Is Johnny Alpha dead now?

[IndigoPrime]

I've found the 'reboot' pretty bumpy on the whole. The original approach, adapting Kreeler Conspiracy from a TV script, telling the 'true story', was interesting, but it very quickly reverted to being vanilla Strontium Dog with a few extra captions from archive robots, and then even they vanished.

The 'resurrection' at least brought back the not-knowing about the 'end', but through a US-style approach that grated when considering 2000 AD's usual philosophy of 'dead means dead'. The point here about lacking a soul is how I felt about the most recent run. I just didn't really care about much of anything in the strip, and it all felt a bit like going through the motions. I guess perhaps I always enjoyed the contrast Alpha had—that mix of deadly and heart that was apparent in Slavers of Drule or Incident on Mayger Minor.

Still, I imagine Alpha's not dead, and I hope Wagner can bring back the magic to what still remains one of the comic's strongest series.

[Bad City Blue]

So, I was flipping through The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: Dogs of War

("How can you have that when it's not out 'til January?", you may ask. "Skillz", I may say.).

Is he dead or not? The ambiguity is, frankly, odd.

I got the same skillz in the post yesterday.

And THAT'S why you should all vote in the short story/Limerick comp!

Tim was a lucky prize winner.

[Jacqusie]

I'm just reading the re-boot series 'The Kreeler Conspiracy' and I'd forgotten just how good King Carlos' art was on that run. The following adventures featuring Wulf were good fun and as we knew Johnny bought the farm eventually, they were read with a sense of ease and a laid back 'adventure' type tales.

When the current story arcs started, I have to say I stopped enjoying SD as much. It seemed to take itself  far too seriously and forced as each episode had a point to prove to get the plot running along for the great revival.

The characters seemed all of a sudden very type-cast with definitive parts to play in situations that weren't really very entertaining, more a means to an end for the story until ultimately the war broke out. The latter of which was a little poorly plotted out in my opinion, again forced and rushed.

As people have suggested, 'the soul' seemed to have gone out of Johnny and the series and it was just existing because of a need to justify all the fannying about prior to Johnny coming back from the dead...

SD needs a good all round gritty but warming story to get it back on the rails and into our hearts again, so yes maybe a nice little solo story a la Major Minor, would do the job nicely.

Si