Your favorite 2000 AD 'Twists' - Major spoilers within

[AlexF]

I don't know if anything will beat the Dead Man for me - I was the exact right age to enjoy it, and there's something about the fact that Tharg was actively daring readers to guess who he really was. At the time, it could easily have been Johnny Alpha or Rogue Trooper, or indeed someone a bit more obscure like Bad Jack Keller or, hell, a golden oldie like Bill Savage or John 'Giant' Clay. That it ended up being the comic's biggest superstar was amazing.

Trifecta definitely wins it for 'most unexpected twist'.

Orlok the Assassin perhaps gets some sort of prize for being the subject of the most twists. He only actually appeared in maybe 3 episodes of Block Mania - and the fact that Block Mania was caused by Sov aggression was sort of a surprise, no? But he achieved enough fame there that his reveal in 'Age of the Wolf' was definitely played up as a big surprise, but a guessable one (as noted in the thread earlier). Then again he was a surprise villain in Triad. Then AGAIN in 'Childhood's end', where he actually pulls off a plastic face mask to show who he really is. Then AGAIN in Sin City, which didn't start off being about Sov revenge on Dredd, as I recall.

He's been dead for a decade at this point, but I wouldn't rule him out of one last surprise reveal...

I know we're not meant to include Future Shocks here, but I do love the double twist of Steve Moore's 'Slashman, Kowalski and Rat'.

[sheridan]

I know we're not meant to include Future Shocks here, but I do love the double twist of Steve Moore's 'Slashman, Kowalski and Rat'.

The sequel Rat story also had its own twist - guess Moore took the future shock trope literally with the Rat :-)

[Dark Jimbo]

[Orlok's] been dead for a decade at this point, but I wouldn't rule him out of one last surprise reveal...

He managed one soon after he died - John Smith did that story revolving around Orlok's severed hand as the macguffin everyone was chasing.

[Satanist]

For me (if not allowed the one offs) it will always be the Deadman reveal. I was 15 and didn't see it coming. It also got me super hyped for when the countdown to Necropolis kicked in.

If I am allowed a Time Twister then my all out favourite is Alan Moores The Time Machine. I must have been about 10 and found this to be genuinely upsetting and yet also fascinating. It's a story I've returned to many times over the years and as I mature I view it very differently from when I first read it as a kid but I just seem to like it more and more.

[Leigh S]

The REdondo story? - absolutely positively brilliant - how they got away with it I will never know, but perfection

[TordelBack]

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that The Time Machine is my absolute favourite 2000AD one-off. Along with similarly-themed Ring Road and The Reversible Man, it has haunted my thoughts for more than 30 years. As Leigh says, how the hell did they get it into a kids' comic? I mean there's violence, gore, satire and sundry punk naughtiness, and then there's[spoiler] a story about killing yourself in order to relive happy moments of your past[/spoiler].

[sheridan]

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that The Time Machine is my absolute favourite 2000AD one-off. Along with similarly-themed Ring Road and The Reversible Man, it has haunted my thoughts for more than 30 years.

All three of those stories were in the batch of non-consecutive 2000ADs which my neighbour gave me when I was a child.  I read and re-read those until soon after I saw a prog in a shop.  With brilliant timing it featured the last episodes of two of the stories that featured prominently in the progs I already had (Skizz and the Slaying of Slade).  Speaking of which, didn't really work for me as it was my introductory story, but the S-L-A-Y-E-D story had [spoiler]The God Droid[/spoiler] reveal...

[Arkwright99]

In addition to many of those already mentioned I'd like to give a shout out to the moment Nick Stone realises he's been on Earth all along in Meltdown Man.

[JayzusB.Christ]

For me (if not allowed the one offs) it will always be the Deadman reveal. I was 15 and didn't see it coming. It also got me super hyped for when the countdown to Necropolis kicked in.

If I am allowed a Time Twister then my all out favourite is Alan Moores The Time Machine. I must have been about 10 and found this to be genuinely upsetting and yet also fascinating. It's a story I've returned to many times over the years and as I mature I view it very differently from when I first read it as a kid but I just seem to like it more and more.

Both of the above.  (I was about 13 or 14 at the time of the Dead Man reveal, and the fact that it consisted of my brother saying 'Guess who the Dead Man is?  [spoiler]Judge Dredd[/spoiler]' genuinely didn't take away from the surprise.)