Stranded for millions of years on an asteroid is hard work – especially when you only have a sewage droid for company! Joe Pineapples, the hotshot robotic sniper who never misses and former member of the A.B.C. Warriors - a team of war robots sent to first conquer and then protect Mars - looks back over his life as he seeks to unravel the mystery behind an I.D. plate that he has carried around since his days as an X-terminator fighting in the Volgan War.
This brand-new, stand-alone A.B.C. Warriors story marks the return of Simon Bisley (Lobo, Batman/ Judgement on Gotham) to the characters for the first time with 1988's classic Black Hole story, which kickstarted his comic career, but now in glorious painted colour reminiscent of Bisley's work on The Horned God. Clint Langley, who has drawn A.B.C. Warriors stories for the last 15 years, completes this final tale of Joe Pineapples in his own unique style.
Pat Mills, born in 1949 and nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since.
His comics are notable for their violence and anti-authoritarianism. He is best known for creating 2000 AD and playing a major part in the development of Judge Dredd.
Turned out there was one old Mills script left in a drawer, or possibly on Simon Bisley's desk given he illustrates the first couple of episodes. Making Joe and Ro-Jaws centuries older without that changing anything significant about them felt depressingly limited; the list of which ABC Warrior sounded like what celebrity was clumsy editorialising of something the scripts should have been able to get across; and the plot proper was nonsense. Despite all of which, and clearly being nowhere near the standard of early greats like The Black Hole, it was the least bad ABC Warriors story in years.
This is classic ABC Warriors: gorgeous pencils, a story that doesn’t make much sense but with some philosophical questions thrown in for good measure. Don’t even try fitting it in the already too convoluted canon of ABC Warriors, and don’t mind what seems digs at COVID and doctors in the story - just enjoy the ride