First Look At ‘Smash! The Broxteth Devil’ Comes With Exclusive Website-Only Hardback With Charlie Adlard Cover

by Richard Bruton

Collecting the three-issue calvalcade of Brit Comics classic characters – Smash! The Broxteth Devil gets released 11th September.

2000 AD & Treasury webshop-exclusive hardback cover by Charlie Adlard

In 2023, Paul Grist, joined by artists Tom Foster, Anna Morozova, Jimmy Broxton, and V.V. Glass gave us three issues of classic Brit superheroes coming together in an adventure across the decades, all to try and stop The Spider from pulling off the heist of the century In Smash!

Later this year, on 11 September, the three-issues are collected together under a cover from Andy Clarke in the regular softcover but also in a 2000 AD & Treasury of British Comics webshop-exclusive hardcover with a brand-new cover from The Walking Dead‘s Charlie Adlard.

Anna Morozova on art here – bringing in Jane Bond for a meeting with the King of Crooks, The Spider

It’s time to revisit the tale of superheroes across the ages – and very wonderfully quirky Brit superheroes at that, including Jane Bond, Robot Archie, and The Steel Claw – must work across time to stop The Spider getting his hands on a valuable and magical stone idol. It all kicks off in Victorian London when Janus Stark traps a demon in a stone idol and goes on to include the terrors of the homicidal AI Max from The Thirteenth Floor and the supernatural strangeness of Adam Eterno and Cursitor Doom.

When it came out, it was a load of fun, with Grist really going all in on the story and his writing perfect for hitting that balance between the nostalgic elements of it all and the need for a fast-paced thrill a minute heist romp across the ages. And in the four artists, all giving some great art across the different ages of the comic, it all came together so well, a visual treat and a story that really gives us the best, the strangest, the most quintessentially out there Brit superheroes.

Jimmy Broxton takes over to bring The Spider into the lair of Max and The Thirteenth Floor

Here’s the 2000 AD PR for this one…

“In Victorian London, when Janus Stark traps a demon in a stone idol he creates a prize too alluring for criminal masterminds to resist. Enter the King of Crooks – The Spider – who tasks his infamous Crime Syndicate with stealing the statuette.

Thus begins a six decade-spanning adventure featuring a host of British comics’ finest heroes who must team up to ensure The Spider never lays his hands on the idol. From two very different 1960s secret agents – Jane Bond and The Steel Claw – to mechanical menaces Robot Archie and the murderous AI Max from The Thirteenth Floor, and villainous anti-hero The Spider and supernatural avenger Cursitor Doom, this is a series a whole century in the making.

This brand new story unleashes the power of some of the last century’s greatest comic book characters. Having been inspired by them to create his acclaimed self-published series Jack Staff, Grist now realises his vision with the original versions of these legendary characters!”