Ro-Busters: Midpoint, Part 1

NAME
Ro-Busters: Midpoint, Part 1

FIRST PUBLISHED
Starlord Issue 5

DATELINE
10 June 78

This issue also contained Strontium Dog, Timequake, Mind Wars and Planet Of The Damned strips, the second part of the Hell Planet game and a Ro-Busters cover by Kevin O'Neill.

PAGE COUNT
5

REPRINTS
The Complete Ro-Busters.

SYNOPSIS
Ro-Busters must save the occupants of Midpoint from a rocket full of nuclear waste.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First work on Ro-Busters by Bill Henry and Ian Kennedy

INFORMATION
(The year is 2078)

A missile carrying nuclear waste launched from a silo in Nevada's Yucca Desert malfunctions and cannot be aborted. It crashes into Midpoint, a 400 storey building in London and becomes lodged. 10,000 people are killed.

It is illegal to dump nuclear waste off-planet.

RO-JAWS
He and Hammer-Stein attempt to get survivors out of Midpoint.

HAMMER-STEIN
He and Ro-Jaws attempt to get survivors out of Midpoint.

OTHER CHARACTERS
HOWARD QUARTZ
He is visited Midpoint when the missile becomes lodged.

DEATHS
At least 10,000 die in the crash, the resulting fires and leaping from a great height.

BEST LINES
Midpointer: "Call up your Preying Mantis craft, Quartz - It's been circling the building all day...showing off...all blasted d!ay"

WORST LINES
Rocketeer: "Oh my stars! Malfunction - a bad one!"

CATCHPHRASES
"Quartz on red"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Midpoint is surely based on London's Centre Point completed in 1967, it also featured in the horror film The Medusa Touch (1977) when a Boeing 747 aircraft is shown hitting the top of the tower and destroying it.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: Bill Henry
Artist: Ian Kennedy
Letters: Peter Knight

Bill Henry also wrote for Victor Drago and lettered for Ro-Busters.

Ian Kennedy also provided art for Dan Dare, Invasion, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future Shocks, M.A.C.H.1 and Timequake.

REVIEW
On the face of it, this is a simpler than its predecessors, but seeing Quartz attempt to profit, and indeed profiteer, from a disaster in which his own life is threatened is brilliant.

Next Week: Don't Panic...Don't Panic! We're Doomed!