Wardog (2004)

This is a story that was first published in Judge Dredd: The Megazine 4.01-4.10 – a sister publication to the long running 2000AD. It was written by Dan Abnett (who has written many stories for Marvel UK and 2000AD) and it was drawn by Patrick Goddard and Dylan Teague (who have also had art duties on other 2000AD characters).

The story concerns Jack Wardog who is a bombhead – he has no memory of his past life but has had a bomb surgically implanted in his head that is connected to a countdown counter that is activated, as an added incentive, when he sent on a mission by the mysterious Endtrail Enclave. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world – it could be Earth or another planet there is no real clue –where humans live and trade alongside autonomous mechanoids. When he is not on missions Jack is free to earn a living doing jobs for the general populace. As a result of one of these he finds himself investigating why a populated area has become deserted with the human population missing and the mechanoid population destroyed. This leads to an enclave ruled by mechanoids who want to take on the attributes of humans – including harvesting skin for themselves – whilst destroying mechanoids who will not join their band.

This is a story with very little context given within it – the blurb on the back sets out the world and the role of bombheads much more than the story does and so is essential reading. Part of the reason for this may be that the story is based on a game produced by Rebellion – the publisher of both 2000AD and The Megazine. This may explain why the plot in the story has no real connection to the fact that Jack Wardog is a bombhead – he only goes on one short mission where he is on a time limit within the book – that narrative may well have been saved as part of the play within the game. Whatever the reason it is a weakness of the book that Jack’s condition is not really addressed and is virtually immaterial to the story. However it is a fairly typical example of sci-fi storylines produced by 2000AD and so if you like that kind of story you will probably enjoy this one.

First published on RevolutionSF on Monday Jan 31, 2011