Best / Worst Strip Endings

[Barrington Boots]

With The Order wrapping up a bit quicker than some of us thought it would, what's the worst endings to 2000ad strips we've seen?

The 80s had a few rubbish sudden wrap ups, with Harlem Heroes and Meltdown Man being the two I always best remember and Meltdown Man being possibly the ultimate turkey. Mean Team was a bit sudden but wonderful art aside, the whole plot had been rubbish for ages so it kind of worked.

I've not read it for a while, but I always felt The Black Hole wrapped up a bit suddenly - the big bad is beaten in a few panels and Biz couldn't even be bothered to finish all the pictures.

To balance it out, which strips ended perfectly?

[Halo572]

You missed Dan Dare.  He still hasn't returned.

Not sure if Rogue is valid, The Hit (fuzzy memory, the one where he works as a hitman for the aliens) was appalling and from memory cut short.

[JohnW]

If you're reading a weekly serial what matters is each episode (so for what it's worth, the ending of Meltdown Man was fine with little me).
If you're pinning everything on a strong ending you're likely to be disappointed.
Usually the best you can hope for is a walk into the sunset accompanied by a one-liner. ('Who the hell's going to mess with us?')

Notable exceptions off the top of my head:
Every book of Halo Jones had a good ending.

Nikolai Dante ended beautifully.
On the other hand, we'd had stacks of false endings by then, or at least that's how it felt to me reading it in collected editions. Baddy vanquished. Baddy returns. Baddy vanquished again. Baddy somehow returns again. Baddy vanquished for good this time. Oh wait...

Then there are those iffy stories redeemed by good endings. F'rinstace:
I was hugely disappointed with Origins right up until the end. Then that last exchange between Dredd and Hershey made all that Cursed Earth-lite, big-chin mutie Fargo tomfoolery (almost) worth it.

Also, on a different level entirely, Sam singing 'My Way' at the end of Robo-Hunter: Play It Again, Sam, springs to mind. A silly story with a tonally perfect ending.

[Funt Solo]

The Hit (fuzzy memory, the one where he works as a hitman for the aliens) was appalling and from memory cut short

Dumped into a special...

Rogue Trooper: The Hit, Conclusion
An arc that started in 1985 but was never fully committed to by editorial (appearing in only 18% of the progs since) drifts to a close in the 1989 Winter Special with more Basil Exposition than you can shake a stick at. Rogue abandons his biochipped buddies (even though re-gening them was a key goal of the character) and just wanders off suffering from ennui. They get re-born by a passing alcoholic hobo scientist (true) but with no memories and so they're effectively dead.

[Jim_Campbell]

Not sure if Rogue is valid, The Hit (fuzzy memory, the one where he works as a hitman for the aliens) was appalling and from memory cut short.

Wrapped up in a special, IIRC, drawn by Chris Weston, where the bio chips are regened as babies and Rogue walks off into the sunset...

(Subsequently completely forgotten in the attempts to mash the Fr1day and original Rogue continuties together for no obvious reason, I think...)

[Tjm86]

Wasn't there a rick Random strip in which Ezquerra was so embarrassed by the final episode it was credited to "Long John Silver?"

[broodblik]

One strip that I loved which end was so abrupt I tough I missed something: Kingdom. Basically the ending felt like we have this build-up and our heroes disappear into a forest but the "enemy" won.

[Funt Solo]

Wasn't there a rick Random strip in which Ezquerra was so embarrassed by the final episode it was credited to "Long John Silver?"

The Riddle of the Astral Assassin was mostly drawn by Ron Turner, but the final episode (prog 118) was drawn by Ezquerra (as L.J. Silver).

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The end of Tiger Sun, Flagon o' Doom (sorry - Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon) had the surviving characters head for Hondo City with the sequel-taunting line "...I think our troubles have only just begun".

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

One strip that I loved which end was so abrupt I tough I missed something: Kingdom. Basically the ending felt like we have this build-up and our heroes disappear into a forest but the "enemy" won.

Wait, Kingdom is finished?

EDIT: That's a genuine question. I thought it was on hiatus and would be back.

[IndigoPrime]

The general consensus is it isn't necessarily finished, but it's on hiatus, right?

[Jim_Campbell]

Wait, Kingdom is finished?

Yes... and, no. I get the feeling Abnett & Elson wanted to 'park' the series, so that the (currently) final episode would serve as an ending if they never felt like going back to it, but left it open enough for them to return to it if the mood took them.

(No inside info here, that's just how I read it.)

[JayzusB.Christ]

For me, Zenith Phase 4 ended the whole thing perfectly.  (Zzzenith.com... I didn't mind it but it kind of ruined that ending a bit.

Dante was perfect too.

Not so good: Nemesis.  While beautifully drawn, the last book only really highlighted how good earlier books were in comparison, and the last panel wasn't worth the wait.

 

[Magnetica]

How about Slaine? It didn't end, it just stopped.

[The Legendary Shark]

I thought M.A.C.H. 1 ended quite satisfactorily - or at least definitively.

[Dandontdare]

I thought M.A.C.H. 1 ended quite satisfactorily - or at least definitively.

yes - as an eleven year old, killing the hero was a massive shock, but it worked for the story.