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How old is Johnny Alpha?

Started by Magnetica, 08 September, 2018, 08:47:48 AM

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sheridan

Quote from: Frank on 10 September, 2018, 02:47:45 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 September, 2018, 02:40:00 PM
I think it's time to stop griping about Life & Death too - the last few SD stories have been good fun, I'd just keep my fingers crossed that John and Carlos have got a few more in them yet.

Long as Carlos keeps drawing them, I'll keep enjoying them.

I think we can all agree to that!

Steve Green

I really liked the build up to Johnny's resurrection - McNulty's alcoholism, the Stone Wizards the Ikans and the Project.

The second mutant war dragged a bit for me, I get there had to be some repercussions and it was a post-resurrection combination of Rage and Portrait of a Mutant, but without as much of a personal stake as the previous tales.

I'd still say the flashback tales were on a par with early mid-80s stories - the 'lack of jeopardy' thing didn't bother me, or at least I don't recall it doing so because it was great to have Wulf back for a bit.

broodblik

For me it is quite simple, I just want some cool Strontium stories. As long as Carlos is on art duty with John writing I do not care.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Robin Low

Quote from: Link Prime on 10 September, 2018, 01:48:49 PM
Reflecting on the strip since Johnny's resurrection, I've softened to it somewhat.
Somewhat.

Getting over the fact that Johnny was brought back from the dead at all, I still think the execution of "The Life and Death..." was sorely lacking.

Didn't need to be as ridiculous as it was.
Didn't need to disregard The Final Solution / Strontium Dogs / Durham Red.
Didn't need to 'punish' Feral, who was a pretty decent character.

A simple time travel story could have re-set the stage....

It didn't even need a time travel story. It could easily have picked up where Peter Hogan left off, done some stuff with Precious Matson's investigations, found Alpha's remains, and then it's off to see the Stone Wizards. Wagner could have written largely the same story without junking the post-Final Solution stories, many of which were pretty enjoyable (they just suffered from the erratic way they appeared in the comic).

With regard to Steve's timeline... I've always been a bit of a stickler for the 2180 date for Alpha's death, but shunting it a few years ahead based on Journey into Hell makes a lot of sense to me given Alpha's rather busy schedule.

Regards,

Robin

Funt Solo

The stone wizards adopting a Glaswegian accent was comedy gold.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Bolt-01

Robin- one of the things that required the post FS stories to be rendered invalid was the Gronk tale with Johnny's soul turning up (Darkest Star?)- that story kind of needed to be refuted.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 11 September, 2018, 11:55:18 AM
Robin- one of the things that required the post FS stories to be rendered invalid was the Gronk tale with Johnny's soul turning up (Darkest Star?)- that story kind of needed to be refuted.

Agreed. That was a dreadful story - Feral getting the old bad-guy-father origin story, the Lyrans being utterly demystified, and of course Johnny dying again.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

Some great imagery from Dobbyn, though - that wall of flesh where Johnny's soul is entombed is right up there with the most horrific things the comic has given us. Was that Ennis' last story before Hogan took over, or amI getting mixed up?

Leigh S

Having Feral connected in such a seemingly random (but not!) way could have potentially worked for that stories inclusion rather than against it, as could the idea of Johnny being able to be reincarnated (give him back a proper body!) but only if Wagner had wanted to run with the other players ball, and that isnt really his style...

I loved the flashbacks, love the "new status quo", so happy to squint at the middle bit in the same way I squint at Final Solution!


Robin Low

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 11 September, 2018, 11:55:18 AM
Robin- one of the things that required the post FS stories to be rendered invalid was the Gronk tale with Johnny's soul turning up (Darkest Star?)- that story kind of needed to be refuted.

Yeah, I was waiting for this one to come up. And you're right, it would need addressing. I've just dug out the floppy (oooerr, missus), had a read and don't see much of a problem. Alpha's soul was trapped by the Lyrans, and the Gronk released it. That doesn't prevent the Stone Wizards dragging it back from wherever souls go to and creating a brand new body for Alpha from the old bones that Feral squirrelled away.

It is magic, after all.

Regards,

Robin

Colin YNWA

As I wittered about elsewhere I've re-read a bunch of those Ennis Strontium Dogs as part of my re-read recently and really enjoyed them. I'm not getting hung up on the fact they are largely being ignored but glad they existed. They took the stories to places they otherwise wouldn't have gone... even if the use of The Gronk was a little... curious...

...art throughout (up to late 800s) was uniformly great.

JayzusB.Christ

I kind of enjoyed Garth's first Strontium Dogs story, I must admit, even though he kind of turned all of Britain into one big Pre-Good-Friday-Agreement Belfast. (I don't know if anyone ever picked it up from his scripts, but he's from Northern Ireland).

It had a nice mix of politics and action, though, and some interesting characters (The cock-shaped mutie with '4-skins' or something tattooed on him was a bit risque for the time too.)

Things only went downhill in his later SD stuff really, with the new, macho Gronk and the usual Garth staple of tough guys getting violent revenge.



"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Richard

I thought the same thing about Ennis's first Strontium Dogs Story. It was good, and I liked the character Slider, whose face wasn't aligned with his skull and looked gruesome. Actually I think that story probably hasn't been retconned by Wagner, although I'm too lazy to go and check.

I thought Life & Death was too long when it ran in the prog, but when I re-read it I changed my mind about it: it's a pretty good, action-packed story. And although I never agreed with the utterly preposterous notion that the flashback stories were no good because we knew Johnny wouldn't die (really?!! I still can't get over that), at least resurrecting him means that Wagner is free to take the strip in new directions if he wants to, without having to keep within the parameters set by The Final Solution.

As for the date of Alpha's death, it can't have been in 2080 because his first stories in Starlord were set in that year, and subsequent stories were explicitly set in later years, until the year that was presumably meant to be 2087 was rendered as 2078 in a caption, which I take to be a typo. I don't think the date was mentioned again until Judgement Day, when Ennis went by the latter date.

Steven Denton

There is absolutely no need for Wagner to acknowledge any of the stories post the final solution.

The flashbacks worked fine, but the moment they chose to undo Alphas death the cleanest way address any continuity issues was to simply wipe every post Final Solution story from current continuity. 

if it makes you happy just think of them as happening in a parallel universe.

(I would be happy to see Colin McNeil draw alpha if Carlos ever decided to pass the torch.)

Bolt-01

Getting a Colin Macneil cover for Dogbreath is the second highest 'grail' choice of artist for me.