Strontium Dog: The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha

Strontium Dog

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Carlos Ezquerra (Illustrator)

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD MUTIE DOWN!

Johnny Alpha – the mutant bounty hunter with the X-ray eyes – has been given his toughest job to date. The mutant underground have kidnapped King Clarkie The Second and the British government want Alpha to secure his release.
Finding himself working for the norms, Johnny must venture deep into the mutant ghetto and deep into his own past. As Johnny unravels a plot to start a new war with the mutants he must ask himself the toughest question. In order to save his own kind can Johnny Alpha betray them?

Written by John Wagner (A History of Violence) with art by Carlos Ezquerra (Preacher), this Thrill-packed tome brings you 2000 AD at its very best!

Collects:

- The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha (Progs #1689–#1699)
- The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: The Project (Prog #2012, progs #1764–#1771)
- What If...? Max Bubba Hadn't Killed Wulf (Prog #1772)

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2012

About the author

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst researching the details of the death of Johnny Alpha, Precious Matson and Middenface McNulty discover clues that suggest their friend may, in fact, still be alive. They set out to find his remains and solve the mystery once and for all.

It's clear very early on here that this book is a vehicle to facilitate the return of the title character, something not exactly unheard of in comics. The problem arises from the fact that it takes fully half the length of the book for that to happen and we have to follow around Precious and Middenface as they follow pointless leads to dead ends time and time again.
It wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't for the fact that Middenface's speech is rendered in Glaswegian vernacular, so you'll have to spend extra time sounding out everything he's saying in your head in order to get any sense of what's actually going on. Maybe native Scots will be pleased to see their language represented but, as an English-speaker, I found it exhausting.

Things get a little better once Johnny's back in action but even this back-half of the book is ruined by the fact that none of the main story threads gets any sort of resolution here. The book just sort of stops mid-narrative. It's very annoying.

Following that main story (by John Wagner) there's a short bonus story by Alan Grant which just offers a brief (and pointless) alternate take on an event from Johnny's past.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Steve Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following on from the ‘fill the gap’ return series of Kreeler Conspiracy, Traitor to his Kind, Blood Moon and other tales. It’s great to finally have a true follow up to The Final Solution with the John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra team. Although it definitely hints at spoilers it leads to a story similar in scope to Portrait of a Mutant.
Only deficits for me are that it doesn’t quite hit Portait of a Mutant’s heights (though that’s an unreasonable expectation) and I didn’t like the scenes with Feral. Whatever your feelings on the character from The Final Solution or Garth Ennis’ Strontium Dogs series, he really deserved better than this - no doubt that John Wagner disliked the character.

[Timo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So they brought Johnny Alpha back from dead. But why not if it is done this good.
Good stuff and the Ezquerra art only elevates it to higher levels. Sadly he is gone and I wonder who will be chosen to continue Strontium Dog after him.
On a happier note: There is a wee short story in this collection also. Sort of What-If thing. In that, in the very last panel Johnny is a spitting image of Top Gear's James May during the Bolivia Special.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hoots mon, thaur's a moose loose aboot this hoose.

I say this as a Highland Scot. The doggerel of Middenface McNulty became deeply annoying. Jings mah crivven. Och aye the noo.

Feh.

[Juhani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great jumping on -point for new Strontium Dog readers.

[Joss · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I'm a Strontium Dog newbie (read this for the Stan Lee Excelsior Award) and so until I googled it just now I didn't know the back story or that this revival of Johnny Alpha was controversial. Hence I wasn't sure who was who and what they were all doing at first, but soon got into it and thought it was great fun, with some laugh out loud dialogue.

[Alex Sarll]

Continuing the disappointing story in which 2000AD slips from its usual moral high ground and sinks to the Big Two's level by resurrecting a character who'd been killed off. Worse, they don't even justify it with a decent story, and any sign of a commensurate sacrifice is hastily dropped in favour of killing off a bunch of redshirts.

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can never praise enough of Ezquerra art. And at this point of his career, it was just brilliant.
Sadly, the story is way behind art. Still not sure why to bring Alpha back and in this collection the story is too preachy.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic to see Johnny Alpha back up and about. Some good humoured poking as well.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typically nasty ending for this story that started out so innocently.