WRITER EXCLUSIVE
Great news for readers as top characters merge in the 2024 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special
WHILE THEY HAVE PREVIOUSLY APPEARED IN EACH other’s strips, 2000 AD’s characters are truly coming together in this year’s Sci-Fi Special, which features a selection of alternate universe amalgamations of some of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’s best-known protagonists, leading off with “Cursed Earth actioner” Judge Alpha.
“As the name suggests, this Elseworlds-style tale sees sometime mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha born into the world of Judge Dredd instead,” says writer Karl Stock, who is paired with artist Ben Willsher. “His alpha-ray eyes make him perfect for the Justice Department’s SD [Special Dispensation] squad of permitted mutants, their special abilities weaponised in the battle against crime. This puts him at odds with the overwhelming majority of mutants who are still illegal in Mega-City One – and with some familiar mutant-haters from Strontium Dog’s mythology.”
Meanwhile, James Peaty and Nicolò Assirelli’s Rogue/Dog fuses Strontium Dog with Rogue Trooper’s Genetic Infantryman. “My main inspiration actually wasn’t a 2000 AD story but rather Mark Waid and Dave Gibbons’s Super-Soldier issue for Amalgam Comics, which was a perfect splicing of Superman and Captain America,” reveals Peaty, referring to 1996’s Marvel/DC crossover comics.
“That’s what I’m aiming for here as we follow a lone blue-skinned former Strontium Dog wandering the surface of an inhospitable planet, trying to get to the bottom of his betrayal – while at the same time there’s a bounty on his head, and some familiar faces from the Doghouse are on his tail.”
With Robo-Sharks, Dan Abnett and Anthony Williams combine Sinister Dexter with Robo-Hunter. “You might decide there’s some satirical commentary about the current AI debate and turmoil as ‘Roboshark’ Dexter and his robot sidekick Finny investigate illegal new tech that allows robots to pass for human and evade detection, but that’s not for me to say!” laughs Abnett.
He believes that both series’ fo
