Strontium Dog: 'The Galaxy Killers', Part 2

NAME
Strontium Dog: 'The Galaxy Killers', Part 2

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 AD & Starlord Prog 87

DATELINE
21 Oct 78

PAGE COUNT
5

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd Megazine 214, Strontium Dog: The Early Cases and Strontium Dog Search/Destroy Agency Files 01.

SYNOPSIS
Johnny, Wulf and the Gronk get drafted.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First appearance of a Wolrog.

INFORMATION
The Isthman Galaxy is thirteen days travel from Earth in an Astroliner.

Wolrogs are a warrior race. The Wolrog Empire has been at war with the Sandorian Nations for control of the galaxy. Their fleet includes 1,000 Battlecraft and 8,000 smaller vessels, supply tankers, repair ships and troop carriers. Rog is a man-made planet fifty miles across which features many slave factories, with a workforce largely made up of women and children. They regard humans as having weak-knees, but will still allow the males of the species to fight in their penal battalions.

JOHNNY ALPHA
Deciding that their weapons are too dangerous to fall into Wolrog hands he and Wulf use a time bomb to dispose of them. He and Wulf are drafted into a Wolrog penal battalion.

WULF STERNHAMMER
He and Johnny are drafted into a Wolrog penal battalion.

THE GRONK
Johnny recommends that he joins the Wolrog penal battalion as a medic and the Wolrogs agree.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CAPTAIN VARN
Wolrog Captain of Battleworld 10. He enslaves the women and children aboard the Astroliner and forces the men to join a penal battalion.

DEATHS
One. Varn kills the human who stands up to him.

BEST LINES
Gronk: "O-oh, Mr. Johnny, sir, I's so frightened! I-I'll die, I just knows I will"
Johnny: "Maybe we all will, Gronk."

WORST LINES
None.

CATCHPHRASES
The Gronk pluralises "excitements" and "heartses" again as well as "sends" and "knows". Wulf says der, vay, vell, vere, vill, vish, Volrog, Vulf and vy. The Wolrogs "Hrrr" twice.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
The man-made planet of Rog would have felt very Death Star in 1978, coming so soon after Star Wars (1977).

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: T.B. Grover
Artist: Ezquerra
Letters: Ezquerra

REVIEW
Seeing Johnny and Wulf at the mercy of the warlike Wolrogs so early in the 2000 A.D. run is a surprising move, but successfully communicates Johnny Alpha's stoicism and bravery, Wulf Sternhammer's impulsiveness and bravery and the Gronk's cowardice and bravery, but it begs the question what happened to Ratface Regan?

Next Prog: Death In Space!