dead!
Monday comes to the conclusion that the aliens are using their stomachs to transfer them to their base. How he comes to this conclusion, I haven't a clue but he does remember an old earth story...
Could Monday be referring to Jonah? I think so, and he called him insane. Nice bit of religious subversion there.

Meanwhile back on the Odyssey...the thing from Jupiter is trying to take control of the ship.
The thing manages to take over the 'control' bubble...and now commands the Odyssey!
Pretty standard installment of Dan Dare and not too wacky when compared with the previous episodes.

It's still pretty ridiculous, though. Why would the thing need a spaceship? Maybe that question will be answered next prog.