Preview — ‘Strontium Dog: Search & Destroy’ Vol 3 Features More Of Johnny Alpha’s Earliest Tales

by Richard Bruton

Search & Destroy continues reprinting the very earliest tales of Johnny Alpha, the legendary Strontium Dog, chasing down bounties across the galaxy in the greatest sci-fi western you’ve ever seen in comics…

First appearing in the shortlived Starlord comic in 1978 before shifting over to the pages of 2000 AD, Strontium Dog is the creation of John Wagner and the late, great Carlos Ezquerra, a total sci-fi western that’s made the strip, Strontium Dog, and Johnny Alpha a series and a character to rival Judge Dredd in popularity in 2000 AD over the years.

Set in a nightmare world where nuclear war has created two classes of people – the Norms and the Muties, a persecuted minority whose bodies have been warped and mutated by the Strontium 90 fallout from the war.

Faced with prejudice and discrimination, the only work these Muties can pick up is the deadly life of becoming a Strontium Dog, bounty hunters taking on the most dangerous jobs and tracking down the scum of the universe. And amongst the Strontium Dogs, there’s one that’s tougher and deadlier than all the rest – the legend that is Johnny Alpha.

Together with his Norm partner and best friend, Wulf Sternhammer, Johnny’s exploits in the pages of first Stralord and then 2000 AD are being collected here in these Search & Destroy volumes, giving you all the classic black and white science fiction Western action that made Johnny and Wulf such favourites over the years.

Search & Destroy 3 collects some of the earliest Strontium Dog stories, taking Johnny and Wulf on a bit of R’n’R on the orbiting gambling den Vega in ‘Mutie’s Luck’, bringing in a bounty on a beloved physician on a backwater world in ‘The Doc Quince Case’, or dealing with an out of control frontier gang with a penchant for Norm flesh in ‘The Bad Boys Bust’, it’s Johnny and Wulf in some great little stories to start this volume.

At the end of the volume you have a few of the oddments of SD tales that filled Sci-Fi Specials and Annuals of the time from other writers and artists – all of which are fun, but I don’t think anyone would argue with me that the reason for reading SD is in what Wagner, Grant, and Ezquerra could do with the characters.

However, the meat of this volume is taken up with the epic, 19-part origin of Johnny Alpha in ‘Portrait of Mutant‘. It’s got some absolutely gorgeous Ezquerra artwork, with a finer inking line perhaps than his previous SD work that makes it look just beautiful throughout. In ‘Portrait of Mutant‘, Grant and Ezquerra spin a tale of Johnny Alpha’s past when he and Wulf are sent on the bounty of Nelson Kreelman, someone Johnny’s got a very particular past with…

With this knowledge, we’re headed back into Johnny’s past and into a world where the Muties are hated and discriminated against, muties like Johnny.

His dad’s ashamed, and Johnny’s life just gets worse and worse from there., ending up with him running away from home and joining the rebel mutant army, changing his name from Johnny Kreelman to Johnny Alpha to disguise the fact that dad’s now a prominent anti-mutie politician.

It’s 19 parts of absolute greatness from Grant and Ezquerra, father and son, Norm and mutie, going deep into areas of prejudice and xenophonia whilst still giving you all the action and adventure.

Yep, these Search & Destroy volumes really do take you (well, me, but you know what I mean) right back to the early days and makes you realise just what a great strip this was and what great characters there were in Strontum Dog.

STRONTIUM DOG: SEARCH & DESTROY VOLUME 3 – by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Carlos Ezquerra, plus Steve McManus, Gary Rice, Ian Rogan, Rob Moran, Steve Kyte. Letters by Steve Potter, LJ Silver, Tony Jacob, John Aldrich, Bill Nuttall, Tom Frame

Originally published in 2000 AD Progs 189-197, 200-206, 210-221, Sci-Fi Special 1979 and 1980, 2000 AD Annual 1980 and 1981

Published by 2000 AD on 1st February 2024.

Okay, now a preview… first from the opener, Mutie’s Luck…