#johnny alpha

2000 AD Annual 2025 HC (2000AD webstore exclusive edition) (2024)

Clearly, my blorbo is Gurathin in The Murderbot Diaries and (as yet) he has never been carried bridal style by Murderbot

As brilliant pointed out by @themoonmothwrites in this LOVELY FIC:

The opposite of eye contact

Murderbot is definitely strong enough and they need a way to get Gurathin (with his wound to his knee) out to the hopper: I have a massive opportunity for a miracle!

I know TV show isn’t canon, but it’s Martha Wells approved

Insert gif of Murderbot saying “it’s canon”

... honestly Johnny probably fits the category better than Judge Dredd does but I've already used Dredd this month so let's dig a little deeper into the 2000AD stacks.

Johnny Alpha is a Strontium Dog, the fairly derogatory nickname applied to the mutant bounty hunters of the Search/Destroy Agency, which seeks out the worst criminals throughout space and time and brings them to justice. Strontium Dogs tend to have a very high mortality rate but Johnny is very good at his job and his apprehensions number in the hundreds. You'll note the second figure in the image above: that would be Wulf Sternhammer, an 8th century Viking warrior that Johnny picked up on a bounty run into the past and who becomes his closest friend and partner in crimestopping (yes there is time travel. It works how the plot needs it to. There is a prog where Johnny and Wulf nab Hitler right before he ends it all in his bunker and take him to the future for punishment.)

Also sometimes Johnny has a mutant vampire girlfriend. She would eventually get her own spin-off series.

This series is quite bizarre, think Spaghetti Western with very British cynicism and humour, and the ubiquitous 2000AD weirdness laced through it all. I have the first omnibus and enjoyed it a great deal but it's a love it or hate it kind of flavour, like the best sorts of cheese. There's also a TTRPG which I've run a couple of times: a decent beer'n'pretzels kind of game where you can roll up some poor bastard with too many limbs and get him messily killed by the worst the galaxy can throw at you. Rest in Peace, All-Right Rite, you didn't let your missing left limbs stop you from a career in bounty hunting. It was the combine harvester did that.