ABC Warriors Time line

[NapalmKev]

Drokking Heathen! Khronicals of Khaos is not only one of the best A.B.C Warriors tales it is also one of the Greatest series ever to grace the Prog!

/Scratches chin and wonders...

[positronic]

It's quite the gear shift, for someone reading them now, in going from Mek Files 01 to Mek Files 02, then to Mek Files 03. Far easier to go from Mek Files 01 straight to Mek Files 03, in retrospect.

[positronic]

In fact, the way the MEK-FILES and THE COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK series collect the stories makes things unnecessarily difficult (continuity-wise) for readers who are primarily fans of one series or the other (not so much in Nemesis' case). If I were in charge of the reprint collections at Rebellion, here's how I would have broken down the stories comprising each series:

THE MEK-FILES 01:
   The Mek-nificent Seven
   Red Planet Blues (from THE SOLO MISSIONS TP)
   Blackblood (from THE SOLO MISSIONS TP)

THE MEK-FILES 02:
   1 page text (summary of the events of Nemesis Books 1-3, referring the reader to THE COMPLETE NEMESIS VOL. 1, or NEMESIS: TERMIGHT/DEVIANT Edition)
   Nemesis: The Gothic Empire (Nemesis Book 4)
   Nemesis: The Sword Sinister
   Nemesis: The Secret Life of Blitzspear
   Nemesis: Ego Trip
   Nemesis: Vengeance of Thoth (Nemesis Book 5)
   Nemesis: Torquemurder (Nemesis Book 6)
   ABC Warriors: The Black Hole

THE MEK-FILES 03:
   Khronicles of Khaos
   Joe Pineapples: His Greatest Hits (from THE SOLO MISSIONS TP)

THE MEK-FILES 04:
   The Medusa War
   The Shadow Warriors

DEADLOCK: RETURN TO TERMIGHT TP
   Warlocks and Wizards (Deadlock & Nemesis)
   Enigmass Variations (Deadlock & Nemesis)
   Return to Termight (from THE SOLO MISSIONS TP)

(Of course, this would make for different page counts, so MEK-FILES 01 would be a lower page-count and cover price than Vols. 3 & 4, while MEK-FILES 02 would be a higher price than those volumes.)


THE COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK VOL. 1 TP
   Terror Tube
   Killer Watt
   The World of Termight (Book 1)
   The Alien Alliance (Book 2)
   The World of Nemesis (Book 3)

THE COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK VOL. 2 TP
   The Gothic Empire (Book 4)
   The Sword Sinister
   The Secret Life of Blitzspear
   Ego Trip
   Vengeance of Thoth (Book 5)
   Torquemurder (Book 6)

THE COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK VOL. 3 TP
   Torquemada the God
   A Bedtime Story
   The Two Torquemadas (Book 7)
   A Day in the Death of Torquemada
   The Garden of Alien Delights
   Torture Tube
   Forbidden Planet
   Torquemada's Second Honeymoon
   Purity's Story (Book 8)

THE COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK VOL. 4 TP
   Deathbringer (Book 9)
   Shape of Things to Come
   Hammer of the Warlocks
   The Final Conflict (Book X)
   Warlocks and Wizards
   Enigmass Variations
   Bride of the Warlock

(The above breakdown of stories gives a reader a chance to choose between NEMESIS Vol, 2, or MEK-FILES 02, depending on whether you care about ABC Warriors and want to read The Black Hole story.)

[TordelBack]

In seeking to collect ABC Warriors in a more 'accessible' order, your revised scheme effectively ignores Mek-Quake's re-introduction (and best ever appearance) in Nemesis Book III, the actual moment at which the two series are revealed to share a universe.  Structuring collections ain't like dusting crops, boy.

[PsychoGoatee]

It just seemed like an excuse to string together various scenarios of random mayhem, with only the skimpiest of overall plots to hold it together.

Very much sort of early 1990s Image Comics-y. If that's a good thing for someone, then I guess it's two thumbs up.

Savage Dragon was one of the best comics ever then, and it's still one of the best ever going strong today. Just saying. Ennis's brief run on The Darkness is pretty great too.

Drokking Heathen! Khronicals of Khaos is not only one of the best A.B.C Warriors tales it is also one of the Greatest series ever to grace the Prog!

/Scratches chin and wonders...

For me The Black Hole is the best. Great great stuff, an offbeat character study and a unique adventure. Poetry.

[positronic]

Savage Dragon was one of the best comics ever then, and it's still one of the best ever going strong today.

It was kind of hard for me to tell from the earliest ones. I didn't really see it until the later issues, where he started getting pretty far-out. I'm thinking of the big God vs. The Devil issue to begin with, which is the first one that made me think there's something more interesting going on with Erik Larsen.

Also, the "real-time" aspect of the comic is one that turns out to be a key factor to me, as I'm not really aware of any other superhero comics that have done that. I think some have tried to begin with, but seem to lose that after a certain number of years have passed and they're still around.

[positronic]

In seeking to collect ABC Warriors in a more 'accessible' order, your revised scheme effectively ignores Mek-Quake's re-introduction (and best ever appearance) in Nemesis Book III, the actual moment at which the two series are revealed to share a universe.  Structuring collections ain't like dusting crops, boy.

You can't really get every bit. At the time, Mek-Quake wasn't a Warrior yet, just a former Ro-Buster (and not much of a team player, either, having spent his time in Ro-Busters threatening to do "Big Jobs" on Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws). You've got to make some decisions like that. Since Nemesis Book 4 was originally intended to be the first Nemesis story, it seems like a better point to start, and it returns the ABC Warriors proper to active duty.

The idea here was to align the collected editions of ABC Warriors and Nemesis so that one could choose to read one or both series, lining up the second volumes of both series so that if you chose to read both, you could just buy Mek-Files 02, and skip buying Nemesis Vol. 2. If your primary interest was in just reading the Warriors, then you could just get the Mek-Files hardcovers and understand how they got from The Mek-nificent Seven to The Black Hole -- that's a big gap that requires some explanation. In the final analysis, Mek-Quake seemed less important to Nemesis recruiting the Warriors to help save the Gothic Empire, overall.

[sheridan]

In seeking to collect ABC Warriors in a more 'accessible' order, your revised scheme effectively ignores Mek-Quake's re-introduction (and best ever appearance) in Nemesis Book III, the actual moment at which the two series are revealed to share a universe.  Structuring collections ain't like dusting crops, boy.

'ere you go!

[positronic]

I know Mek-Quake has had several body-mods over time, but I question why Kev O'Neill chose to make him quite so unrecognizable upon his reappearance after a long absence.

No matter how he chose to change the rest of his body, he should have at least kept the ribbon-like neck stalk and flat rectangular head dominated by his optic sensors.

[sheridan]

I know Mek-Quake has had several body-mods over time, but I question why Kev O'Neill chose to make him quite so unrecognizable upon his reappearance after a long absence.

No matter how he chose to change the rest of his body, he should have at least kept the ribbon-like neck stalk and flat rectangular head dominated by his optic sensors.

Making it particularly weird for people like me, whose first introduction to Mek-Quake was said image above.  Bryan Talbot's take on the character (which was pretty much the original design) took a while to grow on me.

[positronic]

I know Mek-Quake has had several body-mods over time, but I question why Kev O'Neill chose to make him quite so unrecognizable upon his reappearance after a long absence.

No matter how he chose to change the rest of his body, he should have at least kept the ribbon-like neck stalk and flat rectangular head dominated by his optic sensors.

Making it particularly weird for people like me, whose first introduction to Mek-Quake was said image above.  Bryan Talbot's take on the character (which was pretty much the original design) took a while to grow on me.

I love the original design of sentient garbage disposal unit for obsolete robots on tank treads.